The Sea Devils: Episode Four (18 Mar. 1972)

The Sea Devils attack the island prison and rescue the Master, prompting the Doctor to venture underwater to try and contact them.

Director:

Michael E. Briant

Writer:

Malcolm Hulke (by)

Stars:

Jon Pertwee, Roger Delgado, Katy Manning

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Jon Pertwee	...	Doctor Who
Roger Delgado	...	The Master
Katy Manning	...	Jo Grant
Edwin Richfield	...	Captain Hart
Clive Morton	...	Trenchard
Donald Sumpter	...	Commander Ridgeway
David Griffin	...	Lt. Commander Mitchell
June Murphy	...	3rd Officer Jane Blythe
Alec Wallis	...	Ldg. Telegraphist Bowman
Colin Bell	...	C.P.O. Summers
Brian Vaughan	...	Lt. Commander Watts
Stanley McGeagh	...	Castle Guard Drew
Pat Gorman	...	Sea Devil

Storyline

The Sea Devils attack the island prison and rescue the Master, prompting the Doctor to venture underwater to try and contact them.

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Plot Keywords:

master | dandy

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 March 1972 (UK)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

24 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This episode was watched by 7.8 million viewers on its original transmission.

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Crazy Credits

The BBC wish to acknowledge the help given to them by the Royal Navy in the making of this programme

User Reviews

Still enjoying it.

Doctor Who: The Sea Devils: Episode Four starts as the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) & Jo (Katy Manning) manage to escape Colonel Trenchard's (Clive Morton) men, the Master (Roger Delgado) & a Sea Devil by making their escape across a dangerous minefield. Back at HMS Seaspite they inform Captain Hart (Edwin Richfield) about Trenchard, the Master & the Sea Devils. Back at the castle prison the Sea Devils break the Master out & Trenchard is killed in the process. Again the Doctor is sure that answers lie near the sea fort & decides to go back there for another look, this time under the surface...

Episode 12 from season 9 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1972, despite a few script problems I am still enjoying The Sea Devils as a story. Again this episode features my main gripe with the script in that everyone can get from one island to another, from one location to another so quickly. For instance the Doctor tells Captain Hart that he & Jo walked across ten miles of open country to get to the Naval base which in reality would have taken hours. It just seems that character's have no trouble in getting from one isolated point to another in a matter of minutes. However there is still much to enjoy here, the action adventure theme continues with the Sea Devils storming the prison & freeing the Master, the Doctor & Jo escaping across a minefield, some chases, a submarine hijack & some deep sea diving! One slight complaint is that after four episodes totalling over an hour & a half running time the story hasn't progressed that far since it started, basically the Sea Devils want to destroy humanity & the Master is helping them while the Doctor tries to stop them & that's about as far as the story has come. The fact that the Doctor goes back to the sea fort like he did in episode one also smacks of going round in circles a bit.

There's a lot of location film work in The Sea Devils & you can see why it was pretty expensive to produce, there's some stock footage to offset this (the stock footage of the helicopter that rescue the Doctor & Jo from the sea fort in Episode Two don't match, the one that takes off & the one that lands are two completely different helicopters) but otherwise there's plenty of location work. The Sea Devils has been pretty stylishly directed by Michael Briant, the angles & unusual camera positions during the sea fort sequences in particular are very effective as the the build up to the Sea Devils being revealed with quick glimpses of them in the shadows or a shot of a green scaly hand. Because The Sea Devils was expensive Briant decided to cut costs by having the incidental music composed in house by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop rather than an independent composer & the music is very distinctive as it's appears to be a random collection of weird electronic sounds & noises but one can't deny it's often very effective.

The Sea Devils: Episode Four is nothing hugely different from the previous three episodes but it's still a very entertaining adventure story Doctor Who style with some neat monsters.