The War Between the Land and Sea, Episode 1 Review & Recap  – Homo Aqua

Looks Fishy

The War Between the Land and the Sea, Episode 1 opens on the sea, with a small fishing boat – one of the guys throws a plastic water bottle in the water which probably wasn’t the best idea, considering the premise of the show he is on.

When they pull up the net of fish, it screams/howls and they collectively shit their pants – then they do the only thing they can – they shoot the creature that bursts from the net.

This is a great opening scene I hope the viewers stuck on BBC One after Strictly enjoyed, and then stuck around for some more!

A Rude Awakening

Cut to London Russell Tovey getting woken up by a phone call at 1 AM. Turns out he’s been “activated” by UNIT, but unexpectedly – this is when we get introduced to his daughter as he needs to wake her up and give her to someone else to look after while he works.

 “So, why are you with the soldiers?” – Daughter

“Because sometimes, with an oil spill, there might be…arguments.” – Barclay

The daughter is dropped off with the mum. I like how we get snippets of personality from Barclay, the kinds that are important, anyway. He loves his kid, has a complicated personal life with an ex, but he’s not bitter. He’s nice, and I think that will be important when he’s hanging around with people with guns.

Good to See You, General!

We find out that Barclay has been called in to replace Roger Trevithick – whoever that is. Then, they arrive at an air hanger and… OH HELLO GENERAL AUSTIN PIERCE!

He was great in Torchwood and I can’t wait to see him steal the show in The War Between the Land and the Sea – if he survives episode 1.

Gets on the plane, sits with Pip – a cutie – and they are all going to the island of Dragonera (yes, a real place), to a village called Cala Escondida. Sounds like a nice holiday.

Barclay can’t get access to his UNIT tablet to see the footage Pip excitedly shows him of Sea Devils running at people – I assume they killed someone. Pip looks like he’s having fun though.

And then we find out that Barclary is not supposed to be Roger T’s replacement – he did it once in the past to cover for the guy while his child was being born, but since then he’s been officially down as the replacement. But he’s not. He’s not high-level enough – only grade ten (I’ll pretend I know what that means).

 “I work in transport! I just book the taxis!” – Barclay

This is a great start to the episode. All the set-up is character-focused (mostly on Barclay), so with a firm(ish) grasp of the basics of his character, we can move on to the plot.

Hanging Around

They take a hike over some gorgeous landscape after landing. Pierce takes Barclay and the rest of the small team to see a dead Sea Devil, hung from the rafters of an old building.

This is not a lovely thing to watch – and it looks like no one else really cares? Pierce looks at the body like it means work, a chore, but he has a sense of duty, so no complaints. But everyone else looks either creeped out or dispassionate – except Barclay.

Pierce: “In mythology and superstition we call them “Sea Devils” but we’re better than that now. Let’s say, uh… Homo Aqua.”

Clever scientist person: “…the correct name is Homospondyl Erectus”

Interesting change of name for the Sea Devils… I’ll talk about this later.

When the others walk off, Barclay can’t help himself but to take a look at the corpse hung on the wall. He crosses himself over his chest, but whether that is for himself or for the poor creature, I’m not sure yet. I’m hoping it’s the latter.

Dialling Sea Devils Delivery – Do You Do a Battered Cod?

UNIT sit on a cliffside and cast a translation pulse out into the ocean: “We said Hello” – Pierce

Barclay gets comfortable in a big tent with the other UNIT members as they all wait for a response.

While he rests, Pip (I think it’s him) chills with another soldier, having a nice natter with the Sea Devil still hanging up behind them. Lovely.

Barclay, however, is not sleeping, and is instead looking at his phone with messages on it he can’t respond to.

Pip is in trouble though, with the ground beneath his feet turning to sinking sand. The morons decide to stand on it and obviously get sucked right down into the water/sand – not before Pip calls for help.

The Sea Devils came to recover their lost comrade, and Pierce is very angry about it. He calls for the lost corporal and private on the radio but hears his voice come back through the floor – it doesn’t take long to find the hand of one of the dead UNIT soldiers.

This is the start, I think, of Russell T Davies letting us know that this show might get scary. Sure, that wasn’t terrifying, but it was a hint at future horrors. It also lets us know that humanity it out of its depth (literally) going against the Sea Devils.

How History is Made

Barclay does not look ready for this kind of thing. Sat outside looking over the sea, Barclay comes clean to Pierce that he is there by mistake. Pierce doesn’t seem to care.

“That, I suspect, is how history is made. One great big chain of mistakes” – they’ve given all the good lines to Pierce so far.

Barclay is told it’s too late to turn back now, so he’s stuck in the situation.

He talks to Hana Chakri when Pierce leaves, telling her he met the Doctor the previous year at UNIT Tower. The Doctor said hello and then he went about his business. When she asks him what the Doctor was like, he says “vivid” – “it was just this tiny little moment, but I think about it every second of every day.”

This was a strange conversation to have. I know we all love Doctor Who, but was this the only way to mention the Doctor, to give it that link? Even then, you don’t need that when you’ve got UNIT, and characters from the main show, and…. anyway.

Barclay then asks Chakri to give the audience some exposition about the Sea Devils – if you want to know all that stuff, check out our Brief History of the Sea Devils.

The exposition ends when someone spots a “lifeform” elsewhere, so they gotta run.

Agreed

Barclay is given the wonderful job as cameraman on a beach. His job, as the civilian there, is to record everything that happens. As he turns the camera on, a Sea Devil appears in the sea.

Pierce welcomes the newcomer to talk peacefully – he even asks soldiers to put their guns down. A General with a level head – don’t see that much on Doctor Who!

The Sea Devil seems pretty agreeable (if you’ve seen it, you know what I did there) to peace, but there’s always a but. Turns out the Sea Devil was less agreeable than it let on – and a load more pop their heads above the water.

And THEN it turns out there are Sea Devils popping up all over the world – letting the world know all about them – as a news report confirms, people now know that the Sea Devils came first, before humanity (plus a fun jab at the current insanity of American politics in another news report that I enjoyed)

Gay Water (Homo Aqua)

A massive pipe (the Waterway) from the Thames leads inside Imperial House, London, to prepare for the first official meeting with the Sea Devils.

Back home, Barclay is sparring with his ex-wife (verbally, not with fists) – she knows nothing of his job, of course, but he does say he was promoted, so at least that means a raise.

There’s some more joking about the new name of the Sea Devils. I don’t care that they’re doing this in the show – I think it adds an interesting layer of complexity to an already complex social and cultural issue within the whole idea of the Sea Devils, but in this recap and review of The War Between the Land and the Sea, Episode 1, and all future articles, I will refer to them as the Sea Devils because I can spell that easily.

I liked the quick scene of Barclay’s personal life. This is what will root the character in the real world for the audience. His relationship with his daughter and his ex define him for us, because how else could we imagine ourselves in his shoes when the UNIT craziness starts?

Barclay, now inside Imperial House, gets ready to start his new job. Everyone settles down and we finally get the exciting introduction of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart!

As they ready themselves for a first official meeting with the Sea Devils, Kate orders a “paparazzi drone” shot down, which was fun. Showing her authoritarian side, I see.

Several Sea Devils enter, but are followed by three other unknown lifeforms (2 of the same – they look like long fish, and are being called “Big Fish” apparently).

And the last unknown? A Homomorpha Sapien / Homo Amphibian – it’s a Sea Devil but with a human face, which everyone seems pretty shocked by. I don’t know why – didn’t they watch the trailers?   

No Need for Translation

The ambassador – Jonathan Hynes, begins the peace process and talks in English (and a dash of Russian for good luck) with the Homomorpha Sapien – the Sea Devil with a human face.

Jonathan offers a gift, a plant that smells nice, but from the slopes of Mount Everest, so they would never have smelt that before. A nice gesture.

She, however, has a gift of her own. Her dead children. Dead before they hatched. They were killed by pollution – oil and sewage basically. I think we can see what themes are going to come up here. She then refuses to talk to Jonathan and demands Barclay instead.

The Sea Devils had seen Barclay cross himself. The pearl in the dead Sea Devil’s neck was a kind of recording device. I knew it was important! 

She says they saw his kindness, and he showed respect when no others did. She asks him to stand as ambassador and speak on behalf of the human race. Voice cracking, he agrees. No one can crack their voice like Russell Tovey!

And that’s the end of The War Between the Land and the Sea, episode 1! I hope you enjoyed this recap and review of the first episode, and I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did!