Product description

Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians [1970] / The Sea Devils [1972] / Warriors of the Deep [1984])

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Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5014503243821
Label : 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer : 2 Entertain Video
Publisher : 2 Entertain Video
Release date : 2008-01-14
Title : Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians [1970] / The Sea Devils [1972] / Warriors of the Deep [1984])
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Parental Guidance
Format : PAL
Languages : Array
Number of items : 3
Region code : 2
Running time : 412
Studio : 2 Entertain Video
Brand : BBC

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bringing together the trio of adventures featuring Doctor Who’s most famous underwater foes, the Beneath The Surface boxset has Sea Devils, Silurians, and adventures from both the Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison eras.

It’s perhaps logical to get past the weakest of the three adventures in this set first, and that honour falls to the Peter Davison story, Warriors of the Deep. It’s not too bad though, even if it does display some of the silliness and budget constraints that helped define 1980s Doctor Who. It’s still fun, however, and worth a spin.

The two Pertwee adventures are terrific, though, and the real highlights of the set. The Silurians finds Jon Pertwee relatively new to the role, and blessed with an adventure that boasts excitement, adventure and a very good script. But our favourite is nonetheless the second story, The Sea Devils, which also brings Roger Delgado’s take on The Master into the mix. It’s a tense, involving adventure, and one of the finest of the Jon Pertwee area. That’s not something to be said lightly, either.

As is the norm with Doctor Who special edition DVDs, the set is then backed up with some terrific archive extras, along with commentary tracks and documentaries that all but justify the asking price alone. That you get two strong adventures and one reasonable one into the mix as well makes this one of the best classic Doctor Who boxsets released to date. Highly recommended. --Simon Brew

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-09-12 rating:

Two classc stories and one clunker - but still a first-rate set.
This is a collecton of three Dr Who stories, all linked by the presence of the Silurians and/or Sea Devils. The Silurians is an early Jon Pertwee tale which sees the Doctor (working for UNIT) investigating power failures at an underground research centre. Before long he has come across a race of intelligent reptile-people who once inhabited the Earth and have been revived from their age-old suspended animation. This is an example of Dr Who at its best - thought-provoking, intelligent, well-written, and with some serious issues to raise. In The Sea Devils, also with Jon Pertwee, the Doctor visits his old adversary the Master who is currently beng held in a high-security jail. However, it seems another prehistoric race, this one amphibious, have emerged from hibernation. Though this story sometimes drags, the Master is at his villainous, devious best and the overall tale is enjoyable and intriguing. Warriors of the Deep, made some years after the other two stories, stars Peter Davison. It involves both races of reptile-people attacking an undersea base in the future, attempting to start a war which will wipe out the human race. Promisng as this may have looked on paper, it's let down by shoddy producation values. The redesigned Silurians have unmoving, static faces and now speak in robotic monotones. The Sea Devils, though their clothes look great, have heads which wobble about and just look ridiculous. I won't even start on the Myrka, a 'powerful underwater beast' which in reality is a green pantomime horse-like creature which can only kill people if it falls on them. The floodlit sets and completely flat direction don't exactly help matters. And what exactly is the point of hiring actors who are good at playing hard-cases if they're going to be plastered in camp-looking make-up? In the end this was just a case "let's bring old monsters back for the sake of it". The best I can say about Warriors is that it's entertainingly bad.

To sum up, this set contains a classic, a goodie and a total howler. But the first two stories are great, and the wealth of extras including documentaries, commentries and the like make this well worth owning. A real piece of classc Dr Who history.

review by: Kilgore date: 2008-04-29 rating:

A Remarkable Achievement
The Silurians is a decent if rather tedious story, The Sea Devils is wonderful, but Warriors of the Deep is truly a remarkable achievement. It is remarkable because both the Silurian's and The Sea Devil's costumes look *far* worse than in either of the other programmes made over a decade earlier. Really, it's impossible not to laugh. At one point, we are also treated to a 'monster' that looks like a pantomime horse covered in green tinsel. This is particularly disappointing given that Warriors features Ingrid Pitt and Ian McCulloch, and was directed by Survivors stalwart, Pennant Roberts. What on earth were they thinking? It's not even bad in a good way. The Sea Devils is almost worth the price of the set alone, but I would expect someone to pay *me* to watch Warriors of the Deep!

review by: date: 2008-04-29 rating:

All Hail The Pert Man!
Jon Pertwee's first season was his best, the stories were about 6-7 episodes long with a great intriguing story lines, I haven't seen the other two stories so my comment is for The Silurians story, it's worth the price alone, restored picture by the Doctor Who Restoration team completes the package, I recommend this along with Inferno & Spearheads From Space, both available on DVD, all hail the pert man, Jon Pertwee.

review by: mattieboyz date: 2008-04-07 rating:

What a mistaka to Myrka!
I am going to begin with the middle story in this sequence as it's definitely my favourite story of the three included here.
The Sea Devils is a classic slice of Jon Pertwee `Who'. It includes a lengthy sword fight between The Doctor and The Master, a jet-ski chase, well-realised aliens, hypnotism, mysterious disappearances and a climactic gun battle; these elements more than make-up for any deficiencies in the story. There are few deficiencies but two that spring to mind are the frankly bizarre `spacey' sounds used in the incidental music and the under-use of a great `monster'.
The story opens with The Master finally incarcerated in a maximum security prison on Earth. At the same time, boats are mysteriously sinking and strange burn marks are found in their hulls. Meanwhile, The Doctor goes to visit his old foe and finds him seemingly repentant - a great scene is that of The Master in his cell watching an episode of 70s `mice on the moon' programme `The Clangers'. Although the prisoner seems completely subdued, the governor of the prison is extremely shifty and it appears that The Master is not quite as docile as he seems...
This is one of the series' last attempts at a six-parter and in many ways this has to be a good thing. As much action and intrigue as there undoubtedly is, the story inevitably feels padded-out and there are times when I found myself willing it on. The eponymous creatures are well-realised and the shots of them emerging from the sea are a triumph equal to that of The Daleks arriving in Central London in their mid-60s heyday. DVD extras for this story include the usual PDF Radio Times listings and continuities plus `Hello Sailor' - a cast and crew making-of documentary plus a prototype video diary from one of the sailors who was used as an extra and a preview of `The Time meddler', the next scheduled release from 2Entertain.

The Silurians is chronologically the first in this thematically linked set and rates for me as more of a solid if uninspiring entry into the series. This goes one better than The Sea Devils with a whopping 7 episodes and clearly sags in the middle as a result. Notable for being the only story to have `Doctor Who and...' in the title, due to a mistake made by the people doing the title cards, this was the second story in Jon Pertwee's first series, shown between January and March 1970. The story starts with inexplicable power losses at an underground research centre, which UNIT and its new scientific adviser are called in to investigate. It gets even more entertaining when what appears to be a dinosaur is seen in the underground tunnels. Then we learn that the work at the research centre has awakened an ancient race of intelligent reptiles who ruled the Earth millions of years ago. They went into hibernation when it appeared that an asteroid was going to collide with the Earth. As it happened, the asteroid took up a new job as the Moon rather than destroying the planet, and in the absence of the reptiles, humans evolved and took over. Now the reptiles are awake, and they want to take their planet back from those `nasty apes'. There are some effectively dark and gloomy scenes in the creatures' underground lair and even the dinosaur is okay - it certainly looks better than the one in the much later `Invasion of the dinosaurs'! DVD extras include `What Lies Benath', a slightly tongue-in-cheek documentary about the way in which this story was influenced by the politics of the time, `Going Underground', a look at the difficulties of shooting a TV show underground and a more techy piece about the way in which this story went from black and white to colour.

Finally we come to Warriors of the Deep...in truth a much maligned Fifth Doctor story that brings together both The Silurians and The Sea-devils. Memorable (unfortunately) for unarguably the series' lamest attempt at a monster - The Myrka - ostensibly a fearsome sea creature that electrocutes its enemies but in reality that pantomime horse from Rentaghost with some green paint and seaweed laid on! Only the infamous `Taran Wood Beast' rivals this monstrosity for sheer crapness - and I'm speaking as a die-hard fan!
More overtly political than many of the shows' stories, this is set in the late-21st Century and features two warring `blocs' under the sea. Featuring Hammer Horror stalwart Ingrid Pitt as Doctor Solow and `The Onedin Lines'' Tom Adams as Vorshak, The TARDIS crew (The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough) arrive on the base and The Doctor recognises a `Silurian battle cruiser' approaching. Inevitably The Doctor becomes the meat in a human/reptile sandwich (again) and eventually has to sacrifice his principles in order to save the day.
Overall the story is okay but several glaring continuity errors and rushed production (forced by Margaret Thatcher's calling of a parliamentary election - so The Myrka is her fault, hah I knew it wasn't just the milk snatching we hated her for!) leave a disappointing end product. By this time, Peter Davison had already announced he was leaving the show and the weariness with which he delivers his final line is perhaps a clear indication of the end of another era in the show's history.
DVD extras include 'The Depths'- All the usual suspects recall making the story, 'They Came From Beneath The Sea', a short feature about making the monsters, Oh dear! and 'Science in Action', a clip from a BBC Schools programme in which visual effects designer Matt Irvine talks about the techniques and materials used.

review by: date: 2008-03-26 rating:

"The Good, the Fun & the Myrka"
A fine boxset where the Silurians & Sea Devils go on the pull for customers charitably taking their socially inpet moose of a friend Warriors of the Deep with them.

Dr Who & the Silurians is the most serious and poignant of the stories. The themes of obsession, xenophobia and greed are well expressed in a clever story with a touch of Quatermass as the invaders were on Earth before man.

Shorn of the broad comedy of his 1st story Pertwee excels as the story's moral voice, desparately trying to forge a peace between both sides. Here is a doctor who can see the bigger picture even though most other characters and at many points in the story even the viewers, do not support him.

The supporting characters offer a range of obsessives; paranoid Dr Lawrence, ruthless Dr Quinn determined to use the Silurains to make his name and the xenophobic Major Baker. The misguided patriot is a great favourite of author Malcom Hulke.

If Humanity is not at its best in this stiory, the Silurians are no better attempting to reign destruction on the upstart apes. They are a good design with body language and a special voice distracting from obvious joins in the costume.

Unit is at its most military and seems to actually have troops in this story. The cosy Unit family atmosphere is in short supply and the dependent but less chummy relationship between the Doctor and Brig serves the story well.

Nice touches are sound effects for Silurian technology & that the Doctor has difficulty writing out a chemical formula, a very naturalistic moment from Mr. Pertwee.

A little overlong but still v good stuff.

The Sea Devils is less poignant but more mobile. the Doctor is still playing Peace Ambassador but with less weight than in Silurians. the addition of the Master gives the story more humour especially with his prison scenes and relationship with the Doctor. We get an early tip off that the prison is not what it seems.

The real Royal Navy replace Unit and the use of their hardware jacks production values up several notches.

There is good support from another misguided patriot in Prison Governor Trenchard (though why anyone thought he could cope with the Master is a mystery!), long suffering Jane Blythe, sea faring Brig surrogate Cap Hart and the pompous civil servant Walker.

A good story for the Doctor and jo, the strong working relationship between Katy Manning & Pertwee making them a haphazard Avengers!

The Sea Devils are another fine monster design, synmpathetic turtle faces and a rugged enough suit to allow them to rise out of the sea in an iconic cliffhanger. The only ineffectual moment is when 1 runs from a minefield like a scalded cat! A fast moving story with very little padding.

Warriors of the Deep is awful. A pointless resurrection of an old monster in a half baked cold war parable. The regulars battle with a poor script & make the most of the few good moments they get.

Part 1 is the worst offender for sheer padding. It consist of endless reiteration of the need to revive the Sea Devils by 2 Silurians, running around for the tardis crew after avoiding a missile and a bafflegab contest for the missile base crew.

None of the guest cast get a good role and a wasted Ingrid Pitt while still in her prime was made to look really ugly by ill-judged make up. Only Nigel Humphreys makes an impression as the computer sync operator. In a better story he might have been memorable.
The Silurian mask is a good redesign but sat atop a costume including a beer gut and scaly flares, with a grating tinny voice, they are just ridiculous.
The Sea Devils are faithful to the originals in voice and mask and with moving eyes one up on the original, but having had a visit from Trinny & Susannah they've taken to dressing up as Samurai! Looked bad then, looks bad now.
As for new monster the Myrka, it's a pantomime Sea Cow and beyond that it defies description!
Several slip ups see a completely unnnatural fall into water for the Doctor, Sea Devil heads flopping to 1 side, 2 Sea Devils in the background walking into each other and split Silurian costumes.

Only the model work is good and justly the subject of an Easter egg as Mat Irvine shows his souvenirs.

Commentaries for all 3 stories. A pic n' mix for Silurians with producer Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks and various others dropping in & out. Particularly good points are Letts' recollections of what he didn't want to inherit from predecessors, location memories + companion Caroline John on the differences between script and the novel which she had just narrated for CD.

Dicks and Letts are joined by director Michael Briant on Sea Devils, moderated by Andrew Cartmel. All 3 have so clear many memories that Cartmel becoems a 5th wheel but self effacingly keeps quiet much of the time and just enjoys the chat. The Navy's involvement and the howlers with ranks and so on are good as are the memories of Roger Delgado's bravery in facing his fear of water. But one thing, can 2 Entertain stop Terrance Dicks from repeating the Pertwee Bouffant story? Several commentaries ago it was funny but together with Silurians it's on the same boxset twice.

We get a Pete'n Jan show for Warriors where they are joined by Mat Irvine who is game for a fun commentary. They make no bones about the quality of the story and have lots of fun with it and remembering guest star Tom Adams!

Documentaries are present for each story just a short making of for Silurians but the lengthy look at the social/political situation at the time and its influence on the story is excellent, watch for Roy Hattersley! More of the same please.

Hello Sailor is a fun making of Sea Devils notable for Katy Manning's 1st onscreen interview, Michael Briant's involvement and the Navy personnel who were involved. we aklso get some super 8 footage shot by them with a commentary.

The Depths is a making of Warriors which makes no bones about its shortcomings but looks at how & why it ended up that way. It is complaimented by the equally excellent They came from beneath the Sea featurette on the monsters of that show.

A featurette on the music of the 2 70's stories plus a look at the colour restoration for Silurians complete a fine package.

More of a Notalgiafest for us Classic who fans than a package for the newer fans. But if you want to show them any story Sea Devils is your best bet.

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