Fury from the Deep

“She can’t scream, sir.” 

Le pouls d’algues monstrueux hante une histoire somme toute très simple. 

Ici la mer est en effet vraiment effrayante, et quand elle se retourne contre l’Homme c’est presque très lovecraftien. Mais si l’histoire est quand même trop lente elle arrive à être malgré tout très envoûtante, et elle accumule des scènes souvent assez glaçantes.  

Victoria en plus donne tout son coeur à Fury from the Deep.  

Elle a toujours été un peu trop la demoiselle en détresse. Mais sa vulnérabilité marche de fou ici, et elle apporte énormément d’humanité au récit.  

While I somewhat enjoy it, I think that Inferno is a better version of this idea. It does have a rather slow pace. While the threat is ever present, it does take a long while for anything to happen.

I think my overriding memory of this story will always be the sheer creepiness of Mr Quill and Mr Oak. Even with only the brief Australian censorship cuttings available, they are very effective! They are very well spoken, they manage to talk simultaneously in a theatrical and clinical way. This is a story I would treasure if it came back.

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver for the first time when investigating the gas pipe at the beginning of the episode. It was heartening to see it actually being used to unscrew screws. There is indeed something to investigate - The Doctor detects a creature in the pipeline. We meet a ruthless drilling company and the man in charge will not stop drilling for anything, ignoring The Doctor's worries. Classic.

A side note. We have living seaweed breaking its way through the pipes multiplying and spreading a horrifying sickness which controls people. But once again; it looks like foaming washing up liquid, like the fungus in The Web of Fear - why?!

The overall feel of this story is very dark; its quite a brutal and scary story (which I enjoyed I should add). For example, we have an employee of the gas company whose wife is seriously ill who has to fight to leave work... this wife then goes on to walk into the sea and appear to drown herself. Meanwhile our friend Victoria is making it clear that she is not enjoying her time in the TARDIS she "just wants some peace and quiet". So much so that she would rather stay in a future time she has nothing in common with than go home, citing her lack of living family in her own time as a disincentive to go back. I hope she enjoys her life with the Harris's. It was a nice touch that Jamie and The Doctor stayed for another day in case she changed her mind. It did feel a tad sudden though and its odd that the Harris's would accept a relative stranger into their home so casually.

There were fun moments to be had too though - great seeing The Doctor fly a helicopter and a swim in the same story. Ha!

Probably the BEST companion exit in the show at this point in time like fully perfect and with a story that compliments it perfectly too

Banger. I have a soft spot for suspenseful horror things, ones that are more creepy than scary, and god this delivers on that front. The heartbeat sound got me every time, the possessed workers were unnerving, and the general dreary atmosphere and setting works perfectly for a story like this. And god that scene where Mrs. Harris walks into the sea is just impeccable. The vibes are great here, and more than enough to carry a six-episode serial.

It's a real shame this serial is part of season 5. I appreciate that it tries to do something new with Victoria, but she's still Victoria, and the whole "weaponized screams" thing almost feels like some sort of satire of the way 60s Who writes female companions. And while it's probably the most successful base-under-siege story for me, it loses its impact a little after a whole season of stories with the same format.

But still, I love this one. I said in my Daleks' Master Plan review that if I could resurrect a single episode it would be episode 12 of that serial – if I could resurrect a whole serial it would be this without a question. The animated reconstruction carries this well enough, and probably improves it in the case of the helicopter scene – but the whole time I was left wondering, wouldn't this story and this audio work better if it wasn't being delivered via clunky puppet animation?

(with all the love to the animation crews of course – I know just how hard they work on these things)