Bring back The Sea Devils
Guest contributor Simon Roberts wants to see the return of the Silurians’ aquatic cousins.
The Sea Devils. One of the most famous monsters from the Jon Pertwee era, and a great foe in the Peter Davison story “Warriors of the Deep,” alongside the Silurians. I watched, both, “The Sea Devils” and “Warriors of the Deep” as a child and they truly terrified me, but I’ve always had a place for them in my heart ever since.
1972’s “The Sea Devils” introduced us to a villain unlike any other (Well, apart from their cousins, the Silurians), with their reptilian humanoid appearance, and their terrifying heat ray. So far in New Who, we’ve seen two major appearance’s from their cousins, The Silurians, so a lot of Whovians, like me, have been left wondering, “Why can’t they bring back the Sea Devils too?”
As mentioned, the Sea Devils have made more than one appearance, their second being in “Warriors of the Deep” where they were a bit more hostile than last time…. But it would be unfair to call them totally “hostile”, as they have the same intentions as the Silurians. They want to take their Earth back, and have tried to do so in both of their stories, unsuccessfully. To the Silurians, however, they were merely foot soldiers. So the perhaps, Silurians could launch a full on attack on earth in a future episode, assembling an army of Sea Devils to help them.
You may be wondering why they need to return, and what’s so remarkable about this one enemy, compared to hundreds of other classics?
For one the Sea Devils still have many mysteries surrounding them. Their real name is yet to actually be revealed, as it is only humans who dubbed them “Sea Devils”. As seen in “The Hungry Earth”, there are hundreds of Silurian colonies underground, so there are likely Sea Devil colonies under the sea waiting in deep hibernation. All it would take is one oil rig digging too deep to wake up one of the many caves hiding them…
Then we come to the actual design of the Sea Devil. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest ever made in Doctor Who, with their reptile scaly skin, their armour/webbing and their weapons. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to bring them back into New Who without changing them a little bit. It was a very detailed costume, and it would probably cost the BBC quite a bit of the budget to update. The Silurian redesign received mixed reactions, but with a foe like this, you’d have to completely ruin the design for us to hate them. They need to look reptilian for us to believe they are “Sea Devils”. The unique design would be surely be a hit with every “type” of viewer.
Their voice is how you would expect a reptile to sound (if they could speak!) with a rough, quiet whisper. This would also change in New Who, as the Silurian voices have changed. Also, we must not forget the Silurians’ “pet,” the Mykra, which is seen in “Warriors of the Deep”. It hasn’t appeared in revived Who yet, so perhaps the Sea Devils have one of their own, or maybe they’ve got one guarding their colony. There are so many different possibilities!
My speculated episode scenario would start out to the sea, possibly in an underwater cave, where the Sea Devils could be hiding. They would once again try to take back the Earth with more conflict and hostility, given what happened to them before. I think I speak for most Whovians when I say that that sounds like a whopper of an episode.
In short, if the Sea Devils were to return, then their appearance would most likely be a welcomed one. On the other hand, they could just feature in an episode as a cameo, perhaps when the Silurians (New Who) wake from their thousand year sleep, they could wake up their aquatic cousins, and inform them that they have no need to be hostile. Maybe Jenna-Louise Coleman could have an encounter with these underwater menaces; perhaps we could see an appearance in the 50th anniversary (Along with many other villains, of course). Whatever happens, I would welcome the Sea Devils back with open arms, and I’m sure a lot of Whovians would too.
