313 The Sea Devils Episode Two

EPISODE: The Sea Devils: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 313
STORY NUMBER: 062
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 04 March 1972
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians / The Sea Devils / Warriors of the Deep)
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Just as I thought. Reptiles, like those creatures in the caves. It's completely hostile!"

The thing that the Doctor & Jo thought was following them turns out to be the surviving injured crew member. Finding the radio communications damaged the Doctor hunts in the crew quarters for a transistor radio to modify but encounters the creature which shoots at him. He retreats and barricades himself in with Jo & the crewmember, electrifying the door to drive the creature off which escapes & jumps into the sea. Captain Hart, having lost contact with the fort, sends air sea rescue to see what's going on. The Doctor compares the creature he's seen to the Silurians. The Doctor signals the rescue helicopter which lands and takes them back to shore. Colonel Trenchard arrives at the naval base, bringing with him the Master, disguised as an Admiral. The Master raids the Naval stores for supplies while Trenchard distracts Hart with talk of a golf tournament. Jo spots the Master and an alert is called when the guard at the stores is found unconscious. Jo & The Doctor return to the prison finding the Master still there. Guessing Trenchard is under the Master's influence the Doctor sends Jo to contact UNIT to have him & his staff replaced. The Doctor comes to see the Master who draws a stolen gun on him. The Doctor & the Master fight with fencing sabres stored outside the Master's room, with the Doctor overpowering his foe. However as he turns away the Master hurls a knife at his back.......

Last time I watched this, for the Episode a Day blog, I found this episode a bit plodding and it didn't feel like it was going anywhere particularly fast. This time I enjoyed it a lot more and I'm at a loss to say what's different!

JO: Those things that attacked us. You said you'd seen something like it before.
DOCTOR: Something very similar, certainly. They emerged from some caves in Derbyshire.
JO: The Silurians, wasn't it? The Brigadier was telling me.
DOCTOR: That's a complete misnomer. The chap who discovered them must have got the period wrong. No, properly speaking, they should have been called the Eocenes.
JO: That was that race of super reptiles that had been in hibernation for billions of years, wasn't it?
DOCTOR: That's right, and if you want my opinion, there's another of their colony right here beneath us.
JO: Well, something seems to have woken them up.
DOCTOR: Probably the rebuilding of this fort.
JO: But I thought you said they lived in caves?
DOCTOR: Well, this is a different species, completely adapted to life underwater.
JO: And they've been sinking this ships?
DOCTOR: Very likely.
JO: Why? I mean, why are they so hostile? What have we done to them?
DOCTOR: They still think of Earth as their planet, Jo, and they want it back. As far as they're concerned, man is just an ape who got above himself.

The Doctor, having seen the creature is a Reptile, is quick to link it to the Silurians we saw 2 years previously in the show providing this story's third link with the past. The Sea Devil itself doesn't look bad but the blue string vest it's wearing does look a little silly.

Then we have the fight scene....

I know the Master's prison is a converted castle but why in the world are they storing fencing sabres right outside the room where their prisoner is kept? That's just asking for trouble!

We saw them hanging there in the previous episode too, which is taking Chekov's Gun to it's extreme a bit!

Clive Morton, as George Trenchard, had an extensive acting career with IMDB credits from 1932-1975, but this is his only Doctor Who appearance. However he achieves the rare double of appearing in both Out Of ... series! He was in Out of This World as Sir Gerald Christie in Divided We Fall and Out of the Unknown as Dr. Pugh in Something in the Cellar. Sadly neither episode exists.

Many of the rest of the cast we know from elsewhere:

Edwin Richfield playing Captain Hart returns as Mestor in The Twin Dilemma. He too was in Out of the Unknown playing Jamieson in Liar! and he also appears in UFO playing Admiral Sheringham in Destruction.

June Murphy, who plays 3rd Officer Jane Blythe here, played Maggie Harris in the Doctor Who serial Fury from the Deep.

Eric Mason, playing C.P.O. Smedley the officer the Master knocks out in the stores, was Senior Prison Officer Green in The Mind of Evil. He appears in Fahrenheit 451 as a Male Nurse, The Sweeney as Kenny Jarvis in Abduction and Hot Fuzz as Bernard Cooper.

The Sea Devil we see in this episode is Doctor Who regular Pat Gorman. We've not had them yet this season so now's a good time for a ceremonial reading of his full Doctor Who credits: he was a Freedom Fighter/Rebel in Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Planetarian in Mission to the Unknown: Delegate Detective thinks he's Sentreal the black Christmas tree, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman in The War Games episode two, the Silurian Scientist in The Silurians, a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, a Primord in Inferno, the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons, a Primitive and Long in Colony in Space, a Coven Member in The Dæmons, and a Guard & Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, an Earth Guard/Presidential Guard/Sea Devil in Frontier in Space, a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death, a UNIT Corporal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Soldier in Planet of the Spiders, the Gate Guard in Robot part one, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Cyberman/Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellory Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation, the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor, a Thug in City of Death part one, a Gundan in Warriors' Gate, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani, a Slave Worker and a Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen. Of those it' easiest to spot his face in Abominable Snowmen, Planet of the Spiders, Robot and The Armageddon Factor! He's got several Blake's 7 appearances to his name as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kyros & Rumours of Death, Hommik Warrior in Power, Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. We was also in Adam Adamant Lives! as a Guard in More Deadly Than the Sword, a Man at Club in Beauty Is an Ugly Word, a Coven Member in The Village of Evil, a War Office Guard / TA Soldier in D for Destruction and an S.S. Guard in A Sinister Sort of Service. He appears once in The Prisoner as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil and just once in Doomwatch as Man in Hear No Evil. His Porridge appearance in the second Christmas Special The Desperate Hours is another easy spot: he's the Prison Officer who comes into the loos as Fletcher and friends are sampling the contraband home brew. He was in two episodes of The Sweeney as a Flying Squad Officer in Thou Shalt Not Kill (director: D Camfield) & Latin Lady, and two The Tomorrow People stories: Worlds Away as the Vesh Hunter and War of the Empires as a US Marine. In the BBC The Day of the Triffids he played a Blind Man in episode 5 while in Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes adaption of The Nightmare Man he played The Killer with Camfield using him again as a Legionnaire in Beau Geste. He was in The Professionals five times: as a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and the Police Superintendent at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He's a Policeman again in The Young Ones: Interesting and towards the end of his career Russell T Davies uses him in Dark Season as a Heavy.

DOCTOR: Certainly I do. I'll prove it to you. Right, here goes.
DJ: Hey there, early birds, we've got a wonderful batch of discs for you this morning! So, don't feel isolated and cut off from the world. Whoever you are, wherever you are, we've got something just for you!
JO: Hey, that was my favourite DJ!

The radio DJ heard in this episode is director Michael E. Briant! If you want to hear more from him then he was interviewed by Toby Hadoke on Who's Round 140.

Portsmouth's Naval Gunnery Range serves as the Naval base seen in the story.