Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils, BBC1, review: Jodie Whittaker's penultimate episode was a disaster

‘Tis the season of death and resurrection and judging by Doctor Who’s Easter special neither can come soon enough for the current era of the sci-fi series. The highs are not high enough, and the lows are painfully unremarkable stories such as the penultimate episode of Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor.

Co-written by showrunner Chris Chibnall, alongside Ella Road, it saw the Tardis land in 19th-century China, where historical pirate Madame Ching (Crystal Yu) had inadvertently set free a Sea Devil.

Fans familiar with classic Doctor Who will recognise them from the 70s and 80s, when they were introduced as an amphibian race of struggling actors in big fish costumes. Fortunately, they have received a modern makeover: they can now blink and move their faces.

Freeing the Sea Devil set in motion what should have been a swashbuckling romp. The Doctor and Yaz (Mandip Gill) had to track down the treasure of legendary shipwreck Flor de la Mar, captained by fictional pirate Ji-Hun (Arthur Lee).

Meanwhile, John Bishop’s Dan (dressed as a cartoon pirate) teamed up with Madame Ching and young local Ying Ki (Marlowe Chan-Reeves) to fight off the Sea Devils, who planned to flood the Earth and get rid of the “land parasites” aka humans.

But a frenzied plot of mostly forgettable nonsense rendered this episode a disaster. The supporting characters, for instance, were written woefully thin and did precious little to engage the audience in what is relatively obscure South-East Asian maritime history (which Dan knew all about, conveniently).

The decision to focus so much of the story around Ji-Hun – a fictional character presented as historical legend – was particularly jarring, although perhaps not as strange as the huge Kraken-esque fish that turned up a couple of times and was never seen again.

The Doctor and Yaz’s burgeoning romance offered one of the episode’s few redeeming features. As they began to acknowledge their feelings, the pair are edged closer to physical affection.

Individually, Whittaker and Gill played their parts well, but it’s still difficult to believe in any romantic chemistry between a Doctor who acts like a children’s TV presenter, and a companion who only confessed her feelings one episode ago.

“I wish this would go on forever,” the Doctor said at the end of the adventure, staring out to sea. Unfortunately, the feeling was not mutual.

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