XPost: rec.arts.sf.tv   
   From: doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
      
   In article ,   
   Blueshirt  wrote:   
   >"The War Between the Land and the Sea" was obviously going to be   
   >a political allegory with plenty of propagandisations… so all in   
   >all, it was fairly predictable how this mini-series would play   
   >out once we knew the people writing it and its premise. There   
   >was nothing in the five episodes that caused me any surprises...   
   >One thing that was missing though was an actual WAR!   
   >   
   >The Message: Humans are destroying the planet - TICK   
   >   
   >Sea Devils are not Devils: They are cute fish-reptiles with   
   >feelings - TICK   
   >   
   >Human-Sea Devil relationship: TICK   
   >   
   >Unnecessary Soap Opera family members: TICK   
   >   
   >US Military Warmonger: TICK   
   >   
   >Etc...   
   >   
   >   
      
   boo!   
      
   >"The War Between the Land and the Sea" started out interesting,   
   >and looked quite good. There was a lot of promise in the first   
   >episodes, but there needed to be huge leaps of faith to believe   
   >the characterisations and their reasoning in this series, so as   
   >the narrative progressed and the plot got thinner, it sunk to   
   >the bottom fairly fast, like a lead anchor. As this was   
   >basically the 'Barclay & Salt Show' everything else was pretty   
   >much just your stereotypical political types, military   
   >warmongers, corrupt rich industrialists and UNIT... in an   
   >eco-drama by the numbers. Five episodes was overkill for this   
   >and the story might have worked a lot better had it been   
   >much tighter, say two episodes or a 90 minute TV movie.   
   >   
   >Barclay seemed the most unlikely character to lead negotiations   
   >on behalf of the world, and quite frankly, I wasn't convinced by   
   >Russell Tovey's performance at all. The first two cliff-hangers   
   >were basically Barclay just saying a reluctant yes to an   
   >outlandish proposition. Which might have conveyed his unwilling   
   >participation but they were lame episode endings for a series   
   >that wanted people to come back for more... The only reason   
   >Russell Tovey wasn't playing a gay man in this was so that his   
   >character could have a sexual relationship with Salt. Other than   
   >that, it was perfect RTD tick-boxing; Barclay had a mixed race   
   >family and a non-binary child... neither of whom did anything   
   >much as it turned out, bar provide the soap opera family drama.   
   >In RTD Land, everyone has to have their home life shown to prove   
   >their are real characters, even if they are irrelevant to the   
   >actual story. If you want to write Coronation Street Russell, go   
   >write it! Barclay's family literally had no impact on the story   
   >whatsoever. So why waste our time on them?   
   >   
   >Salt started off as the angry fish-lizard whose habitat and   
   >off-spring had been destroyed by humans polluting the oceans.   
   >However, once she got a taste of life on the surface - and a   
   >taste of Barclay - she became totally different. By the final   
   >episode, a large percentage of the Sea Devils had been killed   
   >off and Salt seemed happy enough to tell the humans that they   
   >had won the war... and then after some kissing in the waves swam   
   >off with the Homo-Aqua convert Barclay to live happily ever   
   >after at the bottom of the deep blue sea.   
   >   
   >Kate Lethbridge-Stewart got a big role in this series, which is   
   >great for her, as it's a bigger role than the character   
   >deserves. But she didn't add much to the proceedings overall   
   >either. She just came across as an unstable depressed woman with   
   >hallucinations that needed to blackmail her GP for increased   
   >medication to get through the day. Then she threatened to kill   
   >some guy on a beach because he dropped a plastic bottle! WTF?   
   >Some UNIT hero!   
   >   
   >As for Kate's toyboy soldier getting killed... clearly he was   
   >the disposable one out of the UNIT ensemble. Which says a lot   
   >about his whole character during the past few years! He was   
   >Colonel Nobody. I'd have killed off the wheelie woman too but of   
   >course you can't do that sort of thing these days or people   
   >would protest about an anti-wheelchair agenda, or something. The   
   >funny thing is, in "Doctor Who" Shirley Bingham was the   
   >scientific advisor but in this series she's handling diplomatic   
   >relations between the humans and fish-lizards... and even then   
   >she doesn't really do much. But it's good to show people in   
   >wheelchairs, inclusivity and all that, so we'll keep her around   
   >for next time... she might even get to roll up that TARDIS ramp   
   >one day.   
   >   
   >Whilst UNIT not calling The Doctor in was strange for this   
   >mini-series set in the "Doctor Who" universe. So what, the   
   >Doctor just sat idly by and watched all that garbage rain down   
   >on London and not wonder where it came from? Or saw on the TV   
   >news that UNIT were part of the negotiations between mankind and   
   >his old foes to stop a war, but just said "put the Kettle on   
   >Donna, I'll leave them to it". Nah sorry, that just doesn't work   
   >for me.   
   >   
   >RTD claims this was his big idea when he returned to producing   
   >Doctor Who, well he can shove his big ideas if they're going to   
   >keep turning out to be badly plotted messes like this. He might   
   >be good at writing gay dramas, obviously he understands that   
   >sort of stuff as it's something he has the feel for, but as a   
   >sci-fi/fantasy writer he isn't at the races. This could, and   
   >should, have been so much better.   
   >   
   >Overall, for a series that was interesting and had potential, it   
   >all got a bit muddled and the end result was something entirely   
   >forgettable... I'd give it a 3/10 rating, and one of those   
   >points is only because the Sea Devils were not leaping around   
   >like Super Mario as they were in their last on-screen outing.   
   >   
   >   
   >Quote of the series:   
   >   
   >Human: "You ate our dogs!"   
   >Sea Devil: "You eat our fish!"   
   >   
      
   Dog gone.   
      
   >Yep, that's definitely a BAFTA winning script we've got here!   
   >   
   >Notes:   
   >   
   >Humans are accused of dumping their rubbish and excrement into   
   >the sea... which is true, but fish also shit in the sea and   
   >nobody blames them for polluting the oceans! I presume the Sea   
   >Devils also shit in the sea too, or under it somewhere... or do   
   >they secretly come onto land to take a dump?   
   >   
   >Barclay and Salt getting it on was something akin to the Madam   
   >Vastra-Jenny situation. As actors are playing the roles it all   
   >seems perfectly normal to the viewer that two characters are   
   >having a relationship in a drama... but, humans and   
   >lizards/reptiles are not supposed to have sexual relations with   
   >one another and only deviants would write such stuff. This is   
   >blindsiding the audience and making such perverted acts seem   
   >normal. Which is pretty much what those type of writers try to   
   >do. Normalise deviancy!   
   >   
   >Because of the happy ending for Barclay & Salt, I'm not sure now   
   >what actually was the main message of this series. Was it really   
   >all about the environment, or was this basically just a   
   >human-lizard romance story whilst virtue signalling   
   >environmental concerns?   
      
   Rate out of 10 please.   
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