Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils

"They have established themselves in the sea. Now they plan to emerge and conquer the world."

Writer: Malcolm Hulke 

Format: Novel

Released: October 1974

Series: Target 09

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis 

Whilst visiting the Master, who has been exiled to a luxurious castle prison on a small island, Doctor Who and Jo Grant learn that a number of ships have vanished in the area. Whilst investigating these mysterious disappearances Jo and the Doctor are attacked by a Sea-Devil, one of a submarine colony distantly related to the Silurians. Soon they discover that the Sea-Devils plan to conquer the Earth and enslave humanity, aided and abetted by the Master. What can Doctor Who do to stop them?

Verdict 

Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils was a superb novelisation of the TV story it's based upon! It had been quite a while since I had blogged a Third Doctor story, with The Spear of Destiny being the last, so I made a point of doing a Third Doctor adventure once I'd decided on doing a Target today. After reading, I'm very happy with my choice as it was magnificent. I really like The Sea Devils TV story and Malcolm Hulke did a stellar job of converting that script into prose. The characterisation of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor was particularly impressive. The dialogue was exactly as the third incarnation was and some of the traits appearing, such as Venusian karate, were great. Jo Grant is a wonderful companion but incredibly she's my third favourite companion of this era! I just loved Liz and Sarah. Following The Dæmons, the Master was isolated on a prison island and I loved how through the novelisation we got an extended insight into how that came about. Both the Doctor and the Brigadier had written to the Prime Minister, and the Doctor had even pleaded in a trial to keep the Master alive rather than execute him. The UNIT dating controversy was at large in this story with Jo mentioning something about 1977. It really is all over the place but like the clever references in The Day of the Doctor, we can let it slide. Considering the title, in the novelisation I was surprised to notice how little the Sea-Devils actually featured! This felt definitely more like a story for the Master. But I guess it is testament to the Sea-Devils themselves that they became such an iconic monster. This warranted their TV return in Warriors of the Deep and I was thrilled when they unexpectedly showed up to battle the Eleventh Doctor in The Silurian Gift novel! They really are great monsters. The references to Doctor Who and the Silurians were good and I like how it's implied that they're cousins with those cave monsters. It would make sense seeing as they united in the future. Like the Silurians, they believed the planet was their own. They'd gone into hibernation fearing the Moon was going to collide with Earth, but it just went into orbit so they never awoke, until now. But millions of years had passed and man now ruled Earth. This wouldn't do. The idea of a Chief Sea-Devil was good and I think it's definitely a good idea to have a leader of a villainous species. The Doctor again wanted them to make peace with humanity but it was never going to happen. Surely he'd have learned from the Silurian incident. The Master was fantastic in this story and even in prose, Roger Delgado's incarnation still came across as being my favourite of the Master. It really is difficult to beat the original. Captain Hart was a brilliant character and I liked how he got along with Jo very much. Mr Robbins the boatman was the subject of some quite humorous ongoings at the start of the novel. First he had his boat stolen by the Doctor and then Jo ran off his bicycle! Sadly for him, his boat then got blown up. I don't think he'd be getting that back! I liked the reference to Colony in Space and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that story is novelised after I picked up Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon last week in Cardiff market. Trenchard was a brilliant character and his association with the Master was very interesting. He was supposed to be the Governor of the prison but instead he was in allegiance with the only prisoner! The Master is rather clever like that though. He almost convinced Jo to feel sorry for him, even after all that he'd put her through! The climax was pretty sad for the Doctor as to thwart the Master and to prevent a planetary war, he had to blow up the Sea-Devils and the oil rig. The Master, who later escaped, told the Doctor that he'd committed mass murder and he just couldn't deny it. It was quite a harrowing ending to a superb story! 

Rating: 9/10