The Doctor Who serial today is the 3rd of the 9th series which still stars Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. Katy Manning is Jo Grant the current companion. The Sea Devils is the 62nd serial in the series and the first of the 6 episodes aired February 26 1972. After being captured at the end of the last series The Master is being kept in an isolated island prison. The Doctor and Jo Grant come to visit. Everything seems fine but secretly The Master has the warden under his control. Down the coast the navy is perplexed by the recent sinking of three ships in a short time, all right on the same spot. The ships are being sunk by the undersea version of the Silurians. They have turtle like heads and are very tall. They have a secret base under the sea. There are more of them in other locations and The Master has a secret plan to revive them. He wants to stir up the Sea Devils and cause a war with the humans. What a dick that guy is, huh. If only the Doc wasn't so nice, he should have put The Master to death.
That round thing in the sea is one of those old forts from the 1860's. It's near Portsmouth and since a lot of the show was shot there they used the fort for part of the shoot. The Master isn't being held there but the Sea Devil's have a hideout below. A couple of men are stationed on the fort. One of them is killed by the Sea Devils and the other is having hysterics when the Doctor and Jo find him. The Master escapes his prison and everyone runs around for a while. People get captured, escape or get rescued. While he's in The Master's clutches the Doctor helps the Master with his Sea Devil reviving project but his real intentions are sabotage. Eventually the Sea Devil's base is blown up. The Master escapes in a hovercraft. It was an ok story but nothing special. At least they aren't having The Master on the show all the time. I did get tired of him quickly.
There's a good bit of stuff shot with the Royal Navy giving the show a nice bit of production value for next to no cash. They use that Royal Navy hovercraft a lot. The sailor's were right pleased to appear in the show, especially those that got to fall on Katy Manning while they were in that hovercraft. Some of the sailor's comment on the program's visit to the base in the making of featurette. One of the extras is a short bit of colour 8 mm film with Jon Pertwee talking to a couple of sailors. The camera man was noticed in a still and someone put ads in the newspaper asking if that guy still had the film. He did and we can see it now. Nice, huh. Someone tells of Jon going out with several of the sailor's one night and getting to bed at dawn with a new tattoo. What a guy that Jon is, he's still my favorite Doctor.
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