316 The Sea Devils Episode Five

EPISODE: The Sea Devils: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 316
STORY NUMBER: 062
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 25 March 1972
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians / The Sea Devils / Warriors of the Deep)
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"But the point, Mister Parliamentary Private Secretary, is that you have not destroyed. You have just made them angry. Very, very angry!"

The Doctor has been taken prisoner by the Sea Devils and taken to their base. Parliamentary Private Secretary Walker arrives at the naval base to see Captain Hart come to investigate the ship sinkings. The Doctor speaks with the Sea Devil leader trying to form a peaceful solution between them and the humans. Walker has summoned ships to destroy the Sea Devil base. The Master tries to disrupt the Doctor's negotiations with the Sea Devils. The navy attacks the Sea Devils base and an enraged Sea Devil leader sentences the Doctor to death. The Doctor escapes into the damaged base as Walker calls off the attack when debris & Sea Devil bodies surface. The Master is set to work reviving the Sea Devils and organises an attack on the naval base to secure the components he needs. The Doctor frees the submarine crew allowing them to escape together in the submarine. The submarine is held in a forcefield. The Doctor has torpedoes fire to blast their way out allowing them to escape. The Doctor is reunited with Jo at the Naval base and immediately takes a dislike to Walker hose attack has only angered the Sea Devils who start an attack on the base. The Doctor announces he intends to go back to the Sea Devil base to negotiate again but as he leaves to board the diving vessel he's surrounded by Sea Devils.

Oh dear another annoying Civil Servant.

WALKER: Good morning, my dear. Captain Hart here?
BLYTHE: No sir, he's at sea.
WALKER: Well, I suppose that's the right place for a sailor, eh? What's your name?
BLYTHE: Blythe, sir.
WALKER: Walker. Parliamentary Private Secretary. Any chance of any breakfast?
BLYTHE: I'll call the steward, sir.
WALKER: Excellent! And, er, who are you?
BOWMAN: Leading Telegraphist Bowman, sir.
WALKER: Jolly good. Er, nothing very elaborate, my dear. Just eggs, bacon, toast, coffee. Oh, and a little rough-cut marmalade, if they've got it. How long is he likely to be? Captain Hart, I mean.
BLYTHE: I don't know, sir.
WALKER: Oh, well, now, I tell you what. You get him on your jolly old wireless and ask him to come over here at the double, will you?
BLYTHE: Send a signal to Captain Hart. Tell him that a Mister Walker is here to see him.
WALKER: Parliamentary Private Secretary.
BOWMAN: Er, aye aye, sir. BLYTHE: I'll call the steward.
WALKER: Ah, and get me the morning papers, will you, there's a good girl.
BLYTHE: If I may ask, sir, what is the purpose of your visit?
WALKER: Why, all those ships sinking. I've come down to clear it up for you. The Minister's put me in full charge

But where Chinn was useless and incompetent, Walker is sexist & bloodthirsty, instantly dislikeable, more concerned with getting his breakfast and his papers.

WALKER: Captain Hart, there's only one way to deal with this problem. You have to attack. Ugh. Oh, pass me the sugar, my dear, will you?
HART: My submarine is missing in that area. There's a chance that some of the crew may still be alive.
JO: And what about the Doctor? He may still be alive down there too!
HART: Yes.
WALKER: Well, this is war, my dear, and war calls for sacrifice. Any chance of any more toast, my dear?
BLYTHE: Yes, sir.
WALKER: Now, I've had a look at that UNIT file about the creatures that your friend the Doctor encountered in those caves. And do you know what happened? Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart blew the whole lot up.
JO: Maybe, but I bet he didn't do it by risking the lives of his own men.
WALKER: Well, that's as maybe, but our line is quite clear. Immediate retaliation with everything that we've got.
HART: I'm sorry, sir. I don't agree.
WALKER: Your opinion is quite immaterial, Captain Hart. The order's already been given. Ships are converging on this area from ports all over England.
HART: You're throwing away the lives of the men in that submarine, sir!
JO: And you'll probably killed the Doctor. Look, do you realise that that's murder?
WALKER: Murder? War always is, my dear. Where on Earth's that girl with my toast?

He's not on the screen for that many minutes before he ruins the Doctor's negotiations, intent on killing those he sees as the enemy and when The Doctor meets him he wastes no time giving his opinion of Walker:

JO: Doctor! I thought you were dead!
DOCTOR: Dead? No, I don't think so.
JO: When I saw that thing come up empty, I thought I'd never see you again.
WALKER: Well, well, well, so the heroes have returned.
DOCTOR: Captain Hart, what idiot ordered an all out attack just as I was on the verge of finding a peaceful solution?
JO: But it wasn't Captain Hart's fault. It was this
HART: I'm terribly sorry. This is Mister Walker. He's the Parliamentary Private Secretary in charge of this business.
WALKER: I'm the idiot you've just been talking about. Absolutely splendid lunch, old man.
DOCTOR: You ordered the attack?
WALKER: I did.
DOCTOR: Did you give any thought at all, sir, as to what you were doing?
WALKER: Our duty is to destroy the Queen's enemies. Don't you know your national anthem? Confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks.
DOCTOR: That, sir, is an extremely insular point of view. At the precise moment of the attack, I was negotiating a peace.
WALKER: Peace? Huh. What, when they've been attacking our shipping and heaven alone knows what? I think you've got it all wrong, old man. Seek and destroy. That's what you chaps say, isn't it?
DOCTOR: But the point, Mister Parliamentary Private Secretary, is that you have not destroyed. You have just made them angry. Very, very angry!

Walker is played byMartin Boddey who was a founder member of the Lord's Taverners charity which organises celebrity fund raising cricket matches.

Norman Atkyns, the Rear Admiral in charge of the attack, was The Guardian in Colony in Space was which directed by this story's director Michael Briant. He was in Quatermass and the Pit as the Publican in Hob.

Also in the Colony in Space, as a Time Lord was Peter Forbes-Robertson who is the Chief Sea Devil here and was also a Guard in The Power of the Daleks, which Michael Briant had worked on as a production assistant.

Joining the ranks of the Sea Devils this week is Frank Seton who later plays a Scientist in The Time Warrior. He too was in Quatermass and the Pit appearing as a Man in Crowd in The Enchanted and a Sightseer in Hob.

The archive holdings for this story are basically a game of two halves: The best quality copies of the first three episodes are US 525 line broadcast tapes while the last three episodes exist on their original 625 line transmission tapes. However when the Sea Devils was repeated, as the Third Doctor's initial entry in the 1992 repeat season, the tape for episode five was found to be badly scratched and it was transmitted off of a 525 line video tape that also exists. In 1997 Steve Roberts, BBC Engineer and member of the Doctor Who restoration team, developed a scratch repair technique which was applied to the tape to fix it which allowed it to be used for the DVD release that I am watching.

315 The Sea Devils Episode Four

EPISODE: The Sea Devils: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 315
STORY NUMBER: 062
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 18 March 1972
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians / The Sea Devils / Warriors of the Deep)
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Now listen, that creature that you saw is one of a race of intelligent reptiles that has a deadly hatred of mankind. Now somehow, they've established themselves in the sea, but now they intend to emerge and conquer the Earth!"

The Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver to detect where the mines are enabling him & Jo to cross the minefield and escape. When the Sea Devil pursues them The Doctor detonates some mines to scare it off. As Captain Hart grows concerned about his missing submarine it's command deck is breached by the Sea Devils. The Sea Devils direct the submarine to take them to a specific location. Returning to the Naval base Hart still won't believe the Doctor's story but the base detects the moving Submarine's radar trace as it surfaces near the castle/prison. More Sea Devils come up out of the sea onto the beach is response to the Master's summoning device. They storm the prison killing Trenchard & his guards then freeing the Master. Hart investigates the prison discovering what had happened as the submarine is detected moving towards the sea fort. The Doctor is taken on a diving vessel to the sea fort. The Doctor descends in a diving bell to the ocean floor. Reaching the bottom the Doctor sights a Sea Devil, but his contact with the surface is lost. Captain Hart has the diving bell brought back up but when it's opened it's found to be empty.....

Most six part Doctor Who stories feel in some way like they're in two halves with a change of location or emphasis occurring at some point. This episode feels a lot like it's a bridge between the two halves of the Sea Devils.

First the prison & Trenchard are removed from proceedings. I almost feel sorry for Trenchard who gradually works out that he's been had:

TRENCHARD: What is it?
MASTER: One of the creatures that have been destroying the ships.

TRENCHARD: You told me it was enemy agents. Why didn't you tell me the truth?
MASTER: If I had, would you have believed me?

The Master tries to string it out for a bit longer:

TRENCHARD: I just can't take it in. It's all too much for me.
MASTER: Trenchard, you really must be more calm. Believe me, it's very simple.
TRENCHARD: Simple? You've misled me all along. You said it was spies, saboteurs. You said we'd catch them.
MASTER: Look, if I had talked to you about sea monsters, would you have believed me?
TRENCHARD: I've risked everything to help you and you've lied to me.
MASTER: I had to lie. Now sit down, Trenchard. Sit down and listen to me.
TRENCHARD: I don't know how you can be so calm.

MASTER: Now listen, that creature that you saw is one of a race of intelligent reptiles that has a deadly hatred of mankind. Now somehow, they've established themselves in the sea, but now they intend to emerge and conquer the Earth.
TRENCHARD: What? We must warn the authorities at once!
MASTER: No, no. Premature action would ruin everything.
TRENCHARD: What else can we do?
MASTER: Wait until this device of mine is perfected, and then tell the authorities.

Even then Trenchard won't let it go:

TRENCHARD: Look, I've been giving some thought to all this. It's going to be an enormous job coping with these creatures. We must give the authorities all the notice we can.... What was that?
MASTER: Just random feedback. It's nothing important.
TRENCHARD: Sounded like some sort of message.

MASTER: Look, Trenchard, I am trying to carry out a very difficult and complex task here, and I can't work if I'm being continually interrupted.
TRENCHARD: I'm terribly sorry, old chap. I'll leave you to it.
MASTER: Thank you.

And, to be fair on Trenchard he does try to do something about the situation contacting those in authority:

TRENCHARD: I tell you I must speak to the Minister. It's most important. Well, when do you expect him back? No, I can't tell you what's wrong. The security of the nation is at risk. Oh, very well, I'll hold on, but please hurry! No, it can't wait till the morning. Oh, you'll have to interrupt his meeting. This is a matter of national urgency. Oh, very well, as soon as he's free then. But if there's any unnecessary delay, believe me, you'll answer for it!

And then when the castle comes under attack he does keep his nerve:

TRENCHARD: What's happening, man?
DREW: They're all over the place, sir! They killed most of the lads!
TRENCHARD: Who? Who's attacking us?
DREW: Lizards, sir. Like that thing we saw on the beach. Come on, sir. They were after me.
TRENCHARD: Pull yourself together, man. Have you sent for help?
DREW: But it's no good, sir!
TRENCHARD: There's a direct line to Whitehall in my office. Use that.
DREW: Why can't you, sir?
TRENCHARD: I shall attend to the security of my prisoner. Go on, man. Move!

And so Trenchard meets his end in battle with the Sea Devils. His death in Malcolm Hulke's novelisation of this story is slightly more ignominious: Trenchard forgets to take the safety catch off the revolver and is struck down pulling the trigger and wondering why nothing is happening. He's only saved from more disgrace in death by the Doctor finding the weapon and releasing the safety catch.

HART: I don't understand why.
DOCTOR: The Master had no further use for him, that's why.
HART: But why did he help the Master in the first place?
DOCTOR: What would you say was Trenchard's strongest characteristic?
HART: Oh, I don't know. Patriotism, I suppose.
DOCTOR: Exactly. And the Master used that patriotism as a weapon.

The episode opens on White Cliff Bay, where the end of episode 3 was filmed, for the minefield sequence!

While filming the sequence where he throws his cloak over barbed wire Jon Pertwee injured his ribs on what the accident report describes as "a six inch metal tube" in his pocket - the sonic screwdriver! Then Captain Hart starts to believe and we're introduced to the diving vessel

DOCTOR: Look, Captain Hart, can you lay on a diving vessel?
HART: Yes, the Reclaim's standing by on the search. But why?
DOCTOR: I want to inspect the sea bed at the base of that fort.

One location in this story is no longer in existence: The diving vessel HMS Reclaim, with the same name in real life as in the story, was broken up for scrap in 1982.

Brian Vaughan plays Lt. Commander Watts, the fictional commander of the Reclaim. He appears in the Out of the Unknown Stranger in the Family as Swain which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set.

Colin Bell, who is C.P.O. Summers will return as Private Bryson in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Alec Wallis plays Ldg. Telegraphist Bowman. He's back, albeit briefly, in Sea Devils director Michael Briant's Revenge of the Cybermen as Warner. You can also see him in A Clockwork Orange as Conspirator D.B. Da Silva.

Onto the Sea Devils, seen in force in this episode. Joining Pat Gorman, the solo Sea Devil in the first two episodes, is stuntman Stuart Fell Sea Devil (uncredited), who we've just seen in Curse of Peladon as Aggedor which was filmed after this story. Also playing a Sea Devil is Steve Ismay, last seen in Day of the Daleks as a Guerilla & a stills cameraman. He's in the next story, The Mutants, as Varan's bodyguard. Another Sea Devil is Brian Nolan He'd already been an IE Guard in The Invasion, a Resistance Man in The War Games, and a UNIT Soldier in Spearhead from Space & the Silurians. He later plays a Solos Guard in the Mutants, an Earth Guard in Frontier in Space, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom and the TV Cameraman in The Deadly Assassin. He was also in Doomwatchas a Man in Flood.

In amongst the Naval Base Sailors and Ratings we have Ron Tingley who was in The Dæmons as a BBC3 TV Crewmember and returns in The Mutants as a Skybase Guard. He was in Doomwatch a a Man in Hear No Evil and again in Flood.

314 The Sea Devils Episode Three

EPISODE: The Sea Devils: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 314
STORY NUMBER: 062
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 11 March 1972
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians / The Sea Devils / Warriors of the Deep)
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Those reptiles, Doctor, were once the rulers of this Earth. And with my help, they can be so again!"

Trenchard interrupts the fight and has the Doctor arrested. Jo is apprehended leaving the prison but escapes. Captain Hart sends a submarine to the Sea Fort to investigate if anything is going on beneath the surface. The Master tells the Doctor that he intends to help the reptiles take over the Earth. Jo breaks back into the prison to find the Doctor, who distracts his guard allowing Jo to free him. Captain Hart enquires with Trenchard about the missing Doctor & Jo but he denies any knowledge. The submarine detects a signal and suddenly has it's power drained. Hart decides to contact UNIT about the Doctor's whereabouts. The submarine hits bottom and is boarded by the reptiles. The Doctor & Jo escape from the prison onto the beach where they find themselves trapped between a Minefield and the Sea Devil Reptile the Master is summoning from the sea.

The main thing I got from this episode was what a gullible fool Trenchard is.

DOCTOR: Colonel Trenchard, why are you allowing the Master to use you like this?
TRENCHARD: All right, take him away.
DOCTOR: Look, you're jeopardising your entire career.
TRENCHARD: I have nothing further to say to you. The interview is over.
DOCTOR: Didn't anybody else warn you about the Master? Whatever he's told you, it's all lies.

There's no hint that he's been hypnotised by the Master, he really believes the story the Master has told him:

MASTER: Well, Trenchard. I think that you handled Captain Hart exceedingly well.
TRENCHARD: I can't keep it up, you know. The lies I've told. How long before that device of yours is ready?
MASTER: Oh, just a few hours now.
TRENCHARD: What is exactly is it?
MASTER: It's a perfect replica of the communications device used by the enemy agents. We are going to use it to lure them into a trap.
TRENCHARD: I only hope it works. If it doesn't, I'm for it, you know?
MASTER: Oh, it'll work. Don't you worry about that. Just think of it, Trenchard. You will be responsible for exposing some of the most dangerous saboteurs this country has ever known. I think you'll find that a grateful government will give you anything that you ask for.
TRENCHARD: Oh, don't want any reward, of course. Just doing my duty.
MASTER: Yes, of course.

Because he believes, he'll do anything to help The Master including helping him break into a naval base, letting his prisoner roam free and imprisoning agents for an internationally recognised agency. I'd say he was Horatio Chinn II (Claws of Axos) but he's nowhere near as annoying as Chinn was. Just stupid.

We see the naval submarine in this episode represented by some stock Royal Navy training footage and a model kit, bought from Woolworths, with a propeller modified by the visual effects department to disguise it's origins.

After this episode went out Barry Letts, the series producer, had a visit from Ministry of Defence officials concerned that their new top secret propeller design had been shown on tea time television. By chance visual effects had come up with something virtually identical to secret cutting edge military technology.

The inside of the sub meanwhile bears a passing resemblance to the SkyDiver sub seen in UFO, which had recently completed. Other set elements from the show, notably a computer panels which we'll keep an eye out for, crop up regularly in later episodes of Doctor Who, but this is a little too early for them to be featuring here.

Instead on the sub's wall we see a panel from the ICT 1300, as previously seen in Terror of the Autons & Mind of Evil.

Further up the wall there's more of the panels used in the Ambassadors of Death spaceship.

The submarine crew features some familiar faces:

Commander Ridgeway is played by Donald Sumpter who was Enrico Casali in The Wheel in Space. He's been in loads of things including Drop the Dead Donkey where he was The Inspector in The Strike, Cold Lazarus where he played Dr. Rawl and the modern Doctor Who where he was The Time Lord President in Hell Bent.

His number two, Lt. Commander Mitchell, is played by David Griffin who gained fame as Sqdn-Ldr Clive Dempster DFC in Hi-de-Hi! & Emmet Hawksworth in Keeping Up Appearances. He's got a 1971 Out of the Unknown to his name where he plays Hamilton White in The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow.

Christopher Wray, here as Ldg. Seaman Lovell, was PC Groom in The Dæmons.

Stanley McGeagh, Castle Guard Drew, was another actor who was in director Michael Bryant's previous production Colony in Space where he played Allen. He appeared in UFO as a SHADO Security Man in E.S.P. and a SHADO Guard in Mindbender.

Castle Guard Barclay is a very familiar face: stuntman Terry Walsh who's been in more Doctor Who than I can count!

The clifftop sequence was filmed at Red Cliff near Sandown on the Isle of Wight.

However the beach used for the Sea Devils coming ashore was White Cliff Bay a little further north on the Isle of Wight and not directly beneath the cliff!