Fury from the Deep - Episode 5

The penultimate instalment of this story and whilst I cant say that I’ve loved this story or even liked it, its hard for me to really lay into it like I did with ‘The Web Planet’ or something equally as bad. I think that the bonkers idea of killer seaweed and the music help. There is a shift in style and tone in the fifth episode which is what is needed to extend the life of the story.

There is another bout of Victoria talking about leaving their current surrounding which continues laying the groundwork for her departure. It might come across as whinging but to be honest I would rather it be like this than the weird way that Louise Jameson would be written out as Leela. She is taken by Robson in the helicopter and it does feel like Victoria could be put in genuine risk. Deborah Watling doesn’t seem to have a great deal to do otherwise so talking about how she wants to leave mid-adventure and being captured are the two things that she is given to do and she does it rather well. I like Patrick Troughton’s performance in this episode as it doesn’t have the bravado that it normally does and there is the smallest hint that the Doctor doesn’t seem as confident of things as he normally would and that’s a nice to thing to have in the Doctor once in a while.

There was a line from Patrick Troughton which I found quite amusing and it’s when he says “Under control of the weed” which being the 1960’s is possibly a statement about Victor Pemberton. There’s also a moment when someone says “Miss Jones” in a way that made me chuckle because all I could think was of Leonard Rossiter in Rising Damp. Another good line comes when Jamie talks about staying out of the lions den and the Doctor comments that “were already in the lions den. What we’ve got to concentrate on is keeping our heads out of its mouth” It’s the first time that the script has seemingly had anything approaching this level of funny and witty dialogue as until now its felt rather generic. Not that that’s a bad thing but it doesn’t really go with the setting of the story.

I think that for some strange reason, this episode is stronger than the previous one (or even two). I cant put my finger on it but there is something about it that grabbed my attention. I suppose that it could be that for the first time it feels like the action is starting to take control of the story instead of just standing around being quizzical about the seaweed.  The music and Frazer Hines’ narration help feel like the pacing has had a shot of adrenaline all of a sudden. The introduction of a helicopter is a surprise and it’s the second time in three stories that a helicopter has featured in Doctor Who which bearing in mind we hadn’t had one before ‘Enemy of the World’ is a fact worth pointing out.