The War Between the Land and the Sea — Episode 3 “The Deep” — A Review

*Spoilers* 

13th December, 2025: “The Deep”.

An Introduction.

It’s not often I duplicate posts: at least, not often I use the opening of one post as the opening of another.

Except it’s something I did, last week: when writing my introduction to my reviews of the first two episodes.

It’s not often I complain about Apple, either.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m something of a Mac fan: and writing this on a 2024 Mac mini, using macOS Tahoe 26.2, using Safari 26.2 to write this post.

I had problems, after updating to those versions, Thursday: when, after the update, my browser would not stay logged into my usual websites after a restart.

You can read more details, here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256210549

But, after contacting Apple’s Support line?

It seems all I had to do to correct the issue, was to make a small change to Safari’s preferences: turning off the cross-site tracking option in Safari>Settings>Privacy.

That seems to have solved the problem, for now: although I don’t know what long term problems may happen, as a result.

I can only hope those are minimal.

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

Me complaining isn’t why you’re here!

No.

So if you’re a newcomer to Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar, I’ll have to repeat what I’ve said in earlier posts.

Tell you I write the Daily Teaser quiz, about films I’ve seen and TV shows I’m watching.

Whether you’re an old timer, or new to this blog?

I started watching the Dr Who spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, starting with the first episodes, “Homo Aqua”, and “Plastic Apocalypse”, last week.

I’ll be doing the same thing, for episodes three and four, this week: and something very similar for the last episode!

Yes: I’m starting this post early.

But?

It’s Christmas.

And I wanted to have a good bitch!

Let’s get on with the review, shall we … ?

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

14th December, 2025.

Part One.

The Summary.

Episode 3 — “The Deep” — opens with the usual recap of earlier episodes.

Then shifts: to show us Barclay (Russell Tovey) and a group led by General Pierce (Colin McFarlane) heading for HM Naval Blackport.

Once there … ?

Once there, Barclay’s team of diplomats receive a lot of training, lecturing … and physical fitness tests.

It’s only once this is complete that the group are taken to a ship in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean.

A ship that’s home to SU-1: the submersible that will take Barclay’s hodge-podge group to Salt’s people on their own ground.

That group that includes Ravi, a nervous, junior Indian diplomat, and Ted: the only one of the team who’s thought to bring a gift for Aquakind.

Back on the surface … ?

Back on the surface, the extremely worried Kate Lethbridge-Stewart has attanded a high level meeting of the UK’s Cabinet: only to find two things.

That Prime Minister Harry Shaw (Vincent Franklin) has a Cabinet that’s suspiciously war-like.

And that Colonel Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient) is deeply concerned about her.

Kate is both his boss, and lover, and, as far as he’s concerned … ?

Is pushing herself too hard.

The Colonel’s only option … ?

Is to suggest that, while they wait for Barclay’s team to surface, Kate must take some time off.

What neither of them know is what Ted has planned, what the PM is being persuaded of … 

Or quite what that little red dot actually is … 

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

15th December.

Part Two.

Initial Thoughts.

Now … what did I make of “The Deep”?

Of the middle episode of a set of five, one that has a different pace to the first two episodes, and that had me doing a double-take at least once … ?

The double take … was the minor reveal: that there’s one UNIT officer called Captain Gaitz, played by John Addison.

The name’s pronounced ‘gates’, I should add: when the character is first addressed, I misheard the name ‘Captain Gaitz’ as ‘Captain Yates’.

As in Captain Mike Yates, the Classic Dr Who character played by the late Richard Franklin.

I’m glad I turned the subtitles on, I know that.

And I’m wondering two things, as a result.

Was that rhyme a deliberate choice by episode writer, Pete McTighe?

Is there a Sergeant Fenton hanging around?

I have no idea!

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

That’s one thing that caught me.

Another … ?

Was the comparatively slow pace of “The Deep”.

Slow pace?

Yes: “The Deep” has a slower pace the the two earlier episodes.

Or possibly the episode has changed gear, rather than slowed the pace.

Either way I think the reason for it is simple: the nature of Barclay and company’s underwater trip, means the episode is slow … … 

But still well told.

In the few minutes we’re shown of the trip, we’re shown six people trapped in a small space: where every lurch of the ship is magnified, every drip of water a possible disaster … 

And every noise a sign of sudden, implosive, doom.

Yes: it’s a change of gear.

But, yes: it’s one that builds tension.

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

Part Three.

More Thoughts.

There’s other things in the story.

No less of which is the equally tense, surface situation.

This second plot thread shows us the struggles of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.

One?

Is simply the fact she had to lead UNIT’s diplomatic effects: against a government who’s leader seems sympathetic, but who listens more to his paranoid Cabinet,  than he does to Kate.

“Sympathetic”, I hear you ask?

Yes: I’d say sympathetic.

The way Vincent Franklin plays the PM, plays Harry Shaw, seems to be sympathetic to Kate, and UNIT: and least that’s how I judged things.

His face, if not his voice, is telling us Prime Minister Shaw is more sympathetic to her plans than he can say: but, right now … ?

He’s caught between the devils and the deep blue sea: caught between warlike plans on one hand, and economic doom on the other.

On the personal side of Kate’s coins … ?

Is Colonel Ibrahim, her lover and aide de camp.

The relationship is very well played, in “The Deep”.

In one early scene?   We see the Colonel advising Kate, in a way few others could, that she needs rest: Barclay’s negotiations will give her the time to get the sleep she so badly needs

In a latter scene?   We see the effect their relationship is having on Colonel Ibrahim.   As he tells her, himself, he hates having to hide it from others.

That latter note struck a chord with me: as, no doubt it will, others.

I think there’s many of us in ‘forbidden’ relationships — whether those are mixed-race, same-sex or with partners from different religious traditions — who are going to have to hide those relationships from someone … and are going to hate having to do that.

So I’m sympathetic to how the Colonel feels, there.

But I’m also very aware that — in most of the jobs I’ve been in — that relationships between staff, especially a senior manager, and a junior one, are frowned upon: if not contractually forbidden.

They can have positives — morale, productivity, what have you — but also potential downsides.

Harassment claims, disciplinary issues, unfair advantages: the list could go on.

My point … ?

Is simply this: that much of the discussion I’ve seen of The War Between the Land and the Sea tells me it’s a series grounded in the real world.

Showing us a loving relationship where both partners are work mates who know they must be careful, is just one of the roots the show has in the real world.

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

Part Four.

Telegraphed or Otherwise.

There’s other stuff we could discuss.

One thing … ?

Is that relationship between Kate and the Colonel: or, at least, one scene.

The one — early on — where the Colonel is telling Kate to get some rest.

Have you watched much Star Trek?

I have: the various Star Trek series are favourites.

There’s a scene we see at least once in every series of the franchise: where the ship’s doctor — Bones, Beverly Crusher, Dr Culber et al — tells their commanding officer to take a break: or “I’ll declare you unfit for duty!”

I don’t think Dr M’Benga’s done it, yet: but there’s still two series of Strange New Worlds to go.

At any rate: it happens a lot.   On any given Starfleet ship, the Chief Medical Officer can declare the ship’s captain medically unfit, and turf him, temporarily, out of the big chair.

That’s what Colonel Ibrahim was doing: making sure that — for the safety of the ship, of UNIT — the Captain got some rest.

Another thing … ?

Was telescoped from about the eighth minute.

When Barclay notices a box that Ted Campbell is carrying, and when he asks Ted what’s in it, Ted shows him: it’s an ornamental wooden globe of the Earth, that shows both land and sea.

My thought, when I saw it?

Was “I bet you that’s a bomb!”

Lo and behold, at the end of the episode?

The timer on the oh-so-innocent looking globe starts ticking.

Telescoped?   Chekov’s gun, telescoped?

Telegraphed!

I should say so … 

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

Part Five.

What Else?

What else could I tell you … ?

Ted Campbell, the diplomat with the bomb, is played by William Gaminara: who I don’t know much about.

Beyond the fact that Campbell’s accent sounded South African to me: as Gaminara was born in Lusaka, in what’s now Zambia, I’m assuming he’s based the character’s accent on ones he heard as a child.

What else … ?

At the start of “The Deep”, General Pierce leads the training of the diplomatic team: at a fictional base called ‘HM Naval Blackport’.

The picky part of me saw that and thought “Well, that’s wrong!”

Because, unless the base is a UNIT one, it should be named in line with British Royal Navy usage and tradition.

In other words, treated as if it were a Royal Navy ship, and named as HMS Blackwood.   The tradition dates back several centuries, as the base would be of a type known as a ‘stone frigate’.

In other words, a land base where maritime law applies, rather than its land based equivalent.

That’s a picky point.

Another minor point, to go with it … ?

Simply that this week’s episodes started, there was a card to let viewers know there was UHD/4k version of both episodes on the BBC iPlayer.

I wouldn’t’ve minded seeing that: the scenes of the Aqua Assembly looked good in my 2k screen, and must look fantastic in 4k!

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

Part Six.

And Finally?

So, what did I think of “The Deep”?

Of an episode whose smooth, slower, and far more tense, pace?

A pace that gave it no less power than earlier episodes?

Whose two-pronged cliffhanger ending had me on the edge of my seat?

I loved it.

It’s left me wanting to catch the fourth episode as soon as I possibly can!

“The Deep”

★★★★

~≈🧜🏼‍♂️≈~

Part Seven.

Until Next Time.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is where I’m going to leave things.

I will also leave you with my thanks for reading this: or for watching the video version, if that’s what you’ve done.

And tell you I’ll have my reviews of episode 4, “The Witch of the Waterfall”, up by Friday, 19th December.

Before I go, I’ll ask you to subscribe to my YouTube channel, @MrCuddy2977: and follow Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar.

If quizzes are you thing, I’ve published the Daily Teaser quiz for years: and I’m planning more of them, along side more reviews.

Feel free to tip, keep your eyes peeled and I’ll see you next time.