YMMV / Doctor Who 2022 ES "Legend of the Sea Devils"

• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A common view is that the episode doesn't have much going for it... except for reciprocal, but tragic, Doctor/Yaz.
  • Some longer-term fans were also excited for the return of the Sea Devils.
• Narm:
  • The scene of the Doctor and Yaz in the Sea Devil base contains a moment where the Chief Sea Devil aggressively exclaims, "Quiet!", to silence the Doctor. Because of the line delivery, or sound quality, or a combination of the two, some misheard the line as him calling the Doctor a "Twat!"
  • The Doctor's warning about the Sea Devils having poisoned weapons is, "Don't let the swords touch your skin!" DUH!
• So Okay, It's Average: The special has the look and feel of a Doctor Who story, but it doesn't convey narrative flow very well. The confusing mishmash of scenes feels unbalanced with how much story there really is at the heart of it. It narrowly avoids being an Excuse Plot just to bring the Sea Devils back by having some noteworthy character interaction and likable cast. It's suspected by some fans that the unusually short runtime for a special means that it was cut down at short notice. Some have also commented that it would've been better suited as a filler episode in the middle of a regular season, but being drummed up as a major special squeezed between a New Year's one with Daleks and the impending regeneration BBC Centennial caused it to feel particularly lacking.
• Special Effects Failure: While the costumes for the Sea Devils look good, the obvious CG facial movements added to them do not. A lot of the time, they look like the footage was just mushed around willy-nilly with the Photoshop warp tool.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Sea Devil costumes manage to be a perfect blend of Classic Series style and New Series effects budget, faithfully recreating the original look while being updated to look more realistic.

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