Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep (Revisited) Episodes Four, Five and Six

 Episode Four

"Why can't we go anywhere normal, where there's no fighting?"

It's nice how the groundwork is already being laid for Victoria's departure- it's all very '60s, very reserved, but there's some top characterisation in Victor Pemberton's script. But what's different about the animated version is the visuals- the scene in which the Weed gets Van Lutyens is, I very much suspect, far more visually impressive than in the now long-wiped original.

The scenes in the pipe with the Doctor and Jamie more closely mirror the surviving clips, but the tension remains, and the narrative continues to be both masterful and bloody terrifying while balancing plot and character. This is how you do a six parter. The arrival of Megan Jones, the big boss, doesn't waste too much time with tiresome suspiction. And, right on cue, the ending raises the stakes.

Episode Five

"It's beginning to give me the willies..."

The Doctor, with Robson having seemingly broken down, is in charge and finally listened to, while Megan tells the distraught Robson to "pull yourself together". attitudes to mental health in 1968 were, shall we say, not quite the same as nowadays, much like management styles.

However, we soon move to kidnappings, helicopters and the sight of a Weed-infested oil rig that, I suspect, looks far more impressive than it did originally. Similarly impressive looking are the possessed characters, led by Robson, who are part-Weed in a way which surely can't have been done originally.

Episode Six

"You don't want to come with us, do you, Victoria?"

It's all wrapped up, rather quickly, as the Doctor conjures up a Macguffin. Yet is doesn't feel like a cop-out, with the sense of desperation persisting to the end and a real sense of a race against time. The use of Victoria's screams is, of course, very meta, but it's all played in such a way as not to refer to the fourth wall. And, animated, it all looks superb.

And yet a huge amount of screen time is left over for Victoria's departure. It's all very stiff-upper-lip, the emotions are repressed, but they're all there, in a slightly Terence Rattigan sort of way. It's nice to see the TARDISeers stay for an evening meal, though, with even Robson being comparatively friendly. So much so that we almost don't stop to question wny the Harrises would adopt a semi-permanent house guest, and extra mouth to feed, without even knowing Victoria that well. 

Overall, though, this is a perfectly crafted animation that confirms Fury from the Deep to be a superbly paced story, utterly terrifying, and with subtly excellent characterisation. It stands revealed as a fascinating artifact, full of anxiety about all this new-fangled North Sea oil, soon to be powering the nation's homes and workplaces and, perhaps, an anxiety about modernity itself.

Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep (Revisited) Episodes One, Two and Three

 I am, of course, quite blatantly blogging it because the lovely Mrs Llamastrangler (with the equally lovely Little Miss Llamastrangler) bought it for me as a Christmas present. So it’s a somewhat out-of-sequence reminder that this blog originally existed so that I (alongside a bunch of other people on Gallifrey Base) could marathon ALL of Doctor Who, which we (and I) did. If you look at the Doctor Who index on this blog, it’s all there. 

However, whenever missing episodes are discovered (hooray) or animated (necessarily much smaller but nevertheless heartfelt cheer), I’ll blog them as I see them. This is a particularly exciting example.

Episode One

"Aye, and it’s always England...”

It’s a facile comment for me to always make in such circumstances, perhaps, but seeing a story animated, and with subtitles, makes it easier to follow, by orders of magnitude, than any recon could possibly be. That makes a huge difference to how I’m following the plot.

There’s another difference, though- this time I’m not watching this story in its chronological place, so I’m not watching my fourth (out of five) base under siege stories, with Robson as the latest (and most unreasonable) unstable base commander. I’m less frustrated this time round that the TARDIS crew so quickly come under suspicion and get locked up immediately, probably because I’m less cynical about seeing this thing all the bloody time. 

Also, the opening scene on the beach is far more fun with moving pictures, a bit of light relief to start off a story without much light in it. And the plot moves rather quickly. Robson is, indeed, unreasonable, but he’s not too far removed from a type of work colleague we’ve all met who insists that his experience is far more valuable than any of the fancy theories of the university educated young. It’s odd to see this type of person in charge, of course.

It’s also odd to see the sonic screwdriver in its first ever use- to unscrew some screws, with absolutely no indication that it does any more than that.

Episode Two

"It’s down there. In the darkness. In the pipeline. Waiting.”

In some ways the animation doesn’t really change things. Robson is perhaps a little more nuanced, but it’s the same story- and Victoria resolving the cliffhanger by screaming can’t just not be metatextual, certainly not in her last story.

But what’s very different is just how like a horror film this is when you have visuals. We can’t say, without the actual footage, whether it was directed that way, to unnerve and frighten us, but the terrifying surviving clip of Oak and Quill with Maggie is certainly like this. And so is the animation, simply suited by the pacing and the weird electronic music. In short, this is the episode where Fury from the Deep starts to get bloody terrifying. The scenes with Maggie, with quite a lot of screen time, have pretty much no other purpose. 

Episode Three 

"I don’t really like being scared out of my wits every second.”

This is an episode where the animation makes it much easier to follow the plot- it’s much easier what happens with Maggie and Robson at the end, for one thing. And all the stuff about Robson’s state of mind and the discontent among his senior staff is much easier to follow. Robson, again, somehow feels much more nuanced. We don’t see anyone other than a ranting, chippy sourpuss who seems frankly unprofessional- but we aren’t seeing him in a “normal” context.

The experiments in the TARDIS are, as I suspected last time round, much better with visuals. And following the plot much more firmly makes it clear how well written this is- a six larger with strong characterisation and that feels pacy, where every scene is justified for reason of either character or plot. And this episode, like the last one, is wonderfully effective at building up the scares.

The Prisoner: Hammer into Anvil

”Each man has his breaking point, you know...”

This is possibly the finest episode yet. A simple plot- Number Six is outraged at the sadistic new Number Two for goading a poor young woman to suicide and slowly destroys him through psychological manipulation- is simple.  But the slow unwinding of Number Two as he descends into paranoia and ruin is masterfully done.

This episode  is, perhaps, a different kind of surreal, all instigated this time by Number Six, listening to the same Georges Bizet record multiple times and making notes, and hiding blank sheets of paper.. McGoohan is brilliant, of course, but so is Patrick Cargill as a confidently sadistic Number Two, an assured and capable man who quotes Goethe and Cervantes in their original German and Castilian yet gradually ends up an absolute wreck.

The episode works because it consists entirely of the unwinding of Number Six’s plan, and the mystery of what he’s up to. It’s the Day of the Jackal of The Prisoner, and it’s a triumph. This is far from a typical episode (does such a thing exist?) but it may be the best yet.

Blood of the Vampire (1958)

"They called me a vampire!"

This film is rather cheeky to bill itself as a vampire film. One has certain expectations from a Jimmy Sangster script; the title certainly implies vampires, and the film starts with some on-screen text strongly implying vampires. Instead we end up with a film about a man framed for murder and sent to a sadistic prison so he can help the mad scientist governor with his blood experiments.So, while not a bad film on its own terms, Blood of the Vampire was very cheekily titled and marketed. Blame the studio, I suppose.

Anyway, this is an interesting little obscure film, featuring a young Barbara Shelley in a prominent role, from about the time when Hammer were resurrecting the horror genre. Yet it doesn't really commit to being a horror film, entertaining though it is as a melodrama. It has its charms, though: Carl, the Igor with the unconvincing rubber eye hanging from its rubber socket; John Le Mesurier in a serious cameo as a judge; an opening bit of text saying it's 1874 yet where dialogue establishes it's 1880 and a tombstone for a recently deceased character proclaims it to be 1892. Is this a record? Also, a major organ in a jar and the look of the Igor character- an influence for the Doctor Who story The Brain of Morbius?

In spite of everything, though, this is not a bad film if you enjoy a good old-fashioned melodrama.

Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep

Part One


"You always seem to land on this planet."

"Aye, and it's always England."


Another Joint Venture recon, and so another BBC globe at the beginning, which is a nice touch. And the last story with all its episodes missing, I'm pleased to say!

So, the TARDIS lands from the sky. I don't think we've ever seen it do that before! And the other first is, of course, the sonic screwdriver, which, er, unscrews a screw with sonics. It may be a nicely understated introduction, but it still gives me a fannish thrill to hear the words. And, of course, it foreshadows the end of the story.

The obligatory tiresome bit where the TARDISeers fall under suspicion is mercifully not dwelt on, but it's immediately apparent that Robson is the most abrasive base commander yet to come under siege. Oh, and there's John Abineri!



Part Two


"There's something active in the pipeline. Down there. In the darkness. Waiting..."


My, Victoria's screaming at the start of this episode is truly magnificent! But things are indeed a bit scary, and the heartbeat in particular helps to make things very atmospheric. Another interesting sound effect is from the main refinery computer, which sounds exactly like WOTAN!

The footage with Oak and Quill is simply incredible, and makes me wonder exactly what visual treats we're missing. With nothing more than good direction and good sound effects, two men just opening their mouths is the single scariest thing yet to be seen in Doctor Who.



Part Three


"Oh, I'm not so sure. I don't really like being scared out of my wits every second."


I love the scene of the TARDISeers all doing chemistry together! It's a shame this doesn't survive- if there's one scene to perfectly illustrate this TARDIS team, this is possibly it.

Meanwhile, the tension is being ratcheted up nicely, and Robson is cracking up believably. It's done with a lightness of touch, but all the guest characters are believable, a testament to Victor Pemberton's writing.

I love the fact that Oak and Quill have their own signature tune! The tune and the pair's appearance together give the oddly sinister impression of an evil Laurel and Hardy.

It's hugely impressive how the build-up to Victoria's departure starts as early as the third episode. And although characterisation from story to story has never quite been the same since the end of Season Two, in the context of recent episodes the idea of Victoria being fed up with being scared is believable.

I wasn't sure what happened with Maggie at the end as my recon didn't make it clear- did she walk into the sea?


Part Four


"We don't know where we're going to land from one place to the next. That's the fun, isn't it."

"Is it?"


The conversations between Jamie and Victoria, and then Victoria and the Doctor, are wonderful, again foreshadowing Victoria's exit but good character development for both her and Jamie. And, of course, from another standpoint the fact that Victoria's so scared means we are too. For all that this excellently atmospheric tale succeeds mainly by atmospheric horror (in fact, this entire story is not really sci-fi at all, but horror), the characterisation is uniformly excellent.



Part Five


"Jamie, we're already in the lion's den..."


It's nice to get an explanation of who Oak and Quill are: the first two people to be taken over. But the explanations we get ion this episode aren't mere exposition- the situation seems all the more hopeless as our heroes have no idea where the Weed's nerve centre is.

I love the scene where Megan Jones confronts Robson- it's a shame she didn't become a therapist as she clearly has talents in that direction "Pull yourself together, man!". I like the character, mind. She's sceptical of the Doctor at first, but not long enough to annoy, and soon proves herself to be a capable, no nonsense leader.

Robson's infected hand looks great, and things are clearly gearing up to a climax as he kidnaps Victoria and steals Victoria. I love the bit where the Doctor talks to him in the helicopter- once again, it's clear that mind control and brainwashing is a particular bugbear of his.


Part Six


"Victoria, I want you to scream!"


The Doctor's confrontation with the weed-controlled Robson at the start drills home once again the Doctor's aversion to mind control. And then we get a very long helicopter scene with no dialogue and lots of screaming, which isn't ideal on audio!

It's a wonderfully postmodern moment when we realise that Victoria's screaming is what will defeat the monster- it's here that I completely fall in love with this script! The weed's defeat is suitably dramatic and scary, but is over with surprisingly early. For good reason, though- what follows is no less good as drama. It's nice that the TARDISeers and their new friends have time for a nice post-victory meal for once, which sounds most convivial and fuelled by good wine. There's a great exchange between Robson and the Doctor: "To think I wanted to keep you locked up, Doctor!" "Lots of people have tried..."

But the icing on the cake is the way Victoria's departure is dealt with- sensitively, not rushed, and surely the best companion departure since Susan. Dammit, I actually cried when Victoria and Jamie hugged for the last time. but it feels realistic that she's have had enough of the constant terror of travelling with the Doctor, and as she says it's appropriate for her to leave at this time period as she wouldn't find things easy as an "odd woman" in Victorian times.


Overall- well, I know I tend to give 5/5s out easily, but I mean them all. But this story really is exceptional, second only to The Massacre for me.