Doctor Who: Sea Devils

Starring John Pertwee (1970-74 era)

I watched this story after the Peter Davison story I reviewed recently (Warriors of the Deep) - clearly I should have watched it first in order to fully grasp the chronology of the Sea Devils and other sub-aquatic life forms (even time travellers tell their stories in chronological order most of the time).  This story features tense atmospheric locations in contrast to the studio-driven episodes with Peter Davison, and, as the DVD notes point out, was filmed with considerable co-operation of the Royal Navy (who provided stock footage royalty-free, and whose staff provided many of the extras for the naval base scenes).  The range of footage of a submarine and helicopter included in the episodes lend the story a sense of realism and scale.

I selected this story from the DVDs on offer at my local charity shop as I've not previously seen the Master in his truly scary form.  Forgive me, but apart from one exception, I've never found John Simms' Master to be scary - he's always been too funny. Even Derek Jacobi managed more presence in his single episode than John Simms ever did - with the one exception during "The Sound of the Drums"/"The Last of the Time Lords".  The subtlety in the portrayal of his behind-the-scenes violence towards his wife and the Jones family, combined with his seemingly blasé approach to everything else was decidedly scary.  So, I was very interested to see how Roger Delgado played the role (I initially had him confused with a distant memory of Anthony Ainley as the Master, but I was still interested to see any previous 'classic' version of this complex character).

Anyway:  the story starts with the Doctor visiting the Master on an island prison.  I'll be honest - I very quickly guessed that the Master is in fact running the prison (the recent BBC Sherlock episode where Sherlock visits his sister in prison is a modern version of the same theme).  The Master is a charismatic, hypnotic character with a considerable degree of repressed anger - and he's not cracking jokes and twirling around like John Sims.  He comes across as a strategic thinker - being in prison isn't going to thwart his plans, he's thinking long-game, big picture.  The storyline is similar to the Master's approach - it too has a long developing time, moving the characters into position and building the tension gradually.  I like this approach - in contrast to the modern day "wrap it up in 40 minutes and then thrown in a bit of 'arc' at the end" which is now becoming frustratingly cliched.

I have to say that one of the most unfortunate parts of the episodes is the soundtrack.  It's loud, and it isn't very musical.  I guess the sound engineering and recording team were having fun trying out all the new sounds they could produce, but it's overpowering and intrusive, and it detracts significantly from the atmosphere.  One of the most tragic cases is during a fight scene between the Master and the Doctor.  The two characters duel with swords, in an old stone fortress on an isolated island; there's a sense of history and a clash of the titans.  And instead of drama and atmosphere, the soundtrack is an anachronism of burps and whistles which sound like an 8-bit computer struggling to run properly.  

As I said, the plot takes its time - there's a real sense that the Master is quietly and covertly carrying out his plot while the Doctor struggles to understand it, but pieces together clues from the other events going on.  Both are geniuses - the Master cobbles together a device for contacting the Sea Devils, while the Doctor demonstrates his ability to manufacture a radio transmitter from a few spare parts.  

The Master works with cunning and stealth to execute his plot; the Doctor has to negotiate his way past, through and around the Royal Navy - until he is imprisoned by the Master during one of his many visits to the prison.   The Doctor is released by his companion, Jo, and the two of them hurriedly escape towards the island's coastline.  The Master and the prison officers chase them down (there's an odd and almost comical scene where the prison guards use a Citroen 2CV across country), and as they reach the coastline, the Master uses his Sea-Devil-Summoning Device to call the Sea Devils onto the shore.  The sequence makes for the most dynamic action in the story, as the Doctor and Jo negotiate barbed wire (it may have been quicker to use the sonic screwdriver, setting 2428D?) and then detonate the mines in front of the advancing Sea Devils, with explosions galore.

The Sea Devils' initial invasion is unsuccessful, but the Doctor and Jo are forced to retreat to the naval base HMS Seaspite; true to his character the Doctor is determined to broker a peace deal between the humans and the Sea Devils (while the Master is proceeding to stir up trouble).  The Doctor's attempt at peaceful negotiations are thwarted, even though he's taken to the Sea Devils' base on a peaceful understanding.  A senior politician and obstinate military-minded man Robert Walker, orders a military strike on the Sea Devils (it's a recurring theme - mankind never seems to get past its own fears and reach out with truly peaceful intentions).  The Doctor flees from the base under the cover of the attack, his peaceful negotiations in tatters.  Subsequently recaptured, he again tries to persuade the military to seek a non-hostile settlement, and is again thwarted - this time by the Master and the Sea Devils who capture him and force him to help the Master complete his device to awaken all the Sea Devils' colonies globally.

When they return to the Sea Devil base, the Master completes his fiendish plot and successfully activates the device.  However, as they have now outlived their usefulness, the Sea Devils imprison both Time Lords.  In a cunning plan of his own, the Doctor has sabotaged the device, and it begins to overload.  The two Time Lords escape from the base using escape equipment from the captured submarine.  The massive power feedback from the sabotaged device destroys the Sea Devil colony before the planned military attack can begin. The Master once again evades capture - this time he fakes a heart attack and hijacks a rescue hovercraft and flees the scene to fight another day.

Overall, I enjoyed this series; I've mentioned the soundtrack and I'll say no more on that subject.  There's depth, there's slow and steady pace (which could be quickened), and there's plenty of under-the-surface tension (not just below the surface of the sea, but below the surface of the characters).  The Master's covert scheme is handled in such a way that it makes him look clever without making the Doctor look naive and simple, which is a potential pitfall in these kinds of stories.  I enjoyed this one, and moreso than the Warriors of the Deep (even despite the soundtrack). 

Next Doctor Who review will be: The Sontaran Experiment

Quantitative and Qualitative Testing - Just tell me why!

"And so, you see, we achieved a 197% uplift in conversions with Recipe B!"
"Yes, but why?"
"Well, the page exit rate was down 14% and the click-through-rate to cart was up 12%."
"Yes, but WHY?"

If you've ever been on the receiving end of one of these conversations, you'll probably recognise it immediately.  You're presenting test results, where your new design has won, and you're sharing the good news with the boss.  Or, worse still, the test lost, and you're having to defend your choice of test recipe.  You're showing slide after slide of test metrics - all the KPIs you could think of, and all the ones in every big book you've read - and still you're just not getting to the heart of the matter.  WHY did your test lose?

No amount of numerical data will fully answer the "why" questions, and this is the significant drawback of quantitative testing.  What you need is qualitative testing.

Quantitative testing - think of "quantity" - numbers - will tell you how many, how often, how much, how expensive, or how large.  It can give you ratios, fractions and percentages.

Qualitative testing - think of "qualities" - will tell you what shape, what colour, good, bad, opinions, views and things that can't be counted.  It will tell you the answer to the question you're asking, and if you're asking why, you'll get the answer why.  It won't, however, tell you what the profitability of having a green button instead of a red one will be - it'll just tell you that people prefer green because respondents said it was more calming compared to the angry red one.

Neither is easier than the other to implement well, and neither is less important than the other.  In fact, both can easily be done badly.  Online testing and research may have placed the emphasis may be on A/B testing, and its rigid, reliable, mathematical nature, in contrast to qualitative testing where it's harder to provide concise, precise summaries, but a good research facility will require practitioners of both types of testing.

In fact, there are cases where one form of testing is more beneficial than the other.  If you're building a business case to get a new design fully developed and implemented, then A/B testing will tell you how much profit it will generate (which can then be offset against full development costs).  User testing won't give you a revenue figure like that.

Going back to my introductory conversation - quantitative testing will tell you why your new design has failed.  Why didn't people click the big green button?  Was it because they didn't see it, or because the wording was unhelpful, or because they didn't have enough information to progress?  A click-through-rate of 5% may be low, but "5%" isn't going to tell you why.  Even if you segment your data, you'll still not get a decent answer to the either-or question.  

Let's suppose that 85% of people prefer green apples to red.  
Why?
There's a difference between men and women:  95% of men prefer green apples; compared to just 75% of women.
Great.  Why?  In fact, in the 30-40 year old age group, nearly 98% of men prefer green apples; compared to just 76% of women in the age range.

See?  All this segmentation is getting us no closer to understanding the difference - is it colour; flavour or texture??

However, quantitative testing will get you the answer pretty quickly - you could just ask people directly.

You could liken it to quantitative testing being like the black and white outline of a picture, (or, if you're really good, a grey-scale picture) with qualitative being the colours that fit into the picture.  One will give you a clear outline, one will set the hues. You need both to see the full picture.