Old Who: The Silurians and The Sea Devils

[selenak]

These two came in a package together with a Five adventure, which I'll get around to watching later, but naturally I watched the Third Doctor stories first, especially since one of them is co-starring the Master, and andrastewhite promised a duel and sandwiches. Incidentally, the documentary on the Silurians has a few clips from New Who episodes in it, among them one from Utopia, which proves this must be a very recent release. This instantly makes me wonder whether the Silurians/Sea Devils are going to show up in season 4/30, because the old school releases have been timed that way in the past. But now, on to reviewing!



Doctor Who and the Silurians is actually the full title of the first one, but I've been conditioned into yelling "he's called the Doctor, not Doctor Who" at random people, so I can't call it that. Anyway. Jon Pertwee's first season as the Third Doctor, with Liz Shaw as the Companion and relations with the Brigadier not yet as comfortable and cozy as in several of the later day adventures I've watched. Also, nobody had told me this is the Bessie origin story! Yay!

(On the off chance someone bothers reading this review who is not familiar with Old Who: Bessie = the one time the Doctor cheated on the TARDIS. But he had to! He was stuck on Earth by the Time Lords, and if he was all over that yellow car and tinkering with it the way he otherwise only tinkers with the TARDIS console, well... he is an alien slutboi tease.)

Seriously, the opening with Three fixing up Bessie and Liz looking at him the way Rose and Micky looked when Ten was squeeing over finding K-9 again was great fun. So was encountering familiar faces and voices from other fandoms. Between Peter Miles as a self-important lab owner and a young Paul Darrow in UNIT uniform (I have, alas, seen PD in the dreadful Timelash but didn't know he was in DW before that), it was a Blake's 7 fan's field day. Also, Geoffrey Palmer, who seems to exist to get killed gruesomely on DW (most recently as the captain of the space Titanic in New Who's Voyage of the Damned, gets killed here as a Permanent Undersecretary. (Sidenote: so, a good thing the Doctor didn't actually meet the captain in VotD, otherwise he might have noticed the guy looked strangely familiar...) And rounding off trivialities, the last episode showcased Jon Pertwee in a t-shirt, which I hadn't seen before, and thus revealed he had a tattoo on his arm. A rather large one. This of course makes me wonder whether when Two regenerated into Three the tattoo was already there (side effect of forced regeneration?) or whether Three acquired it in a fit of whimsy later on. I'd blame the Master, but he didn't show up until a year later.

On to more serious matters: the central theme of another intelligent species on Earth revealed, who predates humans, and both species showing equal amounts of racism, paranoia and lethal aggression is dealt better with here than in Sea Devils (but then again, Sea Devils is about other things anyway), and you can tell this was made in the early 70s. Nice twist of putting the humans into the "alien invader" role, but the fact only one Silurian is shown to be willing to sign on for co-existence and detente is a downside and makes the guy look like the token good person in an otherwise negatively characterized species. (Otoh, we don't get humans signing on for same, either, except for Dr. Quinn early on, and he wanted the Silurians' scientific knowledge.) The zingers the Doctor gets out about the military mindset and the fact he keeps things from the Brigadier repeatedly show he's not yet adjusted to working with UNIT on a full time basis. Speaking of the Brigadier, he gets the most subtle characterisation of the entire story. Dr. Lawrence (Peter Miles) and the undersecretary played by Geoffrey "Redshirt" Palmer are the usual selfish bureaucrat caricatures, but the Brigadier, even if you don't know him from other adventures, comes across as a three dimensional character, and the decision he makes in the end, diametrically opposed to the Doctor's, is not used to vilify him, though I think the narrative condemns it, given the Doctor's "but that's murder" as the last line of the story.

(deborah_judge made a comparison to New Who's Harriet Jones/Christmas Invasion incident. TCI is my least favourite Christmas special - in fact, I only watched it once and never again because I disliked it so much - , and I absolutely agree that the way Old Who stages the "human character in authority makes decision to wipe out aliens in manner which is considered a crime by the Doctor" is far better and fairer to the human character, BUT there is a difference, which is why I'm not sure that the Brigadier would, as she said, have done what Harriet Jones did. The Sycorax had surrendered; the Silurians had not. Talk about military mindset; killing an enemy who has surrendered is different from killing one whom one is still at war with.)

There is a meta irony there, of course, in the Doctor condemming the genocide of an entire species, and no, I don't mean that the Silurians inevitably were back and not completely wiped out after all. (Intention is what matters, and the Brigadier obviously didn't watch tv and thus didn't know they'd be back anyway.) Even before New Who arrived, long before, by the time the Doctor was in his seventh regeneration, he was capable of doing this himself. Not in situations like with the Silurians, where there still is another choice that doesn't mean the end of the human race as an alternative, but he's capable of it, and he does it. You get the full implication of "I am so old now... I used to have so much mercy" if you compare Three (hardly the most cuddly of Doctors) and his expression when he sees the Brigadier has just blown up the Silurians The Silurians and Ten's expression in The Runaway Bride when killing the Racnoss himself.

I had seen Liz Shaw before, in Inferno, and she comes across as smart and capable; fitting in the Barbara mold of female Companions rather than in the Susan mold. (I have the theory that the female Companions roughly come in two editions, patterned after the first two - emotional enthusiasts, from Susan over Jo to Ace to Rose, and level-headed, smart professionals, from Barbara over Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane to Martha. Note that I'm not saying they're all the same - there are many differences between the ladies within the same type, obviously. But I think the type is there.) As yet, though, she doesn't spark with me the way Sarah Jane or Martha do.

DVD specials: a reasonably good documentary, narrated by Geoffrey Palmer, giving the background for the story. (Which could be subtitled: Why Yes We Were Lefties - What Else Is New?) In addition to Barry Letts and other production people from the era, Paul Cornell (of various Old Who books and New Who episodes fame) is in it, and looks far younger than I expected from his voice on the New Who audio commentaries. Former MP Roy Hattersley cracked me up by observing that whichever goverment is in charge, Tory or Labour, always thought and thinks the BBC has it in for them.


The Sea Devils: other than the fact the remaining Silurians now get re-christened by the humans and live under the sea, leading to all kind of water-sports, the plotline dealing with them is essentially a repeat of the earlier story, down to one reasonable Silurian/Sea Devil and the Doctor using the same "but two species should be able to co-exist, and you could live in the areas uninhabitable by humans" argument, but again: title aside, it's not even the main one. Rather, it's an excuse for another Doctor-Master face-off, and this one is glorious fun. Starting with the Doctor coming to visit the Master in prison. If there is a non-slashy excuse for his "he put on weight!" comment as soon as he sees the Master that doesn't read "I'm making a bitchy remark about my evil ex boyfriend with whom I had the break-up from hell", I don't want to know. Also loved Jo calling the Doctor on having made this whole field trip because he did want to see the Master again, and not just to check on his inevitable evil scheme du jour, and his defensive reply: "Well, we were friends once. Very good friends. In fact, you might say we were... at the same school together." (The last part of the statement also makes me grin.)

Speaking of the Master, kathyh had linked me before to the clip where he watches the Clangers, so I had seen it, but it's still terrific to rewatch in context. (New Whovians: this is the scene RTD payed homage to in Sound of Drums when he had the Master watching the Teletubbies, which as he said on the audio commentary was because he had loved the Master-Clangers scene so much. Clearly, Master/Children's TV = OTP!) Delgado is in fine form, and the script sparks with the Doctor/Master exchanges, too. ("You must wonder why I'm here," says the Master after the Doctor has gotten himself captured and is the prisoner now, and the Doctor replies: '"For your usual childish gloating?") And yes, the fencing, complete with sandwich eating in between, is just fun. On the other hand, that last exchange of looks between the Master and the Doctor at the end of the story when the Master makes his inevitable getaway is downright wistful, and works far better than a last verbal potshot could have, so I'm glad they relied on the actors and their expression.

On a more serious note: while I agree that if you look at the various incarnations of the Master, from Delgado to Simm, you see him get progressively more insane, I'm not sure that I'd categorize Delgado!Master as not crazy at all and a sublimely rational master criminal. Because, you know, there is that scene in Sea Devils when the Doctor asks the Master why he wants to stir up war between the humans and the Sea Devil-Silurians, what benefit he'd have from letting the later wipe out the former, what advantage, and the Master simply replies that it's because the Doctor likes humans so much, because they're his pet species, and that's enough for him. Genocide on a global scale just to stick it to the Doctor is not something a rational criminal does; it's as sociopathic and obsessive as anything the later incarnations do.

And it's the lethal version of another constant feature in all the Three era stories with the Master I've seen; sooner or later, they inevitably cooporate on something, usually because of a mutual threat, sometimes because of a blackmail, and there is this "look, how brilliant I am, and you're the only one who gets it" element... which has its saddest and yet captivating echo in the scene from Utopia when Yana and the Doctor work together and just click, and the Doctor tells Yana how much he admires him.

Back to The Sea Devils: yet again, as with every Jo story I've watched save for The Three Doctors, I think how unfair Jo's reputation as the ankle-twisting useless screamer among the Companions is. She's excellent in this story, rescuing the Doctor a couple of times and having playful fun with the guard tricking and guard-tripping without making those manoeuvres any less effective. Hand holding and arm around shoulders is on a level with the usual Doctor/Companion interactions (I think the only one who didn't do this all the time was One, and later Five because Five wasn't allowed to), and you get the idea, as in most other Jo appearances I've seen, that they rather adore each other.

The budget must have gone up since The Silurians because their appearance here comes across as more alien and less BBC being really cheap with the suits for the stuntmen; and all the ocean settings are exploited to the full. The documentary, which is great fun to watch, brings up that everyone in the production crew but poor Roger Delgado, who couldn't swim, really loved working on boats, and that Jon Pertwee even wanted a water ski scene but that one didn't work out. (There's also the anecdote of Pertwee's bad back, which no one but Delgado could fix. See, this is why it's lucky Old Who doesn't have RPS fans, what with stuff like "...one day I walked in and there was Jon on the floor and Roger on top of him...") Really, the only thing missing from The Sea Devils is UNIT and the Brig (the character who essentially fulfils his role by being the military commander of the island just isn't the same, but otoh the Brig wouldn't have doubted Jo and the Doctor about the Master, so I can see why he couldn't be there), which means no Nicholas Courtney in the documentary, either (whereas he is in the one for The Silurians, which gives me slight hope he'd be up for a New Who appearance....).

In conclusion: The Silurians is more profund, The Sea Devils is more fun. And tell me there is post-Silurians angst fic for the Brigadier and the Doctor!






Speaking of fanfiction - because The Sea Devils put one in the right mood for this: Killing the Groundhog: A controlled outcome is a delightful Third Doctor/Delgado!Master story, in which the Master basically is trapped in the plot of Groundhog Day. This does not make him happy, but it definitely enthralls the reader.

Comments

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

This of course makes me wonder whether when Two regenerated into Three the tattoo was already there (side effect of forced regeneration?) or whether Three acquired it in a fit of whimsy later on.

It was already there. We first see it very shortly after he regenerates. Handwavey fan theory is that it's some kind of prison mark courtesy of the Time Lords.

but the fact only one Silurian is shown to be willing to sign on for co-existence and detente is a downside and makes the guy look like the token good person in an otherwise negatively characterized species.

Given that 99% of the time when we see aliens of the rubber-suit variety on classic Who they're universally evil, I thought the mere fact that there were Silurians with more and less warlike opinions was awesome, and utterly refreshing.

Because, you know, there is that scene in Sea Devils when the Doctor asks the Master why he wants to stir up war between the humans and the Sea Devil-Silurians, what benefit he'd have from letting the later wipe out the former, what advantage, and the Master simply replies that it's because the Doctor likes humans so much, because they're his pet species, and that's enough for him.

I do think the Master was more self-controlled and rational back then, but he was still evil and utterly obsessed. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

We first see it very shortly after he regenerates. Handwavey fan theory is that it's some kind of prison mark courtesy of the Time Lords.

Ah. So presumably no other regeneration has it? (In fanon, I mean; no idea whether the actors sported tattoos...)

Given that 99% of the time when we see aliens of the rubber-suit variety on classic Who they're universally evil, I thought the mere fact that there were Silurians with more and less warlike opinions was awesome, and utterly refreshing.

The Draconians later were a bit more varied still, but yes, I know what you mean. Plus as I said in the review and to KdS, it's not like the humans are depicted as any less warlike.

I do think the Master was more self-controlled and rational back then, but he was still evil and utterly obsessed. :)

Agreed. And of course you can see a similar thing going on with the Doctor and his degree of craziness (in the non-clinical sense) through the years...

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I've never seen any fannish speculation about other regenerations having the tattoo, no. And we have seen Eight and Nine with their shirts off and no sign of tattoos.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I would suggest large quantities of Jagermeister as the only thing that would make Warriors of the Deep tolerable, but then I remembered you don't drink. Be warned that its terrible reputation among most fans is entirely justified.

Peter Miles on the Silurians commentary takes the devil's advocate anti-Silurian role, and he makes the point that the Old Silurian comes off as the token pacifist, and nobody else in the culture seems to have a problem with the Young Silurian murdering him and declaring himself leader.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. That bad? Hmmm. Perhaps I shall leave the DVD unopened, then.

he makes the point that the Old Silurian comes off as the token pacifist, and nobody else in the culture seems to have a problem with the Young Silurian murdering him and declaring himself leader.

That was my problem as well, but then again, nobody on the human side is advocating peace, either, except for the Doctor, who isn't human, and Dr. Quinn who isn't advocating peace, he just wants to keep the Silurians secret to have access to their science. So I handwaved that presumably there were other Silurians willing to give the apes a shot, but we didn't see them. Also, of course as a Star Trek fan I was thinking "Klingons", for whom killing one's superior is the thing to do if they consider him unreliable and wrong-headed in battle. (Which was entirely Ron Moore's invention for his first TNG Klingon episode in s2, I think...)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I happen to really like "Warriors of the Deep," but I seem to be very, very much in the minority on that point. Just... try not to look at the monster much, that's all. :)

[andraste]

But the Myrka is the best part!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

It's just really, really... not good. The special features on the DVD go on at great length about the production problems (the story's original schedule date turned out to be election day so Nathan-Turner decided to broadcast it earlier and make it in half the usual time, and you can tell) but the script has big problems to start with. Really, it's one of the stories that give the Saward period its reputation for nihilism: it's the late 21st century, but it's sledgehammered home that nothing's got any better and there's still a cold war with superpowers perpetually on the point of annihilating each other and civilisation; we're told that the Silurians are more morally ambiguous than the average Who monster and shouldn't be casually destroyed, but all the actual Silurians just act like generic alien invaders who want to conquer the world because they're nasty; and the Doctor spends most of the story fruitlessly and uncharismatically begging everyone to stop fighting but fails to prevent almost everyone in the dramatis personae from dying in gratuitously gruesome ways.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I really look forward to the R1 release of "Warriors of the Deep" on the basis of the cliffhanger for episode 1.

[andraste]

Geoffrey Palmer has actually died three times on Doctor Who counting The Mutants. The Doctor must be used to ignoring people who look like other people he met on other planets *g*.

The Sea Devils has much of my favourite Master/Doctor interaction, and I use the slash advisedly. I can't think of another explanation for the bitchy remark about his weight, either.

While Jo is not on my list of favourite companions, I agree that her reputation is far from deserved. She and the Doctor do adore each other - she's Three's favourite companion, assuming the Brig gets special status.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The Doctor must be used to ignoring people who look like other people he met on other planets *g*.

Or the same planet, considering Martha and her cousin Aedola. Though Martha explains that one to him during their first episode.

I can't think of another explanation for the bitchy remark about his weight, either.

I mean, really: did the scriptwriter think this is what one former platonic friend turned enemy says about another? I. Don't. Think. So.

She and the Doctor do adore each other - she's Three's favourite companion, assuming the Brig gets special status.

Recalling The Green Death, I'd even say this is the most possessive and jealous the Doctor gets over a Companion pre New Who, no? And their parting is such a loving, sad scene from Three's pov...

[andraste]

Or the same planet, considering Martha and her cousin Aedola. Though Martha explains that one to him during their first episode.

Amazingly, he refrained from blurting out 'you had an idential cousin? What is this, Twin Peaks?'

I mean, really: did the scriptwriter think this is what one former platonic friend turned enemy says about another? I. Don't. Think. So.

Not to mention that Look at the end of the episode! And the Almost Handshake, which is another favourite moment of mine. (Er, I'm reasonably sure that bit is in The Sea Devils. It's been a while since I actually saw it.)

Recalling The Green Death, I'd even say this is the most possessive and jealous the Doctor gets over a Companion pre New Who, no? And their parting is such a loving, sad scene from Three's pov...

It is. He's not generally inclined to possessive jealousy pre-New Series, so it really stands out. Steven Moffat, incidentally, has cited this scene as a reason he's never believed that the Doctor is asexual.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Amazingly, he refrained from blurting out 'you had an idential cousin? What is this, Twin Peaks?'

LOL. And now you're making me wonder about a DW/TP crossover.

Not to mention that Look at the end of the episode! And the Almost Handshake, which is another favourite moment of mine. (Er, I'm reasonably sure that bit is in The Sea Devils. It's been a while since I actually saw it.)

Yes, it's there, at the end of their first encounter. And directly after Jo gives him that "you came because you were worried about him and wanted to make sure he's okay, admit it!" speech, and the Doctor replies with that involuntarily funny "friends... very good friends... at school together" recounting. I mean, I know England is different and old school ties are a British tradition, but it's still a weird climax that feels like a euphemism. Also, I want to know who were the teachers at the academy who managed to produce the Doctor, the Master AND the Rani all at the same time, and what happened to them. They must have gotten collectively drunk at least once a year.

Steven Moffat, incidentally, has cited this scene as a reason he's never believed that the Doctor is asexual.

I can understand that. (Mind you, the relevant scenes also read to me as Jo not realising the Doctor feels for her this way.) They would definitely be exhibition piece B for me in order to prove it with Old Who scenes. But exhibition piece A would be the very first guy, good old One, with his Aztec lady. The marriage suggestion might have come as a surprise to him but the rest of it definitely was a conscious flirt, and the entire relationship was very much prefiguring Ten and Reinette, down to the farewell letter.

[andraste]

LOL. And now you're making me wonder about a DW/TP crossover.

That would be fun, in a weird way.

I mean, I know England is different and old school ties are a British tradition, but it's still a weird climax that feels like a euphemism.

Quite *g*.

Also, I want to know who were the teachers at the academy who managed to produce the Doctor, the Master AND the Rani all at the same time, and what happened to them. They must have gotten collectively drunk at least once a year.

You have to wonder if someone was deliberately trying to create a generation of Time Lord rebels ...

I can understand that. (Mind you, the relevant scenes also read to me as Jo not realising the Doctor feels for her this way.)

I doubt she'd have been cruel enough to make that 'younger version of you' remark if she'd realised.

But exhibition piece A would be the very first guy, good old One, with his Aztec lady. The marriage suggestion might have come as a surprise to him but the rest of it definitely was a conscious flirt, and the entire relationship was very much prefiguring Ten and Reinette, down to the farewell letter.

Yes! Cameca is awesome. And notice that he asks who she is as soon as he sees her, before he finds out that she's relevant to the plot.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You have to wonder if someone was deliberately trying to create a generation of Time Lord rebels ...

Exactly. One can be a coincidence, two is already stretching belief, but THREE?

...as long as it wasn't the Valeyard, travelling back in time...

I doubt she'd have been cruel enough to make that 'younger version of you' remark if she'd realised.

No, definitely not. She can be thoughtless, but not deliberately cruel. BTW, clearly this is what Ten was thinking of when making his "I know! It's like when you fancy someone, and they don't notice you exist" remark in Sound of Drums!

Yes! Cameca is awesome. And notice that he asks who she is as soon as he sees her, before he finds out that she's relevant to the plot.

Exactly. He's intrigued at sight, and definitely in a boy meets girl, err, senior citizen meets citizeness kind of way.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Even having seen Three and Delgado!Master in 'Mind of Evil' and 'Claws of Axos', I was still amazed by the over-the-top slashiness in 'The Sea Devils'. The swordfight scene was the first time that it seemed like the Doctor was more interested in enjoying fighting (and flirting) with the Master than he was in defeating him. Poor Three, he's just as lonely in his way as Ten.

(Rest of comment contains vague spoilers for 'Keeper of Traaken'.)

Speaking of Masters, I just watched 'The Keeper or Traaken.' I loved it - it's the first Classic episode so far that I've watched twice in a row. It made me wonder how much of Ainley!Master (and, I suppose, of Simm!Master) comes from Tremas. In particular, Delgado!Master doesn't seem particularly interested in ruling the world, just in destroying things, making trouble and annoying the Doctor. Simm!Master, though, maneuvers himself into a Keeper-like role, living just outside Earth and micromanaging his world through remote control. Simm!Master also seems to have this interest in saving the universe/humanity/the Toclafane that none of the previous Masters have and that he seems to have gotten from Professor Yana, so this all makes me wonder how much the Master's human alter egos shape his motivations and character.