10 Huge Questions After Doctor Who: Legend Of The Sea Devils

5. How Did The Keystone Get Its Powers?

Doctor Who Legend of the Sea Devils Yaz
BBC

The big MacGuffin of the piece is the keystone, the treasure of the Flor De La Mar. Turns out the stone is Sea Devil technology with powers that are indistinguishable from magic. It’s like the Sea Devils’ version of today’s mobile phones, with multiple and unconnected functions and apps.

The Sea Devils have always had technology beyond human understanding at their disposal, even if the designs were never exactly convincing. The keystone might not have infinite powers, but when it can freeze time, move the poles, entomb living matter in stone, and function as a transmat, we can understand why Ji-Hun thinks it does.

Exactly how the Sea Devils managed to lose it in the first place isn’t revealed, but it’s another version of the alien technology in the wrong hands trope. Its primary function and original purpose is also never spelt out, but with powers like this it’s hard to believe that the Sea Devils would lay dormant for thousands of years and leave the Earth to humankind.

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Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.