Doctor Who Managed to Make a High Seas Adventure as Dull as Dishwater

Doctor Who’s had a little bit of occasion exhaustion recently, due to a schedule extra dictated by the chaos of the previous two years than of its personal explicit volition. Between Flux and the particular episodes closing out Jodie Whittaker’s time because the Doctor, we’ve been taught to anticipate huge issues, thrilling issues, as a result of that is all of the Doctor Who you’re getting for months at a time. So what occurs when the thrill forgets to indicate up?

That’s type of what “Legend of the Sea Devils” is: an episode of Doctor Who that may maybe be a superbly tremendous journey in a full season of the present, somewhat than being bought as the subsequent huge particular. You know, that kind of spine each season of Who is constructed on—an Aggressively Fine story you watch as soon as after which overlook about totally due to rather more thrilling issues occurring elsewhere in that chunk of episodes till you revisit that season and overlook it over again. It’s received all of the makings of one thing enjoyable: the return of a traditional monster within the Sea Devils, 50 years after their debut; a cool historic setting within the type of the seas round nineteenth century China; and, maybe arguably most vital of all, pirate ships! Two pirate ships, considered one of which is flying and ostensibly filled with Sea Devils!

And but, none of it actually works past the cursory concept that it was, in the end, an episode of tv that received made. There’s little construct up or pressure across the Sea Devils that dampens (sorry, not sorry) their menace—they seem, they are saying they wish to take over the world to the Doctor, after which they only… type of sit there doing that till they’re stopped. They’re nice wanting monsters (maybe probably the greatest in Who’s latest historical past by way of redesigning a well-known look) however not significantly monstrous, so there’s little of that traditional worry exterior of a brief, sharp dose close to firstly of the episode. The tiny smattering of visitor characters—Crystal Yu and Arthur Lee because the piratical Madame Ching and Ji-Hun, respectively, and Marlowe Chan-Reeves because the excitable younger villager Ying Kei, who loses his household within the first Sea Devil assault—don’t get a lot in the best way of background and even base motivation past awkwardly delivered exposition that’s then largely left untouched. Ying Kei needs vengeance, till he doesn’t! Madame Ching needs to repay money owed holding her kids hostage, after which will get the products to do this. Ji-Hun… needs to die as a result of the Sea Devils have saved him in suspended animation for just a few hundred years, and that’s impolite of them.

Everything about “Legend of the Sea Devils” seems like that: perfunctory. The lack of actual pressure means you by no means actually care concerning the Sea Devils and their menace. The lack of time with Ching, Ji-Hun, and Ying Kei signifies that past their preliminary motivations, you don’t get to see them go on satisfying arcs. By the time the whole lot’s meant to crescendo within the third act, it seems like the viewers is counting down the clock, and the whole lot putters out past a little bit of emotional decision for the Doctor and her associates (extra on that later). It’s additionally not laborious to really feel the constraints of capturing an episode like this on the top of mid-pandemic secure manufacturing guidelines, as a result of what doesn’t assist “Legend of the Sea Devils” and its lack of vitality is how empty it feels.

From broad open photographs of empty boat decks to very awkward transitions to keep away from exhibiting how the Doctor and associates leap from one ship to the subsequent, the whole lot about “Legend” feels in some way much more restricted than Doctor Who often does. The main solid past the Doctor and her associates is small, and that’s about it for precise individuals within the episode that aren’t coated beneath layers of Sea Devil prosthetics—and even then, there’s not a lot of them at a time, so scenes simply really feel bereft. There’s no actual stakes to what the Sea Devils wish to do exterior of the preliminary village assault, so it’s laborious to care about, effectively, the factor Doctor Who is about: the Doctor racing to cease the monsters from their evil plans.

And it’s not like Doctor Who can’t do cheap-feeling, small-stake bottle episode fashion adventures. It’s Doctor Who, it’s actually about 60% that and has been for almost 60 years. Hell, the final episode of the present was simply that. “Eve of the Daleks” was a narrative that performed to the strengths of its apparent limitations, a good timeloop story that might unfold on a restricted variety of units with a restricted quantity of solid that might be in a room collectively for a given size of time with objective. It gave us an opportunity to really care about not simply the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan, however the brand new characters launched, as a result of it knew it was all it had. “Legend of the Sea Devils” wished to be a giant, sweeping high-seas journey, however simply… wasn’t, and trundled alongside hoping for one of the best anyway. It’s telling when the trailer for the subsequent episode on the finish had extra pleasure in it than something in “Legend” itself.

Aside from the hum-drum nature of the journey itself although, “Legend” received one factor proper: due to its visitor stars largely present to offer Dan somebody to speak to from time to time, its precise energy is available in giving the Doctor and Yaz time to be with one another, and discuss by their difficult emotions about one another ultimately. It may need to condense slightly given the character of this not simply being a one-off episode, however the penultimate entry earlier than Whittaker’s Doctor is out of the present totally, however lastly letting Yaz and the Doctor awkwardly dance round their apparent affection for every different gave “Legend” an emotional core it lacked elsewhere, even when most of that core is totally separate from the primary thrust of the episode.

Even if the concept of the Doctor and Yaz getting into a romantic relationship is doomed—each textually, from the Doctor’s warnings that their nature as a Time Lord signifies that any relationship with a human, romantic or in any other case, is doomed to finish in heartbreak, and metatextually, with the quickly impending finish of Whittaker and Chibnall’s time on the present—attending to see each characters pushed out of their consolation zones with one another, it’s vital to a minimum of have these moments out within the open. If just for the stakes of creating the subsequent episode truly matter much more now, it’s an vital evolution for each Yaz and the thirteenth Doctor alike—particularly the latter, whose darker impulses have pushed her down a path of being dishonest along with her closest associates time and time once more. Making herself susceptible to Yaz, even when it’s to inform her simply how a lot she can not afford to face the heartbreak of being actually susceptible along with her, is a step towards therapeutic a few of that ache and darkness she’s been contending with since her trials on Gallifrey.

But we all know additional heartbreak is on the best way for the thirteenth Doctor now—her last days, and a battle filled with previous associates and older enemies to finish this present period of Doctor Who. As befitting a present about time journey, it’s at all times the longer term that’s essentially the most thrilling and filled with potential… even when Doctor Who needed to commerce fairly a bit of pleasure within the current to set the stage for it.

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