17th April, 2022.
Right … It’s a Sunday afternoon: and?
Frankly, that means dinner at my family’s.
Hopefully? I’ll be home in time for Legend of the Sea Devils: on BBC 1, at 19:10.
This introduction … ? Is to let you know my written review will be up by 18th April, at the very latest!
Right … I possibly need to calm down: I’ve finished watching Legend of the Sea Devils: the most recent episode of Dr Who to be broadcast.
At the risk of posting up minor … um … surprises … ?
Jodie Whittaker’s last, as yet unnamed, outing as the Doctor features Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred: as their respective characters, Tegan and Ace.
Frankly?
I’m looking forward to that!
At any rate, let’s move on …
~≈🐙≈~
Legend of the Sea Devils opens with rain falling on a coastal Chinese village with a carefully guarded statue.
With a father, Ying Wai (David Tse) telling his worried son, Ying Ki (Marlowe Chan-Reeves) that he must do his duty: and protect the statue from the fearsome Madame Ching (Crystal You).
Only to lose his life to Madame Ching’s sword: as she manages to break the statue … and bring a Sea Devil back to life.
Meanwhile … ?
The Doctor, Yaz and a badly dressed Dan have managed to get themselves lost.
Instead of finding themselves on a 21st Century, English, beach?
They’ve arrived in on a Nineteenth Century Chinese one.
One that magnetically grabs the Doctor’s earrings …
And that does weird things to the stones the trio try to skim into the sea.
The stones getting to a certain point, then getting caught in what the Doctor called a kinetic hyper curve*.
However, the noise from a nearby village?
Gets the team heading for trouble.
The Sea Devil with the flying sailing ship … ?
Explains the screaming.
~≈🐙≈~
18th April, 2022.
Now … what did I make of this little lot?
Let’s start with the episode, then move to other things, shall we … ?
I liked Legend of The Sea Devils!
It’s a well written, well acted, story: with Whittaker, Gill and and Bishop all on form.
And a supporting cast — Crystal Yu, Marlowe Chan-Reeves and Craige Els as Madame Ching, Ying Ki and Marsissus, the Sea Devil leader — equally good.
The story itself: a nineteenth century pirate tale with the real world Madame Ching desperately seeking a hidden treasure from the titular monster … that turns out to be under her nose all the time?
And hints — if you’re looking for them — of the deep emotions between Yaz and the Doctor.
The story itself, is very well written: although the part where Yaz and the Doctor travel back to the 1500s to find the treasure felt convoluted to me.
The Sea Devils, themselves?
The thirty-year gap between Warriors of the Deep and Legend of The Sea Devils?
Show you how far effects and costuming have come.
As far as I know? The original Sea Devil costumes were exactly that: costumes. With the head being — effectively — a sort of hat: the head actor playing the sea devil would be in the neck.
This generation of Sea Devils?
I’m not sure: but believe this generation were motion captured performances. Certainly computer generated imagery of some sort.
Which I know will age … but look a lot better than the originals even accounting for the fifty year gap between The Sea Devils and Legend of the Sea Devils.
The eyes were alive!
At any rate?
Legend of The Sea Devils is a good story, well told, with good acting, great effects: and the emotional subtext of a relationship — between the Doctor and Yaz — that’s very subtly done.
Legend of the Sea Devils.★★★☆
~≈🐙≈~
As a final point … ?
Yes: I saw the Coming Soon trailer at the end of this episode. The one that tells us the Doctor is regenerating in what is to be Jodie Whittaker’s last outing as the 13th Doctor.
It will, I think, be a shame to see her go. Her performance has got better: in the same way that Chibnall’s production has improved.
Good luck to her in the next stages of her career: and on for the birth of the child she and her husband are expecting.
But … ?
There are things to be said …
For a start? Fielding and Aldred returning as Tegan and Ace†, two of the more forceful charters of the 1980s? And having seen both actors in action in the Behind the Sofa documentaries?
I can only reiterate what I said at the start: I’m looking forward to this episode.
There’s possibly other things we can speculate on.
I noticed this episode has a lot of romantic interplay between Yaz and the Doctor.
Very subtly done interplay, I should add.
But no actual kissing. I think there are some in the UK who will object to that: however restrained that scene may be.
There’s something else.
I can remember — back when Theresa May was Prime Minister — the PM headed out on a big diplomatic trip to China: and mentioning how Chinese TV companies had bought Doctor Who.
I’m not sure how long the contract was for: but believe that deal may well be up for re-negotiation around now.
Don’t quote me: my memory’s not what it was.
But I think the timing’s about right.
So … ?
Well, Chibnall and company may well want to have a lesbian romance in the show.
Partly because they see this as a good thing, and partly as a nod to incoming Showrunner, Russell T Davies: who managed to successfully introduce a romance into the series.
But? No kissing. No (lesbian) kissing, that could offend that crucial — and well off — Chinese market, in the midst of an episode that seems built for a Chinese audience. Keeping hints of a gay romance to a minimum to keep Chinese censors happy.
That will offend many of us who value freedom of speech, and LGBTQI rights: as did Warner Brother’s decision to edit the recent Fantastic Beasts movie, on its Chinese release.
A similar decision from the BBC — if that’s what this is? — seems par for the course.
After all, the BBC — like all of us — needs the money.
Not offending a customer seems sensible.
There’s less contentious, but more important points: at least to fans.
We don’t know what this next episode will be called: nor when it will be aired.
We still don’t know who’s been cast as the Fourteenth Doctor.
I think we’ll find out, either:
- Before Jodie’s last episode is broadcast.
- Right at the end of Jodie’s last episode, when Thirteen regenerates into Fourteen.
- Or at the start of the next, Russell T. Davis led, episode: after Jodie’s last scene fades to black with her regeneration unfinished.
I’m willing to bet it’ll be one of the last two options.
I don’t know, for sure.
I do know this: it will be one hell of a way to get people watching.
* I hope the production crew re-use ‘kinetic hyper curve.’ It is — as far as I’m concerned — up there with ‘reverse the polarity of the neutron flow,’ as a piece of scientific gobbledygook.
† I’ve been watching and rewatching that trailer. Is it me, or does Sophie Aldred look worryingly confident with that gun … ?
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