Spoilers
Utter sea bilge with a few fun lines (No Ship Sherlock).
How was the lead Sea Devil entombed alive in the giant statue that commemorates a more victorious sea devil marauder?
When did Sea Devils lose this ability to leap/fly like frogs who practice Couching Dragon, Hidden Tiger, Crossword Compiling wildebeest?
The Doctor, Dan and Yass are all experts at skimming pebbles (right into choppy waves)
The build up will they/won’t they romance is flatlined with a standard I don#t like it as I#m immortal and you puny mortals die on me put down and references to the Doctor’s wife, (Which one? River Song, The TARDIS? Susan’s grandmother?
The sea monster – seen a few times and then never again, just written out (like the Kraken in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films)
Really poor CGI and backdrop matte paintings.
The Doctor surprised at a flying pirate ship when she’s seen them in other stories.
Sea Devils looked good but had unworkable mouths so looked like ventriloquists when they spoke.
The Sea Devils (Pertwee story) was the first Who I saw from start to finish and loved it. The Devils were tragic and misunderstood, in a tale with a strong ecology and need for balance themes – here the chief devil was just a nutter after a magic amulet to flood the World with and despite all the run around under the sea and hundreds of years in the past, someone had it stuffed up his vest all along.
The big eclectic sword fight was a masterclass in random editing – The Doctor flat to the deck with a sword crackling millimeters from her face – very next frame – Doctor sliding down the wooden deck rails.
No rescue seen for the kidnapped crew that motivates Madam Ching
Dan somehow knows all about this period of history
Ji-Hun (the best played role in the episode) offers to do the self-sacrifice, and the Doctor makes zero effort to talk him out of it before scarpering for her own life.
The Trailer – A Kitchen sink included finale – Daleks / Cybermen / Kate Stewart / The Master and the nostalgia add on of Ace & Tegan with big guns. (Tegan who left because she was sick of how violent it all got is here cheerfully running riot with firearms)
Not much to redeem from this mess but lovely to have seen it at a major science fiction convention, the 2022 Reclamation Eastercon in London, with hundreds of other fans.
Arthur Chappell
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