Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3410 in DVD
• Brand: BBC
• Released on: 2008-01-14
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 412 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bringing together the trio of adventures featuring Doctor Who’s most famous underwater foes, the Beneath The Surface boxset has Sea Devils, Silurians, and adventures from both the Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison eras.

It’s perhaps logical to get past the weakest of the three adventures in this set first, and that honour falls to the Peter Davison story, Warriors of the Deep. It’s not too bad though, even if it does display some of the silliness and budget constraints that helped define 1980s Doctor Who. It’s still fun, however, and worth a spin.

The two Pertwee adventures are terrific, though, and the real highlights of the set. The Silurians finds Jon Pertwee relatively new to the role, and blessed with an adventure that boasts excitement, adventure and a very good script. But our favourite is nonetheless the second story, The Sea Devils, which also brings Roger Delgado’s take on The Master into the mix. It’s a tense, involving adventure, and one of the finest of the Jon Pertwee area. That’s not something to be said lightly, either.

As is the norm with Doctor Who special edition DVDs, the set is then backed up with some terrific archive extras, along with commentary tracks and documentaries that all but justify the asking price alone. That you get two strong adventures and one reasonable one into the mix as well makes this one of the best classic Doctor Who boxsets released to date. Highly recommended. --Simon Brew

DVD Description
All three "Silurians"/"Sea Devils" stories in one quality box set. Two classic stories starring Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor, plus a third story starring Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor.

Extras include three Commentaries, Isolated Music, Photo Galleries, Subtitles, Subtitle Production Notes and Radio Times billings. Plus trailers, "Making Of" Documentaries, Special Effects, Music, Location, and Restoration featurettes.

Synopsis
The BENEATH THE SURFACE COLLECTION brings together three feature-length DOCTOR WHO adventures. Includes 'The Sulurians', 'The Sea Devils' and 'Warriors Of the Deep'.

Customer Reviews

"This is our planet. We were here before man..."
A bit of a mixed bag this boxset, featuring all the appearances in DR WHO of the Silurians and Sea Devils - the super-intelligent reptiles who ruled the Earth millions of years before the appearance of homo sapiens. However, the wealth of extras makes it a must have for the serious fan and especially so if you like your WHO Pertwee-flavoured.

DR WHO & THE SILURIANS, originally transmitted in 1970 is the strongest of the 3 serials. A dark, morally-ambiguous QUATERMASS inspired tale that improves on repeated viewings, even if Carey Blyton's weird musical score (using the medieval crumhorn) can sound a bit funny first time around. With an excellent cast including Fulton Mackay, Peter Miles and Geoffrey Palmer this often absorbing and intense tale of Jon Pertwee's Doctor trying to make peace between humanity and the Silurians living in Derbyshire caves is arguably one of the most grown-up scripts DR WHO had attempted at that time. Production values are mostly high (give or take the occasional dinosaur) and Timothy Combe's direction is excellent. The Silurians largely succeed here despite the obvious rubber suits, because of the low lighting and their bizarrely distorted voices. If the story has a fault, it is that it is probably an episode or 2 too long, so probably best not to view all 7 installments in one go. The superb documentary: WHAT LIES BENEATH, charting the fictional, political and social influences on the serial enhances the viewing experience and features not only surviving cast and crew members, but an unusual appearance from Roy Hattersley! Those interested in the more conventional "Making of..." extra are also catered for by GOING UNDERGROUND.

THE SEA DEVILS from 1972 is one of the most popular stories from the Pertwee period and though more comic-strip in tone and less weighty than its prequel, still entertains. The Sea Devils, turtle-headed marine cousins of the Silurians, are beautifully designed; possessed of spooky hissing voices and looking great especially when emerging from the ocean to menace humanity. But the story actually belongs to Roger Delgado's Master. Here, trying to stir up a war, the evil Time Lord has one of his finest hours. Whether viciously fencing with the Doctor, impersonating a Naval officer or shrewdly manipulating Clive Morton's Colonel Trenchard he proves why the character was so popular. The location filming, use of real naval hardware and personnel adds a welcome touch of authenticity to this action-heavy tale. Again the extras are a treat for fans (HELLO SAILOR sees an enthusiastic cast and crew looking back with obvious affection) and include some amateur camera footage from the time of the location filming.

In utter contrast to both of the above is the rather woeful WARRIORS OF THE DEEP from 1984 starring Peter Davison. The extras on this disc show a cast who are either ruefully amused by the production's shortcomings or possibly still slightly traumatised by the experience. A lack of studio time and an inadequate budget clearly did not help matters here, but add the embarrassment of ("Oh no!") the highly unconvincing Myrka creature and you have a minor disaster. Not only this, but the stiffer, redesigned Silurian and Sea Devil costumes simply don't work (you can see jeans and T-Shirts poking through the gaps in some shots) and the cast are far from sparkling. Tom Adams' Commander Vorshak is particularly wooden (witness the ludicrous moments of his death) and the less said about Ingrid Pitt the better. Sadly, all of these problems mask the good qualities of the story. The script, when taken on its own merits isn't that bad - a different cast along with more time and thought given to the show's realisation might have created a decent little yarn. Also Davison and Janet Fielding act their socks off. The last line: "There should have been another way!" is highly appropriate.

If you can overlook or even forgive WARRIORS OF THE DEEP's many faults (some people might love the silliness of the Myrka) then there is much to enjoy here. Commentaries, photo galleries etc are all included in the package and the newly remastered SILURIANS with its more sharply defined picture made this fanboy's month.

Two out of three ain't bad
Another Who boxset so here we go...

The Silurians. Classic Pertwee and possibly one of the darkest stories of that era. The real strength of this story lies in the beautiful parallels between Mankind and the Silurians. The Doctor and the elder Silurian leader have the wisdom & know that the two races can happily co-exist, but unfortunately they are backed up by headstrong idiots who kill first, ask questions later. This is one of Pertwee's finest performances & he is ably backed up by a strong supporting cast, especially the joy that is Fulton MacKay (who of course so nearly became the Doctor himself). The Silurian costumes are a bit clunky but do the job, their presence strengthened by their hyped-uped somewhat demented voices. To top it all off, no-one can say Silurian like Pertwee.

Sea Devils. Amazing. It is right up there with Spearhead for best Pertwee storyline. The most striking aspect is the Sea Devils themselves. Blimey, they could SHIFT. How often has a Who monster been turned into a laughing stock because it drags itself along slower than a one legged tortoise? Not these guys! They are a genuine threat and look fantastic, especially when rising out of the sea & raiding the naval base. The co-operation of the navy and the huge amount of location filming really help add an air of authenticity to the story, whilst the doorless 2CVs & oddly uniformed soldiers just give that bizzarre & uncomfortable slant. Again, the cast is flawless, but Roger Delgado still manages to stand out with a captivating performance. And then there's the soundtrack. Yes, insane power electronics that out-weird half the Warp back catalogue! Just the complete Who package.

Warriors of the Deep. Yes, the Davison story lets the side down YET again. Davison himself is fine, but the script is weak & uninspiring and the whole batch of episodes are just, well, BEIGE! There are huge continuity errors for starters. The big offender runs as follows... In the first Pertwee story, the Silurians don't call themselves Silurians, it is merely the name of the period they are believed to orignate from. Indeed, in Sea Devils the Doctor informs Jo that Silurians was probably the wrong name to give them. So why are they waddling around in Warriors declaring themselves Silurians? Ditto the Sea Devils. Again, this is merely the nickname given to them by unsuspecting nautical casualties. The costume update is rubbish, the Seas Devils especially now lumber uninspiringly around the place, and the Silurians are too rubbery. Then there's the "legendary" Myrka. Yes, it really is a pantomime horse manned by the men who were Dobbin in Rentaghost. The cast is pretty uninspired, but as with many Davison stories they've not got the material to work with. Furniture advertising legend Tom Adams does do a solid job as Vorshack, but he's the only one that sticks in the memory past the end titles. BOO!

Extras maintain the usual Who standards, laods of in depth insightful documentaries & little oddities. Well worth investing in for The Silurians, Sea Devils and a free doorstop.

What a mistaka to Myrka!
I am going to begin with the middle story in this sequence as it's definitely my favourite story of the three included here.
The Sea Devils is a classic slice of Jon Pertwee `Who'. It includes a lengthy sword fight between The Doctor and The Master, a jet-ski chase, well-realised aliens, hypnotism, mysterious disappearances and a climactic gun battle; these elements more than make-up for any deficiencies in the story. There are few deficiencies but two that spring to mind are the frankly bizarre `spacey' sounds used in the incidental music and the under-use of a great `monster'.
The story opens with The Master finally incarcerated in a maximum security prison on Earth. At the same time, boats are mysteriously sinking and strange burn marks are found in their hulls. Meanwhile, The Doctor goes to visit his old foe and finds him seemingly repentant - a great scene is that of The Master in his cell watching an episode of 70s `mice on the moon' programme `The Clangers'. Although the prisoner seems completely subdued, the governor of the prison is extremely shifty and it appears that The Master is not quite as docile as he seems...
This is one of the series' last attempts at a six-parter and in many ways this has to be a good thing. As much action and intrigue as there undoubtedly is, the story inevitably feels padded-out and there are times when I found myself willing it on. The eponymous creatures are well-realised and the shots of them emerging from the sea are a triumph equal to that of The Daleks arriving in Central London in their mid-60s heyday. DVD extras for this story include the usual PDF Radio Times listings and continuities plus `Hello Sailor' - a cast and crew making-of documentary plus a prototype video diary from one of the sailors who was used as an extra and a preview of `The Time meddler', the next scheduled release from 2Entertain.

The Silurians is chronologically the first in this thematically linked set and rates for me as more of a solid if uninspiring entry into the series. This goes one better than The Sea Devils with a whopping 7 episodes and clearly sags in the middle as a result. Notable for being the only story to have `Doctor Who and...' in the title, due to a mistake made by the people doing the title cards, this was the second story in Jon Pertwee's first series, shown between January and March 1970. The story starts with inexplicable power losses at an underground research centre, which UNIT and its new scientific adviser are called in to investigate. It gets even more entertaining when what appears to be a dinosaur is seen in the underground tunnels. Then we learn that the work at the research centre has awakened an ancient race of intelligent reptiles who ruled the Earth millions of years ago. They went into hibernation when it appeared that an asteroid was going to collide with the Earth. As it happened, the asteroid took up a new job as the Moon rather than destroying the planet, and in the absence of the reptiles, humans evolved and took over. Now the reptiles are awake, and they want to take their planet back from those `nasty apes'. There are some effectively dark and gloomy scenes in the creatures' underground lair and even the dinosaur is okay - it certainly looks better than the one in the much later `Invasion of the dinosaurs'! DVD extras include `What Lies Benath', a slightly tongue-in-cheek documentary about the way in which this story was influenced by the politics of the time, `Going Underground', a look at the difficulties of shooting a TV show underground and a more techy piece about the way in which this story went from black and white to colour.

Finally we come to Warriors of the Deep...in truth a much maligned Fifth Doctor story that brings together both The Silurians and The Sea-devils. Memorable (unfortunately) for unarguably the series' lamest attempt at a monster - The Myrka - ostensibly a fearsome sea creature that electrocutes its enemies but in reality that pantomime horse from Rentaghost with some green paint and seaweed laid on! Only the infamous `Taran Wood Beast' rivals this monstrosity for sheer crapness - and I'm speaking as a die-hard fan!
More overtly political than many of the shows' stories, this is set in the late-21st Century and features two warring `blocs' under the sea. Featuring Hammer Horror stalwart Ingrid Pitt as Doctor Solow and `The Onedin Lines'' Tom Adams as Vorshak, The TARDIS crew (The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough) arrive on the base and The Doctor recognises a `Silurian battle cruiser' approaching. Inevitably The Doctor becomes the meat in a human/reptile sandwich (again) and eventually has to sacrifice his principles in order to save the day.
Overall the story is okay but several glaring continuity errors and rushed production (forced by Margaret Thatcher's calling of a parliamentary election - so The Myrka is her fault, hah I knew it wasn't just the milk snatching we hated her for!) leave a disappointing end product. By this time, Peter Davison had already announced he was leaving the show and the weariness with which he delivers his final line is perhaps a clear indication of the end of another era in the show's history.
DVD extras include 'The Depths'- All the usual suspects recall making the story, 'They Came From Beneath The Sea', a short feature about making the monsters, Oh dear! and 'Science in Action', a clip from a BBC Schools programme in which visual effects designer Matt Irvine talks about the techniques and materials used.