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| Maggie Harris (June Murphy) is menaced by Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill (John Gill and Bill Burridge). |
6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 141 minutes. Written by: Victor Pemberton. Directed by: Hugh David. Produced by: Peter Bryant.
THE PLOT:
The TARDIS materializes near a Euro Sea Gas refinery, where the Doctor and his friends are quickly put under guard as potential saboteurs. All is not well at the refinery, which is steadily losing contact with its drilling rigs, even as the central line feeding gas from the rigs experiences an unexplained drop in output. Robson (Victor Maddern), the man in charge of the station, refuses to shut down the line to check for blockages, and ignores his experts when they advise him to do so.
The Doctor manages to gain the confidence of Robson's second-in-command, scientist Frank Harris (Roy Spencer). Investigating, he and his friends soon discover the cause of the gas drop. There is something in the line: Seaweed. Not normal seaweed, but a sentient life form, with the ability to take over the minds of those it comes in contact with. There are already workers at the refinery under its control - and as they lose communication with the other sea rigs, the Doctor comes to suspect that this malevolent force is preparing for a full-scale invasion!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: The seriousness of the situation is conveyed by the Doctor's own reaction to it. Starting in Episode Three, the Second Doctor's sillier side drops away almost completely, with him intently focused on the problem. At one point, he admits that he does not know how to proceed. Only in Episode Six, after he has figured out the solution, does his accustomed flippancy return.
The Second Doctor may be the most purely kind incarnation. He observes Victoria's growing fear and her exhaustion at being afraid, and he realizes that she wants - maybe even needs - to stop traveling. When she seems reluctant to say so, he gently asks her if she wants to leave them. He also stops Jamie from pressuring her, telling him that Victoria must make that decision for herself. In every respect, he shows an understanding and maturity not always seen in the other incarnations.
Jamie: Remains absolutely protective of Victoria... which doesn't put him above teasing her. Before the story proper starts, Episode One features a wonderful family moment as the three play in the snow-like foam. As Victoria laughs at the Doctor's and Jamie's antics, the two exchange a glance, then pick her up and deposit her bodily into the substance. In Episode Three, as Jamie carefully bags a sample of seaweed for the Doctor, he pauses to tease Victoria with it, shaking the bag to create the illusion of movement. When Victoria begins to give voice to her fear and doubts, Jamie doesn't seem to truly comprehend - likely in part because he doesn't want to. Still, when she decides to leave, he is respectful of her decision, only showing his true level of upset once he is alone with the Doctor.
Victoria: Gets the best companion exit since Susan's. Victoria loves the Doctor and Jamie - they're her family, and potentially something more than that in Jamie's case. But being constantly under threat by monsters (who have a knack of regularly kidnapping her) has worn her down. The first two episodes see her behaving more or less as she normally does. But as the tension increases, she displays increasing unhappiness. "Every time we go anywhere, something awful happens!" she cries. "Why can't we go anywhere pleasant?" Deborah Watling's performance is her best of the series, and her entire farewell arc is startlingly well-scripted.
Robson/Harris: Somewhat reminiscent of The Ice Warriors, in that the two of them together would make for an ideal leader. Robson is mule-headed in his refusal to listen to anyone who contradicts him, but he does know his job - and the script wisely allows him to show it at one point, when he succeeds in preventing a gas explosion that others are certain will occur. Harris doesn't ignore inconvenient facts the way Robson does; but when he's actually put in charge in the later episodes, he lacks the ability to act decisively, with the Doctor and official Megan Jones (Margaret John) having to repeatedly talk him out of simply evacuating and leaving the refinery to the seaweed.
Oak and Quill: Seaweed can't convey the personality, or malice, of a human villain. That's where the seaweed-controlled Oak and Quill come in. Bill Burridge and John Gill make an intensely creepy pair; the old Tom Baker-narrated audio compared them to "Laurel and Hardy," but their presence is far too malevolent for that. The clip of the pair subduing Harris's wife, Maggie (June Murphy), still exists - ironically saved from oblivion by virtue of being cut by Australian censors. It's easy to see why the scene was snipped. The imagery evokes a sexual assault, from the way the two grin at their victim through to the close-ups of their opening mouths and the cutaways to Maggie's reactions as she struggles and collapses. I'd rank it as easily the most disturbing scene of Classic Who - and it would give much of the New Series a run for its money, too!
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| Victoria is attacked by seaweed in the animated version! |
THOUGHTS:
"Doctor Who Versus the Killer Seeweed!" By all rights, this story should be either laughable, or tedious, or both. It's yet another base-under-siege story from a season that's arguably delivered a couple too many of them. It replicates the formula of the pig-headed base commander who refuses to listen to his advisors. The monster is seaweed. The way it's defeated... Well, I won't spoil it, but if I were to write it here it would sound silly on the face of it.
Fury from the Deep doesn't overcome these issues; rather, it transforms them into integral parts of the whole. Victor Pemberton's scripts weave each of these potentially silly components into a slow starting but steadily building thriller. The atmosphere is strong throughout, and comes through (and in places, is likely enhanced) in the animation as well. The entire serial is carefully structured, with elements that play major roles in the final two episodes carefully planted in the first two parts. Even the cliffhangers add to the atmosphere, with Episode Three's quietly eerie ending, as a possessed character walks out to sea, leaving viewers on a disquieting note.
Sadly, this is another missing story. Even in audio-only form, I found it to be one of Troughton's best, and it has long ranked near the top of my "Most Wished For" returns list. Well, it hasn't been found... But it has been animated, and quite well too. I'm happy that this story was held back until the animation team had time to hone their craft, because this is by far the best missing story animation to date. The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones were effectively brought to life, but both stories had occasional moments that looked stiff or awkward. Those moments are all but nonexistent here. The animation team clearly realized that this story's effectiveness came from its atmosphere, making choices at every turn to build and enhance the sense of eeriness. Skewed camera angles, careful intercutting between events and pulsating bits of seaweed, and (in the color version) use of green hues all make this Earthbound tale feel decidedly otherworldly.
The battle with the seaweed ends with almost ten minutes left in the story. This allows multiple scenes to focus on Victoria's exit. Classic Doctor Who rarely focused on emotional exits; really, only Susan's, Victoria's, and Jo's spring to mind as receiving this level of focus. By reserving more than a third of the final episode to the departure, as well as building it throughout the preceding episodes, Fury from the Deep manages a strong, emotional finale, with the Doctor's and Jamie's final exchange closing it out perfectly.
Overall Rating: 10/10. I've changed my mind. The Power of the Daleks remains exceptional... But I would rank this as Troughton's finest story.
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