Hmm, a second consecutive story featuring a reunion of classic monsters. I wonder if the success of "The Five Doctors" went straight to JN-T's head.
Sarah -
It feels more like an attempt to recapture the magic of "Earthshock". Unfortunately, "Warriors of the Deep" is not up to the challenge. It’s a great premise – and I always love a good base-under-siege story – but the execution doesn’t live up to the promise. How often is that the story of Doctor Who?
Harry -
One might say that that's the story of Doctor Who in the 80s.
Sarah -
The fact that production had to be moved up by two weeks didn’t help. Margaret Thatcher had called an election and the studio space was going to be needed for news coverage. JN-T faced the choice of rushing production or chucking the story altogether. It’s satisfying to lay the blame at Thatcher’s feet, but I wonder if things would have been much better if they’d had those extra two weeks.
The opening scenes are promising. It’s a fabulous set and everyone’s sporting Michael Jackson-esque uniforms. The eye make up on all the crew and 1940s hairstyles on the women are a little confusing, but I imagine there’s a lot of time to kill when you’re that far underwater.
Harry -
The futuristic boiler suits with flared shoulders are distinctly 80s. As for the hairstyles, the men look like leftovers from the 70s, while the women's huge sculpted hairdos speak of the future! Astonishing feats of structural engineering and hairspray there.
Sarah -
It really was the hairspray decade. I speak from personal experience.
Harry -
Speaking of haircuts, Peter Davison has gotten a trim during the offseason and begins Season 21 with a clean look.
Sarah -
I know it's almost heretical, but I so much prefer Davison's hair at this length. Apparently there was a bit of a kerfuffle with JN-T over the cut, which he'd gotten for an All Creatures Great and Small special. Can't have Tristan walking around looking like a shaggy Time Lord, you know!
Harry -
I like this shorter cut because it most closely resembles how this Doctor will look in "Time Crash", 23 years later. But that's far into the future, and for now this story goes even farther.
The TARDIS returns to Earth and settles into a quiet orbit, but is quickly intercepted by Sentinel 6, a defense satellite. It is the year 2084 and two superpowers are vying for control of the planet. Sentinel 6 demands that the TARDIS identify itself and suspects it of being a spy ship for "the other side". The Doctor tries to communicate with Sentinel six with his affable charm, but it doesn't work (will he ever learn?). The TARDIS is shot at, and makes an emergency landing inside a sea base under the ocean.
Sarah -
Tegan wanted to see Earth in the future, didn't she? Probably not what she imagined. I was thinking about how relevant this story was in 1984, but how outdated the idea of two superpowers in a cold war standoff is today. Looking back, it all seems so simple, doesn't it?
Harry -
Emerging to explore, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough quickly gain the attention of base security. Time for some running through corridors! The Doctor gets in a lot of running and kicking by the end of the first episode, which concludes with him falling into a pool of green-looking water. Action scenes! Tegan's first instinct is to turn back and help the Doctor, but Turlough pulls her back as his instinct for self-preservation kicks in. "Face it, Tegan, he's drowned!" Frigging Turlough man.
Sarah -
Seriously! The Doctor has barely hit the water and Turlough is ready to hoof it.
Harry -
What a creep.
One thing I liked about the world Johnny Byrne envisioned for 2084 is that the two superpower blocs are left ambiguous. Is it still East vs West? Americans vs Soviets? The makeup of the seabase hints at an international crew. It's a nice throwback to the internationally-staffed bases that came under siege in the Troughton era. Anyway, I liked the ambiguity (or the shoddy lack of detail, if you want to take a darker opinion).
Sarah -
I'll go with ambiguity for now.
Harry -
Byrne even throws in a transhuman concept in the character of Maddox, the backup sync operator who has cybernetic implants that allow him to download vast stores of information and control the base's systems. Nice trick, but one that soon enough offers an opportunity for sabotage.
Sarah -
That implant portal really creeped me out. He might as well be wearing a red shirt -- it's pretty clear from the moment that we meet him that he's not going to last long. When the intern is put in charge of things, they can only go wrong.
Harry -
Speaking of sabotage, it seemed wildly ludicrous that the Doctor wanted to trigger the base's nuclear reactor as a not-so-small diversion to help him and his friends escape.
Sarah -
I was going to suggest that it must have seemed like a reasonable idea at the time, but that just sounds silly.
While the apes are busy mucking about on the sea base, the planets other inhabitants are plotting their return. The Silurians and Sea Devils are back for the first time since the Jon Pertwee era! What did you think of these new versions?
Harry -
This is a different race of Silurians from the ones we met previously. They seem to speak telepathically, or at least without moving their mouths all that much. As they initiate their plans to attack the ape creatures and reclaim the planet, they awaken their "Sea Devil cousins" (awkward ape name in use here) to serve as foot soldiers in the assault.
I like how the story plays out with dual narratives. There's the human power blocs eyeing each other across cold war frontiers, with the Doctor and his friends getting stuck in the middle of things, but there's also the unseen third power bloc observing silently. While the humans chase each other around the sea base, the ancient masters of Earth gather their forces for a new course of action.
Sarah -
I found myself wanting to be on the Silurian/Sea Devils side, but they were just as annoying as the humans.
Harry -
Leading the charge will be a new creature: the Myrka, a gigantic killer reptile.
Sarah -
Or, two men in a modified pantomime horse costume. I know we've often declared monsters to be worst ever, but the Myrka may just take the cake. I'll take the snake in "Kinda" over this any day.
Harry -
By now, the Doctor has spotted the Silurian battle cruiser outside the base. Having let the Silurians down before, he wants to avoid seeing the same disastrous end to this encounter. Unfortunately, while the Doctor is hoping that he can forge a new peace, the Myrka smashes its way in and starts to wreak havoc on the humans who are not too terribly interested in peace talks at the mo.
In the ensuring mayhem, Tegan is injured by a falling door, but her friends manage to free her. Nice work by Janet Fielding to affect a limp for the remainder of the story, by the way.
Sarah -
She's a pro, Our Janet. Not many can recover so gamely from a styrofoam injury.
Harry -
It takes some acting chops to make styrofoam look heavy.
As for the saboteur, Dr. Solow, she's not as lucky as Tegan. After re-programming Maddox into a killing machine, she finds herself fleeing down a corridor -- right into the path of the Silurians' monster. Her attempt at karate-kicking the monster into submission fails entirely, and she is killed by
Sarah -
OMG, what was with that? I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard. I just wanted to go back and watch it over and over. If only she knew some Venusian Aikido!
Harry -
The story feels so long for a four parter, despite the fact that most of it is essentially one long chase/hide/pursuit cycle. It's a story of clashing factions, none of whom seem interested in talking to each other at all. The Silurians are content to let the humans wipe themselves out in a global war that will ensure their genocide. The Doctor manages to avert catastrophe by putting himself in the sync operating device and shutting down the weapons systems. By then, humans and lizards have wiped each other out. The bodies are piled two deep -- the final scene almost looks like the end of Hamlet, with everyone lying dead.
"There should have been another way," the Doctor laments, and I can't help feel the same way. Byrne's story had a lot of promise and I really liked a lot of it. Unfortunately, and I hate to keep dwelling on this, the production is a let down. But I'm still going to give "Warriors of the Deep" a decent score. This was only the second time I've ever watched it and I liked it more than I hated it. How do you feel about it?
Sarah -
A dismal ending to a dismal story. I wanted to like it more that I did. I don't think I've seen "Warriors of the Deep" since the 80s, but I didn't remember much about -- and now I know why. It's immensely forgettable.
That general negativity aside, I have to say the model work is excellent. Mat Irvine rose to the challenge on this one.
More importantly, Peter Davison is excellent in this story. It feels like he's finally come into his own as the Doctor, but maybe it was just the freedom of knowing it was going to be his last season. I think this is one of his strongest performances so far.
Harry -
Maybe it's best if we set this one down for a good long sleep again. Maybe we'll revisit it in the future and see if it's aged any better by then.
Sarah -
I'll set a reminder for 2084.
Harry -
Sounds about right.
Best Line: "Brave heart, Tegan." "Brave heart? It's gonna kill us!"
Favourite Moment: Dr. Solow's karate kick.
Lasting Image: the Myrka lumbering through corridors.
7/10
Sarah -
Best Line: "There should have been another way," could be the mantra of the longtime Doctor Who fan.
Favorite Moment: The struggle to save Tegan from the styrofoam door.
Lasting Imagine: That Karate Kick. I want to watch it again right now!
6/10
Our marathon continues with Story #131: The Awakening...
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