Now, before you go throwing potatoes in the comments section (hey, its your monitor), this isnt necessarily a better story than some listed below. But thats only narrative wise. And to be perfectly honest, there are too few stories from the early eras which are unequivocally called good. Plot holes galore and undeveloped characters amass, one still loves early Doctor Who for what it is - an often cheesy, sometimes campy, strangely entertaining, pseudo sci-fi-ish, rarely mind blowing, but all in all good fun 60s TV show. Now if you exclude some of the shows more serious highlights, most of which are found and not includable here, Fury from the Deep gives you exactly your moneys worth of mid-Troughton era Doctor Who. If the said episode was found, of course. The story isnt any different from the usual aforementioned "base under siege" adventures. However, the main reason why this so high up is because it's probably the creepiest of all black and white episodes of Doctor Who. None of that eeewwww, Cybermen come out of plastic foil, lets hide behind the sofa stuff to scare kiddies, either. Not that theres anything wrong with that but Fury from the Deep seemed to culminate this eras trend of pushing the limits of horror within a family show. The base threatened here takes the form of a gas rig and the "sieger" takes the form of intelligent seaweed that possesses people. Cheesy, yes, but the possessed engineers represent an efficient scare factor and you only have to watch one tiny surviving clip to get shivers down your spine. The sound department did a tremendous job by adding obsessive heart beats that announce incoming threats to the characters. Otherwise, the sea plant itself is a source of innocuous stoner humour, especially in the lines of the Doctor who keeps talking about people with gas masks being under the influence of the weed. The historical importance of this episode comes with the debut of the sonic screwdriver and it may come as a surprise to many nu-Whovians that its actually used to unscrew screws. It also marks the last appearance of Deborah Watling as companion Victoria with an emotional send-off thats teased throughout its six parts. Basically, its one underrated episode and finding at least some parts would bring about some reconsidering. Still, it wouldnt bring fans as much joy as finding...
Adrian Serban lives in Bucharest, Romania where he has studied screenwriting and film criticism. But it's not all about artsy European dramas for him, as he's also a fan of horrors, kung-fu flicks and sci-fi films of all eras. Monty Python and Doctor Who are two British institutions that changed his life for the better. Or so he thinks.
