I couldn't avoid it, so this morning I watched the second half of Warriors of the Deep. It was ponderous.

The good news is, I can talk about this for a couple minutes and then never have to think about it again.

Warriors of the Deep - Parts 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Everything you need to know about this story can be summed up in the following clip, featuring a Russian secret agent in clown makeup fighting a pantomime reptile horse with a karate kick. I am not making any of that up.

The whole thing is clearly meant to be a cautionary tale about the Cold War. The two superpowers are still on the verge of mutually assured destruction. The western power has this underwater base armed with Proton missiles. The eastern power has infiltrated the base with a couple of sleeper agents. Their plan to launch a war is interrupted by a Silurian plan to start a war. In the end, everyone in the base dies, including the Silurians and the Sea Devils. The war is averted, but only the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough survive as the Doctor plaintively says, "There should have been another way..."

Handled well, with effective writing, set design, lighting design, and costumes, it could have been a very good story.

None of those things were handled well. At all.

The only thing that even remotely interested me in this story was the presence of actor Ian McCulloch as the other Russian infiltrator. He was halfway decent (and to be fair, Tom Adams  was also good in the role of the base commander), but I mostly recognized him from one of my all-time favorite horror films Zombie (a.k.a. Zombi 2). In his role of Peter West, Journalist, his is fantastic. He also appeared in a couple other great Italian horror films before winding up in this train wreck. Such a waste.

Tomorrow has to be better, because it objectively can't be much worse. I know the Doctor gets a new costume, since his old one got ruined when he drowned. (Did I mention he drowned at the end of Part 1? Yeah, he totally did. But he only stayed dead until about thirty seconds past Part 2's opening credits.)

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fifth
Companion(s): Tegan, Turlough
Episode(s): Warriors of the Deep - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,637 today, 2,134,980 total
Distance Walked: 4.30 miles today, 1,093.39 miles total
Weight: 246.76 lbs (five day moving average), net change -60.54 lbs