N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Has there ever been a more apposite last line in Doctor Who than in Warriors of the Deep.

“There should have been another way.”

The Doctor, Warriors of the Deep: Part Four

In fairness, you have to feel a little bit for Johnny Byrne. Asked to bring back Omega and Tegan as well as fit Amsterdam in as a location for the the twentieth anniversary season, in Warriors of the Deep he’s given the task of bringing back the Silurians and the Sea Devils in a studio-bound season opener. As with Arc of Infinity — perhaps even to a greater degree here — what ends up on screen isn’t necessarily the best representation of what was on the page. (Oh, it was ever thus in Doctor Who.)

This should’ve been a claustrophobic, gripping, Troughton-esque base-under-siege story — the Doctor even says ‘When I say run … ‘ — and, for a couple of episodes, it just about holds it together (despite its almost blinding brightness). But once the Myrka appears and the actual siege itself begins, it rapidly loses what tension it had.

I’m not going to dwell on the obvious problems of the lumbering Myrka or speculate what Ingrid Pitt was trying to achieve by karate-kicking it. In my mind I see the Myrka rampaging through the base like a Rathtar. It may well be Doctor Who‘s most badly-realised monster, but in a way it’s not the worst culprit here. I find the sloth-like siege to be far more excruciating.

Peter Davison himself nails the problem in DVD extra The Depths, commenting that it’s as if in the future, we’ve reverted to fighting battles by simply politely lining up to be shot. His follow-up remark that there was ‘no effort at all for anyone to hide’ made me laugh so hard I nearly wept. It’s funny because it’s true, as Homer (Simpson) would say.

It’s a shame. There’s a good story buried in this overlit-base-under-slow-siege tale. There should, indeed, have been another way.