The Sea Devils - Episode 3

The third episode has a rather long reprise. That not really a complaint but merely a fact. It’s a good thing to reprise and it picks up with a knife narrowly missing the Doctor’s head. That some mighty fine throwing that Roger Delgado managed (I obviously know he didn’t). It’s sad to see Trenchard act the way that he does in this episode. The fact he’s willing to believe the Master over the Doctor is to be expected but still its sad to see. The Master gives a good reason as to why he still stays in the prison when he’s got one over Trenchard.

There’s a nice bit of continuity when the Master refers to the files that he stole in ‘Colony in Space’. It’s due to these files that he reads about the Sea Devils and this is a way for him to continue his destruction of the world plan which has failed about half a dozen times since ‘Terror of the Autons’.

Jo gets to do some entertaining stuff in the early stages of this episode after escaping from some guards and running around the castle. Jo is well used in this episode and gets to free the Doctor after he’s chained up. The Doctor doesn’t have the best episode after the sword fight with the Doctor. The best moment after that comes when he has a scene with Trenchard and he talks about how anyone at UNIT would vouch for him. Considering how at times the Doctor has contempt for UNIT, its somewhat unfortunate that he only speaks about UNIT like this when it suits him.

I commented that I like the location filming that occurs in this story and that continues to be the case in this episode where the show goes to the beach. This leads to some good moments in this episode and some enjoyable ones in the next episode but even the stuff at the beginning with Jo is shot well and I think its some of the best location filming in the season. A part of the story moves to the submarine and there are some really good scenes in the sub which is surprising considering the person in charge is less than likeable and its just the one set that is used.

The cliffhanger is rather good with the Sea Devils coming out of the sea. I am happy that the cliffhangers are just as good as the episodes after being worried in recent episodes that the cliffhangers have been rather weak, its good that there seems to have been some though put into them. After three episodes, its clear that this story is the best of the season so far and whilst that might be damning with faint praise it’s the truth and I think that the second half is going to be just as good as the first half.