Before Watching
I know : -
a) that this is another companion’s
departure story. Victoria will be staying behind at the end of this one. I’m
not really sure why, but I am sure that all will be revealed as the story
develops.
b) this is a story about foam and giant
seaweed.
That’s about it as regards what I know
about the story. Well, apart from the fact that it’s another story for which no
episodes exist. We’ve just had that nice run of all of “The Enemy of the
World”, and most of “The Web of Fear”, with only one Web recon to put up with,
but I’m afraid that they’re back with a vengeance for the next week or two.
Only one episode exists of the final story of season 5 –“ The Wheel in Space”.
I probably shouldn’t be looking so far forward now, but after this we’re
definitely on the home stretch in Season 6, where only one story – “The Space
Pirates” – is completely recon, and no less than 4 stories are complete. Well,
that’s to come. Meanwhile, on with “Fury from the Deep”.
After Watching
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s version of
the hard boiled commander who is cracking up will be played by Victor Maddern
and called Robson – not Hobson, but Robson. The base under siege will be played
by an offshore drilling complex, and the alien nasties will be played by some
foam producing giant seaweed. Alright, it’s easy to say that this story is
returning to season five’s preferred format, but I don’t want to give you the
impression that this story is without merit.
Things that make “Fury from the Deep” memorable
I’m not the first and I certainly won’t be
the last to note that this is the first story in which the sonic screwdriver
makes its appearance. In this story a screwdriver, really, is all that it is –
but it’s powers will increase exponentially as time goes by throughout classic
Doctor Who, until Eric Saward has a terileptil to stamp on it in “The
Visitation”- possibly for one of the same reasons why K9 was discarded – he
just ended up making life too easy for the Doctor.
The foamy seaweed monster. It doesn’t
matter how hard you try, a man in a suit will almost always look like a man in
a suit. Psychotic vegetation usually plays well in science fiction television
and films – think Day of the Triffids and the Tom Baker story “The Seeds of
Doom” to name but two. We’ve only got photographs – and a few snatched seconds
of live action from the last episode to go on – but this was a pretty effective
monster. I’ll say more about Mr. Oak and Mr. Quills a little later, but I also
thought the way that some of the guests acted out possession by the creatures
was really very effectively done. Robson, Victor Maddern’s character, was such
a complete contrast under possession compared with what he was like before.
Under the influence of the aliens, he is unnaturally quiet and calm, and all
the more frightening because of it.
The build up to Victoria’s departure. Maybe this is just me, but I thought that this
whole build up to Victoria’s tearful farewell was really well handled. It made
me think about Victoria as a character in her own right, than as just another
in a line of female assistants. After all, it’s really not that long ago – 6
stories to be precise, that she had to join the crew because of the death of
her father on Skaro, saving the Doctor. I thought that there was more than a
trace of guilt as well as compassion that led to the Doctor taking her on
board, and there’s an underplayed conflict going on between the two of them
throughout this story. Victoria, it seems, has come to the end of her tether
with the constant moving around, and the constant threats to life and limb. As
far as the Doctor is concerned, that’s what makes life so interesting. So while
it might have been nice to see Victoria elucidate a little more her statement
that she couldn’t face going back to Victorian times – why ever not? – it was
still well done the tender way that the Doctor accepted Victoria’s misgivings
about leaving with him and Jamie, and gave her the time and space to make up
her mind. There is also maybe just a little hint that she and Jamie might have
become a little more than travelling companions if she’d stayed. He wants the
Doctor to stop her from going, and she tearfully forces him to promise that he
won’t leave without saying goodbye.
What might well be the show’s first great guest star double act. Double acts like Jago and Lightfoot in
“The Talons of Weng Chiang”, Garon and Unstoffe in “The Ribos Operation” and
Glitz and Dibber in “The Trial of a Time Lord” are seen as being very much a
hallmark of the late great Robert Holmes, and indeed they were. However here we
have the first example of one, and it’s a season before Holmes’ first scripts
for the show. Oak and Quills are two technicians who are caught in the foam and
taken over by the foam. They pose as two unctuous repairmen, and perform a
lovely scene with one of the female characters which starts off in very comedic
vein – in fact they remind me a little of Wint and Kidd from Diamonds are
Forever – but then takes a very dark turn indeed, as the two characters mouths
open what seems to be impossibly widely, and they start spewing gas at her. In
fact, that has to be one of the truly scariest scenes in the 5 seasons I’ve
watched so far.
Some innovative direction. I will come clean and admit that I’ve read Michael Briant’s memoir, which
contains a few pages on the making of “Fury From The Deep” We’re lucky that the
great shot of the TARDIS spinning down into the water still exists, that was a
neat idea. I liked the use of helicopters as well, although it’s difficult to
know just how effective they would be when we only have photographs to go on.
---------------
Well, OK, it’s not perfect. I’m not saying
that this would necessarily have been better as a four parter, but there’s
enough fat on the joint that you could have easily trimmed off one episode and
it would possibly have made the story move more smoothly. Maybe this is just
me, too, but I was a little disappointed that the weed’s purpose and motivation
was simply global conquest. To what end? For what purpose? I mean at least with
the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors, you knew what was driving them onwards. With
the weed – well it just seems that it is doing it because it can, and that’s
never the greatest reason. Likewise, the fact that it turns out to be
susceptible to Victoria’s screams is a bit of a let down –although not
noticeably more than the Cybermen’s susceptibility to radiation/gravity/nail
varnish remover (delete where applicable) or the Ice Warrior’s reaction to
heat. But hey, for atmosphere, and sheer scariness, this scores pretty well,
all things considered.
What Have We Learned?
Life in the TARDIS with the Doctor is not necessarily
always a barrel of laughs.
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