The End of the War

"All the water of the world will be set free."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 21 December 2025

Series: The War Between the Land and the Sea 1.05

Featuring: Kate, Barclay

Synopsis

Barclay stands alone, Salt is lost, UNIT is powerless, and the oceans rise as the war reaches its climax. While traitors conspire, can Barclay find Salt before it's too late?

Verdict

The End of the War was a bit of a disappointing ending to what has turned out to be a pretty average series of The War Between the Land and the Sea. With a special reedited edition of The Sea Devils and double episodes in the lead up to Christmas, this series had all the ingredients to be really strong but I think it has slightly fell short unfortunately. I do get the feeling that the story is a strong one but it just kind of felt rather rushed into five compact episodes. I mean, we didn't really see much of an actual war between humanity and Aquakind. Sure, we got the dropping of all the plastic in Plastic Apocalypse and we did get some action here with Homo Aqua eating all of the dogs, but the rest has just been diplomacy. I'm very much fine with politics being in play but I think we needed to see more action and conflict. Instead the focus was on the love story between Barclay and Salt which just felt random and got even more so here. I still feel like I'm waiting for an answer as to why they have become so close other than Barclay showing a little compassion when going off script at the early diplomatic meetings. It doesn't make sense to me and makes the intense focus all the more random. The highlight of the episode is undoubtedly Kate Stewart as she copes with losing Colonel Ibrahim and trying to prevent nuclear strikes into the ocean. It's incredible to think that there's even a chance of the nations of the world cooperating if this kind of planetary wide scale problem occurred, let alone them leaving Kate in charge! I did love how she utilised her knowledge from being UNIT's head to get the prescription she required from her therapist. She wouldn't want her marriage broken with her daughter not actually being her husband's! That was sublime. I thought the threat from Aquakind here in wanting to melt the ice caps was fantastic and probably something that should have come earlier in the series. It felt very real and a fine use of their natural habitat of water. The line from Tide about ice just being water in the form of land was fantastic too, but he was killed off far too soon. Barclay falling into the Severance trap was brutal as he thought he had people onside but they just wanted to extract Salt's DNA from him to concoct their virus. I think that could have been made a little clear as to what was actually happening but it was still good, but it just felt incredibly sudden to me. In an instant the virus had wiped out 90% of Aquakind with corpses all over the coastline. It was a brutal image. Salt declaring the war lost and accepting the offer of a protected island perhaps leaves things open for revenge, but the line about them being terrified of humanity hit hard. I much prefer Salt as a diplomat than a love interest! I thought the ending was pretty rubbish in all honesty with Barclay faking his death and getting to run off into the oceans with Salt in full The Shape of Water fashion as he suddenly had gills. I thought that was awful. How can he just run off and leave his daughter behind? That's unfathomable to me. Kate waving them off showed courage after her own lover was killed in the conflict, but the insistence of her telling the jogger to pick up his plastic bottle on the beach was incredibly on the nose. Talk about a political climate message! It was far too on the nose. Overall, some strong bits and Kate was marvellous, but as a whole a disappointing finale. Regardless, I'm glad we got more of the Whoniverse and I hope this isn't the last of the spinoffs! 

Rating: 5/10