Thursday 27 May 2021

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: The Sea Devils Episode Four


'I am not a number, I am a Sea Devil!'

Faced with a choice between the mannys with guns and the Sea Devil with, er, a gun, the Doctor picks the third option and he and Jo try to escape by way of the minefield. Since it can't immediately get at the Doctor, the Sea Devil starts pewpewpewing the mannys instead.

The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver as a mine detector so that they can avoid being blowed up. Then when the Sea Devil runs out of mannys to pew and starts to follow them, he also uses the sonic screwdriver to detonate the mines that are near to it.


This seems very convenient to me, yet it has gone down as one of the most iconic uses of the sonic screwdriver of all time, so it seems that Doctor Who fandom as a whole is prepared to let it pass. Maybe it only seems so bad to me because of all the many, many subsequent and even more tenuous uses the screwdriver will be put to, in both the old and new series?

The Sea Devil doesn't like nearly getting blowed up, so it runs away and allows the Doctor and Jo to escape... very slowly and carefully.

On the bridge of the submarine, Donald Sumpter and his mannys prepare to defend themselves against the Sea Devils doing a classic slow cutting through their door, but when they see it is a Sea Devil they are too surprised to shoot it. The next time we see them they have all been captured and are being made to drive the submarine somewhere under the direction of the Sea Devils.

The Doctor and Jo make it back to the naval base and talk to Captain Hart, but he doesn't believe them:
"The Doctor's seen these creatures before."
"Oh, I'm quite sure he has, Miss Grant."
Captain Hart did a sarcasm, lol, but if there is any character in this story who has been seeing things that aren't there then I would suggest it's the manny with half a decanter of booze sat on his desk:


I'm not sure Captain Hart is dealing with everything that has happened as well as he wants us to believe. The Doctor appears to agree with me, saying
"Captain Hart, you are dealing with a situation completely outside of your own experience. And if you won't let me help you..."

The Master is now able to use his device as a telephone with which to contact the Sea Devils. Trenchard catches him using it, and the Master tries to bluff him that their message to him is only "random feedback" but Trenchard is clever enough to see through this and it is enough to finally make him want to contact "the authorities" about what has been going on.

Unfortunately he is unable to raise the alarm because the Minister is too busy to take his telephone call, even though Trenchard is the manny in charge of guarding the most dangerous criminal in the world. I think this is a bit of satirical commentary on government bureaucracy from the story's writer Malcolm Hulke that we're seeing here - Hulke smash the state!

Sea Devils enter the prison and pewpewpew the mannys there. Trenchard shoots at one of them himself, but then the camera cuts to the Master's room. The Sea Devils enter and we see Trenchard go

Captain Hart's radar manny has detected something heading for the castle-prison, and this is enough for Hart to want to investigate in case it is the missing submarine. He takes the Doctor and Jo with him, and when they get to the prison they find Trenchard and all his mannys ded and the Master and Sea Devils gone.

The radar manny detects the submarine again, heading for the fort this time, so the Doctor, Jo and Captain Hart also go there in a ship. They lower the Doctor into the water inside a small portable room that is in no way bigger on the inside. When he reaches the bottom of the sea, he sees a Sea Devil's face out the window, and it peers in at him with a big googly eye. 


Then Captain Hart loses contact with the Doctor so he orders the room to be taken back up. When it is back on the ship, Captain Hart and Jo look inside, but it is empty. The Doctor has been kittennapped offscreen since we last saw him - cliffhanger!

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