Legend of the Sea Devils (TV story)

Legend of the Sea Devils was the 2022 Doctor Who Easter Special, the second special of its kind, following Planet of the Dead in 2009.

It re-introduced the Sea Devils, last seen on television in 1984's Warriors of the Deep, into the BBC Wales revival series. Unlike the 2010 redesign of the Sea Devils' cousins, the Silurians, in The Hungry Earth, these returning enemies remained largely faithful to their original designs, with CGI augmentations mostly allowing for a greater variety of expressions.

Synopsis
When the legendary pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao, alias "Madam Ching", awakens an antediluvian Sea Devil extremist, the Doctor's TARDIS is pulled off-course and Team TARDIS must try to work together with the historical rogue to save the entire Earth from global flood. But amidst the high-stakes, high-sea adventure, it soon becomes clear the stakes for everyone involved — even the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz — are much more personal than a legendary sunken treasure, or even the all-important Keystone...

Plot
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Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Dan Lewis - John Bishop
 * Ying Ki - Marlowe Chan-Reeves
 * Madam Ching - Crystal Yu
 * Chief Sea Devil - Craige Els
 * Ji-Hun - Arthur Lee
 * Ying Wai - David K.S. Tse
 * Sea Devils - Jon Davey, Simon Carew, Chester Durrant, Richard Price, Mickey Lewis, Andrew Cross

Uncredited cast

 * Lei Bao - TBA
 * Diane - Nadia Albina

Individuals

 * The Doctor invokes her eleventh incarnation by using his rally cry of, "Geronimo".
 * The Doctor tells Yaz of her wife, River Song, though mentions she was "a different man" during their marriage.

TARDIS

 * While underwater, the Doctor reinforces the oxygen bubble with an aquashield.

History

 * Madam Ching is after the lost treasure of Ji-Hun, known as the keystone. Ji-Hun gave the keystone to Lei Bao, whose family handed it down the generations.
 * The keystone is a plutonic crystal created by the Sea Devils.

Technology

 * Dan has an app on his mobile phone for identifying the constellations in the night sky.
 * The Sea Devils have a geomagnograph for measuring the current flow underwater, and a current regulator for controlling the flow.
 * The Sea Devils also employ orbital electron stripping to keep their sea creature base airtight, and algae to keep the microclimate under check.
 * The Sea Devils use hexo-toxic poisoning as a weapon.

Popular culture

 * The Doctor says Stephen King films, like history, are "never like the books".
 * The Doctor makes reference to Pimp My Ride, saying that the Sea Devils "really pimped [ Ji-Hun's] ride". Yaz reminds her that referencing the show in 1807 is an anachronism.

Story notes

 * This was the second Easter Special in Doctor Who history, following 2009's Planet of the Dead.
 * Legend of the Sea Devils was also the shortest Doctor Who special up to that point, with a running time of 48 minutes; the average length of a regular episode.
 * This episode was the first time that Chris Chibnall had his executive producer credit above Matt Strevens' credit. The entire Chibnall era, Matt Strevens was credited above Chris Chibnall as executive producer.
 * This was the first episode since Revolution of the Daleks to included the old BBC logo in the title sequence.
 * The sets for this episode were particularly ambitious and included a full sized pirate ship. Executive producer Matt Strevens said that they were "probably" the biggest sets that had ever been made for the show, while Mandip Gill said they were the biggest sets she ha ever worked on.
 * This was the first episode of the Chibnall era that played the "Coming Soon" trailer before the end credits. This is also the first episode of the Chibnall era not to include the Doctor Who theme over the "Coming Soon" trailer; a special rendition of the Thirteenth Doctor's theme by Segun Akinola was played instead.
 * John Friedlander is credited as originally designing the Sea Devils from the story The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep.
 * With overnight ratings of 2.2 million, this story is officially the story with the lowest on the day viewing figures since Battlefield in 1989.

Ratings

 * Overnights: 2.20 million
 * Consolidated: 3.47 million

Myths

 * The Sea Devils' pet sea creature was a Myrka. This was proven false, it was called the Hua-Shen.
 * was going to appear at the end of the episode as a cliffhanger. This was proven false.

Filming locations
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Production errors

 * The end credits misspelt Malcolm Hulke's name as "Malcom Hulke".

Continuity

 * The TARDIS team are on the hunt for the Flor de la Mar, just as the Doctor had planned to do after escaping the Dalek Executioners. (TV: Eve of the Daleks)
 * Yaz recalls the Doctor's intention to take the TARDIS to sentient beaches of San Munrohvar. (TV: Eve of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor tells Yaz that she's crossed paths with the Sea Devils "once or twice". (TV: The Sea Devils, Warriors of the Deep) However, one account posits that Yaz has also encountered them once before as well. (COMIC: Alternating Current)
 * Dan claims he is "forty-two". However, he is seemingly discounting the four years he was trapped in the 1900s with Yaz and Eustacius Jericho, as he noticeably stumbles before saying "two". (TV: Survivors of the Flux, Eve of the Daleks)
 * The TARDIS is able to sustain being underwater with the doors open without flooding, (TV: Listen) due to an oxygen bubble. (TV: The Runaway Bride, The Beast Below, Oxygen)
 * The Doctor gets angry at Sin Ji-Hun for killing an enemy after they had been dealt with in a non-lethal manner, as she had with Karl Wright and General Logan. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, War of the Sontarans)
 * Yaz and Dan recall their earlier conversation regarding Yaz's romantic feelings for the Doctor, with Yaz correctly guessing that Dan told the Doctor about her crush on her. (TV: Eve of the Daleks)
 * Diane gets back in touch with Dan, who remembers that they were "not at where [they] were at" when they last spoke. (TV: The Vanquishers)
 * The Doctor is aware that her time is running short. (TV: The Vanquishers)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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Digital releases
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