The Doctor In The TARDIS

We turn back to the Fifth Doctor for our latest story in The Infinite Quest, with Warriors Of The Deep....

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough arrive on Sea Base 4, a nuclear warhead station under the Sea that has some very nasty neighbours.

Warriors of the Deep was the first story in Season 21 of Doctor Who. It marked the return of two monster races last seen during the Jon Pertwee eras - the Silurians and the Sea Devils, and was the first story to feature both.

The next story will be posted on Sunday September 11th

This is no open and ready for discussion :)

It's been ages since I last watched this so it will be nice to see it again

It's nice having the Doc back doing these because I like the surprise and I knew what the last two were beforehand.

This one isn't one of my favourites, but I haven't watched for ages so you never know how opinion might change on another rewatch

Never seen this one but I shall give it a watch tonight and come back to chat about it tomorrow :)

This story is one of those that I watched when it first came out. When the Five Doctors came out there was a Radio Times 25th Anniversary booklet that came with it and in the back it had details of "A sneak preview of Season 21" - my first insight into the world of Spoilers aged 11 :D So I was frantic with anticipation waiting for it to come on.

And then when I watched it, it had a profound effect on me when i watched it and I absolutely loved it at the time and was really shocked by the bloodthirsty ending (I thought it was all adult and grown up hehe).

So now - 27 years later. I bought the DVD, I played it with some trepidation having been stung before by things that I thought were good, turning out to be rubbish...

But actually, I loved it again. The plot moves along at a very snappy pace, the Sea Devils and The Silurians are absolutely brilliant as vengeful but seemingly moral baddies. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough have a really 'natural' feel to them (the three-way relationship between them was only destined to last up until Resurrection of the Daleks. It is, however, in my opinion absolutely the right combination of the 5th Doctor's tenure). The supporting actors are a little hammy but pitch it dead right for "Who" and the ending of the story is still as dramatic as ever.

Yes, my love is not completely blind. The production values were pitiful. The Myrka was a good idea, dreadfully realised and parts of the set looked like they wouldn't survive a good gust of wind let alone pressures at the bottom of the sea. But such things really miss the point. With Who of this vintage you have to look past the weak production values. There just wasn't the money around. Shoot this story in Nu Who and you'd have a real gem of a tale.

The DVD extras are very revealing, and it is a miracle - given all the constraints - that this show even got made. But I really really enjoyed it. I gave it a 4/5 (and it only dropped a point because of the production values - something that no one could really help)

I went for a three on this one. It had a great opening episode but then sort of went downhill. The Silrians felt watered down as thought they had just become a monster of the week type villian. I also wasn't keen on the Doctor in this story. He seemed very inconsistent throughout and I never felt I quite knew what he was doing or why he was doing it. Tegan wasn't as annoying as she normally is so that's one plus and the karate kick at the Myrka was worth a point alone. HI-YAAAAAAAAAAAH :P

It's been a while since I last watched this, and I was expecting to give it a 2, but I've gone with a 3 instead.  It's more enjoyable than I remember, but I still had a lot of reservations - the various mistakes I've put in the mistakes thread, rather unconvincing use of the Silurians, and a contender for the worst monster in DW history.  A pity - it's one of those stories that, given a shake-up and a decent budget, could have been great fun.

This one gets a three from me. It was a welcome return for both the Silurians and Sea Devils which didn't quite hit the mark. For the most part I think the story is let down by the fact that it seems very poorly made and some of the characterisations were very poor, but for all its faults you can tell that there is a good story in there trying to get out. It just needed a bit of an overhaul

It's just a two from me this week. While generally I would have given it a one, it had been a while since my last rewatch and I did like it slightly more this time around. For the most part I do think there was an interesting story to be told, but I think the writers ballsed it up by not being able to put the Doctor on the right side and by flip flopping between who they wanted to be seen as the baddies. It was also dreadfully made and suffered from some seriously bad costumes

I went with a just a two. This has perhaps been my least favourite of the ones we have watched so far. I just couldn't get into it because the plot seemed so obsurd. Its a shame really because I was really looking forward to it. I love the Silurians in the new series, but this wasn't a good story for them.

I sort of surprised myself here and went with a four. This story had more problems than most, but I still can't help quite liking it. The first time I watched it I was a fair bit younger, so none of the problems mattered to me, I just liked the adventure and the monsters, and I think that attitude has stuck with me despite the fact I am now older and more aware of the stuff that is quite bad

Three from me. I have seen worse, but this was pretty bad. It had it's moments of awesome, but they were few and far between.

Just a two from me. I was really looking forward to this but it just didn't do it for me. It wasn't any one thing, but more lots of smaller things that just didn't work which made the overall story not very good.

Bit behind the times but I finally watched this. It wasn't the best story I've ever seen but it was ok. I'm giving it a 3.

Really need to get on and watch this... Every time I go to watch it I get moaned at by my brother for making the internet slow... Will watch when he's out on Thurs! :)

I've gone with a 2, but I agree with those who think that there is a decent story in here somewhere. It is just that it is all so appallingly executed.

For those who fail to find the moral ambiguity in the story, and who complain about the early discovery of the hexachromite, go and watch the scene again. The humans know that this stuff kills marine and reptilian life but use it as a sealant anyway. So even though they do not use it for the specific intention of killing this is no excuse -- in the Doctor's words, it should have been banned. In other words, I think that the Silurians are quite entitled to see the humans as the aggressors. The hexachromite is not only the means for resolving the conflict, it is also its casus belli. This adds a layer of irony to its eventual use, and justifies what the Doctor says about humanity. Tegan possibly has her best line ever when she says "That doesn't change what they are going to do."

The point of the story, as I see it, is how suspicion makes everybody act stupidly. Out of suspicion, the TARDIS is nearly blown out of the sky. The Doctor himself is driven to act stupidly just after this out of suspicion when he decides to set the reactor to overload, again thinking this is okay because he does not actually intend the reactor to blow up. Even the enemy agent, in his own mind, is only following orders and doing his duty. And there is something sinister about the conditioning someone has to undergo in order to be a "sync operator" -- note the shiftiness when the base commander picks up the disc following Solov's inexplicable decision to engage the Myrka in hand to hand combat (or is it meant to be a dance-off?). Again, it seems to show how a reasonable and sensitive soul can be programmed to perform acts of genocide out of suspicion, not by enemies (who only take advantage -- again a parallel with the Silurian's plan) but by those who are presumably on the same side.

I admit that with the bad acting, bad dialogue, and bad direction much of this does not get across. (I don't know why the set design gets criticised so much, since I rather like them, and frankly I don't notice how well or badly they are lit).

One other thing -- I don't think that The Sea Devils is anywhere near as good as its reputation. Better go and watch the original Doctor Who and the Silurians. It is worth remarking, though, that the monster there was scarcely any better than the Myrka. Let's face it -- nearly all large-scale Doctor Who monsters are rubbish.