Ten Thoughts On Doctor Who Special “Legend Of The Sea Devils”

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Doctor Who: Legend Of The Sea Devils has just aired on BBC One and BBC America and is the penultimate episode of Jodie Whittakerruns as The Doctor before the BBC Christmas/New Year’s Centenary Special.

1. More time travel than usual for Doctor Who

This episode breaks one of Doctor Who’s usual time travel rules of traveling to a time and place – but then traveling back in time within it. As Doctor Martha said in Smith and Jones, this must only be used for tricks. It’s a constraint on storytelling more than anything to add drama and avoid simple plot failures. Why bother escaping from anywhere when you can just go back in time and bribe the architect? So arriving in 1807 (which is rarely a good thing) and then going back to 1533 for information feels… naughty. Still, this doctor is running out of time. And what it does is reinforce the idea of the “legend” of anglerfish, they’ve roamed these seas for at least three hundred years and enough time to create their own Flying Dutchman.

2. Dress for the occasion

The doctor doesn’t usually dress for the time or place, but she’s obviously preparing for change. So no suspenders, but earrings. Still, she’s centuries away from where she wanted to be, but definitely where the TARDIS needed her to be. Never off course no matter where the pebbles bounce. and every excuse for Dan to drive the cosplayers insane with ambition.

3. Yaz and the plastic population

This episode carries both budget and COVID restrictions on its sleeve. Empty villages (from the slaughter of Sea Devil), two relatively empty ships, one with an imprisoned crew, the other with one lost at sea. Fewer people, less salaries, fewer costumes, fewer shooting problems under the existing restrictions.

The anglerfish I remember from decades and decades, the aquatic versions of the Silurians destined to be trapped deep below, this one is trapped on the surface. And the effect is weird, a lot of money and time has gone into using CGI to recreate a very dodgy looking prosthetic effect from the seventies, now with better blinking eyes but still a major lack of prehensile mouth. It’s like using a green screen to recreate a chroma key conflict. The Slitheen were more convincing, at least they had moving mouths.

4. No blood shed

For all the swords hurled everywhere, and so many people slaughtered, there is a remarkable lack of blood. That’s what you get with super-tech swords. But it makes for a pretty sugary scene. Well, it’s Easter Sunday. No one is cut in two on screen, any more than they would be nailed to a cross. Obviously, Dan has been working on his swordsman skills, and the Doctor gave us a Geronimo too. It’s been a while…

5. Keep the name

Sea Devils was a particularly cruel name in hindsight. The name used by the ignorant and superstitious is now the name the doctor then gives? No wonder they’re dubbed the Land Parasite, or the slightly less offensive Land Crawler. It was weird then, it’s even weirder now. Especially for a species native to Earth alongside the Silurians long before humans came and ruined everything. So why not “Dea Devil”, it literally adds insult to injury.

6. Pirates of this episode

Madam Ching the Pirate Queen – or Zheng Yi Sao – was as real as they come, actually losing her first husband in 1807, and was a Chinese pirate leader active in the South China Sea from 1801 to 1810, with a reputation as one of the greatest pirates of all times. And it seems to be able to sail a ship single-handedly. Can also hang two adult males with one hand while holding a sword. Or so it seemed, we never actually saw it. She’s never really been seen doing much for someone with such a reputation. Captain Jack Sparrow had to deal with a heart in a box, Madam Ching instead just has an ear in a box.

The Flor de la Mar is also a real Portuguese merchant ship that, while sailing off the coast of Sumatra, got caught in a storm and sank with the greatest treasure ever transported by the Portuguese Armada. It was never found. And now we know why…

7. Empty the seas

Once upon a time, back with Adric, Tegan, and Nyssa, opening the TARDIS doors at the bottom of the Thames would have flooded the TARDIS (and drained the Thames). The times have changed. Everyone’s in a bubble now – that’s part of the problem, of course.

8. Pole dancing with Doctor Who

How big was the threat of flipping the magnetic poles / Would it really have caused global flooding? We’re overdue a flip, but sticks to able to wander around in between. The only change we would notice is our technology which depends on satellites and someone has to push a button. 1807 not that big of a problem. Or 1533. It might be a different story for animals and birds that rely on the magnetic field for navigation, but that’s not the ice caps, is it?

9. It’s not you, it’s the me that I am now

Yaz And The Doctor was pretty much “It’s not you, it’s me” or rather, it’s the doctor she is now. This is a doctor who has had connections – just isn’t looking for one now. With anyone, anywhere, anytime. “Not something I really do. I used to. I did,” although she credits Yaz as “one of the greatest people I know. Including my wife. I was a different man back then,” she is aware that “I can’t fix me, anywhere, anyone. I never could.” Which makes me think – with the Centenary Special teased with Tegan Jovanka, Ace and Katherine Lethbridge-Stewart alongside Daleks, Cybermen and the Master, will there still be room for River Song in the party? But this doctor knows her time is running out…she’s been watching the schedules closely. And the pebble, once thrown, has to stop bouncing at some point. But the Doctor’s companions in the past were closer to pets. Yaz is now more on the Romana, Rose and River scale. As for Dan, it seems like the absence has grown dear to Di…

10. Looking good, Vortex of Time.

While many of the special effects were missing against Ambition, that’s always been a Doctor Who thing. And the creature of the sea would always look better than the Myrka. Imagine if the new crew tried to replicate this version using CGI. And we also have a better view of the Time Vortex than ever before. A huge room with many tunnels pointed to the intermediate world of The Magician’s Nephew.

Doctor Who is broadcast on BBC One and BBC America.

Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devil
In a swashbuckling special adventure, the Doctor, Yaz and Dan meet one of the Doctor’s oldest foes, the sea devils. Why is the legendary pirate queen Madam Ching searching for lost treasure? What terrible forces lurk beneath the 19th century oceans? And did Yaz Dan really have to dress up as a pirate?

The doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Yasmine Khan: Mandip Gil
Dan Lewis: John Bishop
YinKi: Marlowe Chan Reeves
Ms. Ching: Crystal Yu
Chief monkfish: Craige Els
Written by Chris Chibnall and Ella street
Directed by Hao Lu Wang
Executive Producers Matt Strevens, Nikki Wilson, Chris Chibnall