The War Between the Land and Sea, Episode 2 Review & Recap – Plastic Apocalypse

He was called Simon

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart gets Barclay in a room and starts turning the screws immediately. She’s changed a lot since we first met her back in The Power of Three. She’s hard, cold, and seems quick to suspect anyone as an enemy. Or is this just her facade for people she does not know? So then, maybe, they will be less likely to mess with her.

Barclay tells her about his goldfish, Simon (RIP), but other than that he has had no contact with the gay water, sorry, Homo Aqua, before.

It seems they have little choice but to accept the new ambassador, but pressure from governments and committees compel Kate to speak with the leader one-to-one.

We would hear from the ambassador

Kate tries to get the Sea Devils to go with the original ambassador, Sir Jonathan, but they ignore this request and ask instead that Barclay comes forward.

Salt introduces herself – Salt being the name the Sea Devil with a woman’s face is calling herself. This is such a great conversation between her and Barclay. She gets him to admit that he thinks this process is about everyone, not just prime ministers, etc.

She chose him for his humanity, she says, which makes me wonder how much of the inhumanity of the “System” we will see in this show.

The meeting ends with an ultimatum from Salt: either Barclay is the ambassador, or negotiations end.

Now, your life changes

A terrified Barclay is led to a UNIT truck outside where Kate is waiting for him. She says she thinks she can work with him, and here I see the facade of the cold, unfeeling leader of UNIT fall away a little to reveal her humanity. She knows good when she sees it.

We leave Barclay then to chill in a hotel room with his daughter and ex (I don’t envy that conversation) and follow the main UNIT team as they begin to investigate the Sea Devils.

A point of interest that is briefly mentioned: they all breathe at the same time. Either this is a telepathic thing, which is something Sea Devils have always had so I’m confused about the confusion, or something else – maybe important to remember?

Then there’s the autopsy of Salt’s unhatched children. First glimpse at this shows a guy coming in to help scan the eggs who apparently should have been off work? Sure, maybe he did come in because it was cool and he didn’t want to miss it, but I can’t shake the feeling something is going on there.

You work in admin!

Barclay has an awkward conversation with his ex and daughter about everything. I can see why they broke up – she jokes about him being useless, incapable of the simplest things. Perhaps this is true, or maybe she’s just angry about her life being turned upside down (fair enough), or maybe she’s just mean.

Whatever it is, Russell T Davies shines in his writing when scenes like this come along. The power dynamics in the relationship switch several times, and we get so much of everyone’s personality in just a few lines of dialogue.

Interestingly, Barclay tells his daughter (when she asks about the Sea Devils) that Salt is “beautiful” – Sure, there might be a weird cross-species romance to come, but that would be a strange angle for the show. I’m hoping this is just Barclay showing his humanity, showing that he sees the beauty in the new species he met, in nature, rather than anything else.

The Colonel Distracts Kate

Colonel Ibrahim and Kate get physical as they talk about Barclay. She’s worried about the new ambassador, saying she knows people can do amazing things, but she’s only seen it happen when they are with the Doctor.

Ibrahim, ever the panty-dropper, reminds Kate that she’s there as the Doctor’s replacement, and will be the support Barclay needs to succeed.

Meanwhile, the scans are ongoing for Salt’s eggs. That suspicious guy steals a sample from the lab (I knew he was dodgy!) and gives it to a guy listed on the cast list as Keith Spears in return for citizenship.

Kieth heads home and hands the sample over to an American military person. Seems like they don’t like how much money they might lose because of the way UNIT and Kate might handle the situation with the Sea Devils. They seem comically evil at the moment, so hopefully there will be a little less of the extreme, Disney-villain evilness later on.

Outed

Barclay gets outed as the ambassador by a leaked photograph and the news goes crazy, but there’s such a cute smile from his daughter when she sees this on the TV and says to herself, “go on, Dad!” I got such a warm feeling from this!

Shirley lets Kate know that the person who leaked the image of Barclay was a French military person (one of the two people Kieth Spears met at his home only moments ago). The more this person discredits UNIT, the more power she has over the committee.

With respect, I am unable to drink this

Barclay heads in for his first diplomatic session, with press around too. Kate has a whole speech about how he can’t go rogue, and every word he has to read has been vetted by all these people, blah, blah, blah…

I’m not sure that’s going to work out for them.

Barclay immediately has a humanity-proving moment when he conveys sadness over the death of Salt’s children and then has to go a little off-script when she asks about his own personal life. She then asks for a glass of water from the river.

UNIT soldiers come back with a disgusting glass of murky, brown water and Salt says it is for Barclay to drink. Kate says he definitely can’t drink it as it’s contaminated by at least three things that will kill him.

Then Salt asks why he won’t drink it.

Barclay takes out his earpiece and goes rogue – who could have called it?

I have written out Barclay’s full speech here because it’s a fabulous example of Russell T Davies’ command of language and Russell Tovey’s wonderful performance. 

This feels like a far more natural way to tell the audience off than what we got in Orphan 55 (Doctor Who, season 12, episode 3). Sure, it’s on the nose – a punch on the nose – but it’s written well and it’s emotional. We can connect. We can get emotional too.

I’m sure he, UNIT, and Kate will be getting it in the neck now, though.

You haven’t been passionate since Christmas 2010

After his emotional outburst in negotiations, Barclay feels good. He’s not nervous, for the first time since we first saw him in the first episode, but in The War Between the Land and the Sea episode 2, he’s finally feeling confident – or maybe proud of what he’s doing?

Back with UNIT, we’ve got some more theories on how the Sea Devils communicate with each other. The running theory is that it is some kind of hive mind with other life in the ocean, like fungi, etc, with the pearl in their necks as a connection point.

And then back to what Davies does best – personal relationships. Barclay is looking over classified images of, I presume, ancient civilizations, when his daughter comes in – she also can’t sleep. I don’t blame them.

She tells him that his speech he have made her proud, but she’s worried about his safety. This is the last conversation we see of them before both she and her mum are taken away to a safe house the next day.

Your Greatest Desire

The next day, we have another diplomatic meeting that opens with Barclay conveying that humans can “guarantee a 50% reduction by 2065” of ocean pollution. 

“Should we wait, while your engines deafen us, while your trawlers ravage our home, while we choke on your plastic and sewage?” – Salt

So, she’s not best pleased by this answer.

She stepped forwards to Barclay and he said “I’m so sorry” in a whispered voice – her hard, stern facial expression softened a little, perhaps in surprise. She can see he genuinely cares, but she becomes firm again when he answers her later questions by reading off the prompter.

She manipulates the politicians and schemers behind Barclay’s answers into saying that cleaning up the oceans is their greatest desire, and they would do it that day if they could. So, with a fierce grin, Salt says their greatest desire will be granted.

Outside, the sky goes dark and plastic is flying around in the air.

It’s Raining Plastic!

So, obviously, this is utter chaos. Everywhere, all at once, it is raining plastic. All the plastic from the oceans is being dumped on the land. I suppose humanity might deal with waste better if they didn’t have an ocean to dump it in…

Kirby (Barclay’s daughter) and her mum were unable to get to the safe house in time and were instead stuck in a car, in the plastic storm. After the driver is injured, Kirby is able to get to Barclay inside Imperial House.

Nice to see that the Titanic has landed where it was headed, finally, after all these years.

Your actions have jeopardized the diplomatic process

Barclay is once again in a diplomatic meeting with Salt, while the world begins the process of cleaning all the waste from the ocean from the streets of every city.

Barclay worries, out loud, at what humans will do when they feel threatened. Kate notes “it’s like working with the Doctor” which I feel is a note for Doctor Who fans, rather than general viewers. Barclay has the moral compass of the Doctor, we are meant to learn – we will see.

Barclay, using words from the screen, asks for an immediate armistice for while the talks take place, and Salt has three conditions:

1. Pollution of the oceans ceases with immediate effect
2. Formal designation of borders

Point two caused some members of the audience to get irate – as Salt clarifies this means no humans may travel over the oceans, or in the air. The humans won’t shut up when asked nicely, so Salt has a sex change in front of everyone which definitely shuts them up,

The third and final point for an armistice is that their next diplomatic meeting is under the Atlantic Ocean. Despite not having the technology to go to the depth Salt is asking, Barclay agrees.

This is an interesting end to The War Between the Land and the Sea, episode 2. I’m getting the feeling that this show is more about talking rather than action, and I hope it stays that way. From the name of the show, I might be wrong, but I’d quite like as little action and war as possible – that’s dull.

These hard conversations, with so many different voices in the mix, makes for an emotional and intriguing story. Hopefully, it remains so.