Legend of the Sea Devils

I did this review when the episode came out. I have no idea if I still agree with it.

Whilst previous doctors, namely 10 and 11, have had memorial specials with episodes such as waters on mars and day of the doctor, Whittaker, as is it seems to be a general trend with the rest of her era, has had it poorly to no fault of her own. This and Eve of the Daleks feel like filler and I sincerely doubt, apart from the "Thasmin" subplot, these stories will not add up much to the inevitably catastrophic finale. This episode will probably, apart from the very clear production problems, be largely forgotten and overshadowed. If this episode was nothing more, nothing less than just forgettable, then it would warrant a higher rating but this episode is full of baffling inconsistencies which can only be explained by a rushed production trying to meet a deadline. That's not to say its faults are exclusively technical as chibnal poor writing quality is also on display. Its by no means an abomination though but feels very much a product of lack of imagination and doctor who's formulaic nature. One common criticism of the episode is its vfx which I believe are a result of the sea devils and the centenary. The sea devils have to be animated in every shot which is undoubtedly a tedious process which is why they obviously reused some shots. That being said the sea monster fx looks amazing. I wouldn't be surprised though that shot was done by the famous ben pickles who we recently found out was responsible for some of whittaker eras best vfx shots.

Overall its clunky and forgettable and will probably only be remembered for what ever the hell was going on behind the scenes. In that sense it will then share an ironic mirroring of warriors of the deep, which was famed for its difficult production. Hopefully Michael Grade won't pick this episode up out of context and use it to argue for its cancellation.

Oh my God, what an episode! I loved that. So much fun. The Sea Devils have never been better, we got some incredible sword fighting to fit in with the pirate theme, and some great moments between the Doctor and Yaz. And, of course, Dan is hilarious as always!

And the Centenary Special looks bloody incredible . Not only Ace, but Tegan Jovanka too! And Tegan wasn't even rumoured to be returning! I am so hyped for this October.

OKAY OKAY I know that this episode is BAD. the writing, the vfx, its bad!! However!!! This episode is one of my comfort episodes and I remember laughing sososo much when I first watched it, and for that I love it <3

Legend of the sea devils DEFENDER

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.

Hilarious. No, really, it's super f**king funny that this ever got made and broadcast, you can just tell it's a rush job to fit an empty slot and I just love it for that. I can't hate it by any means, it's pretty inoffensive, there's nothing going on that would make it the actual worst of Doctor Who; you'd have to dig pretty deep to justify that, idk. At best it's harmless fun, at worse it's boring.

Great to watch drunk or high. I assume. I've never done that. But you can definitely try.