One of the more unbearable stories among the already questionable roster of content among Chris Chibnall's time as Doctor Who showrunner.

This might be the worst, most clumsily edited episode of any Doctor Who ever made. Certainly of the new series. Some of the action just looks god awful based on how it was cut together, but my guess is the editors were trying to make a bunch of useless footage come together into something at least a little coherent. It is really hard to get through content edited like this - the scene where the Sea Devil is attacking the Doctor early on feels like it is a few small changes away from being a parody of itself.

Everything is wrong with this production. The writing is awful and outright ahistorical. The way this story ends is the exact kind of writing people have been making fun of around the Chibnall era since the very beginning. Our characters are flat nothings. The writing around Madame Ching is a huge disservice to actual history figure, while the stuff between 13 and Yaz felt completely unearned based on everything that has happened with these two before. It's a shame too because Crystal Yu seemed pretty good as an actor - she is just handed awful, reductive writing that no actor could make something positive out of.

The only thing I like about this episode is the Sea Devils themselves. They are essentially wasted here, but the actual design and look of them is pretty impressive. I know not everyone likes them but I think it is a really cool mix of what the originals looked like with a mix of more modern tech and prosthetics. I was impressed by them more than I wasn't. Still, that is nothing - perhaps even more insulting that they are used so poorly here and the writing leaves so much to be desired. I don't even know what the Sea Devils were up to. The episode was not clear about this, but more significantly, I don't care enough to revisit Legends of the Sea Devils and find out. It was not a pleasant experience the first time and I can't find the motivation to recreate those feelings. This is one of those stories that makes it borderline embarrassing to be a Doctor Who fan.