Warriors Of The Deep (1984) Review

"There should've been another way...
but one that also involved saving the entire planet from nuclear war."

Warriors Of The Deep is lame.

WRITTEN BY

Johnny Byrne, who wrote The Keeper Of Traken and Arc Of Infinity. Shame that not one of them came out the way he originally envisioned.

PLOT

The TARDIS makes an emergency landing into a Sea Base in 2084 Earth, shortly before it comes under attack from the combined forces of the Silurians and the Sea Devils, forcing the Doctor to once again mediate between the two owners of the planet to prevent genocide.

ANALYSIS

Just to get it out of the way: this story was scuppered from the start by Margaret Thatcher's call for a parliamentary election, which cost the production two weeks. This meant that most scenes has little to no rehearsal and the notorious Myrka costume was unfinished and worn by actors for the first time on-screen.

So I will cut Warriors Of The Deep some slack in terms of acting and direction. What I won't hold back on, however, is the awful script.

Simply put, this is the biggest failure of a story I've seen, worse than The Three Doctors(at least that had some entertainment value and was heartfelt). For the majority of its runtime, it is absolutely lifeless, with stale, robotic dialogue and characters who are simply there to die. The only deviation from the pointless, inevitable bloodshed is a horribly unsubtle jab at the Cold War, but this goes nowhere plotwise and is even less interesting to watch.

Things go to a whole new level in episode 4, in which the Doctor becomes downright unpleasant as he uncharacteristically shames the humans for trying to kill the invading Silurians. I mean, there's pacifism and then there's defending the genocidal aliens who appear to be no better than the humans.

But before we can declare that the story is an unforgivable pile of excrement, I must point out that it looks gorgeous. Both literally and metaphorically speaking. The model work for both the Sea Base and the Silurian ships easily holds up today and looks beautiful. The white, futuristic corridors are almost 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque. The redesign of the Silurian and Sea Devil costumes is a respectable update.

Likewise, the story is set up to be fantastic. Its two predecessors were both heavy in ethical dilemmas and it's clear that Byrne intended to emphasise on that whilst also commenting on the Cold War, but his utter lack of subtlety and failure to do actually give any kind of message beyond "that fecal matter is intercoursed up, yo" sinks it. As for the action scenes, they might've looked good on paper, but are realised dreadfully, with basically the same sequence of events repeated over and over: the Sea Devils show up and slowly walk towards the enemy whilst firing sound-effects, and the humans run away.

So yeah, Warriors fails on every level of storytelling, but it also manages to extra disappoint by drawing you in with shiny looks and promises of excellent drama.

CHARACTERS

In direct contrast with his material, Peter Davison gives an excellent performance that shows his maturity in the role. He's far more subdued than usual and doesn't skitter around or get breathless. I also really like his passive aggressive(but light-hearted) jabs at Turlough and Tegan. They're an unlikely trio, but life's not a perfect fit.

Janet Fielding isn't particularly remarkable as Tegan this time around, as she has nil to do, but she doesn't get on my nerves either, which is great considering her past...

And then there's Mark Strickson, who hams it up as Turlough to the point where his facial expression seems to change with every single word. He spends most of the story running around with a rifle and shouting ineffectively at people like a nerdy Arnold Schwarzenegger(or Reb Brown, for a more obscure reference).

Please forgive me, but I can't be arsed to talk about anyone else. Well, maybe the base commander, who seems to react to his hand being used to destroy the Earth with mild sternness.

NOTES

*What's up with the Silurians' Dalek eyes?

*I guess I shouldn't blame Ian Levine too much, given that he had to handle Silurians from "Siluria", but having the Sea Devils actually be referred to as the Sea Devils by their own cousins? Really?

*Considering that the nuclear button can only be activated by a sync operator, it's downright insane that there's only one of them on the base at any given time. If Maddox - a student - hadn't been there, they would've just been screwed for two weeks.

*What's with the fancy make-up on everyone? Is this the next step after the retro punk hairstyle?

*We've seen the Doctor dematerialise the TARDIS in seconds before, so why does he chinwag with the Earth satellite instead of just leaving and going someplace else?

*There's an odd scene where Turlough and the Doctor can't pull a door open(there's a keypad right next to them, which they ignore) and then Tegan just suddenly pulls it open all on her own. Comedy?

*After they've turned on the alarm by activating the lift, why do the TARDIS crew run away instead of... I dunno, stepping into the lift?

*And why does the lift open anyway after the alarm turns on?

*The security is terrible in the Sea Base, as the TARDIS crew are able to hide in a chemical store WHILST they're checking it!

*It gets even worse later, when Turlough just picks a gun off of one of the soldiers and runs off with it without anyone bothering to give chase.

*And at one point, Preston, who is ordered to guard the Doctor, actually runs ahead of him.

*"I've hotted things up a bit." Clearly, the Doctor also failed grammar in the Academy.

*The Doctor's plan to cause a ruckus in the base by overheating the reactor makes no sense... he plans to sneak back into the ship by putting the base on red alert?

*I'm sure this has been mentioned in every review of this ever made, but what on earth makes Turlough think the Doctor's drowned in like three seconds?

*Does anyone else think Davison looks the age he is now when he's underwater? I think it's because his hair isn't covering his forehead.

*Is every 80s Doctor Who villain obligated to declare that things are "excellent!"?

*To give the production some credit, they did a great job recapturing the awesome original Sea Devil voices.

*With "what have you been eating?" in episode 2, Doctor Who indulges in its first bad breath/fart joke. For shame!

*Considering that he corrected Jo on the Silurians' name in The Sea Devils, why does the Doctor still call them Silurians in this story?

*Whilst it's nice to have a more supportive base commander for once, wouldn't he suspect that "the power bloc opposing this Sea Base" would be the ones attacking as opposed to the Doctor's rantings about sentient reptiles?

*I love that the spies discuss their plans at the corner of the bridge in full earshot of everyone.

*Why does Solow reveal to Karina that Maddox is doing sabotage instead of lying and... you know, not having to murder her?

*Why are the guards wearing HAZMAT suits?

*Another one for Ian Levine: how do the Sea Base people know the Sea Devils' name? Because I'm pretty sure it was only mentioned once before, by the Silurians at the beginning of the story.

*A lovely callback to the original story: Sauvix(the leader of the Sea Devils) wobbles his head insanely when he tells Icthar that the base is theirs, even when he's not talking!

*A major plot point is the ultraviolet light which the Doctor uses to disable the Myrka and Nilson. He specifically tells Tegan NOT to look at the light and she later remembers that and closes her eyes when he uses it again. Except that when he does... there's a close-up of her taking a peek for several seconds and it's never brought up!

*Why do the Sea Devils bother to keep Bulic and Turlough alive? I thought murder was a mercy in their eyes?

*So, what's the thought process behind the bubble wrap on the beds?

*Considering that ultraviolet light is a real thing, you'd think they'd make its effect as realistic as possible, but nope. Nilson's entire upper face turns into a CSO mess.

*The peak of the Silurians' hypocrisy: They claim that its the Base members who keep fighting them and forcing the ongoing battle, completely ignoring that they ATTACKED them!!

*Knowing that Nilson is an enemy spy, the commander declares that he will be court martialled... but doesn't check him for weapons so he could, you know, make a daring escape, die and spare him from all the paperwork.

*When exactly did the Silurians abandon mediation? It's not exactly made sure what's been going on since we last saw them, but it is implied that they've been awake since around 1977(The Invasion added four years to every Pertwee story). So, why have they waited 107 years to wake up the Sea Devils and get on with their plan? What have they been doing all this time? Fighting a civil war underwater? Could this be a story please?

*I love how, whenever a villain runs into a technical issue, he demands his lackey to "INCREASE POWER!!" Yeah, sure, I guess that'll prevent it from... randomly turning off on you due to low battery. That can be annoying.

*Why does Turlough tell the Doctor to use his sync-up to disable the computer? What good will that do given that this isn't a computer simulation and the sync-up process is manual?

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) Turlough reveals that he no longer wants to go home(as he declared in Enlightenment) and is instead content to stay and learn from the Doctor. So, what was the point of that? Did they just decide to skip the Turlough-centred adventure last minute?

2) Icthar reveals that "for hundreds of years, our Sea Devil brothers have laid entombed, waiting for this day." Well, unless you count that one incident only 107 years ago... not to mention, does this mean the Silurians have been awake? Seriously, what have they been up to?

3) The Doctor tells Tegan and Turlough to run when he says so, in a manner reminiscent of the Second Doctor. Except in that case, he didn't just say "When I say run, run-RUN!", wasting their running time. It had to be done at the right moment.

4) The story heavily implies that Icthar is the original Silurian leader encountered by the Third Doctor, who somehow survived getting fried by Silurian Jar-Jar and crawled out of the caves. Um, okay? I don't really know what to make of this... it's a nice idea, but they don't do much with it.

5) The Doctor reminds Icthar that "while there's life, there's also hope.", the final words spoken by the Third Doctor in Planet Of The Spiders. Not even sure if it's a callback or not, but it's a nice line anyway.

6) As he's repairing the TARDIS, the Doctor muses that he "should've gotten a Type 57 whilst he had the chance". This is a reference to the Doctor's recent visit to Gallifrey in The Five Doctors, though I find it very hard to believe that he'd want a different TARDIS no matter what.

BEST QUOTE

NILSON: "The commander's orders were to keep the bulkheads closed."
TURLOUGH: "I know what the commander's orders were, but now I'm giving you mine." Golden dialogue.

CONCLUSION

Bland and disappointing for the most, and then downright foul at the end.