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Posted by Peter Nolan

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The Sea Devils wage war upon the land for the first time, in a fresh new version of the 1972 original

The opening salvo of The War Between the Land and the Sea have been fired. But really the conflict began half a century ago when Homo Aqua first stood up out of waves off the Isle of Wight. Back then, of course, humanity knew them as the Sea Devils, debuting in the story of the same name. Even then, of course, the ancient masters of Earth’s seas didn’t call themselves that. It was just a name fearful fishermen gave to the mysterious force sinking their boats.

But even as BBC One’s newest drama reinvents Homo Aqua, so has BBC Four revisited The Sea Devils. It’s the fourth is a series of recent special editions, following The Daleks, The War Games, and Pyramids of Mars. It’s intended to be the perfect way for first time watchers to see where it all began.

Jon Pertwee’s Doctor has never seemed more dynamic, bouncing around the locations in a race to save the world

Editing of the new Sea Devils comes again courtesy of Benjamin Cook. His task is made slightly easier this time, compared to The Daleks and The War Games. For this, only an hour needing trimming from the original’s roughly two and a half hour run time. However, a bigger factor is probably that even by the standards of 1972, The Sea Devils featured many rather leisurely scenes of people entering or leaving various buildings and rooms.

It means the same approach Cook has previously taken works best here. Almost every plot strand remains intact, but small moments are trimmed from almost every scene. In fact, unless you’ve recently watched the ’72 version, you’ll probably struggle to identify most of the specific cuts. You will, however, have the strong sense of it all seeming much more urgent and fast paced than before.

Ironically, if anything it’s a strong contrast to the slow burn of The War Between the Land and the Sea. This version bounces Jon Pertwee’s dapper Doctor around, from island prison, to sea base, to sea fort, to Sea Devil base, with the speed and energy of a pin ball machine. It fits beautifully too with his relentless impatience to keep moving. He simmers dangerously ever time some jobsworth makes him stand still for even two seconds. It also better supports the dynamism of Pertwee’s performance, so often lost in the staging and direction of his era.

The new Sea Devils also tweaks the pacing in highly effective ways for the feature film format

As with the other recent edits, there’s a more modern, cinematic, acceleration of the plot as we speed towards the climax. This smartly adjusts the pace to be more suitable to a single 90 minute move. This does mean some pretty brutal cuts in the last couple of episodes’ worth of material. Fortunately, scenes like a mini-speedboat chase between the Doctor and the Master, are prime material for tightening up.

There are a handful of additions too. These mainly take the form of new establishing shot, including a new opening that echoes the opening shot of Homo Aqua. But there’s also a pleasingly cunning bit of dubbing which now directly reference the new show.

The new team wisely retain the full charm of the original designs and effects

A complete revamp of 1972’s special effects was probably always going to be a challenge facing too far. As a result there’s only the lightest of touches. The Sea Devils themselves were never going to compete with their modern descendants with all their prosthetics and computer generated assistance. Nevertheless, there’s a great deal of charm in the boggle-eyed, flappy footed original. Adding blinking eyes, or more mobile faces, wouldn’t just have been beyond the budget available for a project like this but might have detracted from that charm. Nor do we get any CG Sea Devils doing underwater gymnastics.

There’s some beautiful model work from 1972, too, especially the nuclear submarine that plays such an important role in the action. Here, though, we do get at least one new CG shot as it escapes its underwater cage.

The addition of Lorne Balfe’s War Between themes works surprisingly well, partly due to the eclectic surprises in Malcolm Clark’s original soundtrack

One of the biggest gambles in the new Sea Devils is the decision to include some of Lorne Balfe’s themes from The War Beyond the Land and the Sea. Malcolm Clarke’s original music is certainly distinctive; experimental even. Combining it with Balfe’s more cinematic score was always going to carry a risk of aural whiplash. However, Clarke’s original is already incredibly eclectic – part plaintive electro-warble, part menacing synth hiding in the basement, and part android cat taken by surprise. It all means the rumbling question mark of Balfe’s War Between theme fits right in. It’s just another random piece of this jigsaw of a soundtrack. It also mainly slides in during establishing shots and scene transitions, helping cover where these have been trimmed or combined.

There’s also a more modern business to the background noise in some scenes. These days we trust audiences a bit more not to be distracted by cross talk, so bustling control rooms now feel busier, with the constant hum of communications, rather than extras silently mouthing conversations.

Like a nostalgia powered magic trick, this is The Sea Devils as you remember it, full of fast paced action and moments of charm

For new viewers wanting catch up on where The War Between the Land and the Sea began, the new Sea Devils will likely feels like a brisk, is slightly goofy, runaround. But it’s also a worthy companion piece. Hulke and Davies share many of the same concerns about self-serving government bureaucrats, and the need to find common ground. At their darkest, both dwell too on the casual ease with which people with desks far from the action order the young to their graves.

For older fans, it works a kind of nostalgic magic. In many ways, this is The Sea Devils as you remember it, rather than as it actually was. All those little moments of charm are retained. The Master still whistles at clangers, and violent exercise still makes the Doctor hungry. And, yes, he still takes a light fingered approach to the sandwiches of both friends and foes.

There are also sword fights, boat chases, reversing the neutron flow, and Jo Grant’s escapology training. Things frequently blow up or catch fire and Captain Hart gets to fire a very big gun indeed. But it’s all so tightly paced, moving from suspenseful thriller to action movie, that it thrills the blood as effectively today, as it did for ten year olds back in the day.

The War Between the Land and the Sea continues with The Deep at 8.30pm on iPlayer and BBC One on Sunday the 14th of December

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