History Recap / DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsoftheDeep

* WimpFight: When the Myrka attacks one of the characters, she crosses her arms, twists to the side and performs some kind of half-hearted kick to the creature. It responds by trying to hug her to death. It was this footage, amongst others, that was later to be presented by BBC executives who wanted to axe Doctor Who.

* FiveBadBand:
** BigBad: Icthar.
** TheDragon: Scibus.
** EvilGenius: Tarpok.
** TheBrute: Sauvix.
** PetMonstrosity: The Myrka.

* GenderFlip: Doctor Solow and Preston were at first male, but Pennant Roberts charged their gender.

* FanNickname: "Warriors on the Cheap"

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* DownerEnding: See KillEmAll below, but it's not like one could interpret the events as being particularly happy either.

** TheDragon: Tarpok.
** EvilGenius: Scibus.

This serial was a nightmare behind the scenes. As production was starting up, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced a Parliamentary election, which resulted in the production for this serial losing two weeks to election coverage. Rather than cancel the serial and funnel the leftover money into the other productions that season, it was decided to damn the torpedoes and push ahead anyhow. [[TroubledProduction Many have said this was a mistake]], in retrospect.

* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: the Sea Devil taskforce Elite Group One armor were similar to samurai (especially the helmet.)

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: but "there should have been another way."

Mild panic ensues, but the Doctor is able to drop the TARDIS off somewhere mildly safer: an undersea military nuclear missile launch base known as Sea Base 4, also currently under threat of nuclear attack. The Cold War has somehow started up again by the year 2084, [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp or maybe it's still going]]. The best we get from the Doctor is that "two power blocs" are engaged in a Cold War of sorts, but the entire story remains deliberately vague about it all. (The novelization, penned by longtime ''Doctor Who'' author and former script editor Creator/TerranceDicks, goes into more depth: the two power blocs are, indeed, split into East and West.)

Meanwhile, old Doctor Who enemies [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians the Silurians]] and their sea-cousins [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E3TheSeaDevils the Sea-Devils]] are waking up from a long rest. They're now also calling themselves "Silurians" and "Sea Devils", despite both those terms having been made up by the Doctor (and despite "Silurian" being technically wrong anyway, as the Doctor had already pointed out years before). One of the Silurians, Icthar, is in charge as one of the remaining survivors from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians the last time]] the Doctor ran into them. (Again dipping into the novelization, Terrence Dicks confirms this in his version of the story with a few added scenes.) However, time has not been kind to Icthar, or the others in his charge, as the Silurians now mumble incoherently with a [[ThirdEye little flashing light]] to tell us who is talking to whom. The Sea Devils, meanwhile, [[EvilSoundsRaspy whisper menacingly]]... while seemingly bobbing about with their heads tilted to one side. (As Janet Fielding says in the commentary, it always looks like they're going "...you wha?") The Silurians and Sea-Devils have plans and these plans involve Sea Base 4.

* AllThereInTheManual: In the novelisation:
** Tegan's foot is undamaged when trapped under the heavy door "by a kind of freak accident".
** Ichtar is clearly identified as the unnamed Silurian previously encountered by the Third Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians Doctor Who and the Silurians]]".
** An attempted rescue of the Doctor by Turlough and Preston that was cut from the televised version is retained.
** The world of 2084 is explored in detail.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: Maybe averted since we're never explicitly told much of anything about either of the power blocs, just that there's two of them. The novel pretty heavily implies that the power blocs originate from the Cold War, however.

* ExtyYearsFromNow

* OlderThanTheyThink: And some people thought that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon "Aliens of London"]] was the first time that ''Series/DoctorWho'' had a fart joke in it...

* RecycledScript: The plot bears striking similarities to the final First Doctor story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]". Both feature the Doctor and his companions accidentally arriving at an isolated military base and being mistaken for spies, and in both stories the Doctor's warnings go unheeded until the base is besieged by an alien threat. In both there is a section of the story where the alien invaders seize the bridge and the Doctor is forced by circumstances to stand by without interfering for a time.

* GenderFlip: Solow was originally a man.

* TroubledProduction: As covered above.

Mild panic ensues, but the Doctor is able to drop the TARDIS off somewhere mildly safer: an undersea military nuclear missile launch base known as Sea Base 4, also currently under threat of nuclear attack. The Cold War has somehow started up again by the year 2084, [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp or maybe it's still going]]. The best we get from the Doctor is that "two power blocs" are engaged in a Cold War of sorts, but the entire story remains deliberately vague about it all. (The novelization, penned by longtime Doctor Who author and former script editor Terrance Dicks, goes into more depth: the two power blocs are, indeed, split into East and West.)

* TakeAThirdOption: The Doctor ''tries'' this. [[{{Understatement}} It doesn't turn out well.]]

Meanwhile, old Doctor Who enemies [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians the Silurians]] and their sea-cousins [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E3TheSeaDevils the Sea-Devils]] are waking up from a long rest. They're now also calling themselves "Silurians" and "Sea Devils", despite both those terms having been made up by the Doctor (and despite "Silurian" being technically wrong anyway, as the Doctor had already pointed out years before). One of the Silurians, Icthar, is in charge is one of the remaining survivors from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians the last time]] the Doctor ran into them. (Again dipping into the novelization, Terrence Dicks confirms this in his version of the story with a few added scenes.) However, time has not been kind to Icthar, or the others in his charge, as the Silurians now mumble incoherently with a [[ThirdEye little flashing light]] to tell us who is talking to whom. The Sea Devils, meanwhile, [[EvilSoundsRaspy whisper menacingly]]... while seemingly bobbing about with their heads tilted to one side. (As Janet Fielding says in the commentary, it always looks like they're going "...you wha?") The Silurians and Sea-Devils have plans and these plans involve Sea Base 4.

[[caption-width-right:344: Cue [[StockSoundEffects sad trombone]].]]

* PantomimeAnimal: The Myrka is played by two dudes (actually the same guys as in ''{{Rentaghost}}'') in an unfinished costume wet with paint. It... doesn't get pulled off well.

* NotImportanttoThisEpisodeCamp: Kamelion, indeed.

-->-- The Doctor, and pretty much everyone who worked on this serial

* DirtyCoward: Turlough

--> '''The Doctor:''' I sometimes wonder why I like the people of this miserable planet so much.'