‘WARRIORS OF THE DEEP’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

What Lies Beneath? – Silurians, Sea Devils and the Myrka

‘Warriors of the Deep’ is a four-part story by Johnny Byrne on a 1-disc DVD. It features Peter Davison’s Doctor with Tegan and Turlough. I’m afraid to say it, but this is the weakest story of the Silurians and Sea Devils trilogy.

It’s also my least favourite story from the Peter Davison era. ‘Warriors’ features the return of the Silurians and the Sea Devils. The story suffered production problems and makes it pretty lacklustre.

The year is 2084. Earth is in on the verge of annihilation as two power blocks fight each other. The Silurians and the Sea Devils make to take over Sea Base 4, as they want to use it to wipe out humanity.

I’ve seen some members of the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ cast at two conventions. In February 2010, I saw Ingrid Pitt, Tara Ward, James Coombes and Vincent Brimble on a panel at the ‘Fifth Element’ convention in Chiswick, London, February 2010. I also saw Tom Adams on a panel with Michael Cochrane at the ‘celebrate 50 – The Peter Davison Years’ convention in Chiswick, London, April 2013.

I’ve now had the DVD cover of ‘Warriors of the Deep’ signed by visual effects designer Mat Irvine, who I met at the ‘Bournemouth Film and Comic Con’ in August 2015. It was nice to chat to Mat about this story.

There’s a cold war atmosphere featured in this story. The two human power blocks are nameless and there are enemy agents within. I wish this story wasn’t overshadowed by production problems.

Peter Davison still impresses as the Doctor. He learns about the ‘cold war’ situation at the sea base and tries to be the desperate peacemaker between the humans; the Silurians and the Sea Devils again.

Janet Fielding as Tegan is okay. She doesn’t get much character development sadly, as I found Tegan to be moaning and sulking a lot. I liked it when Tegan tried to save the Doctor from a vat of water.

Mark Strickson as Turlough is also undeveloped. Turlough’s no longer the assassin and tends to be moody. I liked the moment when Turlough gets Nilson to open Airlock 1 to save the Doctor and Tegan.

The guest cast are also pretty good including Tom Adams as Vorshak, Ian McCulloch as Nilson, Ingrid Pitt as Dr. Solow, Tara Ward as Preston, Martin Neil as Maddox and Nitza Saul as Karina.

I was disappointed with the look of the Silurians. They deviate from the original look and they also walk strangely and slowly. I like how the Silurians have names such as Icthar, Scibus and Tarpork.

I found the Sea Devils equally disappointing. They walk very slowly and their heads are overlong. The fight scenes are pretty appalling. I still like their whispery voices and they have a leader called Sauvix.

And there’s the Myrka! Oh my! What were they thinking?! This really spoiled the story, as the Myrka looks pathetic and silly. It didn’t do anything except electrocute people if you got ridiculously close to it.

The DVD special features are as follows. There’s an enjoyable audio commentary with Peter Davison; Janet Fielding; script editor Eric Saward and visual effects designer Mat Irvine. There’s also an isolated music option by Jonathan Gibbs and an info-text commentary option to enjoy. There’s a making-of documentary called ‘The Depths’ with cast and crew interviews; an additional behind-the-scenes featurette called ‘They Came From Beneath The Sea’; a ‘Science in Action’ featurette; trailers and continuity announcements; a ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of the story; a photo gallery of the story and an ‘Easter Egg’. There’s also a coming soon trailer for ‘The Time Meddler’, starring William Hartnell, Maureen O’Brien and Peter Purves.

‘Warriors of the Deep’ is sadly the worst ‘Doctor Who’ story for me. It does have its moments but I’m afraid the production values spoiled it. As the Doctor said, “There should have been another way!”

I’ve enjoyed watching the three stories from the ‘Beneath the Surface’ DVD box set. ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ and ‘The Sea Devils’ are really good whilst ‘Warriors of the Deep’ is the weakest of the three. The Silurians and the Sea Devils are ‘Doctor Who’ monsters that I’ve enjoyed seeing, as I’ve found them very interesting.

This certainly isn’t the last of them. The Silurians made their comeback into ‘Doctor Who’ through books, comics and audios. They returned to face Colin Baker’s Doctor in the audio story, ‘Bloodtide’, and also faced Matt Smith’s Doctor in the two-part TV story, ‘The Hungry Earth’/’Cold Blood’.

‘Warriors of the Deep’ rating – 4/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – WARRIORS OF THE DEEP’ (BOOK)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Venturing Deeper Into the Depths with Terrance Dicks and Janet Fielding

For Terrance Dicks

This has been a long time coming, hasn’t it? 🙂

At last! I’ve finally checked out the Target novelization/audiobook of the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Warriors of the Deep’ by Terrance Dicks, based on the TV scripts by Johnny Byrne. My journey is complete with checking out the ‘Beneath the Surface’ trilogy in prose form.

‘Warriors of the Deep’ is a ‘Doctor Who’ story that I tend to have mixed feelings about nowadays. On reflection, I consider it the worst of the Peter Davison/Fifth Doctor era in the classic TV show. More so than ‘The King’s Demons’, considered by some as the worst.

With that said, my claim on ‘Warriors of the Deep’ being the worst story of the Peter Davison/Fifth Doctor era is more in terms of the presentation than the actual story. The whole production in its output feels on the cheap side and lacklustre when I’m viewing it.

Hopefully, when it comes to doing an updated review on ‘Warriors of the Deep’, based on a potential Season 21 Blu-ray box set release, I aim to elaborate more on why I don’t consider the story to be great in its presentation compared to what it’s trying to achieve. 😐

Basically, the production feels very over-lit with the set corridors and the bridge of Sea Base 4 looking so white and bland. The action sequences are rather poorly handled, particularly when the humans are fighting against the Sea Devils in the underwater base.

And of course, there’s the Myrka. The concept of a pantomime horse-like monster might have been initially good, but it just ended up being rather embarrassing and, frankly, could have been avoided if the Myrka was more menacing in appearance, which sadly it wasn’t.

With all these issues I have about ‘Warriors’, it doesn’t mean I have anything against what Johnny Bryne was trying to achieve with delivering a futuristic Cold War-style of story featuring Silurians and Sea Devils. Honestly, the approach in terms of the story’s writing is sound.

It’s just everything else that happens in the TV production makes it seem very haphazard. I know that wasn’t the intention, but it distracts and makes me forget what the moral aim of the story is. It dilutes the drama when you’re supposed to be emotionally invested in it.

Thankfully, when it comes to checking out the Target novelization/audiobook of the story, you don’t have those issues to worry about. You’re guided by what goes on with Terrance Dicks writing the story, as he describes the world and characters without any constraints.

Also, Terrance takes the opportunity to improve things that were seen as weak in the TV story and make them better in the Target novelization. Had ‘Warriors of the Deep’ been made on a better budget, especially to start off Season 21, I would’ve enjoyed it far more.

It’s a shame the TV story suffered political and production problems to cause it to go wrong, especially as UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called an election at the time it was made. It’s not helped the story came after the ‘The Five Doctors’ to celebrate 20 years of ‘Doctor Who’.

I’ve wanted to check out the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ Target novelization by Terrance Dicks for a long time after enjoying the prose versions of the first two stories in the ‘Beneath the Surface’ trilogy – ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ and ‘The Sea Devils’ – by Malcolm Hulke.

It was fascinating to uncover how Terrance Dicks tackled the Target novelization of ‘Warriors of the Deep’, especially as he was the script editor on the first two stories of the ‘Beneath the Surface’ trilogy featuring Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor. It’s very fitting he’d write this.

Terrance has more insight on the Silurians and Sea Devils as ‘Doctor Who’ characters, having worked with Malcolm Hulke on the two stories he wrote in the 1970s. He’d be able to home in on what Johnny Bryne set out to achieve with the story and its moral themes. 🙂

Incidentally, there are two Australian connections I have with the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ Target novelization/audiobook in this review. There’s the fact that the unabridged audiobook released in 2023 is read by Janet Fielding, who plays Tegan on TV and on audio.

I initially purchased the 2023 unabridged audiobook as a download from Audible, but later purchased the 3-disc CD release when I saw Janet Fielding at ‘Bury Comic Con’ in June 2025. I hope I’ll get my CD release copy signed by Janet at a convention someday. 🙂

The second Australian connection in this review is that the Target novelization was sent to me as a PDF by fellow Australian ‘Doctor Who’ fan/friend Wolfie/Alan Camlaan of the Divergent Wordsmiths, which was nice of him. I’m pleased I received the novelization from Wolfie.

I asked Wolfie ‘was there a particular reason why’ they ‘wanted me to check out the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ novelization? Was it because’ they ‘wanted me to complete the ‘Beneath the Surface’ trilogy in prose form or’ they ‘wanted me to check out Terrance Dicks’ take on ‘Warriors’?

This was their reply and thoughts about ‘Warriors of the Deep’ as a Target novelization. 🙂

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Wolfie: Now, that’s a thought. Altogether, the Silurian stories from classic ‘Doctor Who’ in novelization form are penned by two authors. The first two, set in the Third Doctor’s era, are both by Malcolm Hulke. The last, set with the Fifth Doctor, is written by Terrance Dicks. Mentor and protégé.

Hulke was never shy about adding or removing details from his stories. My memory of ‘Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters’ is quite sketchy, but ‘The Sea-Devils’ read quite a lot like a ‘Call of Cthulhu’ adventure. Little wonder that Nicholas Briggs (under an alias) would write ‘Endurance’, a Silurian story in the style of ‘At the Mountains of Madness’, during his Audio Visuals years. There’s more than a hint of cosmic horror to their roots, but Hulke paints them far more benevolently than H. P. Lovecraft ever could (or would).

Dicks, on the other hand, begins his adaptation of ‘Warriors of the Deep’ with a paraphrase of Ian Fleming’s ‘From Russia with Love’. ‘The base might have been in space’ pairs nicely with ‘The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead’. His first breath of prose is a nod to spy thrillers. The novelization feels like the answer to the 1983 film ‘WarGames’ via ‘Stingray’. A techno-thriller where the Myrka is a frightening kaiju sea-dragon, the Silurians are infinitely patient, and each member of Sea Base 4 is sketched with effective economy worthy of Peter O’Donnell.

‘Warriors of the Deep’ in prose is frenetic, desperate and succeeds where its televised counterpart was unfortunately doomed to fail. The conflict is furthered by frightening technological power, but the root cause of all this is still, undeniably, people. Maddox’s murder of Karina hits so much harder in the novelisation because we’ve seen them bond. They have genuine chemistry and friendship. Dr. Solow is transformed into a reluctant victim, wooed by tragedy into espionage, by Nilson whose fanaticism far outstretches his masters.

And, of course, there’s the Doctor. Distanced from Saward’s kill-or-be-killed mentality, the Aesop at the end of the story becomes even more potent. The violence is firmly painted as a product of humanity’s inability to reconcile or cooperate with anyone. Even their own species: ‘Mankind had not destroyed itself – not this time.’ The failure of communication. The failure that is war. The Doctor’s famous final line, “There should have been another way,” isn’t a fatalistic epitaph, but a sad condemnation of us. There really should have been another way for peoples of the Earth.

But not today.

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‘Warriors of the Deep’ is divided into twelve chapters in the novelization. This is traditional in a Terrance Dicks-penned novelization. The first three chapters cover ‘Part One’, the second three cover ‘Part Two’, the third three cover ‘Part Three’ and the fourth three cover ‘Part Four’.

I would’ve expected the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ audiobook to be a 4-disc set instead of a 3-disc set. I suppose the chapters are longer in the ‘Kinda’ Target novelization when Janet Fielding read it for audio compared to the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ novelization, which I find odd.

But then when checking out the chapters in the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ novelization, I do feel I’m absorbing more story and character compared to other Target novelizations by Terrance Dicks like ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Four to Doomsday’, which can be rushed through.

The world of 2084 is given a chance to be explored in greater detail, thanks to Terrance’s writing. I like that he identifies the two sides in the human conflict as East Bloc and West Bloc compared to when the two sides were anonymous throughout the TV version of the tale.

I wonder if both Johnny Byrne and Terrance Dicks ever considered the possibility of the Cold War being over by the time we got to the 1990s, especially considering the Target novelization as well as the TV story were released in 1984 in the height of the Cold War. 😐

Then again, judging from the way things are at the moment with the current state of the world being in turmoil and such, it’s not outside the realms of possibility that we might find ourselves caught in two power blocs combatting each other, according to the Doctor.

It’s established that the West Bloc’s use of the human brain in their synch-op systems – that’s the side Commander Vorshak and his sea base crew are on – is to provide a tactical edge that the East Bloc lacks. Honestly, I don’t think the synch-op system very appealing.

I mean, I get it, it’s an advanced form of using the brain to calculate the missiles being fired at a base when confronting an enemy in a simulation. But I wouldn’t like to connect my brain to a synch-op system, as I’m sure I would find it mindboggling and very stressful.

It also signifies the weakness the West Bloc have, as there are strict requirements for the synch-operator role to have, which Maddox finds himself pressured by. I don’t know if this would be a technique used in the real 2084, considering the technological advances we have. 😐

Anything’s possible, but it would probably under top secret specifications in a war situation. Plus, ‘Warriors of the Deep’ is predicting a future where we wear brightly-coloured uniforms, which I don’t think is likely to happen. Perhaps it’ll be true functionally than cosmetically.

It’s established by Terrance Dicks that the sea bases in 2084 were constructed to offset the new vulnerabilities of space-based warfare in the latter half of the 21st century. Not that we see that much, but it’d establish why the Sentinel 6 satellite attacked the TARDIS.

I mean, Sentinel 6 only appears in ‘Part One’ and the rest of the story is dedicated to Sea Base 4 defending it against the Silurians, the Sea Devils and the Myrka underwater as opposed to any outer space threats. Would the story be better by having outer space threats?

Janet Fielding does very well in reading the story. Of course, I know how the story turns out from watching the TV version, but it’s lovely to hear Janet’s enthusiasm when reading the audiobook. This is especially when she voices the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, Vorshak, etc.

Her voices for the Silurian characters and the Sea Devil characters are treated with distorted sound effects, matching to how they sound in the TV version. It’d be easy to think that characters like Icthar and Sauvix were voiced by somebody else other than Janet Fielding.

Icthar’s place in ‘Doctor Who’ history is somewhat confusing in my humble opinion. In the book, Icthar is identified multiple times by the Doctor and by Terrance Dicks that he’s the unnamed Silurian Scientist whom the Third Doctor met in the first ‘Silurians’ story.

That he’s the third member of the Silurian Triad, which included him as the Silurian Scientist as well as the Old Silurian, who led the shelter in the underground caves in Derbyshire, and the Young Silurian that usurped him. Mind you, this has been contradicted. 😐

In the novelization for the first ‘Silurians’ story ‘Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters’, the Silurian Scientist was named K’to, whilst the Old Silurian was named L’da and the Young Scientist was named Morka. I’m surprised those names weren’t in ‘Warriors of the Deep’.

I mean, ‘Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters’ was published in 1974. Didn’t Johnny Byrne, nor script editor Eric Saward, nor continuity advisor Ian Levine take into account that Malcolm Hulke named the three Silurians in the first ‘Silurians’ story’s Target novelization?

It’s made worse, as a later ‘Doctor Who’ story in book form called ‘The Scales of Injustice’ featuring the Third Doctor, Liz, the Brigadier, Mike Yates, Benton and U.N.I.T. had them encountering Silurians again and the Silurian Scientist is among them and he’s named Icthar in that.

Not K’to, as established by Malcom Hulke in the Target novelization ‘Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters’. Then again, we’re talking about classic ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelizations that don’t match the continuity of other stories in TV form as well as in other mediums. 😐

I mean, ‘The King’s Demons’ seems to take place before ‘Black Orchid’ in the ‘Black Orchid’ novelization. And there’s a mix-up of whether ‘The Sea Devils’ occurs before ‘Frontier In Space’ or if ‘Frontier In Space’ occurs before ‘The Sea Devils’ in both novelizations. 😐

It’s one of these things you have to accept as part of the norm regarding ‘Doctor Who’ when certain continuities don’t match with each other. Clearly no-one is paying attention on what came before in various mediums to clarify how certain ‘Doctor Who’ continuities go.

In the TV version of the story, it’s implied that the Sea Devils were hibernating in a bunker beneath the ocean floor. In the novelization however, it’s described they’ve been sleeping in the lower depths of the Silurian seacraft. I’m not entirely sure which version is better. 😐

Both are fine, but it’s clear Terrance Dicks didn’t want the Silurians to find the Sea Devils hibernating in a bunker beneath the ocean floor and instead have them in the Silurian seacraft. The Sea Devils’ length of inactivity is also stretched from hundreds of years to thousands.

It’s fascinating how Terrance establishes the backstory of Dr. Solow and Nilson’s characters and how they ended up being in the East Bloc when working undercover in Sea Base 4. It turns out Solow’s husband and parents were killed before this story occurred.

When she met Nilson, he convinced Solow about the philosophy of the East Bloc in that it was the answer to all of life’s problems. But in order to wipe out all suffering and injustice on Earth, the East Bloc would have to make sacrifices that might be unpleasant.

This is an aspect of the story that I enjoyed being explored in the Target novelization, as it wasn’t explored enough in the TV version. The visuals of the battles between the humans and the Sea Devils as well as the Myrka attacking the base sadly obscure that angle of the story.

It’s made clear in the novelization that Nilson is described as ‘a complete fanatic’. If anything, he’s more ruthless than the people he serves. It’s interesting how Nilson is developed as the semi-villain and I appreciate the tension-aspects of his character more.

In the Target novelization, the Myrka is described as being like a ‘sea dragon’, specially bred and adapted by the Silurians with cybernetic technology. This would match well to the dinosaur that appeared in the first ‘Silurians’ story, which the Silurians were controlling.

Like in the TV version, the Myrka electrocutes its victims. Except in the Target novelization, the Myrka attacks with a lash-like tail which can send people hurting across the room with its kinetic power alone. To me, that’s more effective compared to what’s in the TV story. 🙂

The Myrka is threatening and terrifying as a ‘Doctor Who’ monster in the novelization when people try to avoid being attacked by it. Plus, the death of Solow when coming across the Myrka in the sea base is better handled in the novelization, as she doesn’t do a karate chop on it. 😀

Seriously, what was that? It’s one of the stupidest moments in the TV story itself. Thank goodness Terrance Dicks didn’t replicate that in the novelization. I also like that Janet recreated Ingrid Pitt’s Polish tones when voicing Solow in the audiobook, which is very touching.

As far as the Doctor is concerned, the Myrka is ‘almost invincible’ when encountering it in the sea base. I also like that the novelization clarified that Tegan’s foot wasn’t damaged when she found herself trapped under a toppled airlock door ‘by a kind of freak accident’.

I mean, that door could have easily crushed Tegan’s foot if it was depicted as a real door instead of looking like a fake one when Janet Fielding, Peter Davison and everyone were filming that scene on set. It’s a relief Terrance made sure Tegan wasn’t thoroughly injured. 😀

In the Target novelization, Icthar saying that,

Icthar: Twice we offered the hand of friendship to these ape-descended primitives. And twice, we were treacherously attacked. Our people slaughtered. It will not happen again.

…is rewritten as being the Doctor having twice tried in vain to make peace. It’s a good rewrite compared to what’s in the TV story, as it matches to what’s been established in ‘The Silurians’ and ‘The Sea Devils’ with the Doctor trying to be a mediator between humanity and the reptiles.

Apparently, Icthar claiming the Silurians having twice ‘offered the hand of friendship’ to humanity is possibly explored in the ‘Doctor Who’ book story ‘The Scales of Injustice’. I’ve not read nor heard it yet, but I’ll have to check it out to find out more about that aspect of the story. 🙂

There was a rescue attempt by Turlough and Preston for the Doctor, Tegan and Bulic that’s retained by Terrance Dicks in the novelization compared to the TV story. The rescue attempt was cut from the TV story to emphasise Turlough’s cowardice and selfishness. 😐

Whilst I appreciate Turlough’s deceptiveness in the TV series following his introduction in ‘The Black Guardian Trilogy’, I’m glad the rescue attempt is included in the novelization. It establishes Turlough has morals, especially concerning his journey aboard the TARDIS.

Apparently, the confrontation between the Doctor’s party and Sauvix in the sea base’s chemical stores plays out differently in the novelization compared to TV. In the TV story, Bulic attacks Sauvix with the Hexachromite gas. In the novelization, Preston attacks him.

Preston shoots ones of the cylinders with her blaster-rifle as she dies. I’m not sure if that makes the scene better compared to what’s in the TV version, but it emphasises Preston making the effort in giving the Doctor a chance to overthrow the Silurians and the Sea Devils.

There was a character called Paroli, played by James Coombes, in the TV version of the story, where he’s mostly a voiceover. In the novelization, Paroli is entirely omitted and some of his dialogue and role is given to various unnamed guards featured in the story. 🙂

In the novelization, it’s made clear that Vorshak was shot when he shielded the Doctor from being fired upon by Icthar in the story’s closing moments. It’s also interesting that Vorshak sat in a command chair aboard the base, whereas on TV, he was mostly standing.

Apparently, the Doctor removes his marine guard disguise after surrendering his gun to Vorshak. This is a contrast to the TV version, as the Doctor stayed in the guard’s uniform until the end of the story. I suppose Terrance Dicks didn’t like the marine guard outfits. 😀

The novelization does conclude on a bitter note with the Doctor saying, “There should have been another way.” Except this time, there are survivors aboard the sea base, and it’s established that Bulic will have to assume command whilst the TARDIS is being repaired.

This is reassuring in the knowledge that not everyone died aboard the sea base as Turlough seemed to imply in both the TV version and novelization. Interesting that no epilogue was provided to establish whether things were explained to the base’s rescue team.

I’ve greatly enjoyed checking out the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ Target novelization, both in prose form as well as on audio. It was great to read it as a PDF download sent to me by Wolfie via email and I enjoyed hearing Janet Fielding’s reading of the story on audio CD. 🙂

Do I think ‘Warriors’ works better in Target novelization/audiobook form compared to the TV version? Yes, I do think it works better. It’s been great to check out Terrance Dicks’ take on the story and how enthusiastic he is when writing it as it involves Silurians and Sea Devils.

It’s clear how Terrance is into the futuristic Cold War scenario when translating Johnny Byrne’s TV scripts into prose form. I like how he homes in on the situation and the characters featured aboard Sea Base 4 and ties it to the previous two ‘Beneath the Surface’ TV stories.

Would I say ‘Warriors of the Deep’ would have worked better on TV if more time and budget was spent on it? Absolutely. But it would mean less lighting to make it tense and it would help to make the Myrka more menacing if the corridors of the sea base weren’t so overly lit. 😀

I can’t say the TV version of ‘Warriors’ is a winner for me, as it’s so easy to be distracted by some of production’s cheapness that overwhelm the aims of the story and its themes. But I’m glad I’ve read Terrance Dicks’ novelization to uncover that the story itself isn’t very bad.

I’ve enjoyed all of the Fifth Doctor era stories on TV, and when I come to regard ‘Warriors of the Deep’ as the worst instalment in Peter Davison’s era, it’s nothing to do with the story. It’s more to do with how its production values turned out, which I feel is a huge shame.

It’ll be interesting to see how ‘Warriors of the Deep’ as a Silurians and Sea Devils story will compare to the upcoming ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ spin-off series at the time of this review. Will it be better or will it be worse? We’ll have to wait and see. 🙂

Anyway, that’s my journey on the ‘Beneath the Surface’ trilogy in prose form completed. I’m very pleased I’ve checked out the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ Target novelization/audiobook at last. Hmm. Will ‘The Hungry Earth/’Cold Blood’ receive a Target novelization someday?

‘Doctor Who – Warriors of the Deep’ (Book) rating – 8/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – WARRIORS OF THE DEEP’ (AUDIO)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Venturing Deeper Into the Depths with Peter Davison

Here we are again with another abridged ‘Doctor Who’ audiobook! 🙂

After enjoying the 2023 unabridged Target novelization/audiobook of ‘Warriors of the Deep’ by Terrance Dicks, read by Janet Fielding, it’s fair to add more to the ‘Warriors’ experience by listening to the abridged audiobook of the novelization, which is read by Peter Davison.

I greatly enjoyed listening to the ‘Warriors’ abridged audiobook, read by Peter, in the ‘Tales From The TARDIS, Volume 2’ collection on Audible. It’s amazing that ‘Warriors’ was chosen to have an abridged audiobook, considering its reputation among fandom. 🙂

The abridged audiobook was originally released in June 1995. Like the ‘Planet of the Daleks’ audiobook before it, it contains two sides. Both Side A and Side B are 45 minutes each. They’re presented as two 45-minute tracks in ‘Tales From The TARDIS, Volume 2’. 🙂

I listened to the abridged ‘Warriors of the Deep’ audiobook over the course of two nights. Most of ‘Parts One and Two’ are on Side A whilst the rest of the story is on Side B. The cliffhanger moment for Side A occurs when the Myrka manages to break into Sea Base 4.

Had the Myrka breaking into Sea Base 4 been the cliffhanger moment for ‘Part Two’ instead of the Doctor and Tegan being trapped in the airlock with the Myrka, maybe it would been very dramatic. You’d have to overcome design issues with the Myrka, but still.

A fitting aspect of the abridged audiobook is that Jonathan Gibbs’ incidental music from the TV story is used throughout. In previous abridged audiobooks that I’ve listened to such as ‘The Curse of Peladon’, the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ incidental music is included.

Not sure why, as it’s a bizarre music choice to be included for ‘The Curse of Peladon’, but it’s not a problem for the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ abridged audiobook, as that’s where that music comes from in its TV counterpart. It was very refreshing and a relief for me to hear it.

Peter Davison provides a satisfying reading to ‘Warriors of the Deep’ in abridged audiobook form. I prefer the unabridged audiobooks where he reads ‘Castrovalva’, ‘Earthshock’ and ‘Time-Flight’, but his enthusiasm for ‘Warriors’ is evident throughout.

On reflection, Peter must have been a very busy actor, even in 1995, and was still able to find time to do an audiobook reading for this story, even for a cassette tape on two sides. I’d like to think Peter doesn’t mind ‘Warriors of the Deep’ as a story, despite its production values.

I did tilt my head when Peter referred to Icthar the Silurian as ‘Ic-thar’, as I assumed it was pronounced ‘Ict-tar’ like in the TV story and the unabridged audiobook read by Janet Fielding. I checked ‘Part Four’ of the TV story on BBC iPlayer to be sure of its pronunciation.

It’s not a huge deal and it’s not like when Matt Smith mispronounced ‘Metabellis III’ in ‘Hide’ as well as Jon Pertwee mispronouncing ‘Thals’ in the ‘Planet of the Daleks’ abridged audiobook. I do wonder though why some actors pronounce words differently from others.

There’s not much to talk about in terms of omissions in the abridged audiobook, as most of what’s read is as depicted in the TV story. Mind you. Maddox and Karina’s conversation in ‘Part One’ is omitted, which is a pity, as it’s one of my favourite moments in the story. 🙂

Also, the scene where the Doctor tells Nilson to stop his plans for the East Bloc when he’s revealed to be a traitor in ‘Part Three’ since the Silurians and the Sea Devils are important is omitted in the abridged audiobook. That felt to me as a very compelling scene in ‘Warriors’ itself.

A thing I’ve noticed about some of these abridged audiobooks of Target novelizations is that there’s no voice treatment for the actors when they’re performing the monsters. It wasn’t provided for Colin Baker when he voiced the Cybermen in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’. 😐

It wasn’t provided for Jon Pertwee when he voiced Daleks in ‘Planet of the Daleks’. And it’s not provided for Peter Davison when he voiced the Silurians and the Sea Devils in ‘Warriors of the Deep’. He provides fascinating tones for characters like Icthar and Sauvix in the story.

It doesn’t match to how the Silurians and Sea Devils sound in the TV story, nor does it sound like how Janet Fielding’s voice was treated when she read the Silurians and Sea Devils’ dialogue in the unabridged audiobook. But it’s an intriguing attempt, nevertheless.

Overall, the abridged ‘Warriors of the Deep’ audiobook was nice to check out. Peter Davison does well with reading the story on audio and it was nice to have Jonathan Gibbs’ incidental music accompanying the story compared to accompanying ‘The Curse of Peladon’.

‘Doctor Who – Warriors of the Deep’ (Audio) rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘Ringpullworld’ (Audio) For Tegan was ‘Ringpullworld’ (Audio) For Turlough was ‘Ringpullworld’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘Deep Blue’ (Book) For Tegan is ‘Deep Blue’ (Book) For Turlough is ‘Deep Blue’ (Book)
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