The War Between the Land and the Sea introduces the world to a new generation of Homo Aqua. But these ‘Sea Devils’ have a long history in the worlds of Doctor Who
The War Between the Land and the Sea begins this Sunday, as humanity is confronted by its ancient predecessors Homo Aqua. But the five episode spin-off is far from the creatures first appearance in the Whoniverse.Their first appearance was in 1972’s The Sea Devils, itself back on television this Sunday in a special edition for BBC Four. But they’ve had several clashes with the Doctor since then.
The Sea Devils was a sequel to The Silurians, adding aquatic cousins to the concept in the first of many variant species
That first story was itself a sequel to Doctor Who and the Silurians, two years earlier. That adventure introduced the eponymous Silurians – sentient reptiles who’d inhabited the Earth millions of years before the human race. The ‘Sea Devils’ as terrified local fisherman dubbed them, were the Silurians aquatic cousins. Like the Silurians, they’d gone into hibernation to avoid a planetary disaster millions of years ago, but overslept. Awakening in the present day, they were horrified to discover that the primitive mammals they left behind had evolved into an entire civilization: us.
The Doctor attempts to negotiate a peace between the two species, but the Master deliberately tries to start a war between the land and the sea. Ultimately, the Earth is saved for humanity, and the Sea Devil underwater base destroyed.
You’ll be able to see The Sea Devils for yourself on BBC Four on Sunday the 7th. Starting at 7pm a new 90 minute special edition of the story is the perfect introduction to The War Between the Land and the Sea, starting on BBC One straight afterwards.
Their second television story revealed their conflict with humanity would extend into the future, and only grow more desperate
The creatures return for Warriors of the Deep, this time facing the Fifth Doctor and his friends. They form part of a joint Silurian/Sea Devil attack on an underwater nuclear missile base in the late 21st century. Their new plan is to launch a strike which will force the start of World War Three and end human civilization – leaving the planet theirs once more. Sadly, this time out the aquatic warriors are little more than muscle, with the Silurians definitely in charge. The story does, however, introduce their pet, the Myrka – one of those Doctor Who monsters you really have to see to believe. Half dinosaur, and half pantomime horse, it’s a hilariously lethal killer.
Warriors of the Deep also introduces the slightly odd idea, never mentioned before or since, that the aquatic reptiles are total pacifists. Despite brandishing their distinctive dish like guns, and killing an awful lot of people during the story, supposedly their code of honour means they can only trick humanity into destroying itself rather than wipe them out directly.
The Legend of the Sea Devils was surprisingly loyal to the original look, but jettisoned almost all the traditional social commentary for swashbuckling adventure
The Sea Devils wouldn’t get an onscreen appearance again until the tail end of the Thirteenth Doctor era and The Legend of the Sea Devils. The 2022 special is remarkably faithful to the creatures’ original look, especially compared to the changes made in the 2010 redesign of the Silurians. However, the fact that early drafts featured a completely different underwater civilization is very clear in the final version. Rather than relatively nuanced, by Doctor Who standards, thoughts about conflicting territorial claims, they’re fairly basic baddies here. Their leader Marsissus (Craige Els) is out to conquer the Earth in the 19th century and wipe out the surface world, starting with China. There’s really nothing sympathetic or ambiguous about him. His clan also use technology bordering on magic, well beyond anything we’ve seen previously, and have a leviathan style beast at their command called the Hua-Shen.
Tom Baker and Christopher Eccleston have also attempted to find peace between humans and Sea Devils in audio adventures
Despite having had only three previous television appearances over the course of five decades, the Sea Devils are still one of Doctor Who’s most iconic foes. Clips of them have regularly shown up whenever a montage called for a collection of classic monsters – such as in Frontier in Space, The Eleventh Hour, or The Timeless Children. And they showed up as part of the crowd in 30th Anniversary minisode Dimension in Time too.
Their battle to reclaim the Earth has also spilled over into audio plays and novels several times. In Storm of the Sea Devils, an unscruplous millionaire holds one of their number hostage in his mansion in the swamps near Calcutta. But he’s risking a reprisal he can’t possibly be prepared for, unless the Fourth Doctor, Harry, and Naomi can defuse the situation. Meanwhile, Christopher Eccleston stars in The Seas of Titan. It takes their story into the distant future, where the Sea Devils have fled Earth to establish a hiding place on Saturn’s moon. But when a human colony discovers their presence, there’s nowhere else to run. Once more the Doctor tries desperately to curb the militants on both sides. But can he finally succeed?
A download of The Seas of Titan is even included in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine too!
Kate Lethbridge Stewart’s UNIT team have already battled the Sea Devils once before – in Big Finish’s Tidal Wave
Perhaps most significantly ahead of The War Between the Land and the Sea, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) encounter them in Tidal Wave. As with the new Whoniverse television show, the battle is at a grand, global scale, as the Silurians and Sea Devils seek to topple the entire human world. The Sea Devils of Tidal Wave play a key role in that scheme, but the Doctor’s old companion Jo is able to convince them to call off their attack and wait for calmer heads to prevail.
That story even prefigures The War Between by establishing a new name for the species: the arguably more appropriate Reptilia Sapiens. Though it will be interesting to see if The War Between acknowledges, even vaguely, that Kate has dealt with them before.
The War Between the Land and the Sea promises to be the most epic, ambitious Sea Devil story yet
The War Between the Land and the Sea begins in earnest this weekend, and revives the core themes of the essential Silurian and Sea Devil stories. Both humanity and our predecessors are complicated civilizations, with hawks and doves on the two sides. Even with a world theoretically more than big enough to share, paranoia and territorial instincts threaten to make it impossible. And peacemakers must, ironically, fight to preserve any chance of a future for the Earth.
There’s also an added ecological message this time. After all, resurrecting after aeons to discover not only a new dominant species on land is bad enough. To witness the devastating impact on your ocean home is even worse. No wonder Homo Aqua is ready for war.
Beyond that, the series adds two new variants of Homo Aqua to the Doctor Who universe. One shares the turtle like look of the original, but with a shorter neck, more ripped muscles, extended lateral muscles to aid in swimming, and smaller, blacker eyes. The other, represented by Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Tide (Samuel Oatley) have almost human features. The War Between also follows the lead of the 21st century Silurian stories by depicting them as having technology centuries ahead of present day humans, if not further.
Whatever twists and turns the coming war may bring, it’s going to provide our best look yet, at this fascinating Doctor Who species. It’s one that’s likely to define them for decades to come.
The War Between the Land and the Sea begins with Homo Aqua at 8.30pm on iPlayer and BBC One on the 7th of December
