The Sea Devils (1972) Review

Jon, you know fish can't blink, right?

The Sea Devils is an awesome, fresh take on the stuck-on-Earth formula(I wish we could've seen more of the Doctor travelling the world, or at least England) with a reinvented returning monster.

Unfortunately, all that gets thrown out of the window by one man... Malcolm Clarke. The incidental music in this story is the worst ever. Ever. It even induced me a headache. I couldn't bear to watch this again and it's all because of him.

PLOT

The Doctor and Jo take a trip to a far-away prison to check up on their arch-nemesis - the Master. Meanwhile, the aquatic cousins of the Silurians(dubbed "Sea Devils") emerge from their underwater bases and intend to reclaim the planet as their own.

Again, apart from that truly awful music, it's an update on The Silurians in every way. The pace is faster, the characters are more interesting and the Master is involved(although to be honest, even I am getting tired of him).

CHARACTERS

To be fair to the original tale, the predicament doesn't seem to bother the Doctor nearly as much. Also, Jo is completely useless in this story, unlike Liz.

Trenchard is great. He has the pomposity of a villain(he reminded me of Colonel von Strom from Allo Allo), but is also innocent and merely a tool of the Master's schemes. A very good performance from Clive Morton.

Same goes for Martin Boddey's Walker, a truly despicable and quite frankly horrifying political nitwit as the Third Doctor might say. His utter lack of caring towards the loss of life scared me much more than anything the Sea Devils might've said or done. HE would've been my reason for hiding behind the sofa.

Captain Hart is basically the Brigadier, but grumpier and and less inclined to believe the Doctor. He does earn respect, however, for his dedication to duty. He grew on me.

Coming back to the Sea Devils, they are MUCH better than the Silurians. Quite why they haven't been brought back in the new series is a mystery to me. Their voices are cool, the head looks better and the net vest just fits the image perfectly.

And finally, the Master. Now, I don't know why a prison would have swords lying around, but the duel between him and the Doctor was fantastic. Also, you have to love the end where the Sea Devils screw him over and the Doctor just mocks the hell out of him.

NOTES

*The scene where the Doctor steals Jo's sandwiches is the funniest piece of comedy I've seen on the show for a long time.

*Flippin' Sea Devils...

*Watching the documentary, I can't help, but feel extremely proud of the actor who played Captain Hart and used his outfit to commandeer an actual Navy cannon to use on set.

*The director of this story, Michael Briant, is hilarious. That story about MI6 coming to investigate their submarine miniatures was great. Not to mention the "indecent" Sea Devils without clothes. Jeez...

*The Master's theme tune will never leave my head now. Dumdumdum... doo DOO doo...

*Why didn't anyone go after the Master's hovercraft at the end?

*How exactly is it a hovercraft anyway(same goes for the one in The Enemy Of The World)?

*The TVs in that jail are very odd.

*That scene with The Clangers isn't anywhere as good as the homage given to it in The Sound Of Drums. I just have no idea what Delgado is doing in that scene.

CONCLUSION

A great action story, but the music makes it unbearably bad. Someone needs to redo the music.