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Rating:  -
This box set contains 2 classic 3rd Doctor storys-Doctor Who And The Silurians and The Sea Devils and The not so good 5th Doctor story Warriors of The Deep.
I always loved The Silurian story from Jon Pertwees first season of Doctor Who.Its 7 episode long and it does not bore at all and Jon Pertwee shines in this story. Jon has always been my favorite of all The Doctors.
The Sea Devils is another great story from Jon Pertwees time and it also features The Master played by the excellent Roger Delgado.
Warriors of The Deep is got to be the weakest in this box set.I did not think Warriors was as good as The Silurians and The Sea Devils.But still it has some good moments.Loved the closing line "There Should of Been another way"
All in all a pretty good box set.Hopefull The BBC will do more box sets.Love to have The Espace Trilogy and The Black Gurdian Trilogy on DVD.
Rating:  -
This would be a perfect DVD boxset were it not for the awful Warriors of the Deep. Although my favourite Who stories are mostly on the comedy side of things, I do like the dramatic ones as well, and Silurians highlights everything good about Pertwee's first season.
Individual rankings:
The Silurians- 5 stars
The Sea Devils- 4 stars
Warriors of the Deep- 1 star.
On average is 3.33 stars, hence the rating. The Silurians feels like you've been through a war, roughly three hour epic of a species that came here on the earth first, and now want to claim the earth for themselves. Unlike later stories like Curse of Fenric where they basically hit you over the head with what they want you to believe, this one is more up for debate, and you can basically think what you want to think. And people credit Spearhead with the most iconic Pertwee image of mannequin's coming to life, but the image of people dying from the Silurian virus all over London sticks even more in my mind. It's a disease that is seemingly unstoppable...
The Sea Devils is a good escapist adventure, but it gets knocked down a star for basically being a remake of the same adventure. It's done well, with the Doctor-Master rivalry making for some good moments, and again, it's a good epic that sticks in your mind, but it feels a bit too much like a retread to give it 5 stars.
Warriors of the Deep is just plain annoying. It's one thing to not judge Doctor Who by it's budget limitations, but it's another when the character of the monster is really brought down. The slowed-down speech of the Silurians and the Sea Devils alone grate on the nerves. It takes forever to get into the story, the first episode feeling more like two hours rather than twenty five minutes. Tegan and Turlough may as well be any other companion, and the storyline. Not to mention trying to make the Fifth Doctor way too moralistic with him condenming the human base for trying to destroy the Silurians and Sea Devils (when they've destroyed half their crew) It worked in Silurians and Sea Devils because you could genuinely believe there was a chance to share the earth, but not in this atmosphere. The only thing that serial got right was the classic line "There should've been another way." Too right.
Rating: -
I have been a huge fan of the original Doctor Who series since I was a boy. My local PBS station used to run Doctor Who on Saturday night, and it was a highlight of my boyhood weekends. As a boy, the episodes being released in this set were among my favorites because I loved sea monsters and the Silurians and Sea Devils were great looking creatures.
As an adult, I now have a special appreciation for the unique nature of the Silurians and Sea Devils in the history of Doctor Who creatures. Most of the antagonists that the Doctor encounters in the series are evil aliens and monsters bent on destruction and conquest. But the Silurians and Sea Devils aren't. Instead, they were the original inhabitants of the Earth during pre-historic times, and they want their planet back from the "ape-descended primitives" who now occupy it, i.e. humans. If you see it from their point of view, they just want their home back. The Doctor does see it, and several times seeks to negotiate a peace between them and humanity, pointing out that both species can share the planet since the reptilian Silurians can live in environments that humans avoid.
In "the Silurians", the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) makes his first attempt at negotiated settlement between humanity and the Silurians. But he is thwarted by closed minded individuals among both the Silurians and Humans. In many ways, the humans look more evil than the Silurians in this storyline, although some of the Silurians do take monstrous steps to try to wipe out humanity. In the end, human fear takes advantage of the Doctor's success in countering the destructive plans of the rogue Silurians. The Doctor finds himself disgusted by humanity and even by the actions of his friend, the Brigadier. By the way, for fans of the Brigadier, this story represents some of Nicholas Courtney's best work on the series.
In "the Sea Devils," a cousin species of the Silurians begins to pop up off the coast of Britain and strike out against the humans who once again have invaded their territory. Once again, the Doctor (Pertwee) attempts a negotiated settlement. But this time his plans are thwarted by the Master, who wishes to use the Sea Devils and their superior technology to conquer humanity.
Fast forward in time a decade to the years of Peter Davidson as the Doctor. The Silurians and Sea Devils, together, return in a future Earth time period for the magnificent Doctor Who story "Warriors of the Deep." This time, the Silurians and Sea Devils will not hear the Doctor's entreaties for a negotiated settlement with humanity. Their previous experience with humans has taught them that the human race can not be trusted. They decide they have no alternative but to wipe out humanity once and for all in order to reclaim the world they once called home.
To do so, they assault and take over an undersea missile base to start a nuclear war that will destroy the "ape-primitives" with their own weapons. The Doctor is forced to make a choice-either destroy the Silurians and Sea Devils or let them slaughter all of humanity? In the Doctor's own simple, yet heartbreakingly spoken words, "there should have been another way." This compelling story gives Peter Davidson a chance to shine as a dramatic actor, with the Doctor not sure who he is more angry with-the Silurians or the humans. Especially since in a sub-story, human agents from a rival power have also infiltraited the sea base and unleash murder and treachery even amongst the Silurian and Sea Devil onslaught.
I am so pleased that these stories that span two Doctors and two decades are being released as a set. The stories of the Doctor's encounters with the Silurians and Sea Devils I think will become all the more compelling when taken as a whole. If the DVD quality is as good as the other Doctor Who releases have been so far, especially in terms of the commentaries and special features, this set will be a must have for Doctor Who fans.
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