Before watching the opening episodes of The War Between The Land And The Sea (reviewed tomorrow) I decided to watch the new re-edited omnibus of The Sea Devils. I must admit I almost didn't bother as the complete story is already available on Blu-ray, and the Season 9 box set includes an existing omnibus put together by the original production team.
There was also the issue of the two previous re-edits from the current team which certainly had their faults.
The Daleks and The War Games had as their main selling point the fact that these were 1960's monochrome stories which were going to be colourised. That process, for me, was successful.
The Hartnell story had its padding, an extra episode having been requested after Terry Nation came up with a 6-parter, so there were obvious edits that could be made.
The Troughton story was a lengthy 10 episodes in duration, and the editing was much more of a hack job in the middle instalments. The cuts and jumps really jarred.
A problem across both stories was the soundtrack. There was some wholly inappropriate and intrusive music slapped over sections of The Daleks - the escape sequence stands out - whilst bits of Nu-Who music were used on The War Games, where more era specific music would have fitted much better. Using the Saxon Master theme for the War Chief also went against what the co-creator of both characters intended.
The Sea Devils obviously doesn't need to be colourised, so this was all going about the edit and the soundtrack.
I'm pleased to say that this was a much more successful project.
The cuts made were the right ones in my view, so that all the main narrative beats were present and the story flowed. There were only a couple of new bits of filming edited in - a drone shot of the sea fort and a new initial view of the Master's prison at the start. The opening titles were omitted, to closer match those of the new spin-off. When the Doctor tells Jo about his encounter with the Silurians we get some flashback clips from the Season 7 story.
Some of the cuts are achieved by having dialogue continue over the next scene. The stuff in the prison is where most of the cuts seem to have been made. What we still get are all of Pertwee's more humorous moments, and anyone coming new to this would be encouraged to check out more of the Third Doctor's adventures. The main action sequences and iconic imagery, such as the Sea Devils rising from the waves, were there. Also nice to see the Clangers sequence retained. Unnecessary to the plot but a lovely character moment for the Master and illustrative of Trenchard's unimaginative nature.
There is new music, but fortunately Mark Ayres has been confined to general remastering and kept well away from this aspect of the new edit. Apparently some original unused cues from Malcolm Clarke were employed, along with new themes from another composer which were more mood pieces, and so nowhere near as intrusive and jarring.
If you want to revisit The Sea Devils but don't have the time or inclination to watch the complete six episodes, then this is a perfectly fine alternative.
I'm going to assume it won't warrant a release on its own, but may be an extra on the spin-off Blu-ray when it arrives in the New Year.
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