The story begins as a slowly creeping base-soon-to-be-under-siege type story. After that, it turns into a more basic base-under-siege, along with a foreseeable plot and stereotypical characters. It's a very unoriginal plot for Doctor Who, which is a shame. The twist is boring, the stakes don't feel high and everything flows just as it has done in other stories featuring the Silurians.
None of the actors is particularly interesting, with Tom Adams putting in a fairly standard performance as Vorshak. Peter Davison is on form, as is Mark Strickson. Ingrid Pitt is pretty bad in The Time Monster (1971), but she's pretty good here.
The Doctor sides with the Silurians as per usual, while once again having to prove himself to the human crew. It suits the Fifth Doctor as well as the Third before him.
Turlough finally gets something proper to do. He might still be somewhat of a coward but he has his Ian/Ben/Jamie moments here, while Tegan mostly stays attached to the Doctor.
This story immediately introduces the Silurians during its first two minutes, so their return is not a surprise. They are pretty cool here, with updated designs. The Sea Devils also return for the first and only time. And they just kind of hang around while the Silurians (and, ahem, the Myrka) do most of the dirty work
The submarine set looks pretty cool and the brief underwater sequence seems like a big-budget thing on Classic Who. The model work is also fine. The less said about the Myrka the better. The original set was going to be dark and scary, so that would have been nice to see.
Despite a good amount of action spread throughout the last three episodes, in particular, this feels like a slower four-parter of this formula than most similar Troughton stories.
Despite sampling the basic Patrick Troughton era formula, Warriors of the Deep lacks most of the tension and excitement of stories like The Web of Fear or The Tomb of the Cybermen. Forgettable characters, a terrible and overused Myrka and a lack of a compelling and original plot see to that. The rather slow invasion force of the Silurians & the Sea Devils doesn't help very much either. Taking all this into consideration, it's still pretty grim how the serial ends.
Warriors of the Deep is not a successful way to bring back the Siluarians or the Sea Devils. The Silurians wouldn't return until 2010 and the Sea Devils have yet to return on TV.
While this story has its moments, I will most likely not be rewatching this anytime soon.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:
The "When I say run, run. RUN!" quote is taken from the Second Doctor.
The Part One cliffhanger is one of those moments I did not see coming.
This is probably the first time underwater filming has been done for Doctor Who. It's also the first story to be set within a submarine, the second one being Cold War (2013).
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParentSpoilers2020-07-09T05:30:38Z
The story begins as a slowly creeping base-soon-to-be-under-siege type story. After that, it turns into a more basic base-under-siege, along with a foreseeable plot and stereotypical characters. It's a very unoriginal plot for Doctor Who, which is a shame. The twist is boring, the stakes don't feel high and everything flows just as it has done in other stories featuring the Silurians.
None of the actors is particularly interesting, with Tom Adams putting in a fairly standard performance as Vorshak. Peter Davison is on form, as is Mark Strickson. Ingrid Pitt is pretty bad in The Time Monster (1971), but she's pretty good here.
The Doctor sides with the Silurians as per usual, while once again having to prove himself to the human crew. It suits the Fifth Doctor as well as the Third before him.
Turlough finally gets something proper to do. He might still be somewhat of a coward but he has his Ian/Ben/Jamie moments here, while Tegan mostly stays attached to the Doctor.
This story immediately introduces the Silurians during its first two minutes, so their return is not a surprise. They are pretty cool here, with updated designs. The Sea Devils also return for the first and only time. And they just kind of hang around while the Silurians (and, ahem, the Myrka) do most of the dirty work
The submarine set looks pretty cool and the brief underwater sequence seems like a big-budget thing on Classic Who. The model work is also fine. The less said about the Myrka the better. The original set was going to be dark and scary, so that would have been nice to see.
Despite a good amount of action spread throughout the last three episodes, in particular, this feels like a slower four-parter of this formula than most similar Troughton stories.
Despite sampling the basic Patrick Troughton era formula, Warriors of the Deep lacks most of the tension and excitement of stories like The Web of Fear or The Tomb of the Cybermen. Forgettable characters, a terrible and overused Myrka and a lack of a compelling and original plot see to that. The rather slow invasion force of the Silurians & the Sea Devils doesn't help very much either. Taking all this into consideration, it's still pretty grim how the serial ends.
Warriors of the Deep is not a successful way to bring back the Siluarians or the Sea Devils. The Silurians wouldn't return until 2010 and the Sea Devils have yet to return on TV.
While this story has its moments, I will most likely not be rewatching this anytime soon.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:
The "When I say run, run. RUN!" quote is taken from the Second Doctor.
The Part One cliffhanger is one of those moments I did not see coming.
This is probably the first time underwater filming has been done for Doctor Who. It's also the first story to be set within a submarine, the second one being Cold War (2013).
Score: 46/120