Doctor Who (TV Series) The Sea Devils: Episode Five (1972) User Reviews

Nearly finished.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 17 May 2008]

Doctor Who: The Sea Devils: Episode Five starts as the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is taken to see the Sea Devils leader (Peter Forbes-Robertson) who says that his people are being revived from a deep hibernation & intend to take control of the Earth & rule it. The Doctor insists that both the Sea Devils & human beings can live together in peace & harmony while the Master (Roger Delgado) tries to convince the Sea Devils they have no choice but to destroy the human race...

Episode 13 from season 9 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1972, so far I have rated every episode of The Sea Devils a solid seven stars out of ten since I have really enjoyed this one so far. However there is more evidence of lazy scripting, for instance why did the Sea Devil leader tell his men to take the Doctor away & kill him? Why not just kill him there & then? Then there's the resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of Episode Four, how did the Sea Devils get the Doctor from the diving bell into that 'thing'? Why wasn't the diving bell flooded when it was brought back up? It was considerate of the Sea Devils to shut the hatch & lock it after they took the Doctor out wasn't it? Still this is Doctor Who & a few plot holes & script goofs is par for the course. Writer Malcolm Hulke does his Greenpeace thing here like in Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) from season seven with the Doctor volunteering to negotiate with us humans so the Sea Devils can co-exist with us in peace. The whole make love not war message is very much in evidence here. In fact a lot of this episode is a word for word rehash with the whole faulty mechanism on the Sea Devils hibernation equipment the reason behind them suddenly waking up, the notion that they predicted some sort of disaster which never happened, the idea that human beings were merely apes when they went into hibernation & their intent to wipe us out so they can reclaim the Earth for themselves. This part of the plot & script is exactly the same as the plot seen in Doctor Who and the Silurians.

There's a fair amount of stock footage in this episode, from Naval fleets to submarines to torpedo's being fired to missiles being loaded & all sorts of military personal doing their jobs. This episode also sees the first appearance of the Sea Devil leader who looks exactly the same as any other Sea Devil but can speak English. What I don't get is why none of the other Sea Devils speak English, I mean who does he talk to when there aren't any humans about? Why would he have to speak English when his people don't? He also has a very erratic moving mouth, sometimes when he speaks it moves & at other times it doesn't! The Sea Devils looks fine but there has been a few too many lingering close-ups on them which sort of destroys the illusion.

The Sea Devils: Episode Five is another great action adventure orientated episode that I liked, I like the Sea Devils themselves & I like the story apart from one or two plot holes.

The plot has familiarities, but it's very good.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 1 March 2021]

Captain Hart issues a command, which puts The Doctor, and his efforts for peace, in grave danger.

I really enjoyed it, it's a classic story, but I'm going to have to start by saying, we've been here before, it is very much The Silurians Mark II, there are multiple similarities, not just the foe, but the plot and characters, The Doctor is attempting to broker peace between the humans and a range of ancient reptile beings, he goes in good faith to negotiate, only this time he has Captain Hart in his way, as opposed to The Brigadier.

Nevertheless, it is a very, very good story, I think The Sea Devils look wonderful, the production values are terrific.

Edwin Richfield is marvellous as Captain Hart, and yes we've seen this type of character during the Pertwee run before, but he's very well drawn, pompous, single minded, and obsessed with food.

It's incredibly well made, the production values are better than episodes made well into the future. Pertwee as always is terrific.

Very good, 8/10.

Great example of Pertwee era 'monster threatens the Earth' format.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 29 September 2014]

Review of all 6 episodes:

The Master teams up with reptilian creatures who have been dormant under the ocean for millions of years to try to conquer humanity (again). These creatures, which are dubbed Sea Devils by terrified humans, are relatives of the 'Silurians' or as The Doctor re-names them Eocenes. They were on Earth before humans and want to claim the planet back after eons of suspended animation in the ocean depths. The Doctor tries to broker peace whilst The Master whips up a war. Human leaders also have the appetite for war so trapping The Doctor in the middle.

This adventure is not flawless but provides superb entertainment and iconic scenes throughout. All episodes of this adventure are terrific fun, exciting, interesting, well written and acted with only very minor faults. The interest and quality levels never drop below 9.5/10 for me and this epitomises Pertwee era Who.

Pertwee himself is in majestic form demonstrating brilliant humour, dynamic action, warmth and intelligence. Katy Manning as Jo is as endearing as ever and Roger Delgado is at the top of his game as The Master. There is a tremendously fun sword fight between him and The Doctor as well as all the wonderful verbal jousting.

There are a few guards and sailors whose acting and stunts are underwhelming but they are a tiny minority, most of the support cast is convincing and the whole naval scenario is brought to believable life with superb location work and ships, guns, submarines, hovercrafts etc. It is extraordinary in ambition compared to many earlier and later eras of the show.

Three main guest characters add particular quality to the serial too: Edwin Richfield as Captain Hart is a great substitute for the Brigadier providing cynical but admirable support, Clive Morton as Trenchard is a fantastically rich character beautifully acted and Martin Boddey as Walker provides an incredible mixture of comedy and horrible, pompous warmongering in a terrific role in the last 2 parts.

The Sea Devils themselves, whilst looking unimpressive to modern audiences perhaps, were very well done for the day in terms of costume and voices. The performance of Peter Forbes-Robertson as their Chief is superb as is the concept of them as a race with links to the Silurians introduced a couple of seasons earlier.

Overall this is a really great adventure.

My ratings: Episodes 1, 2, 4 & 5 - 10/10, Episodes 3 & 4 - 9.5/10