There’s a considerable drop in pace as we reach this middle episode of Doctor Who’s latest spin-off. It’s a welcome opportunity to take a breath after the drama’s hectic opening instalments, but does The Deep keep up the momentum after what had been a positively received start?
As we open, Barclay is being put through his paces in an intensive boot camp whilst the deep-sea vessel that will take him to the next round of talks is prepared. He soon gets to meet the other members of the negotiating team, and you’d have to say they’re not the most impressive bunch. Ravi protests that he’s inexperienced (join the club) and really doesn’t fancy a trip to the extreme depths of the ocean. It’s almost like someone wants this mission to fail… Ted (I don’t know why, but somehow that feels an unlikely name for a diplomat) is confident to the point of cockiness, however.
In London, UNIT is being frozen out of key decisions and it’s clear that, whatever happens in the negotiations, military solutions are the only ones being seriously considered by the powers that be. Kate seems shocked that self-serving politicians and avaricious corporate execs should act in this way. Has she watched the news lately? Or any series with Patrick Baladi in it?
There are some effective sequences as the descent gets underway. The craft clanks and groans as it makes its way down; if the reality of what they were facing hadn’t hit Barclay and co before, it surely does now. He starts to emerge as a more capable figure than he’s been given credit for, however, checking in on his colleagues and demonstrating that he’s read the briefing (be nice if leaders read briefings, eh? Sigh…). But suddenly Ted isn’t so calm. Perhaps he’s nervous about presenting Salt with that gift?
After what feels like a rather unconvincing scene between Kate and Ibrahim, where the colonel chooses the most consequential moment of crisis in the planet’s history to get all needy and demand more attention, the episode reaches a fraught climax. Kate narrowly survives an assassination attempt when Ibrahim takes the bullet meant for her (it’s one way to redeem yourself after a row, I suppose) and, five miles below the surface, Ted detonates a sonic weapon of mass destruction. I knew he couldn’t be trusted!
My issue with The Deep is that there isn’t anything to surprise us here. TV hasn’t exactly been short of conspiracy thrillers since Jack Bauer’s sleep-deprived adventures in 24 in the early 2000s, and the big set-piece moments here must have been done a thousand times before.
Ted’s ‘diplomatic gift’ for Salt may as well as have had a lit fuse stuck in the end and BOMB daubed across it, Roadrunner-style. Wouldn’t it have been more effective if someone we were more invested in was responsible: General Pierce, perhaps, or even Colonel Ibrahim, given he was for the chop this week anyway?
And you just knew that the second a red dot from a sniper rifle settled on Kate (through a big plate glass window, naturally), Ibrahim would heroically push her out of the way at the cost of his own life. It’s all perfectly well done, but there’s nothing that feels new or unexpected.
I’d been hoping that this mini-series would give us a chance to get to know Kate better but I’m not seeing much sign of it so far; it may be well over a decade since we first met her, but somehow she still doesn’t come across as a well-rounded character.
Maybe I’m being unkind? The messaging is not exactly subtle, but The War Between… has important things to say about the state of the world, and the scale of the production is impressive. The effects work shows what Disney-level resources can deliver, and overall it’s been a welcome change of tone and style from the parent show. But I can’t help feeling that Russell T Davies and the team did this kind of thing much better in Torchwood: Children of Earth all those years ago.
