‘Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep’ Recap

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the ‘Doctor Who’ animated special; ‘Fury from the Deep’.

It is definitely safe to say, that Doctor Who is a series that has produced a prolific number of episodes. Because its ability to keep the character going via regeneration over the past fifty-plus years, has allowed for countless and powerful stories to take place. So many in fact, that some of them have been lost throughout the years. For syndication and streaming and home video simply were not available in the early days of this series, and that sadly allowed for the master tapes of some of these stories to be purged in order to make room in the BBC’s various storage facilities. But thankfully, technology and ingenuity are helping to bring those ‘lost episodes’ back to life, as evidenced by last night’s special broadcast of the long-lost tale, ‘Fury From the Deep’.

​For the audio of this six-part serial survived the original broadcast, but the video did not, motivating the network to restore it via animation, just as they did with their two-part presentation of ‘The Faceless Ones’ and well… it’s a wonderful thing they brought this story back to life, since it is quite the quality adventure. For this story, saw the Second Doctor and Jamie and Victoria arrive in ‘modern-day’ England to investigate some strange goings on at the ESGO gas complex. Because the pressure at all the nearby rigs and in the tubes was dropping and the odd sound of a heartbeat from within those very tubes, motivated the Doctor to learn more about this place, and what he learned was stunning to say the least.

Because it turned out that a strange and sentient seaweed near the complex, believed its time had come to rule the world. And to top it off, it figured out how to take control of men’s minds and of course, it was up to the Doctor and his friends to stop this seaweed before it conquered all of mankind and well… there are several reasons as to why this particular tale was so worth the audience’s while. First and foremost, because of the fact that it actually sees the Doctor struggle for a change. For more often than not, he or she always has a fast solution up their sleeve, one that allows for them to be victorious in a prompt and decisive manner. But here, Doctor Number Two is at a loss for a better part of this tale, to the point where it seems as though the situation is going to end badly for planet Earth. 

---

Something that is made possible by way of some quality writing. Because the mystery of the seaweed creatures is revealed in a slow-burning fashion. Allowing for these creatures to take the Doctor and everyone at the ESGO facility by surprise and as an added bonus, the mystique surrounding these creatures also adds incredible tension to this tale. Because we simply don’t know who is under the seaweed’s control until late in the story, adding a real sense of worry and concern that this sea bound creature might strike and take out the Doctor at any moment and that is brilliant, quite frankly. For it helps to up the stakes by creating a genuine sense of hopelessness in this tale, and that is also a rarity to find in this particular franchise and it truly invests the viewer in this story.
​
But while The Doctor is of course victorious in saving planet Earth from a great evil once again, the heavy nature of this tale doesn’t end once the monsters are sent into defeat. Because this is a story that also features the exit of Victoria from the series. Something that she opts to do after taking a little time to realize just how dangerous traveling with a Time Lord can be and really, what makes this so powerful and so poignant, is that it is always difficult to see a companion exit the series. Because the Doctor only selects the finest people to travel with him or her and anyone who ventures aboard the TARDIS is akin to family. Plus, it doesn’t help that Whovians everywhere are still trying to reconcile the fact that Ryan and Graham bid their goodbyes to the TARDIS and the Thirteenth Doctor, earlier this year.

But all current mourning aside, this really was quite the satisfying special when all is said and done. One that was wrought with quality drama and tension and a wonderful mystery to boot and well, now that this restored entry in the Second Doctor’s adventures has come to a close, one does have to wonder how long it will be before we get to enjoy another lost journey from this storied franchise. Because these revamped stories really are quite engrossing to say the least, and they serve as the perfect snack, in between new adventures and that means we will all be keeping an eye on social media in the weeks and months to come, to see when BBC America will alert us to another animated journey through time and space, aboard the TARDIS. Until next time.

---