Doctor Who Navigates Rocky Seas And Rockier Relationships In 'Legend Of The Sea Devils'

On a rain-drenched day in 1807, residents of a tiny Chinese village flee from Madame Ching (a fierce Crystal Yu), a real-life historical pirate queen, who stalks through the muddy streets looking for ... something. The villagers cower in fear until they realize that Madame Ching is approaching the statue of a monster at the center of the village, which Ying Wai (David K. S. Tse) warns will unleash a great demonic force. But she ignores him, determined to break open the statue, which she believes holds the key to the lost treasure of the Flor de la Mar, last seen on the ship of the legendary sailor Ji-Hun, whose ship disappeared hundreds of years ago. Ying Wai attempts to stop her but is knocked back by the force of something emerging from the statue: a Sea Devil.

Yes, Chibnall, who co-writes this episode with Ella Road, is bringing back another Classic Who monster. But unlike his previous successful revamps of the Daleks, the Cybermen (until that dumb "CyberMasters" twist), the Sontarans, and — during the Moffat era — the Silurians, the Sea Devils is his weakest effort of the bunch. First introduced in 1972, the Sea Devils were actually amphibious Earth reptiles from prehistoric times, who lived in technologically advanced societies long before humans. You know the whole deal — suspended animation, awaken to a new planet full of "land parasites" that they loathe, yadda yadda yadda. 

The goofy redesign of the lo-fi, but charmingly B-movie creatures is a little too cutesy, but worse yet, the Sea Devils are kind of boring. Which is a big feat when you consider the fact that they fly a glowing green pirate ship and fight with poison-tipped laser swords. But even the addition of a giant fanged mythical sea monster under their control — which swallows the TARDIS at one point like Monstro in "Pinocchio!" — can't make their nefarious plan more interesting. Which makes Chibnall and Road's decision to draw out the great mystery of the episode feel like the show is spinning its wheels in the worst way.

Meanwhile, Dan (who is finding himself in an odd-couple routine with a new guest star every episode) and Ying Ki have found their way on board Madame Ching's ship, which is oddly empty of a crew. Ying Ki has vowed to kill Madame Ching after she killed his father, but she catches the two of them whispering behind some barrels and strings them up before conceding to Dan's reasoning: she needs a crew to find the lost treasure of the Flor de la Mar. Her crew, including her two young sons, had been taken kidnapped and are being held for ransom in exchange for the treasure. Ying Ki's desire for vengeance softens when he sees how torn up Madame Ching is over her sons, and the trio band together to form an unusual crew — whose ship is soon besieged by a mythical sea monster, the Huasen, whose mammoth size and rows of fangs look truly impressive in an episode that looks oddly shoddy, even for "Doctor Who." (The choppily edited sword fight scene is frantic enough to give you a headache.)

It's clear that the crew is focusing their best VFX in select areas of the episode, like the Huasen and like the gorgeous shot of the ocean floor, where the Doctor and Yaz land the TARDIS in an attempt to locate Ji-Hun's shipwreck. The Doctor opens the doors to the TARDIS to gaze outside — protected by an oxygen bubble — at the wonders of the deep ocean, full of colorful aquatic life and shimmering light that is gorgeously rendered in CGI. "Not a bad date, am I?" she teases Yaz, earning an immediate reaction from the woman who had only recently come to terms with her budding feelings for the Doctor. And it's clear that the Doctor is not as oblivious to the feelings as she had previously implied — Thirteen had always been frustratingly opaque, but this brief glimpse of her awkward, unformed feelings is the best she's been! Unfortunately, with only one episode left in Whittaker's run, it's too little too late. And unfortunately, this episode doesn't give the beginnings of this romance nearly the screentime it deserves.

Not one to linger on these awkward feelings for too long, the Doctor interrupts the moment between her and Yaz with a "No ship, Sherlock" joke, which is actually quite literal: Ji-Hun's ship is missing. Just like that, the ocean floor crumbles and Huasen emerges from the abyss, swallowing the TARDIS into its gaping maw. The Doctor and Yaz discover that the Sea Devils control the Huasen, and within the giant sea monster is their hub and Ji-Hun's missing ship, which they have commandeered for their purposes. What are their purposes? To use the Keystone to flood the world and take it back from the humans. Typical sci-fi stuff. It's a very slim plot that is given more weight and mystery than it deserves, with the revelation of Ji-Hun's disappearance — he was captured by the Sea Devils and put in suspended animation — also met with little more than a shrug.

I've complained about this too many times before so I'll keep it short, but I think it all comes down to how frustratingly passive the Thirteenth Doctor is. Rarely a few steps ahead of things like her predecessors, Thirteen reacts more than does anything, and it's in the Doctor's spelling out of the plot (usually via exposition dumps, which seem even more laborious than usual this episode) on which the episode mystery hinges. And that's no way to play out a mystery, especially when it's one as thin as this.

• MVP of this episode: Dan the pirate-cosplaying history enthusiast, whose fake hook hand saved the day.
• I love the rare bits of internality from a mostly reactive Doctor, but I know that this tease of "something more" between the Doctor and Yaz only to pull it back will frustrate longtime "Thasmin" fans. Alas, it's the fate of nearly every "Doctor Who" romantic pairing to end in tragedy. If only this "romance" was more than just a bit of queer baiting and had evolved over the course of the three years that we've had Whittaker on our screens.