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Doctor Who: "The Sea Devils" Re-Edit Still Clunky, Old-School Effort

Doctor Who: The Sea Devils mercifully cuts the original six-part serial down to a more bearable 90 minutes, but still can't escape the original flaws.

Published Tue, 09 Dec 2025 07:37:03 -0600

by Adi Tantimedh

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Article Summary

The Sea Devils classic Doctor Who serial is trimmed to 90 minutes but still feels slow and clunky.
Iconic elements return: The Master, Jo Grant, sonic screwdriver, and the classic "reversed polarity" line.
The Sea Devils are more goofy than menacing, making them less memorable villains compared to Daleks or Cybermen.
The re-edit hints at the "The War Between the Land and the Sea" spinoff and spotlights the show's evolution.

This year's classic re-edit of Doctor Who is a condensed version of "The Sea Devils," originally spanning six half-hour episodes, condensed into a single 90-minute feature to introduce new viewers to the cult monsters. We say "cult" because they're not as high profile as the Daleks or the Cybermen, but somehow they have their fans. They haven't been as prolific as the other baddies, appearing only once in the 1970s in their introduction, once in the 1980s, then once in 2022 in a Doctor special. The new re-edit of the first story is, in its way, everything Doctor Who has been known for being, both good and bad.

Doctor Who: The Sea Devils is Clunky and Old School Even After Edit — BBC

"The Sea Devils" is a more focused version of the original serial. Even at 90 minutes, it's slow, clunky, and tedious, especially the first half, which spends 45 minutes seeing The Doctor argue with the military officer who doesn't believe there are aliens or monsters causing havoc. He and his companion spend a lot of that time running to and from the exact locations, either looking for someone or something, or running from either soldiers or monsters. It takes forever for the Sea Devils to appear, even in this shorter version, and then, at first, only one is driven off by the Doctor after it kills a few people. It's 1970s BBC TV pacing, even with the filler and transitional scenes cut out to bring it down to a faster 90 minutes. Most of the budget was spent on the locations, and the story was also an exercise in showcasing the Royal Navy's equipment to attract boys to join up.

All of Doctor Who in 90 Minutes

Despite the drawbacks, there's still some fun. It's a quintessential Doctor Who episode with everything viewers can expect from the show: There's The Master, and Roger Delgado is surprisingly debonair, the most sauve of them all. He's not a moustache-twirling villain but surprisingly elegant. Delgardo's off-screen friendship and rapport with Jon Pertwee make their scenes together pop, including a swordfight that feels like it's there just because they thought it would be cool. Jo Grant (Katy Manning) is also a quintessential character who has a default dialogue of "Oh no! What do we do now, Doctor!" She has to endure a lot of casual sexism, including from The Doctor, who interrupts her so he can mansplain to the room. However, Jo does a lot of the running around and gathering information and also gets to fight off any guards that try to manhandle her. There's the creative use of the sonic screwdriver to sell toys. There's the Doctor making speeches about peaceful co-existence while warmongering civil servants want to blow everyone up. Then there's the immortal line "reversed the polarity of the neutron flow", which Pertwee liked so much he got the writers to insert as much as possible. That line hasn't been included in the modern revival of the series so far. The Sea Devil commander also foretells "the war between the land and the sea" for the first time here in a new line written for this re-edit to set up the upcoming spinoff.

The Sea Devils Were Derpy

I know the Sea Devils have their fans, but I was never one of them. They always looked derpy. Their big googly eyes and awkward stumbling made them look goofy more than menacing, no matter how many necks they snapped or people they shot with laser weapons. They were always a bit too reasonable to be scary, unlike the Daleks or the Cybermen. They were villains who were driven to it by humans.

Out of all the re-edited, remastered stories, "The Sea Devils" has been the least different. It doesn't feel much different from any other 1970s Doctor Who, and for those accustomed to modern-day pacing, it is mercifully shorter. However, it's here to set up The War Between the Land and the Sea, which will demonstrate how much storytelling has evolved since the 1970s. Then we'll find out if the spinoff was worth it in favour of a fuller season of Doctor Who in the Disney deal.