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Doctor Who: ‘Warriors of the Deep’ REVISITED

By James Aggas

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"“There should have been another way.”"

I wish I could say I only used the above quote because it’s such a memorable line from Peter Davison’s Doctor, but the truth is, it horrendously sums up ‘Warriors of the Deep’ as a whole.

After Saturday’s fantastic episode of a base under siege in ‘Under the Lake‘, I thought my next revisitation should focus on another underwater story. While I was strongly tempted by ‘Fury from the Deep’, I think that, as a fan of the classic series, it’s just as important for me to tell you what stories to avoid as much as what are essential to watch.

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So why isn’t ‘Warriors of the Deep’ a classic? Well, for one thing, it’s how the Silurians and Sea Devils are handled. Having a story that features both of them together is a fantastic idea, especially as they’re wildly different variations of the same species. ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ (seriously, that’s the original story’s title) and ‘The Sea Devils’ are two of my favourite stories of Jon Pertwee‘s Doctor. How could a story featuring both of the classic monsters go wrong?

Related: REVIEW: ‘Under the Lake’

Well, for a start, in this story they actually refer to each other as “Silurians” and “Sea Devils”, despite both names actually being given to them by the humans in their original stories. There’s also no real suspense or build up to their reveal: barely a minute after the intro for the first episode, and they’re fully revealed. An episode of build-up could have lead to a cliffhanger worthy of part one of ‘Earthshock’, or at the very least kept them in the shadows for half an episode before they’re fully revealed. This is the first story to feature either of the two monsters in over a decade, so it’s a bit of a shame that it wasn’t as effective as it could have been.

The overall production of the story really, really doesn’t help, either. While the Sea Devils look as great as they did in their original story, the Silurians don’t look quite so good. I honestly think they looked much better in their original story.

The worst example, though? Not just in the story, but possibly in the whole of Doctor Who? The Myrka. Yes, there’s no denying that a lot of classic Who special effects have dated over the years, but even in 1984 (especially in 1984, one year after Return of the Jedi was released), it looked absolutely terrible. It really does look like a man (OK, maybe two men) in a suit, there is no hiding it. I really don’t know how such a terrible looking “monster” made it on screen.

Related: ‘The Daleks’ REVISITED

I think what’s most frustrating of all though is how the story has a great mix of ideas, but none of it is executed well. We not only have the Silurians and the Sea Devils, but we also have two superpowers on the brink of war as well as spies and saboteurs in the mix. Done well, this could have been a story filled with building tension and complex moral dilemmas. And yet…it all falls so flat. None of the human characters seem to have any depth. With no characters to root or care for other than the regulars, the conflict against the Silurians lacks impact. Potential suspense for who the saboteur is is immediately ruined by revealing it from the start. It all feels very one-dimensional, and for a story featuring the Silurians, one-dimensional storytelling is a terrible mistake to make.

With a cheap look and a story that never lives up to its potential, ‘Warriors of the Deep’ is a disappointment in two key ways. As a successor to two stories as brilliant and complex as ‘The Silurians’ and ‘The Sea Devils’, overall, it unfortunately fails to live up to them. Potentially worse than that however, it’s also a terrible way to open up Doctor Who‘s first season after its twentieth anniversary celebrations.

Next: New Image Gallery from Series 9, Episode 4 - 'Before the Flood'

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