(603) Warriors of the Deep - Part 1

This is the first story of the 21^st season and it sees the return of the Silurians and the Sea Devils. After enjoying the 20^th Anniversary story, it was always going to be difficult to keep up the excitement. This is a story that has a lot of problems which I will come to later. Johnny Byrne is the writer of this story and I like Johnny as a writer because he wrote The Keeper of Traken and Arc of Infinity which are sound stories. The Silurians make their first appearance just under two minutes into the episode. It’s surprising that the Silurians are introduced so quickly. Normally when a familiar monster returns it doesn’t happen until the end. Sadly they don’t look as good as they did in Doctor Who and the Silurians. I like the light flashing on their head when they speak but the voice is rather poor.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough spend the first half of the episode trying not to be blown up but once they manage to avoid that they land in the under-sea base. The base itself is one that lends itself to feelings of its time in that there was the threat of war. This is a good idea and its one that Johnny Byrne has used well. Sadly the problem is that it has been filled with people who aren’t particularly believable as under sea personnel. The only person that has any value to them is the late Ingrid Pitt who makes the best of her role by pretending that she’s in some sort of 1970’s Hammer Horror film with that odd accent.

The Sea Devils’ make-over has been more successful because they appear to be a samurai-style costume but I like how they are kneeling on the floor. Whereas the Silurians appeared at the beginning, the Sea Devil’s don’t appear until the end which felt more like a Doctor Who story. It’s clear that the Silurians are the leaders of the story which I cant quite make my mind up  whether this is a good thing or not but I suppose time will tell on that one.

The thing about this episode is that large chunks of it are quite interesting but I feel like there are other things which don’t quite work such as the rather clunky 1980’s style computer graphics and also I think that such people as Maddox just make the sea base seem like its not that important. This might me being too harsh but when Ingrid Pitt isn’t on screen then I don’t really care about the rest of them.

The cliffhanger is rather impressive and one of the better ones for sometime. He is pushed over the railings and Turlough immediately thinks he has drowned. It’s quite a dramatic and unexpected way to end the episode considering it started off quite quiet for the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough. As opening episodes go its not the worst but its not the cracking opener it should be. It seems to me that this will be an average story at best. Maybe when the Silurians and Sea Devils get involved then my opinion of this story might improve but I still think that after The Five Doctors that anything was going to struggle to match it.