Doctor Who: Legend Of The Sea Devils Can Reinvent A Lame Franchise Monster
Doctor Who’s next special, “The Legend of the Sea Devils,” can reinvent one of the franchise’s lamest monsters. Jodie Whittaker’s penultimate story will see the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan attempt to protect a Chinese coastal village from the pirate queen Madame Ching and the ancient Sea Devils that she’s awakened. Ching Shih was a real person, and her appearance continues the Chris Chibnall era’s focus on historical figures and situations that are rarely presented to a mainstream Western audience.
The biggest draw for longtime fans is, of course, the long-awaited return of the Sea Devils to the series. Despite only making two appearances in the classic era, in 1972 and 1984 respectively, the image of these prehistoric amphibians emerging from the sea has become one of the defining cultural memories of 1970s Doctor Who. Following the series’ 20th anniversary in 1983, John Nathan-Turner built on the goodwill and nostalgia for the show’s past by bringing the Sea Devils and their cousins the Silurians back to face Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor. It was an inauspicious return for these iconic creatures, and worse still, introduced one of Doctor Who’s most notoriously bad monsters.
RELATED: Doctor Who's Sea Devils Explained
“Warriors of the Deep” has the dubious honor of being the story that introduced the Myrka to Doctor Who. In theory, the Myrka is a terrifying, genetically modified species of dinosaur that is utilized by the Silurians in times of war. On screen, it looked like two men in a green horse costume. With its high-seas pirate adventure and coastal location, “Legend of the Sea Devils” could finally realize the potential of this much-maligned monster.
Doctor Who’s «Flux» proved that the visual effects have finally caught up
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