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Monday, January 17, 2011

Who Review Round 3: The Sea Devils



Next up is The Sea Devils, featuring the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo Grant.

I've gotta be honest. I love the Third Doctor. He's pompous and well-dressed and utterly ridiculous. This story shows exactly why I love him.

Not because of the story itself- Sea Devils, as a whole, is good but not great. (Typical of a lot of his stories, actually.) It's an interesting meditation on colonialism and exploitation of native cultures, but it doesn't quite go anywhere beyond the same retreads common in sci-fi at the time. (At six episodes, it also drags a bit.) There's also an argument to be made that having to juggle two antagonists- the Sea Devils themselves, and the Master, who was the de facto antagonist for the season- made the plot a little clumsy.

But then, you have scenes like this.



Not only do we have a straight-up sword fight with the Master, the Doctor, clearly with the upper hand here, pauses the duel in the middle to eat a sandwich! His OPPONENT'S sandwich!

I mean. Damn.

THIS is what Third Doctor is all about!

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