Doctor Who - Warriors of the Deep by Terrance Dicks

Published: August 1984

Edition read: Target first, 1984

Coolest Cover: Andrew Skilleter- simple but devastatingly effective.

Childhood Recollections: This is another one where I can’t honestly say that my hardback copy was come by in entirely legitimate circumstances. It does however have a rather wonderful autograph from Johnny Byrne inside.

Ramblings: There are perhaps few stories which illustrate better the potential for a story to falter badly between the conception, script and execution. As the vanguard of the post-’Five Doctors’ revamp, it fell to ‘Warriors’ to combine the revival of popular monsters from the series’ past with a darker and rather more edgy approach to the subject matter and the end result, as is well known, combines the atmospheric and the risible in roughly equal measure. This, though, is a Terrance Dicks adaptation, and Dicks’s skill in knitting together elements which seem to be pulling in opposite directions was by this time finely honed.

To begin with, the well-intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful visual aspects of the televised production are dispensed with. So no weird eye make-up, a Myrka with fangs and Solow is kicking out at the Myrka in an attempt to force her way past it. In fact, it’s Solow who comes most to life, as Dicks emphasises the effect of Nilson’s ideological fanaticism on her, as well as her ultimate disgust at his methods. Unfortunately in order to achieve this, Dicks has to jettison something of the original story’s ambiguity; here, Sea Base Four is part of the West Bloc and the East Bloc is the enemy. It’s an unfortunate loss of the original story’s subtlety and thrusts the novelisation back into the context of the mid-1980s and although it may have seemed obvious at the time, it does mean that it’s a level of complexity lost. On the other hand, Dicks is clearly relishing the opportunity to write for the Silurians and Sea Devils after their original stories were adapted by Malcolm Hulke, and it’s interesting that in contrast to received fan opinion, he identifies Icthar not with the belligerent Young Silurian but with the Silurian Scientist (last seen being hit by a large chunk of Derbyshire), which makes the reptiles’ adoption of a more warlike policy all the more significant.

The treatment of the regulars is briskly effective rather than insightful, although it’s clear that Dicks enjoyed writing Turlough and captures the Fifth Doctor’s line in slow-burning irony well. Indeed, it’s almost as if Dicks was revitalised by the re-appearance of enemies from his own era of the series’ run and by the opportunity to make more of a Malcolm Hulke story of the scripts. The straightforward structure and downbeat ending are retained- if anything, because Dicks is so good at telling you what’s happening and what people are thinking and feeling, the build-up to the climax feels stronger and more natural. The ideas in Johnny Byrne’s original script are, by and large, easily done justice and on balance it’s a stronger entry in the Fifth Doctor adaptations, not least because Dicks draws out the strong, traditional base-under-siege story and fills in some of the background which the televised story ignored.