Fury from the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from March 16 to April 20, 1968. This story marks the final appearance of Deborah Watling as Victoria. Patrick George Troughton (March 25, 1920 – March 28, 1987) was a versatile and prolific English actor best known in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long running British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 until 1969. ... The Second Doctor is the name given to the second incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... Victor Pemberton is a British television and radio script writer and novelist. ... Hugh David Hugh David was an actor turned director on television, who died in 1987. ... Derrick Sherwin was one of the key figures on the production side of the BBC programme Doctor Who during the late 1960s. ... Peter Bryant (born 27 October 1923 in London) was the fourth producer of the BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in leap years). ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 3 to March 9, 1968. ... The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from April 27 to June 1, 1968. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... A broadcast of the long-running and popular British science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... This article is becoming very long. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in leap years). ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Deborah Watling (publicity portrait). ... Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

Synopsis

On a refinery just off the eastern coast of England, the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria Waterfield discover a malevolent seaweed creature which is imperilling a vast rigging operation capturing gas from the North Sea. Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... The Second Doctor is the name given to the second incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... James Robert McCrimmon, or simply Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

Plot

Bill Burridge as Mr Quill

With the TARDIS having landed in the sea off the eastern coast of England, the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria Waterfield investigate a nearby beach which seems to have an improbably large amount of sea foam as well as major gas pipe marked “Euro Sea Gas”. When the Doctor examines the pipe he thinks he can hear a heartbeat from within but the trio are then shot at from an unseen assailant, who has used a tranquilliser gun on them. When they come to they are interrogated by Robson, a ruthless and highly-strung gas refiner, who heads a major operation pumping operation with a network of rigs spanning the North Sea. His assistant is the more amenable Harris, who is deputed to lock the travellers away. It is clear Robson is very unnerved by the deliberate loss of contact with gas drilling Rig D at sea, plus an unexplained drop in the feed line from all the rigs. The Doctor suggests the supposed heartbeat could be a creature inside the pipe, which would account for the drop in pressure; but his further suggestion that the gas flow be suspended while he investigates is taken up by Harris but not by Robson. Image File history File links Mrquill. ... Image File history File links Mrquill. ... The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS in the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... The Second Doctor is the name given to the second incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... James Robert McCrimmon, or simply Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ...

At central control Robson is pleased to have re-established contact with the silent rig, but all who watch are unnerved by the eerie calm of a man named Carney on screen, who brushes away the communication loss and explains the emergency crew sent to the rig will be staying there temporarily. With the gas pressure continuing to fall, however, it is clear the emergency continues and Robson becomes increasingly hostile to Harris’ suggestions. Especially when a rig worker and Dutch Government employee called Van Lutyens arrives and also implies the situation is out of control. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria pick-lock their way out of their cell and make it to the control room too, hiding away while an engineer on control rig called Baxter calls in to let Robson know his men have detected a heartbeat noise in the pipe.

Harris sends his wife, Maggie, to retrieve a file from their quarters which contains details of the pressure drops and when she fetches it she finds some seaweed on it which stings to her touch – then oozes sea foam when she is not looking. She is soon feeling unwell and sends for her husband. He finds her in a bad way, hearing a distinct heart-beat noise pounding through her head. When he leaves to find a doctor, she rises from the bed in zombie fashion and starts to stalk out before regaining her composure. Shortly afterward two very odd men visit – one tall, one short – and they are both dressed in white suits and caps. Only Mr Oak, the smaller man, speaks and he identifies his companion as Mr Quill. They claim to be maintenance engineers here to repair her faulty cooker, but in reality the pave the way for a manifestation of the seaweed creature. When Maggie Harris tries to flee they overpower her with toxic gas emitted from their mouths.

The Doctor and Jamie rescue Victoria, who has wandered off, from the oxygen room. Someone had deliberately trapped her inside while foam poured through the vents and formed some sort of seaweed creature and she is badly shaken. Van Lutyens and Robson are alerted by the commotion, but the latter dismisses this story as nonsense and maintains the travellers are saboteurs. Van Lutyens, however, believes she was deliberately trapped and recalls the noxious smell in the room by the time they arrived. Robson next hears that the enormous impeller pump that controls the flow of gas along the entire pipeline network has slowed down and become unreliable. Again, he rejects the appeal to shut down the pipes while the breach is investigated, even though without the impeller the gas flow will not be channelled properly and could build to an explosive state. Robson’s answer is to open a release valve, which does provide a temporary solution, but does not solve the falling rate of feed to the receiver stations. The situation takes a turn for the worse when Rig C does not respond to communications calls and then the impeller stops completely, revealing the steady sound of a heart-beat. Robson tries to dismiss the noise as a mechanical fault.

Harris has fetched the Doctor and his friends to take a look at his wife. They find her unconscious, with the stench of the same toxic gas as the oxygen room everywhere. She is made comfortable and Harris heads for the medicentre to arrange his wife’s transfer there. The Doctor bags and confiscates the clump of seaweed in the apartment, which he and his friends take back to the TARDIS and examine under laboratory conditions. The weed itself seems able to emit noxious gas and is clearly alive. It even expands with little prompting, threatening them with more gas, but retreats when Victoria screams at it. The weed is able to feed off natural gas under the sea and convert it to a more noxious version. The Doctor also consults the TARDIS library and shows Victoria a picture of the creature she saw, which is a monster identified by mariners in the North Sea.

Without repair the impeller starts up again and then slows and stops. Van Lutyens insists that Robson takes the matter seriously and shuts down the gas flow, but the controller will hear none of it. The Chief Engineer, an old friend, tries to calm him down, but this just sends Robson over the edge. Robson hides in his quarters, where Mr Oak pumps seaweed into his room. Luckily Harris arrives in time to get him out, but Robson has been exposed to the stuff in large quantities and runs away, clearly in great pain. Harris assumes control of the compound on Van Lutyens’ insistence, and a search is set for Robson.

The Doctor and his friends return to the control room. En route they have been to the Harris’ apartment, which has now been over-run by seaweed and foam. He updates the gas men on his research but is stunned to hear that Maggie Harris was never moved from her apartment. She has is fact gone to the beach, where she and Robson are entranced by the heart-beat noise. She follows a deep compulsion to wade into the sea, while Robson walks away in a zombified state, making little sense to Harris when he finds him.

Contact has now been lost with Rigs A, C and D; but contact has been made with Megan Jones, Director of Euro Sea Gas, who is coming to investigate the compound in a few hours. Van Lutyens now decides to investigate the impeller shaft himself, but while doing so is taken the creature in the pipe. The Doctor and Jamie venture into the impeller shaft after Van Lutyens and soon find his torch. Above them in the impeller room Oak and Quill reappear and tamper with the operation. The Doctor and Jamie climb back out, having again evaded the weed creature.

Megan Jones and her officious aide Perkins have now arrived at the compound, and she seems to care for little other then the drop in has production. However, a helicopter report from the silent rigs reveals they have been over-run by seaweed and she is forced to concede that things are badly awry. Robson briefly returns to the control centre in a manic state, which the Doctor ascribes to mind control. Another report now arrives from Baxter in Control Rig, who tells them the rig is being over-run by seaweed before the feed cuts out. All the rigs are soon incommunicado too – a colony of weed creatures is now developing that threatens far more than just gas production. The Doctor surmises that a rig awakened the creature, which has systematically attacked senior people to destabilise the compound, and guesses the seaweed in the Harris’ apartment was intended not for Maggie but her husband Frank. The Doctor also deduces that the reason Victoria was attacked in the oxygen store was because the oxygen supplies were being sabotaged: they could well be deadly to the weed creature and those it controls. This prompts Oak and Quill, who have been watching silently, to slip away and empty the remaining oxygen cylinders. When discovered, the depletion of the oxygen stocks proved there are enemies moving within the compound. Victoria soon identifies Quill and Oak as saboteurs. The latter is knocked out by Jamie, though the former escapes.

Harris has prioritised the capture of Robson, who is found sedate in his room, and Megan Jones demands to see him. He has sunk into a very depressed state and will not be rallied for more than a few brief seconds when he begs his old friend to help him. They leave him and he rests. On awakening the heart-beat sound returns to his head, stronger than ever, and heads off. Within minutes he has found Victoria and taken her hostage. He has now begun to display seaweed through his skin and is well advanced in a transformation. He forces her into a helicopter and flies it out to the sea. Using a communicator he invites the Doctor to “come to us” if he wants to see Victoria again.

The weed has pumped itself up into the impeller pipe in the impeller room and is soon expanding and throbbing, in the same way the sample in the TARDIS had done. It soon bursts the pipe, flowing everywhere, and starts to fill different rooms. The Doctor is sorry to leave with the compound in crisis, but must travel out to the rig where Victoria has been taken. He commandeers a helicopter and travels with Jamie to the rig where they find Robson now mostly transformed into a weed creature. With the typical bravado of the invader, he says humanity is doomed beneath the weed, and tries to gas the Doctor with his breath. Jamie has meanwhile found Victoria and they all escape on a helicopter, but not before Victoria has again repelled the creature using her screams.

The trio return to the control centre and discover that Mr Quill has been treated for his possession and is now almost completely recovered – thanks to sound vibrations treatment. It is now clear that sound offers the best defence against the weed creature. The Doctor believes the epicentre of the weed creature on the Control Rig can be challenged using the gas pipeline itself to transmit sound. Loudspeakers are rigged up and Victoria’s screams are recorded for playback and use, all amplified by the Doctor’s technical modifications. With the weed creature in the compound now frothing furiously and expanding its size rapidly, the Doctor switches the apparatus on. The scheme is a success. At the compound and on each of the rigs the seaweed has receded, revealing Robson, Maggie Harris and Van Lutyens amongst the survivors, shaken but alive. It is only a matter of time before the gas production resumes.

Victoria has found the battle with the weed creature totally draining, and determines to leave the TARDIS crew. She is tired of the constant peril. The Harrises welcome her to their home and though the Doctor is stoic, Jamie is clearly upset by her decision. The Doctor and Jamie stay another day to check she is sure and then depart in the TARDIS, leaving Victoria watching them from the beach.

Cast

• Dr. Who — Patrick Troughton
• Jamie McCrimmon — Frazer Hines
• Victoria Waterfield — Deborah Watling
• Robson — Victor Maddern
• Frank Harris — Roy Spencer
• Maggie Harris — June Murphy
• Van Lutyens — John Abineri
• Carney — John Garvin
• Chief Engineer — Hubert Rees
• Price — Graham Leaman
• Chief Baxter — Richard Mayes
• Megan Jones — Margaret John
• Perkins — Brian Cullingford
• Mr Quill — Bill Burridge
• Mr Oak — John Gill
• Guard — Peter Ducrow

The Doctor is the central fictional character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and also features in a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series. ... Patrick George Troughton (March 25, 1920 – March 28, 1987) was a versatile and prolific English actor best known in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long running British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 until 1969. ... James Robert McCrimmon, or simply Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Frazer Hines in a publicity still from The Faceless Ones Frazer Hines (born 22 September 1944, Horsforth Yorkshire) is a British actor best known for his roles as Jamie McCrimmon in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and Joe Sugden in Emmerdale. ... Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Deborah Watling (publicity portrait). ... Victor Jack Maddern (16 March 1926 — 22 June 1993) was an English actor. ... John Abineri was a British actor who lived 18 May 1928 to 29 June 2000. ... (Derek Leonard) Richard Mayes was an English stage and television actor. ... Margaret John is a British actress. ...

Notes

1. Working titles for this story included The Colony of Devils.
2. This story marks the first appearance of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
3. This is the first overall story title (starting from The Savages) and the only Patrick Troughton serial not to have "the" as the starting word.
4. None of the six episodes of this serial are known to still exist in full (see Doctor Who missing episodes).
5. The audio soundtracks have been released commercially. In 1993, an abridged audio cassette version was released featuring linking narration by Tom Baker in character as the Doctor. In 2004, a newly remastered CD version was released with linking narration (out of character) by Frazer Hines.
6. The visual material that has remained (very short clips from some episodes, behind-the-scenes footage and film inserts) were released on DVD as part of the Lost in Time boxset.
7. A novelisation of this serial, written by Victor Pemberton, was published by Target Books in May 1986.

The Fourth Doctor and his sonic screwdriver (from The Sontaran Experiment). ... The Savages is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from May 28 to June 18, 1966. ... The First Doctor (Andrew Ainsworth) collapses prior to his regeneration (from the surviving clip of The Tenth Planet, Episode 4). ... Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is an English actor. ... DVD (sometimes called Digital Versatile Disc, or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... Doctor Who: Lost in Time, Region 1 packaging Doctor Who - Lost in Time: Collection of Rare Episodes is a BBC three-disc boxset DVD released in 2004. ... Victor Pemberton is a British television and radio script writer and novelist. ... Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. ...

External links

• Fury from the Deep episode guide on the BBC website
• Photonovel of Fury from the Deep on the BBC website
• Fury from the Deep at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• Fury from the Deep at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

Reviews

• Fury from the Deep reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Fury from the Deep reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Outpost Gallifrey is a fan website for the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

Target novelisation

• Fury from the Deep reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

• On Target — Fury from the Deep