The Sea Devils - Episode 5

As we approach the final third of the story. I must say that considering it’s a six part story and considering its part of a rather lacklustre season, I don’t think that the story is going to dragging and with the solid cliffhangers I feel like the series has got back on its feet. It doesn’t take long for us to find out what happened to the Doctor and its leads us to the Sea Devils base.

Walker the Parliamentary Private Secretary is introduced into this episode and instantly comes across as your typical civil servant who gets in the way and looks like he is going to ruin everything. It comes at time when Captain Hart has developed. There is nothing good about Walker and I think that this is what Malcolm Hulke was aiming for.

I don’t know why but the design of the sea devils don’t look quite as impressive as they did before. They also sound quite different to how you would expect them to sound. Apart from that its good that we get a good amount of screen time from them and one of their first scenes comes when the Doctor and the Master are trying to convince the sea devils which course of action is right. It’s rather frustrating then that when the Doctor seems to have got the Sea Devils to see sense than Walker orders the firing.

Jon Pertwee puts in a fantastic performance as the Doctor starts off by trying to broker a peace settlement with the Sea Devils and then by the end of the episode has given Walker a stern dressing down. Roger Delgado is also on fine form and spends the entire episode with the sea devils. There is one moment when he’s walking towards the camera delivery a speech and it’s a great moment because it make Delgado look like an important figure and it’s the first time since his debut that this has really been the case. Sadly, Katy Manning doesn’t really do very much in this episode and I think that she’s a victim of time because with the Doctor, the Master, Sea Devils and Walker, the episode doesn’t really allow for Jo Grant to show how good she is.

I’m still impressed with what the Navy were prepared to let the show use and shoot. The footage of the ships firing into the sea looks impressive and helps lend a real sense that this story is suppose to be taking place at sea. Even something as normal as a submarine rising from the sea looks impressive. The only thing that does let the episode down is the cliffhanger which I have to admit is somewhat disappointing because whilst it might be exciting that the Sea Devils have started to invade the navy base, the fact that the last shot is just one of them holding up their gun is somewhat anti-climatic compared to some of the cliffhangers we’ve had in this story. The episode itself is rather good as the some of the scenes are really good and a new character is introduced to help breathe some freshness into proceedings. With one more episode to go I think that this is definelty the best story of the ninth season.