27 Stupid Things about "The Sea Devils"
(and 23 Cool Ones)
(But we're not telling you which is which) 
(We're expecting you to work that out for yourselves)

By Fiona Moore and Alan Stevens

Originally published in Celestial Toyroom Issue 551

1. The story opens with a segue from a ship under attack, to the Doctor and Jo on a boat. Just to reinforce the nautical themes.

2. Future-fashionwatch: the far-out beret/moustache/short cape ensembles on the guards. Possibly a nod to the proximity of the adventure's setting to France; possibly an attempt to predict next season trends. If the latter, it never caught on.

3. The venetian-blind television doesn't seem to have caught on either.

4. Nor the deconstructed open-topped, open-backed and open-sided Citroën 2CV cars, which would have made for a fun ride in the sort of weather one gets on the Channel Islands.

5. Back in the 1970s, meanwhile, Jo's white trouser suit with flares and burgundy pockets is not her finest fashion moment.

6.The prison governor's and guards' insignia are clearly based on a yin-yang symbol.

7. Trenchard says the Master can't escape because "we're on an island." Considering that there's an easily-bribable man with a boat and a naval base that leaves 'Buccaneer' speedboats unattended on the shoreline, he's not exactly without resources to reach the mainland.

8.Post-colonialBritainwatch: Trenchard was the governor of a colony, which is not only very small, but one that declared its independence shortly after he arrived.

9. The Master wants a new colour TV for the bedroom. Since this is the near future, presumably he's planning to view Episode Six of The Sea Devils so he can learn how it all works out.

10. The Doctor implies that he got his "bad leg" during the Crimean War, which fits with the Second Doctor's statement during "The Evil of the Daleks" that he "watched the Charge of the Light Brigade." Question is, why did the injury persist following his regeneration?

11. This story contains the first mention of Brighton beach in Doctor Who. The Doctor will eventually visit Brighton beach in "The Leisure Hive".

12. Roger Delgado does exhibit hilarious facial expressions in the notorious scene where the Master watches The Clangers.

13. Director Michael E Briant makes great use of overhead shots, close-ups, and strange angles on the not-quite-abandoned sea fort, as well as highlighting unusual detail in the prison, such as a firing range and sacks for bayonet practice.

14. The Episode One cliffhanger suggests that the Doctor and Jo are about to encounter a Sea Devil, so it's a fun twist when it turns out to be Declan Mulholland instead.

15. The Sea Devil costumes are, overall, pretty effective, but the eyes are a little artificial-looking.

16. Nice of the set background to foreshadow the Doctor's imminent response to the Sea Devil in Episode Two with a big clear sign reading "Electric Shock."

17. The pirate station Radio City broadcasted from an abandoned Maunsell sea fort in the Thames Estuary from 1965 to 1967. This makes an amusing connection to the sequence where the Doctor's sea fort radio rig picks up a music channel.

18. Once again a casual nickname imposed by a single character winds up being what everyone naturally calls them. It's a good job Declan Mulholland didn't name them "lizard things."

19. Making the serial with the cooperation of the Royal Navy means they can have actual shots of numerous military service personnel reacting to an emergency, rather than just HAVOC armed with a few rifles, and doubling up for each other.

20. While a certain sequence in Episode Four just screams, "We've got access to a real, authentic diving vessel and we're going to milk it for all it's worth."

21. Though it is a little unexpected to have a military-focused Pertwee Era story which does not involve UNIT.

22. The reason why the location is called "HMS Seaspite" is because there's a British tradition of referring to naval bases as "stone frigates."

23. Although HMS Seaspite is fictional (the real location was HMS St George) there actually was an HMS Warspite: a naval vessel built in 1912, seeing action in two world wars, and being decommissioned in 1947.

24. It's an interesting period detail that, when Trenchard proves to Captain Hart that the Master is still on the island by showing a TV image from his cell, it's never suggested that this might be a recording.

25. Is it really a good idea to have two racks of fencing swords right outside the Master's prison cell?

26. Keep an eye out for a very young Donald Sumpter as Ridgeway, a naval commander with a bad case of 1970s hair. Sumpter is one of a select few actors to play multiple roles across the franchise, including Enrico Casali in the Second Doctor serial "The Wheel in Space", and the iconic Time Lord Rassilon in the 2015 Peter Capaldi episode "Hell Bent". He also appeared as Erasmus Darkening in "The Eternity Trap", an episode of the spin-off series "The Sarah Jane Adventures."

27. Furthermore, a shoutout to Ridgeway's Twitch. This facial tic, which manifests every time he's nervous, gives him better characterisation than almost every other one-off in the serial.

28. For a story named "The Sea Devils", it's pretty light on Sea Devil action, with the titular monsters only coming to the fore during parts five and six.

29. Why do the Time Lords care enough about the Sea Devils to keep files on them?

30. Considering that Jo's skills as an escapologist have been established in previous adventures, it's surprising that she uses tools from the Master's desk rather than carrying her own set of pick-locks.

31. Bechdel-testwatch: There are two named female characters in the serial, and they do briefly talk to each other about sandwiches.

32. Why, exactly, do the Sea Devils feel hatred towards mankind? Did they have a word with the Silurans or something?

3. Likewise, why do Ridgeway and Mitchell, when on the submarine, refer to the Sea Devils in the plural? As far as they know, "Green Gilbert" is the only one.

34. Indoor Sea Devils are mostly greenish, outdoor ones are mostly orangish. We're sure there's a good explanation.

35. This is probably why the indoor ones seem more truculent than the outdoor ones. After all, it's not easy being green.

36. It's a perceptive and very much relevant point, that simple patriotism is easily co-opted for nefarious ends.

37. "Captain Hart, can you lay on a diving vessel?"

38. Just stop for a moment, and consider how ridiculous it is that the Doctor seriously thinks he'll find the Sea Devils' base by dropping a diving bell onto the sea bed and staring out of its single porthole (through which he has a focal depth of one inch) into a green murk.

39. When Walker turns up, shortly after Trenchard's death, the expectation is that he'll introduce himself with "Hi, you've lost one overweight git of a civil servant; I'm here to make up your quota."

40. Only one of the Sea Devils actually talks, and that to the Doctor, so we lose the nuance of "Doctor Who and the Silurians", in which the reptile people argued among themselves over their position re the humans.

41. Also, by having Walker as the main advocate for destroying the Sea Devils, we lose the subversive aspect of "Doctor Who and the Silurians", when a familiar hero character like Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart becomes the aggressor.

42. Postcolonial-Britainwatch II: The Master is able to weaponise the Sea Devils' grievances against the upstarts who've taken over their planet, to get them to do his bidding. There's a decent metaphor there if you think about it.

43. The Doctor to Ridgeway, handing him a Sea Devil weapon: "Here, take this. It's a gun." He might as well add, "I'm not going to tell you how to use it or anything; I'm just going to assume you can figure it out naturally, you being a naval officer and all."

44. Green Gilbert does get in a nicely dramatic death, clutching his thorax and spinning around as he falls.

45. Postcolonial-Britainwatch III: Walker is a total straw colonialist, going on about how their only course of action is not to negotiate with the Sea Devils because they're subhuman and all, but to wipe them out for the good of Britain -- making the subtext, annoyingly, text.

46. How did that naval rating in Episode Five not notice the Sea Devil creeping up behind him?

47. And for that matter, how does Captain Hart know that he can't fit through the ventilation shaft in the ceiling? Was he bored one day, and climbed up there?

48. This is the story where the Doctor invents his pseudoscience catchphrase "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow."

49. The Master apparently carries around rubber masks of his own face, just in case he has to slip one onto a random hypnotised dupe.

50. Paddingwatch: Trenchard's extended discussion about a golf tournament in Episode Two, plus the Doctor and Jo's return to the castle after they had already concluded that Trenchard and the Master are conspiring together. The Episode Three recap: a good sword fight, but worth repeating in its entirety? The scenes with the diving bell. The recap of the diving bell sequence in Episode Five. The Doctor's capture and arrival at the Sea Devil base that achieves nothing except the rescue of the submarine crew. The entire submarine escapade -- aside from providing the MacGuffin by which the Doctor and the Master can escape the Sea Devil base it, contributes little else to the plot. The naval task force and the depth charge attack. Everything Parliamentary Private Secretary Walker says does or eats... Indeed, anyway you cut it, this serial is about four episodes too long.