Spoilers Legend of the Sea Devils grade and discussion thread

7-day audience number was 3.47 million. Still the lowest-rated New Who episode ever, but it avoided being the lowest-rated in the show’s 60-year history (that would be part one of Battlefield with 3.1 million, though audience fragmentation in the intervening 30+ years means that 3.1 million would be a much less dire number today than it was back then).

 

So I watched again, and it is better second time through, easier to follow what's going on.

Madam Ching wanted the Keystone to use as treasure to buy her kidnapped crew back. She knew the statue of the Sea Devil had a clue to its whereabouts, so she came there and accidentally set the Sea Devil free. That same Sea Devil had been after the Keystone centuries before to use in its own plans, knew Ji-Hun had it, but Ji-Hun sent it away with his first mate. After putting Ji-Hun in suspended animation, the Sea Devil went after the first mate, but was defeated by an army and trapped in stone by the power of the Keystone. Now that he's released, he summons his Sea Devil crew who have been on board Ji-Hun's old ship working on his plan to mess up the Earth while they waited for him, and they go after the Keystone again. The Sea Devil gets it, but then it's lost when the Doctor implodes all the Sea Devil tech, so Ji-Hun gives Madam Ching some of his old treasure from his own ship to use to buy back her crew instead. Then Ji-Hun sacrifices himself to stop the Sea Devil because he should have died centuries ago anyway, and they all live lesbianly ever after.

There, that's the plot. I just think the writer or the director or both didn't do a very good job of making it clear what the actual plot was. A lot of the explanations rush by in quickly tossed off exposition rather than being made a part of that plot - but at least most of them are actually there, it just takes already having watched it once to pull them out. That shouldn't be necessary, of course, you should be able to understand what's going on on first watch, but I attribute that to the rush job of production.

I think my favourite part of the episode is just Mandip Gill's face acting. She does an amazing job of expressing everything she's feeling about the Doctor with very little help from the dialogue. While the Doctor rabbits on at top speed to avoid anything personal, you can see Yaz's disappointment followed by the long-practiced determination to forge on anyway, that smile plastered on over the pain. But it's done subtly and tastefully, not cartoonishly, and that's nice.

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I really think the show would of been better off doing a special in 2023 for the 60th then going on a long break for a couple of years.

 

I didn't have any problems with following any of that the first time around.

My issues with the episode include that it wasn't that interesting of a story for a Special, the basic science was very wonky, and Ching was severely underutilized.

 

Screw that! I won't be alive in "a couple of years". I'll take new episodes now if you don't mind.

 

Well, the original producer did quit, so something off was happening behind the scenes.

 

Could not disagree more. And he was doing bad before the pandemic.

 

I agree with this guy. Worth a watch.

 

Life's too short to waste time on youtubers who rant about how much they hate my favourite shows.

 

White guys ranting on YouTube are never worth anyone's time. Plus they fill up your feed with more of the same.

Seriously, I accidentally watched two minutes of what turned out to be one of those Comicgate idiots once and for a week I'd have to sweep through and block a load of channels every time I opened YouTube up.

 

My personal version of "This meeting could've been an email" is, "This YouTube video could've been a blog post."

 

I spend time watching Critical Drinker, because I find it interesting seeing where I agree with him, where I don’t, and watching him interact with other YouTubers who I don’t necessarily think *he* even agrees with a lot of the time — in fact sometimes I don’t think he wholly agrees with the things he is saying himself — but it’s an odd exercise in social interaction. It’s a bit like the pub landlord/al Murray, and in both cases these are people who do know their stuff.

 

Which covers 99.9999999% of all fan videos.

The only fan video I've ever found worth watching was one guy carefully breaking down most of the Easter eggs seen in the Loki episode "Journey Into Mystery."

 

Personally I love a good critical YouTube video. The trick is telling them apart from all the bad ones.

 

That's one of the many problems: It's like searching for a needle in a black hole. I ain't got time for that shit.

 

I enjoyed this episode, especially seeing Sea Devils for the first time since Davidson(!). I agree the Pirate Queen was underutilized and the editing was... rushed, at best. But I still had fun.

Agree to disagree here. I have a soft spot for that one: a friend who's no longer with us tried to teach me the Charleston after it.

Yes! I feel bad the writing hasn't been up to her acting. She and her character deserved better.

I have to admit that's a great name!

As for the trailer, I didn't even recognize Tegan. Which bothered me, as I saw all those episodes back in the 80s.

 

Is that due to cable television, carnivals or water parks?

 

If I didn't think it was worthwhile, I wouldn't have posted it.

 

Don't feel bad. I saw Janet Fielding in person in 2020 and still didn't recognize her right away in the trailer!

 

Or even better, a Tweet.

Finally going to get around to watching this episode this afternoon!

There were numerous really weird dropouts. Like the kind of thing you'd get in a show for ad-breaks usually. It made the whole viewing experience really choppy... Sometimes the story hadn't even jumped forward... just same place, music continuing after a brief break... Really strange

Anyway, I thought it was... alright. Just alright. Ticking off time as I have been for the last few years really. I really feel sorry for Jodie who is doing the best she can with the material.

Sea Devils, the penultimate adventure for this Doctor, 19th century pirates and a great big aquatic beastie...

It shouldn't be boring should it? But it was a bit. That's about the worst thing that Doctor Who can be.

It felt really oddly edited and then it just ended... Is it right that this was salvaged from leftover bits of Flux with new scenes written in and filmed or is that just speculation?