Production Code: LLL
First Transmitted
1 - 26/02/1972 17:50
2 - 04/03/1972 17:50
3 - 11/03/1972 17:50
4 - 18/03/1972 17:50
5 - 25/03/1972 17:45
6 - 01/04/1972 17:50
Plot
The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea.
Investigating, the Doctor learns from Captain Hart, commander of a nearby Naval base, that the sinkings have centred around an abandoned sea fort. He and Jo then visit the fort and are attacked by what one of the men there terms a Sea Devil - an amphibious breed of the prehistoric creatures encountered by the Doctor shortly after his exile to Earth.
The Master, aided by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing equipment from the Naval base in order to build a machine to revive the Sea Devils from hibernation.
The Doctor takes a diving bell down to the Sea Devils' underwater base to try to encourage peace. His efforts are frustrated by a depth charge attack ordered by a pompous politician, Walker, but in the confusion he manages to free a captured submarine and escape back to the surface.
The Sea Devils then capture the Naval base, and the Master has the Doctor taken back to their control centre, where he forces him to help finish the machine. The Doctor sabotages the machine and the two Time Lords escape together just as the base is destroyed in an explosion.
Episode Endings
The Doctor and Jo head for the sea fort to investigate further. Once there, their boat is destroyed, trapping them inside. They hear the shuffling gait and rasping breath of something approaching them down a corridor.
The Doctor returns to the prison to see the Master and walks into his trap. The two Time Lords fight with swords. The Doctor seems to gain the upper hand but, when he turns his back, the Master pulls a knife and throws it straight at him.
With Jo's help, the Doctor escapes from the Master's prison. The two head for the beach, where they find themselves caught between a squad of castle guards, a minefield and a Sea Devil that the Master has summoned from the sea.
The Doctor determines to descend in a diving bell to try to make contact with the reptiles. Jo watches anxiously as the bell is lowered. After a short time contact is lost and it is hauled back up again. Jo looks inside and sees to her horror that the Doctor has gone.
The Master leads an attack by the Sea Devils on the naval base. The Doctor and Jo, on their way with Captain Hart to try to make contact with the reptiles once more, find themselves facing the creatures on the base.
With the Sea Devil base destroyed, the Master contrives to escape in a hovercraft.
Roots
Stingray.
The Kraken Wakes.
Walker quotes the Naional Anthem.
Dialogue Triumphs
The Doctor : [Speaking of the Master.] "He used to be a friend of mine once... a very good friend. In fact, you might almost say we were at school together."
The Doctor : "If Horatio Nelson had been in charge of this operation, I hardly think that he would have waited for official instructions."
Captain Hart : "Yes... a pretty impulsive fellow. If one can believe the history books."
The Doctor : "History books? Captain Hart, Horatio Nelson was a personal friend of mine."
The Doctor : "Why begin a long and bloody war where thousands will be killed on both sides?"
Chief Sea Devil : "We shall destroy man and reclaim the planet."
The Doctor : "Is there nothing I can say to make you reconsider?"
Chief Sea Devil : "Nothing."
The Doctor : "I'm sorry."
Double Entendre
Trenchard : [To Hart] "Time for a quick one?"
Trenchard : [To the Master] "I can't keep it up, you know"
Continuity
The Doctor and the Master were very good friends once: 'In fact, you might almost say we were at school together' [the Academy].
The 'Sea Devils' are never named (the fort survivor rambles on about sea devils). They are marine relatives of the Silurians, which this story makes clear is a misnomer. The Doctor blames their discoverer for this mistake, and calls them Eocenes. Unlike the land-based species, these creatures do not have a biological heat weapon, but instead have hand-held devices. There are colonies of perhaps millions of the creatures throughout the world.
The Master discovered the existence of the Sea Devils in stolen Time Lord files (see Terror of the Autons, 'Colony in Space'). [The Doctor, on the other hand, is unaware of the existence of the 'Silurians'.]
The sonic screwdriver can detect and explode mines. The Doctor is a trained diver and a very accurate blindfold golfer. Jo knows how to operate a hovercraft.
Location
A south coast naval base (HMS Foxglove) and prison and surrounding waters, [Autumn 1971 (Note the Master's reference to colour television. The Clangers episode was first shown six months earlier.)]
Untelevised
The Doctor is a friend of Nelson's.
Trivia
Stuntman Stuart Fell doubles, rather unconvincingly, for Katy Manning in the scene in Episode One where Jo climbs up a ladder to the sea fort.
The Doctor claims that the earlier description of the Earth's one-time reptilian rulers as 'Silurians' was incorrect, and that they should really have been referred to as 'Eocenes'. This piece of dialogue was included by writer Malcolm Hulke in response to claims by one or more viewers that it was impossible in evolutionary terms for the Silurian era to have spawned man-sized reptiles; ironically, however, it is equally unlikely that the Eocene era could have been the origin of such creatures.
This is the last instance of Derek Ware's stunt organisation HAVOC being contracted to perform a story's stunt work.
Myth
The Master watches The Rock Collector episode of Clangers on a television in his prison cell and fails to realise that it is a children's puppet show until this is pointed out to him by Colonel Trenchard. (The Master fully realises the nature of what he is watching. His comment to Trenchard that the Clangers seem to be 'a rather interesting extraterrestrial life-form' is intended to be a joke, and his expression clearly shows his frustration at Trenchard's lack of a sense of humour when he takes it literally.)
Roger Delgado was afraid of the water and it took great courage for him to film the scene in which the Master and the Doctor are rescued from the sea by the Navy. (This was frequently recalled by Jon Pertwee in later interviews, but according to Delgado's widow Kismet it is untrue. Delgado was actually worried about getting his costume wet, as there was no spare available.)
Technobabble
The Doctor reverses the polarity of the neutron flow (the only occasion he does during the Pertwee era).
Goofs
The helicopter sent to rescue the Doctor and Jo changes in mid flight (it begins as a grey Sea King marked SO; in the second shot it has an orange nose and tail stripe and is numbered 56).
Jo leaves her handbag in the prison when rescuing the Doctor, but later regains it.
The rope attached to the life belt point is slack when the Master arrives, despite the fact that the Doctor is descending the cliff on it.
A rack of swords is placed just outside the Master's cell.
The Doctor's diving bell is pulled up so rapidly that he probably would have got the bends if he had been in it.
How did the air sea rescue helicopter get to the sea fort before the Doctor asks for it?
Why is the submarine hi-jacked?
Why don't the Sea Devils attack the escaping submarine?
In episode six, the Doctor's tinkering with the gadget disables the Sea Devils, and the Master just stands there and watches.
Fashion Victim
Jo (and stuntman Terry Walsh) in a white flared trouser suit, which goes well with the red crash helmet when following the Doctor on a motorbike.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Jo Grant - Katy Manning
3rd Officer Jane Blythe - June Murphy
A/B Girton - Rex Rowland
C.P.O. Myers - John Caesar
C.P.O. Smedley - Eric Mason
C.P.O. Summers - Colin Bell
Captain Hart - Edwin Richfield
Castle Guard Barclay - Terry Walsh
Castle Guard Drew - Stanley McGeagh
Castle Guard Wilson - Brian Justice
Chief Sea Devil - Peter Forbes-Robertson
Clark - Declan Mulholland
Commander Ridgeway - Donald Sumpter
Hickman - Hugh Futcher
Ldg. Seaman Lovell - Christopher Wray
Ldg. Telegraphist Bowman - Alec Wallis
Lt. Commander Mitchell - David Griffin
Lt. Commander Watts - Brian Vaughan
Master - Roger Delgado
Radio Operator - Neil Seiler
Rear Admiral - Norman Atkyns
Robbins - Royston Tickner
Sea Devil - Pat Gorman
Trenchard - Clive Morton
Walker - Martin Boddey
Crew
Director - Michael E Briant
The Sea Devils