| Production Code: 6L
First Transmitted
Cast The Doctor - Peter Davison
Plot Outline from Wikipedia The year is 2084, and there is a cold war in progress. The world is divided into two opposing super power blocs. One of the blocs have created a secret underwater base, Sea Base 4, which is strategically positioned and has nuclear weapons aimed at the opposing bloc. As a security measure, the Seabase nuclear weapons can not be activated, unless a trained human operator can "sync" his/her mind with the computer and authorize their deployment. The base's crew is led by Commander Vorshak and his senior officers, Nilson, Bulic, Security Chief Preston, and Lt. Michaels, the base's sync operator. Lt. Michaels is mysteriously killed before the start of the story, and as a result, his inexperienced apprentice, Ensign Maddox, is forced to assume Michaels' official responsibilities. The story begins on the bridge of Sea Base 4. Vorshak and Bulic noticed something strange on their long range sensors, but dismiss it as being a trivial glitch. In reality, the glitch is a Silurian battleship led by Icthar, the sole survivor of the Silurian Triad (last seen in Doctor Who and the Silurians) and his subordinates, Tarpok and Scibus, who are monitoring Sea Base 4. Inside the TARDIS, Turlough has changed his mind about going home, and the Doctor plans to show Tegan something of Earth’s future. As the TARDIS materialises in space, it is attacked by Sentinel Six, a robot weapons system. In a blink of an eye, the Doctor manages to save the TARDIS by materializing on to Sea Base 4. Sea Base 4 under goes a practice missile run, but Maddox, the temporary sync operator, is uncertain of his skill at the job. When Maddox faints after the practice run, Vorshak begins to realize that the function of the base will continue to be compromised until either Maddox lives up to his duties or a replacement is assigned. Nilson and the Base’s chief medical officer, Doctor Solow (played by Ingrid Pitt) are enemy agents for the opposing bloc, plan to program Maddox to destroy the computer circuitry. To do this they ask Vorshak to release Maddox’s duplicate program disk under the pretext of helping the sync operator cope with his job. Vorshak does so, and Maddox is programmed in the Base’s psycho-surgery unit. The Doctor’s presence on the Sea Base is detected when Turlough summons an elevator. The Time Lord programs the base’s reactor to overload in an attempt to avoid capture. This fails, however, and the time travellers are all taken prisoner. The Base’s security officer, Preston also finds the TARDIS. The Silurians revives the Sea Devil warriors of Elite Group One and their brilliant commander, Sauvix. The Silurians and Sea Devils launch an attack on the base and the Doctor, recognising their ship on the monitor screen, tries to warn Vorshak not to fire on them. Vorshak ignores him, and, as a result, the Base’s defences are neutralised by the Silurians' deflection beam. The Silurians then dispatch the Myrka, who attacks Airlock 1, and the Sea Devils who assault Airlock 5 of the sea base. During the attacks, Solow and Nilson activate Maddox, who tampers with the equipment. When Ensign Karina becomes suspicious Nilson makes Maddox kill her. The Myrka forces its way into the base, temporarily trapping the Doctor and Tegan until Turlough gets the inner airlock door opened to save them. The creature starts making its way towards the bridge, killing people by electrocution. Doctor Solow become one of the Myrka's victim when she foolishly tries to engage the creature in combat while she was on her way to an escape pod. The Doctor eventually destroys the Myrka by using an ultra-violet light generator. The Silurians primes up a device called the manipulator and prepare to arrive on the base. The Sea Devils break through Airlock 5 and start the push for the bridge, killing any crew that stand in their way. Solow's accomplice, Nilson, is revealed as a traitor and he attempts to escape by taking Tegan hostage. The Doctor blinds him with the ultra-violet device, and a group of Sea Devils appear and kill him. The Doctor and Tegan are taken as prisoners to the bridge, which is now under the control of the Silurians. The Doctor recognizes Icthar and confronts him about the massacre of the crew of Sea Base 4. Icthar reveals his group intends to get mankind to destroy itself by triggering a global war. They undo the damage caused by Maddox’s sabotage and connect the manipulator to the systems. The Doctor escapes from the bridge and tries to find something to use against the reptiles. He discovers some cylinders of hexachromite gas, which is lethal to all reptile life. A Sea Devil discovers the Doctor's presence and attempts to shoot him. He misses the Doctor and hit one of the gas containers which explodes all over the warrior. As a result, the warrior begins to dissolve. Preston urges the Doctor to use the gas on all of the Silurians and Sea Devils. The Doctor adamantly refuses and accuses Preston of advocating genocide. The Doctor changes his mind when Turlough reminds him of what the Silurians intend to do if they launch the missiles and he begins to connect the gas containers to a central air pump. The Doctor is discovered by Sauvix before he can turn the pump on. Preston grabs a gun, but is killed by Sauvix before he is sprayed with gas and killed by Bulic. As the Silurians prepare to fire the missiles, the Doctor feeds the gas into the ventilation system. Bulic stays in the chemical store to ensure that the gas keeps flowing, while the Doctor and his companions leave for the bridge to try to stop the Silurians. The warriors begin to collapse from the gas and the Doctor tells Tegan and Turlough to give the Silurians oxygen to keep them alive. The Doctor, who is aided by Vorshak, tries to stop the missiles by linking himself into the equipment as the sync operator. The Doctor succeeds, but Vorshak is killed by Icthar. Then Itchar, himself, is killed by Turlough. Then it was all over. The Doctor and his companions and Bulic were the only survivors. The Doctor is left in despair and he simply says, "There should have been another way."
Neither the Silurians nor the Sea Devils have been seen since the Third Doctor. They were well overdue for a recall. Their premise that they are the original sentient lifeform on Earth, who went into hibernation to avoid the extinction of the dinosaurs has a whole new take since we now know that the catastrophic event that caused their extinction was the space freighter with the unfortunate Adric on board crashing to Earth. The Doctor’s attitude to the Silurians is consistent. He has ALWAYS tried to find a way for them to exist in harmony with humans and humans have always managed to make it impossible. This was no exception. The Silurians/Sea Devil alliance don’t help their case, mind you. Their idea of “defensive war” – The Doctor rightly points out there is no such thing – is to take over the Sea Base using the Myrka, a sort of Sea Devil storm trooper as an advanced raid. They eventually overwhelm it and prepare to use the base to start a tit for tat nuclear war with the other side of a cold war that was in progress between the Human inhabitants of Earth, leaving the planet for the Silurians to occupy again once the radiation clears. Of course The Doctor couldn’t allow that, but neither was he able to find a way to prevent it that didn’t involve the annihilation of the Sea Devils and Silurians. At least those that were brought out of hibernation. We are given to believe there are many more in caves beneath the sea still. The Sea Devils and the Silurians will live to fight another day. Among the memorable scenes in this story is The Doctor apparently drowning when he is knocked into the water. This is one of the occasions when The Doctor practices recycling his breathing and swims under water to safety. The shots of him going down into the water, apparently knocked out are quite stunning even when we know he isn’t going to die because, as with the execution in Arc of Infinity, that isn’t going to happen in the first story of a new series. And of course that immortal line at the end. “There should
have been another way.” Peter Davison delivers it with such
a perfect level of emotion. If there is one problem it is that the
credits roll far too quickly. There is barely time for a full stop
after he speaks before the sting of the theme music. I would have
put a freeze frame in there, or a tracking close up to his face to
emphasise the emotional moment. But even without it, it is a powerful
scene and an iconic line that is remembered by many fans.
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