Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
At this point in time, many of you will have seen the first two episodes of the new ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off series ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’. As I write this review, I’ve yet to see the episodes. I’ll be sharing a general overview of the series later this month. 🙂
In the meantime, I have seen the latest re-edited special edition version of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV adventure called ‘The Sea Devils’, starring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Roger Delgado as the Master. It runs at 90 minutes.
I greatly enjoyed seeing the latest special edition version of ‘The Sea Devils’. This is of course to tie-in with the release of ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ spin-off series on TV, since the Doctor encountered the Sea Devils, the water-based cousins of the Silurians, in 1972.
There also seems to be this tradition going on, particularly under the neo-Russell T. Davies era reign of ‘Doctor Who’, where classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories are re-released and re-edited into movie-like versions for viewers to enjoy and quite close to Christmas.
We had ‘The Daleks in Colour’ with William Hartnell in 2023, we had ‘The War Games in Colour’ with Patrick Troughton in 2024, and we now have the re-edited special edition version of ‘The Sea Devils’ with Jon Pertwee in 2025. I wonder if Tom Baker will be up next. 😀
In the past, I’ve shared my issues concerning how ‘The Daleks’ and ‘The War Games’ were re-edited into 75 minutes and 90 minutes respectively, despite being given the colourisation treatment. With ‘The Sea Devils’, it wasn’t so much of a big deal this time. 🙂
For one thing, the story is already in colour. So, no need to apply a colourisation treatment this time round. Another thing is that the original ‘Sea Devils’ story is 6 episodes in total whereas ‘The Daleks’ was originally 7 episodes and ‘The War Games’ was originally 10 episodes.
‘The Sea Devils’ previously had an omnibus edition made in 1972, which is available in the Season 9 Blu-ray box set. I’m surprised ‘The Sea Devils’ 1972 omnibus edition wasn’t reused for 2025. Mind you, the editing for the 2025 edition is better than the 1972 omnibus.
I noticed when watching the 2025 edition how certain scenes are edited better compared to what’s in the original TV story. This includes the scene where the humans attack the Sea Devils’ base with the Doctor and the Master inside, which happens in ‘Part Five’ of the story.
I also liked it that the cliffhanger moment of ‘Part Two’ where the Master threw a knife at the Doctor was omitted in the 2025 edition. It was good to see the sword fight between the Doctor and the Master in the story, but the Master throwing a knife wasn’t necessary.
It was nice to see the ‘Clangers’ scene from ‘Part One’ of the story included in the 2025 edition of ‘The Sea Devils’. I’m glad that wasn’t cut from the new edit. Honestly, the 2025 edition of ‘The Sea Devils’ is very good, and I’d be happy to give it a pass when viewing it.
However, there are a few things that I’m not happy about with the 2025 edit and it makes me lean more to the original version than the new one. This includes the fact that there’s no ‘Doctor Who’ title sequence at the story’s beginning, as we go straight into the adventure.
The opening scene in ‘Part One’ where a ship is being attacked by Sea Devils isn’t included in the story. The moment in ‘Part Five’ where the chief Sea Devil says, “We shall be the victors in the war against mankind” has been re-edited on audio in the new version.
Instead, the chief Sea Devil says, “We shall be the victors in the War Between the Land and the Sea”. There was no need to change that dialogue! The original dialogue was fine! You do not need to change it to match to the new spin-off series that’s now being put out!
It was good to hear improved sound design for the new edit of ‘The Sea Devils’, as Mark Ayres returns to add new sound effects for the story. It was also nice to hear a blend of Malcolm Clark’s original incidental music along with new music by new composers for the tale.
Lorne Balfe provides some of that new music to the story, as he’s also provided the incidental music for ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ spin-off series. He has also composed music for films such as the sixth and seventh ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies.
The 2025 re-edited special edition version of ‘The Sea Devils’ is not perfect. But it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience to watch the 2025 edit of the story. I wasn’t bothered by too many scenes omitted in the story’s new version, which I’m very happy about.
It’s been good to see the new 2025 edition of ‘The Sea Devils’ with Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Roger Delgado before checking out ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’. I do wonder though if I’ll find the new edit of ‘The Sea Devils’ more enjoyable than the latest spin-off series.
Incidentally, I was pleased to see clips of ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ included in the 2025 re-edited special edition version of ‘The Sea Devils’. This is when the Doctor tells Jo about the Silurians and the Sea Devils being their relations in the ‘Part Two’ section of the story.
Stay tuned for my quick TV review on ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ coming soon to my blog in December.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Thank you, Tim, for your review.
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Thanks scifimike,
Glad you enjoyed the review.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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I think we already had a Special Edition with Tom, Tim, Pyramids of Mars for Empire of Death. Maybe Peter Davison is next?
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Hi Wolfie,
Well, to be fair, ‘Pyramids of Mars’ was part of the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series and ‘The Three Doctors’ with Jon Pertwee was previously released in that series. But you could be right. It might be Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor who’s up next. It depends on what happens in 2026 when the 2026 Christmas Special is released in December. We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Well, what would your pick for a Tom Baker special edition be, Tim? What would you choose if it were up to you?
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Hi Wolfie,
Well, for me, it’d either have to be ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ or ‘City of Death’. I’d like there to be a follow-up to ‘Destination: Skaro’, especially in eatablishing more of Davros’ origins as a character. Whether that will happen or not in the 2026 Christmas Special is yet to be determined. And I love ‘City of Death’ so much that it’d be nice to see a movie version of the story only for it to be repeated on TV once again.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Interesting picks! I think a 90 minute version of The Seeds of Doom would be quite good. Keeps the theme on-UNIT, as well. This might be a bit out of left field, but… Planet of Evil? I think there’d be an opportunity to tie the ante-matter monster in with Wild Blue Yonder when the Doctor falls into the pit on Zeta Minor.
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Condensing the Doctor Who classics we grew up with, certainly ones that were among our favorites as The Seeds Of Doom especially was for me, can be quite a gamble with the fans. When G7TV on Dailymotion did its modern edits for Doctor Who along with some other British sci-fi shows, the taken-out scenes could still be used for minisodes, which I thought was a very practical solution. The official powers may make the most difficult decisions. So it helps to always remember and appreciate how Whovians can best enjoy classic Doctor Who even after all this time.
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Hi Wolfie, Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
‘Planet of Evil’ and ‘The Seeds of Doom’ sound like good choices too. I’m not really a fan of condensing a classic ‘Doctor Who’ story from its original length to a 75 or 90-minute length, as I’d prefer the story be shown in its entirety and it doesn’t have to be on the same day as it can be shown across two days or so.
It’s nice to check out these Special Editions, even if they omit crucial scenes that work in the story’s favour. For all I know, the DVD Special Editions of ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Planet of Evil’ could easily be repeated on TV. Who’s to say? ‘Black Orchid’, ‘The King’s Demons’ and ‘The Awakening’ are likely to escape that issue considering they’re two-parters whereas a story like ‘The Two Doctors’ would be truncated and have scenes cut out due to being the equivalent of a six-parter like ‘The Sea Devils’.
Speaking personally, and having seen the extended version of ‘Black Orchid’ recently for Sarah Sutton’s birthday, a movie version of that story would be welcome for me without having the break between ‘Parts One and Two’ to contend with.
Many thanks and Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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I think editing depends very much on what’s deemed important and what’s deemed padding. A recurring concern of modern television is that it doesn’t have a great deal of space to breathe any more.
I think six episodes is a goodly length to let a story simmer and indulge. Four episodes is a perfect film length at a natural 90 minutes. Three episodes gives the viewer a taut three-act structure with no fat at 70 minutes. Two episodes… Two episodes is where you start to push it for Doctor Who. It’s effective for the equivalent of a one-act play that deals with an extremely tight focus, but not a lot beyond that and there is a lot of compromise.
The Seeds of Doom has the added benefit that it’s written by Robert Banks Stewart who has an excellent grasp of narrative flow. And it also already has a blueprint for a cut-down version created by Douglas Camfield that snips various pieces of dialogue. One instance I can recall is Sarah convincing Moberley to perform the amputation in Antarctica, whereas in the cutdown version, it’s the Doctor who does it.
That’s the best approach, I feel. If you can trim down a scene so the characters arrive late or leave early — that helps. Trim a little narrative redundancy — fine. That’s possible only from the ’70s onward, though. There’s not enough camera scripting in ’60s Doctor Who to do that effectively. It’s still shot very much like a recorded stageplay.
The only stories that I would reserve for the hour cut are those that struggle under their own runtime. Stories like Underworld or Time Flight, but even then, I wouldn’t do the same brutal cut for stories like The Time Monster or The Sensorites (which could both still work at four episodes).
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for your comments. If ‘The Seeds of Doom’ turns out to be the next ‘Doctor Who’ story shown as a re-edited Special Edition release in 2026, I’d welcome seeing it over the Christmas period. Mind you, it’d be a shame for it to be released after it was included in the Season 13 Blu-ray box set recently. I’ve yet to check out the Season 13 Blu-ray box set, but I don’t think a CGI effects option is available for the story. Not that it needs one, and I’m glad there wasn’t a CGI makeover for ‘The Sea Devils’ recently.
I’m currently revisiting the Big Finish audio story ‘Spare Parts’ on vinyl on my new vinyl record player. I would be interested in a CGI animation edition for the story as a Christmas special. Both that and ‘The Chimes of Midnight’. With the animations they’ve done for the missing TV stories with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, I’m surprised it’s not happened for a couple of Big Finish audios recently, and that’s not including ‘Real Time’ and 2003’s ‘Shada’.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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