Doctor Who: The Sea Devils: Episode Two starts as the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) & Jo (Katy Manning) find Clark (Declan Mulholland) the sea fort maintenance man in a state of terror & panic mumbling about 'Sea Devils'. Then the Doctor is attacked by a Sea Devil but manages to fight it off, all three are then rescued by helicopter after Capatin Hart (Edwin Richfield) sends out a search. Back at the Naval base the Doctor & Captain Hart discuss the situation but Hart finds it hard to believe in the Doctor's talk about Sea Devil creatures. Meanwhile Colonel Trenchard (Clive Morton) has allowed the Master (Roger Delgado) to leave his prison cell & steal electronic equipment from the stores at HMS Seaspite, but for what purpose & what evil is the Master up to now...
Episode 10 from season 9 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1972, directed by Michael Briant The Sea Devils has been a fun story so far. With it's helicopter rescues, people stranded on forts with monsters, mystery, intrigue, making homemade radios to call for help, sinking boats, secret plans, a huge military presence & even a sword fight The Sea Devils feels a bit like a James Bond style action adventure at times & there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. However there are certain things in Episode Two of The Sea Devils which are harder to compliment, who on Earth would allow a full set of razor sharp swords be placed outside the prison cell of a very dangerous criminal like the Master? In fact the Master is considered such a danger the British Government gave him his own prison on an isolated island yet also paradoxically give him some lethal weaponry to use at his leisure when the time arises. Then there's that isolated island prison itself, the geography just doesn't quite add up. People get from one supposedly isolated island location to another very quickly. In this episode Trenchard is seen to smuggle the Master into the Naval base by car in the back under a blanket! Even the Doctor tells Jo to go for help 'in the jeep' yet they are supposedly on an island in the sea. Just doesn't add up at all if you think about it for more than a couple of minutes. There's also a bit of dialogue referring to Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) where the Doctor says the Silurians should have been called Eocenes to correct the error in Malcolm Hulke's own scripts that the Silurians could not have come from that time period but bizarrely they could not have come from the Eocene period either so it's a rather pointless inclusion.
I am fascinated by the converted Citreon cars these army chaps drive around in, they are seemingly ordinary Citreon's but without a roof, any doors or the back windscreen. I'm not being funny here but what if it starts to rain? A car with no roof or doors just isn't very practical especially here in the UK. What if you parked up for a bit, it rained & when you came back all the inside & seats were soaking wet? It wouldn't be very nice really would it? What would happen if you went round a corner quickly? With no doors you would like fall out wouldn't you? Not too many special effects here & no CSO so far which is unusual because the Pertwee era used it extensively. The sword fight between the Doctor & the Master is well choreographed but why does the Doctor give the Master his sword back when he won the duel? It just doesn't make much sense to me. There is a factual goof in this episode, the way the Doctor converts a transistor radio to send a signal rather than just receive is absolutely 100% impossible in reality. This episode also sees the Doctor play some golf in Trenchard's office, blindfolded!
The Sea Devils: Episode Two is another good episode in a good story, like a lot of Doctor Who if you think about the plot for more than a few minutes then it all falls apart a bit but taken as it is I liked it.
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