Supposedly an Easter Special, but nothing special about the running time. Legend of the Sea Devils is simply an episode which had been destined for Series 13 before Covid caused a rethink on that and we got Flux instead. As such it's only 50 minutes long - the length of a standard episode these days.
To be honest, I think it needed the extra 10 minutes which specials are usually given. Was this cut to fit the slot I wonder?
The episode was badly paced, and badly edited at times. For instance, parts of the opening segment made no sense at all. Madam Ching arrives at a village in the rain, the skies overcast. We cut to the TARDIS arriving a short distance away in perfect sunshine - close enough to hear the villagers cry out. The Doctor and company rush to the village - where it is still raining and under grey skies.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the Doctor, Yaz and Dan have a net trap. They have not only set this thing up in microseconds, but have also rehearsed its use. It is as though a whole scene has been cut out.
We learn that the plot hangs on the search for the Keystone. I assumed this was the object which came out of the statue, which Ching picked up. Turns out is is something totally different, and that statue object is never referred to again. The actual Keystone just happens to turn up on the person of Yin-Ki - the young man who stumbles into all this after he thinks Ching has killed his father. We only learn he has it late in the day, when the plot needs it to be found. No set up whatsoever.
The last time the Sea Devils were used, continuity to their earlier appearance was ignored. Here we see the Sea Devil leader Marsissus able to leap hundreds of feet into the air. He can also materialise in clouds of green gas like a magician. The Doctor is surprised that they have a ship, when she has previously seen Silurians with submarines and spacecraft - so why wouldn't Sea Devils elect to use a means of transport?
The Sea Devils have a huge sea serpent, which does very little and just vanishes from the plot once its had its scene.
In the past, stories involving Sea Devils and Silurians have featured the Doctor's desire to make peace between them and humans, leading to some sort of co-existence on the Earth. There simply isn't any time to go there this time.
Dan and company see the stars move around in the sky. This is supposed to be to do with the keystone, despite the fact that its hasn't been used yet. And why is the Moon not moving along with the stars?
The ending is terribly rushed, with the Doctor doing something clever with a bit of technology, and a lot of technobabble. Marsissus gets killed out of view.
The Doctor / Yaz potential romance thing gets addressed. Considering that Chibnall never initiated this - it came from fans - we have a case of the tail wagging the dog.
Chibnall should have had the idea himself and threaded it into the three series, but he didn't, so we find it being tacked on much too late in the day. It was never going to go anywhere - these things never can - so I wonder why show-runners continue to bother with them.
There are a couple of pluses. It looked great - hard to believe that the entire story was filmed within the confines of Wales - and the new Sea Devils were impressive. It was nice to see the Doctor actually engage in a fight, even if the defeat of Marsissus was so badly handled.
Such an epic story deserved an epic cast, but this is where Covid got in the way. Madam Ching is apparently sailing her ship on her own as her crew have been kidnapped, and Ji-Hun's crew all get chucked overboard very quickly - so the whole thing looks rather empty.
I read this morning that a mere 2.2 million people watched this on the night. That's abysmal. Even the lowest episode of the classic series (Battlefield Part One) got 3.10 million watching. In the past, bad viewing figures have been excused thanks to the episode still being one of the most watched programmes on the night, but Doctor Who wasn't even in the top ten last night.
If Chibnall wasn't already quitting then I'm sure this would have seen him being shown the door. 90 more minutes and then he's gone.
Marsissus' evil plot makes no sense either. He plans to flip the magnetic poles round so north becomes south, which Marsissus claims will flood all the land on Earth as it will melt the ice caps causing the oceans to rise. Leaving aside the effect this would have on their fellow homo reptilia, the Silurians (who presumably wouldn't be too happy about this, what with them being land dwelling creatures) it is actually nonsense. The poles flip naturally every 100,000 years or so. The oceans have so far remained stubbornly unrisen.
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