Warriors Of The Deep: A Review

Yes. We're doing this. 

This was the First Davison story I ever saw, and I thought I'd watch it back all these years later to give my thoughts on it. 

I regret that immensely.

I'm going to be very critical of this to begin with, though I'll do my best to also balance that out afterwards by noting the stuff I like about this story and its production afterwards, so stick around for that, it won't be all negative, I promise!

Also, spoilers. Duh.

Points of note

Milk-snatcher Thatcher called a snap general election before this story went before the cameras, screwing over the budget and filming. This probably would not have saved the story though, as the script the actors have been given is downright awful. A comparison could be made to Nightmare Of Eden, but at least that had a good script. This story has no excuse whatsoever.

Right, time to stop stalling, let's get this over with. 

TL;DR

An Earth Seabase comes under attack by Sea Devils and Silurians. The Doctor must stop them.

Part One

Seabase 4: a base so white it stings the eyes. Props to the modelwork though, it really shines. Despite being the far future of 2084, apparently clothing and technology regress, and the Cold War is still running. Already I can feel my soul draining out of my body and we're literally a minute in. The Silurians have evolved, losing the ability to speak using their mouths. You would think that 14 years after the Pertwee era had used the creatures that they would have stayed consistent, but life's not fair. Instead, they speak by flashing the third eye that previously functioned as a weapon, rendering the creatures as reptilian humanoid Daleks. Also, "Excellent, Scibus!" will never not make me laugh. In the TARDIS, The Fifth Doctor and Turlough are particularly passive-aggressive towards each other, which is mildly irritating and seriously hard to watch. Doesn't help that their dialogue sounds like a couple going through a divorce. One member of the Seabase crew, Maddox, is pointed out to us in a really bad bit of dialogue. He acts like he's always high and lumbers around the place like a drunkard at three in the morning. It's very obvious the actor doesn't want to be there, and given how bad the script is, I can't say I blame him.

The Silurians namedrop the Myrka, who'll be important later. They want to thaw out the Sea Devils, who have been rendered in suspended animation for "hundreds of years, waiting for this day." Hilariously, one of them complains that they didn't wake up. From experience with an older sibling, waking up is not something to be concerned about, buddy. What makes this funnier is that it's sandwiched between a monologue with exposition in it. So going from 'THEY HAVE SLEPT, AND NOW WILL RISE' to 'Bro, wake up, it's epic gamer hours' is the funniest case of tonal whiplash I've ever seen. Apparently them oversleeping has led them to become weaker, though this isn't a problem later on in the story, so why Johnny Byrne mentioned this at all only to ignore it is bizarre. Maddox has a heart-to-heart with a colleague. Apparently, he's a student on work experience who's been forced to do someone else's job which really angers him. This is yet another plot point that gets brought up and immediately dropped for seemingly no reason. Also, if his character is supposed to be riled up about his situation, maybe it would be a good idea to have the actor actually play it like that and not portray them as bored and calm. Just a thought. Oh, and if you're using idiot boards for your actors, have it so that it doesn't look like the actor is obviously reading them. The TARDIS is spotted by a military probe called Sentinel Six, who yells at the occupants of the Police Box for the sci-fi equivalent of parking on a double yellow. How incredibly mundane. All this is going on while Dr Solow (fully-clothed-Ingrid-Pitt-thank-you-very-much, below) is chatting about altering the mind of Maddox with the dodgy Nilson, a man so slick his hair is as greasy as chicken in a deep fat fryer. They're supposedly evil, but really they just come across as annoying. These two apparently killed the man Maddox replaced, but they talk about it as though it's just a throwaway thing they did for the lols. Great character development there.

The TARDIS is still stuck with Sentinel Six and gets blasted with early CGI, forcing the Doctor to dematerialise. Convenient that the TARDIS is about to crash, but The Doctor can just stop that by clicking a few buttons as if it's nothing. I bet Byrne had "Nah fam, your big fuck-off laser can't do shit, lol see ya," written in the script at one point, only deciding to remove it because JN-T didn't like it. The Seabase has a simulated missile run, and against his better judgement, Maddox is synced to the computer. He takes a panic attack and faints. Probably the most he's actually done so far. I can only assume the missile run is supposed to be dramatic, but that's not how it comes across at all due to the (lack of) acting. This is intercut with this is the TARDIS' landing on Seabase 4 and the Doctor and Co finding out where they are and wandering around the corridors. Skipping a couple of smaller scenes that really don't need addressing, the TARDIS crew find themselves in a Chemical Store, and The Doctor confirms that "Absolutely nothing" has changed since 1984, which is an incredibly lazy way of avoiding worldbuilding. I can't help but feel the script editor Eric Saward added this line in, though Byrne may have written it to avoid the ire of continuity advisor Ian Levine. The Doctor wishes Exochromite was banned, and I wish this story was never made. Nilson slimeballs the Commander into letting them control Maddox's mind and they're given the go-ahead. Solow and Nilson, it turns out, are from the opposing power bloc. What a surprise, totally didn't see that coming. 

Turlough accidentally sets off a security alert and a team go to investigate. Don't you just love it when your buddy cocks up and pretty much alerts your presence to a group of staff who you don't want to find you? It's really great, isn't it? Anyway, Maddox is now a dupe who will obey the commands set by Solow and Nilson. So now the enemy not only has two agents posing as workers, but they've successfully turned a valuable asset of the base into a living ventriloquist's dummy, and seeing that the base thinks the Doctor and Co are from the enemy side, it's all looking good for the villains, right? Well no, not really, they've not done jack shit and they're already gloating like they've achieved their goal. I hate these two characters with a passion, they suck. After 10 minutes of farting around the Seabase, the Silurians are finally back on screen, having begun to revive the Sea Devils. (By the way, you can't tell me the line "It has been a long time. Much has gone wrong." wasn't a jab at the story, it's just too perfect of a description for this crap). And just like that, they're gone, not to be seen again until Part Two. The Doctor and Co arrive at a bridge near the reactor, which the Doctor sets to overload just as the team sent to find them arrives. Took them long enough. The Doctor channels his inner Troughton and tells Tegan and Turlough to run, which they do, but not before he is chucked over the edge by the staff and falls into a vat of water. Turlough tells Tegan not to help the Doctor because it's too late: he's drowned...

Part Two

Except he hasn't, he finds a hatch under the water and swims away, free. That was stupidly fast and a very bloody cheap way of resolving probably one of the best cliffhangers I've seen in a while, but it only will get worse from here on out. Grab the vodka.

Turlogh sabotages a bulkhead so he and Tegan can escape to the TARDIS, while a guard bangs on the door instead of trying to get the damn thing open and The Doctor climbs through a maze of bulkheads. The Silurians finally revive the Sea Devils, though we don't stay there very long before a guard tries to open the bulkhead door from about 5 minutes ago and is electrocuted, with the most hilarious expression I've ever seen. I can't tell whether it's glee or immense pain. Turlough is caught by the guards after narrowly missing a door he could have easily outrun but didn't because the plot needs him to be caught, and the Doctor, ever the opportunist, steals the dead guard's costume for... reasons.

The Sea Devil leader addresses the Silurians with the same quivery whisper as the ones from 1972. At least the Sea Devils retained their voices, unlike the ear-gratingly electronic Silurians, but they too have lost the ability to use their mouths and have giant growths in their necks to accommodate for the actor inside, something that wasn't an issue in 1972. Oh well. Their lack of facial movement leads them looking permanently bored/sad, and I can honestly relate to that. Tegan reunites with The Doctor and Davison is for no reason really pissed at her and wants to take her back to the TARDIS, only relenting when she says she wants to help find Turlough. Why's he like this? Dunno, but don't expect Byrne to elaborate on that, because it'll never get picked up ever again.

The Sea Devils are given the space memo with the plan of attack on it and are told to take "the ape-primitive base" intact. The leader takes the memo then lumbers off-screen, presumably to take a shit. Turlough is brought to the bridge to be questioned by Vorshak, the commander. Mark Strickson is obviously fed up with the script and thus his acting as Turlough comes across as particularly passive-aggressive. I dare say I don't blame him either. The Doctor does a 180 from earlier and tells Tegan to wait outside and she grumpily accepts. Why everyone in this is so mean-spirited is anyone's guess, but it makes it hard to watch and/or care for the characters. The Doctor slides into the bridge and attempts to rescue Turlough, and no-one tries to stop him at all because... reasons. The Silurians begin their slow invasion of the base and Tegan is found by the crew and brought to the bridge also. The pacing of this episode is particularly meandering and I keep finding myself fast-forwarding through bits of it, wondering when this will all end. 

The Silurian cruiser approaches the base, and finally the crew see it. Took them long enough. The base tries to fire on them, but fails epically. The Silurians prepare to enter and release the Myrka, whom we still haven't seen yet. Despite the Doctor's warnings to not fight the reptilians, Vorshak decides he'll try anyway because 'screw logically thinking about things, we're the military, dammit'. A crew is sent to check on something that's trying to break through the doors, and the Doctor and Co join them; another crew is dispatched to check on another attempted break-in, BUT WE'VE GOT NO TIME FOR INTERESTING THINGS LIKE THAT, INSTEAD LET'S CHECK IN ON NILSON AND SOLOW COMPLAINING ABOUT MADDOX AGAIN AND RAMBLING ABOUT THEIR POSITIONS ON THE BASE YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. I realise what they're saying is meant to be an aside, but they're talking so loudly, you would assume at least one person would hear them and cotton on to what they're doing, but nobody does, let alone Maddox. Maddox is activated by the gruesome twosome, to the suspicion of his colleague from earlier.

Turns out the thing that's breaking in the doors where the Doctor happens to be is none other than the Myrka we've been told about. However, Pennant Roberts (the story's director) has the genius idea of prolonging the dramatic reveal of the creature, which, as we'll see, is not a good idea. Maddox, under the control of Nilson, kills his colleague. Oh no. 

Anyway, we now get a good look at the Myrka. What should have been a horrifying sea dinosaur had Thatcher not scuppered the budget is, in reality, the demon child of Kermit the frog and Rex the dino from Toy Story and can only be described as a bumbling pantomime horse who's the colour of dark dog vomit and moves like an elephant on bath salts. They try shooting at it, but that only makes it sway back and forth like a fish trying to breathe on land. They think they've killed it, but the Myrka doesn't die that easily, much and all as Michael Grade wanted that to happen. Instead, it kicks down the doors and almost crushes Tegan's legs. Honestly that's much more effective than anything else the Silurians and Sea Devils do in the rest of the story, so that's 5 points to the Myrka. It may look like shit, but it actually does stuff. Good call. Vorshak tells them to close the bulkhead door, sealing The Doctor and Tegan in with the Myrka, and despite Turlough's best efforts to stop the crew, he's pinned against the wall and the bulkhead is closed. Turlough really gets a hard deal in this, doesn't he?

Tegan gets freed, but the door's closed. They're stuck.

Part Three

After a cliffhanger like that, and given the precedent Part One set, how long do you think it'll take for the cliffhanger to be resolved? Well, significantly longer than last time, I'll say that much.

Turlough grabs the gun of the guard pinning him to the wall and runs off. The Doctor throws a weapon pack from the guard's gun at the Myrka, blinding it for a short time as the Doctor plans his and Tegan's escape. Turlough makes it to the bridge and continues to act passive-aggressively, this time to Nilson, ordering him at gunpoint to open the bulkhead. When I first watched this, I thought he was being a dick for no reason, but now having watched it again, I can't help but think the frustration most people are showing here is genuine and they're doing their damndest to hide it as best they can. 

Also damn, boy. The Myrka be thicc. 

...I do apologise. It'll never happen again.

Anyway, The Myrka is established to slap people and they instantly die in a burst of white light. I've seen people complain about this plot point but honestly I think it's hilarious and that it really works. It reminds me of that scene in Pyramids Of Mars where Marcus Scarman kills the fez man by gripping his shoulders. Very effective. Despite the best attempts of those in the bridge to shut the door, the Myrka escapes by forcing it back open and is now free to wander the corridors. Solow delivers the hilariously dodgy line of "I've hidden the woman's body" to Nilson, and they plan their escape back to their bloc once Maddox has fulfilled his purpose. It's at this moment that I feel bad for Maddox, purely because he's got so much plot potential whilst under their control but not much is done with him, leaving him to be pretty much a blank slate. Oh well.

The Myrka, in a hugging gesture, lumbers towards some guards. Still being blind as a bat, it careers into a switch box and electrocutes the guards before even getting to say hello. Seems like the Myrka will never find friends. Very sad indeed. The way the guards die is rather confusing, as they all seem to have a delayed reaction then slowly fall onto the floor... is this how people die in 2084?  The Silurians instruct the Sea Devils to hurry up and invade already, priming a device called The Manipulator and get ready to enter the base themselves. After having left Vorshak some time ago in Part Two, we finally rejoin him and his fellow staff as the bulkhead is about to blow. The Doctor and Tegan is sent out with Preston to deal with the Myrka. The bulkhead finally opens to reveal the Sea Devils as they kill only one person using their giant Lego guns which sound like the war cry of constipated seagulls. After that one person dies, the staff... retreat??? YOU'RE THE BLOODY MILITARY. YOU TAKE THINGS LIKE THIS ON HEAD FIRST, NOT JUST RUN OFF AFTER ONE PERSON DIES!

We cut back to Turlough, who is running down the corridors and joins Vorshak as the Sea Devils cut their way out of a closed bulkhead (Why are there so many scenes with closed bulkheads, this is getting irritating). The Doctor orders an Ultraviolet light converter to be brought to him and set up on the way to the bridge in order to stop the Myrka coming through, as sadly his plan is to kill our favourite scaly boy before he has any proper role in the story. I'll miss him when he's dead. The decision is made by Vorshak to contact Seabase command, leaking their location sHoUlD hAvE uSeD nOrD vPn and thus exposing their position to the enemy in order to save their own skins. I mean, it's a bit too late now, given Nilson and Solow already know the location and are pretending to work for you, so worrying about the other bloc finding you out is a bit too late, but whatever.

The Doctor sets up the Ultraviolet light converter in the hopes that blasting the Myrka with it will kill it and patronises Tegan when she shows genuine concern about the safety of their situation. Quite why he decides to be an ass about it is unclear, but then again, so is the majority of this story, so it checks out. Maddox is programmed to continue his sabotage so that Solow and Nilson escape. They share their last dialogue together then Solow leaves to get into the escape pod ready for them. 

What follows is the greatest scene in television history.

Solow rounds the corner and comes face-to-face with the Myrka. Now, when confronting a giant alien dinosaur, what do you do? Do you run away? Do you try to call for help? Not according to Solow. No, no, no. She makes the stupid mistake of trying to fight it without any weapons or means of defence, putting up her dukes and trying to judo-kick the Myrka. What does the Myrka do? Flails its arms about and just misses her. Her judo-kick makes contact with the Myrka and with the scream of a deranged chinchilla she crashes to the floor stone dead. It is truly a remarkable piece of TV and has me howling with laughter every single god damn time. It's just beautifully executed as a comedic send-off to her character and is the highlight of the story for me. 5 more points to the Myrka for the excellent killing, and may Solow rest in numerous pieces at the bottom of the sea bed never to return. It ends beautifully as well, with the extra playing the guard, genuinely confused, reading the label on the mind control disc. Beautiful.

It's taken the Sea Devils so long to cut their way out that the Silurians arrive before they've even finished. Can't get the lackeys these days. The Doctor prepares for the Myrka's arrival just as the Sea Devils make their attack on the crew and Maddox continues his sabotage. He's caught sabotaging the computers and is put out of action by Nilson before Vorshak can do anything to stop him. Will he ever get an even break? The Doctor kills the Myrka and suddenly my interest in this story dried up. Sadly there's another episode to go. God give me strength. 

Vorshak discovers the truth, but Nilson pulls a gun out on him. The Doctor arrives on the bridge as Nilson spews bullshit about "knowing what [he's] doing". Maddox tries to kill Nilson because... reasons, and Nilson gives a metaphorical "fuck you" to him and kills him by overriding the circuits to his brain. RIP Maddox, the weirdest Who subplot ever written. Nilson takes Tegan hostage and the Doctor goes after him after some five minutes in the bridge. Turlough (yes, he's still here) and Bulic, the last set of people from the squad that were fighting the Sea Devils, are captured and stuck in a room with bubblewrap beds. The Doctor catches up with Nilson at the Myrka's corpse (RIP Myrka :( it will be missed) and blinds him using the Ultralight gun. 

Yes, that's right, Nwho fans, the Doctor does use weapons.

Russell, Steven and Chris lied to you. Suck it up.

The Sea Devils destroy the gun and kill Nilson. Finally. The Sea Devil leader then aims the gun at The Doctor and Tegan and mutters "Yyyyyooouuurrrrrr turrrrrn."

Part Four

Finally, the end is in sight.

So, Tegan and the Doctor are dead, right? There's no way of escaping that. They're stuck in a corner and the Sea Devils are ready to fire. No way out of that, surely! WRONG. 😑 Apparently, all the Doctor has to do is tell them who he is and they'll stop. What the hell was all that tension for if it can be defused that quickly? Did Byrne even care when writing this?! The Doctor and Tegan are taken to the bridge and are reunited with Vorshak, Preston and meet the Silurians. After the Doctor reveals himself to the leader, Ichtar, the women are removed from the room... because reasons. The Silurians have apparently changed their tune from their previous appearance, recounting what happened last time (nice referencing) as a failure and that they feel more violent methods are necessary... but still want to remain peaceful. How that works I don't know, but I'm sure there's a logic somewhere. The Silurians also say they want a final solution, and that means exactly what you think it means, but it will be engineered so the humans will destroy themselves and the Silurians won't have any blood on their hands. This makes some sense, but it feels really tonedeaf and not what they were like before (note the virus in Doctor Who and The Silurians and the body count caused by The Sea Devils in The Sea Devils - stay consistent, show!). 

Turlough and Bulic plan to escape by a handy ventilation shaft - for a species that supposed to be highly advanced, you would assume the Sea Devils would ensure that such an easy means of escape would be avoidable, but then again, the monsters in this are all incredibly dense - when Tegan and Preston are chucked into the makeshift cell with them. They're still going to escape that way, as Byrne needs some way for them to get to the bridge, as that's the only part of the Seabase he actually cares about writing for. The Silurians plan to start the war the Seabase was built to fight, and take control of the missiles using Vorshak's hand scan. Not content with making a crappy first three episodes, Byrne is determined to make the conclusion just as bad, if not worse. After arguing with Turlough, Tegan makes her escape through the ventilation shaft, later followed by the others. The Silurians tell the Doctor that everyone will be killed, except him and his companions because they bear him no malice - how very sobering. 

Bulic and Tegan help the Doctor escape and make their way through the vents to the Chemical store. Turlough and Preston initially start heading in a different direction but double back once they hear Sea Devil firing. The two groups cross paths and all head to the Chemical Store. This set of scenes are a bit pointless, but I guess they made sense to tick the boxes required. The Silurians order for them to be killed should they be found and override the computer using The Manipulator. A Sea Devil tries to kill the Doctor and Co in the Chemical store but accidentally zaps the Exochromite and kills himself. RIP. I find it weird that they mourn the Sea Devil's death and are also disgusted by the snot that pours out of its face as it dies, given that plenty have died beforehand and they didn't care then. Oh well. Also, it's probably a good idea to not have your characters be disgusted about the death then wish it upon more of the reptiles.

A missile run is triggered, which is a practice one run by the computer, like last time. Reminds me of the times we had to do the fire drill at school and everybody hated them. Anyway, the Silurians don't want to play this "game" (what the hell do they mean by game?) anymore and decide to launch the missiles anyway. The Doctor decides that the only good idea is to kill the Silurians by pumping the gas through the ventilation to stop them firing the missiles, despite his own reservations. Tegan and the squad screaming at him to decide was hard to watch and certainly doesn't make me like her any more than in previous series. Preston defends the Doctor from being killed by a Sea Devil, and is killed. Rather a shame really, she was one of the better people on board the Seabase. The Sea Devil has the gas squirted at him and dies also. Turlough, Tegan and The Doctor escape, making their way to the bridge for the final showdown, bringing oxygen with them and Bulic pumps the Exochromite through the vents. 

The Silurians are weakened by the gas in the bridge, but don't instantly die like their weakling Sea Devil brothers. It takes about 30 seconds, but then they succumb to the effects, still trying to fire the missiles. The Doctor makes himself the sync operator, taking Maddox's role, in an attempt to stop the missiles being fired. Vorshak's face upon hearing this (above) is absolutely priceless, as is Davison's (below) when he is racked with immense mental pain.

He manages, somehow, to sync his mind with the computer and just manages to stop the computer firing the missiles. And just like that, Vorshak dies from some sort of pain to his side (???????????) and all the crew and Silurians are dead. What a way to end the story. 

Well, that's a breakdown and a load of negatives. Now for the positives.

On the contrary...

• Despite its awful design, the Myrka is fine.
• The actors are desperately trying to make the best of a bad script, and mostly succeed.
• Davison is phenomenal as the Doctor in this story, which contrasts greatly with the material he's been given. I genuinely root for him most of the time, and he's clearly in his stride.
• As noted before, the model effects are incredible and really well shot. They're not too in your face, but not too subtle. They're very atmospheric and it's honestly a shame there weren't more scenes that show these off, they're just beautiful. Exquisite. Absolutely exquisite.
• The set design isn't too shabby for the era and the budget, and is consistent enough to make it clear that this is all one unified base, so good job to the designer. 
• The soundtrack is very 80s, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Hell no. It's actually great and really works with the story beats. I love how moody and atmospheric it is when the Silurians are on-screen and how tense and uptempo the music gets when a dramatic moment happens. 
• As per usual, the sound effects by Dick Mills are superb, because of course they are.
• The editing is good. (Yeah I'm running out of positives now XD)

Final Verdict

Michael Grade, controller of BBC 1 at the time, cites this as the worst story in Classic Who. I wouldn't necessarily agree with him on that front, but I'm also not going to showcase this as the best story either. The story has some merits, but continuity, dialogue, weird narrative choices, production and budget let it down immensely and that's honestly disappointing, given that I really like the Silurians and Sea Devils as characters. This pretty much killed any chance they had of coming back, and I can see why. 

Long story short: it's not amazing. 

There should have been another way.