Directed by Michael E. Briant
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Jo - Katy Manning
The Master - Roger Delgado
Main Guest Cast-
Trenchard - Clive Morton
Captain Hart - Edwin Richfield
Walker - Martin Boddey
Synopsis-
The Doctor and Jo visit the Master, being held at a remote island prison. The governor of the prison, Mr. Trenchard, mentions to The Doctor that several ships have been lost at sea in the nearby waters.
The Doctor chooses to investigate, and discovers that the Sea Devils are responsible for the ship's disappearances. The Sea Devils are cousins to the Silurians, they differ in that the Sea Devils have adapted to life underwater.
It is also discovered that Trenchard has been helping The Master. The Master hopes to contact the Sea Devils in order to make an alliance. The Master will help awaken the Sea Devils, and the Sea Devils will then wage war and destroy mankind.
The Doctor tries to convince the Sea Devils to consider sharing the planet with mankind, but an attack ordered by the minister Walker thwarts The Doctor's negotiations.
The Master forces The Doctor to help him fix the machine that will allow the Sea Devils to awaken from hibernation all over the world. Once the machine is finished, the Sea Devils turn on the Master. The Master and The Doctor make good their escape, and The Master also learns that The Doctor has sabotaged the machine, which blows up and destroys the Sea Devils and their base.
The Master, of course, makes good his escape at the end of the story. And, as one might expect, we shall be seeing The Master again.
Review-
The Master makes his reappearance after being MIA for the first two stories of this season. At least in this particular story, his appearance makes a great deal of sense. After all, since he's being held prisoner by the humans, it seems only likely that The Master might have a group of allies in the Sea Devils.
Trenchard is a dupe, he believes that by helping The Master that he is serving his government. Trenchard believes that spies are responsible for the ship's sinking, and is quite upset when he discovers that it was the Sea Devils that were responsible. The Master, of course, disposes of Trenchard (or rather, has the Sea Devils do the dirty work for him) once Trenchard is no longer useful.
The minister Walker, who arrives to investigate the situation in the latter half of the story proves to be a glutton who has no problem enjoying a full course breakfast while ordering a full-scale attack on the Sea Devil's base. Even worse is his constant ordering of the females of Captain Hart's staff, as if they were waitresses at his beck and call. Walker is simply a ridiculous character, and it hard to take him too seriously.
Watching the Sea Devils, it's hard not to have that feeling of deja vu. The Sea Devils, despite some changes (which include the addition of The Master) is basically The Silurians all over again. I'll admit that the Sea Devils look ten times better than the Silurians from the earlier story. The James Bond influence can clearly be seen with all the various gadgets on display (jet skis, hovercraft, etc.), something that also wasn't included in the original Silurian story either.
As a retelling of the Silurians, the Sea Devils holds up really well. Adding the action sequences kept up the pace of things and kept this story from dragging, always a problem with six-part stories. It isn't anywhere near as good as the previous two stories from this particular series/season, but I'd recommend this over the original Silurian story any day, as it simply the better of the two.
