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As speculation about whatever comes next for Doctor Who reaches fever pitch, we have our first look at The War Between Land and Sea, the spin-off coming soon. It’s an interesting looking show and Alasdair Stuart has some interesting hints to pull out of the trailer.

No Doctor, High Hopes

Given how the season ends, it’s unsurprising there’s no sign of the Doctor in this trailer. The last time we had an Earth-shattering event depicted in a spin-off miniseries we got Children of Earth which remains one of the single best stories any iteration of the show has ever done. The potential here is huge and while the cynical view would be ‘Anything is better than the finale we just got’, the fact remains this is an interesting idea and one with a really strong cast behind it.

Absolute UNIT

The new version of the show has been diving further and further into UNIT as a global power and they seem to be front and centre in this story. We get glimpses of Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Alexander Devrient as Colonel Ibrahim and Ruth Madeley as one of UNIT’s new cadre of badass science advisors, Shirley Ann Bingham. No sign of Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble, or Catherine Tate as her mum. Or Mel for that matter but hopefully we’ll get a mention.

The Uncle Problem

While we know the 14th Doctor is happily retired (Ish…retiredish) on Earth that opens the inevitable problem of why he doesn’t step in. This is one of those moments where the show has to trust the fandom and the fandom has to trust the show, neither of which ever goes well let’s face it. If we get a mention or a nod, great. If not, he’s busy.

Familiar Faces, New Names

Barclay, the human protagonist of the series is played by Russell Tovey. Tovey’s an incredibly gifted and versatile actor, best known in genre circles for his work on Sherlock, Doctor Who as Alonzo Frame and Being Human.

The Sea Devil protagonist, Salt, is played by Gugu Mbatha Raw. She’s best known in genre circles for her appearances as Martha Jones’ sister Tish in Doctor Who, but has also been a big part of The Cloverfield Paradox, Jupiter Ascending. Spooks, Bonekickers and most recently Loki as Judge Ravonna Tourminet.

The 21st Century is when everything changes

Doctor Who’s oldest problem is the same as every longstanding franchise: the war between stasis and evolution. If you hold things in place, you need to accept that for the last 60 years (at least) the Earth has been besieged by alien forces and colossal reality shifting events everyone’s decided to just not talk about. Go with evolution and you have to start asking why there aren’t Zygons answering the phone, Silurians working in coffee shops and humanity isn’t on multiple planets. It’s possible to do this and keep the spirit of the show and the Stargate franchise is a perfect demonstration of how to do it well. Doctor Who doesn’t have a good track record for this, at all.  But the 21st century is when everything changes and God knows we’ve been ready for a long, long time.

0.01 – ‘The times have drawn us together.’

We’ll get into the interesting questions raised by the dialogue and design choices in a moment. This line though positively screams, to me anyway, that the Sea Devils making landfall isn’t something they have a choice about. If that’s the case, then it becomes a refugee issue, and if it’s a refugee issue, then this is going to the exact place it needs to, at the time it’s needed most

0.06 – New Sea Devil design

We get a good look at several iterations of the new Sea Devils in this trailer. The armoured soldiers seem a little more spindly then the chunky aquatic Samurai we’ve seen before. And as we’ll see, they’re just the start.

0.08 – ‘We could make a difference, you and I.’

And this one. Has Salt been engineered as a diplomat? Are the Sea Devils, traditionally the foot soldiers of the Silurians, branching out on their own? Are they coming in from the cold? And what’s driving them to the surface?

0.18 – ‘End the conflict between our species, before it’s too late.’

This all but confirms the conflict, and the existence of the Sea Devils, goes public. It also leads us to think the court attack we see later on is a Sea Devil attack. I’m not convinced.

0.22 – Salt

We get a good long look at Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s character, Salt, which has some interesting implications for their place in the world. Salt adapts, is present on land and sea, is abrasive, can corrode and can dissolve easily. More interesting is the fact that if she’s a Sea Devil she’s unlike any we’ve seen before which opens up some fascinating questions about her origin, especially in light of that line a few seconds previously.

0.25 – Barclay under guard

Barclay is escorted somewhere under guard. Which leads me to suspect that he makes some very unpopular choices about letting the Sea Devil onto the land.

0.26 – ‘I don’t why you chose me, for any of this.’

I think this is the only time we hear him speak. It’s interesting that he’s expressing such doubts about whether he’s the man for the job. It also suggests Salt chose him, presumably from the first contact team we glimpse elsewhere.

0.31 – ‘YOU HAVE TO STOP!’

Kate Stewart looks to be heading into the court room we see throughout the trailer. It’s in disarray and she’s begging whoever’s in charge to stop. This seems to happen after the shot that follows it, and it’s the key to why I don’t think the attack is caused by the Sea Devils. This looks like humans at their worst, with UNIT, as they so often are, caught in the middle.

0.32 – Courthouse attack

A brief shot of Barclay on the steps of what I’m thinking of as a court building. There’s debris in the air, people are panicking. I’m guessing either some form of terrorist attack or an outright military assault. One that, as I say, I don’t think is the fault of the Sea Devils.

0.33 – Cornered

Salt, from what I can tell, cornered on what seems to be a bridge by human armed forces.

0.36 – ‘Will you trust me?’

The power dynamic looks to be subverted here and I love that. Salt is presented throughout the trailer as the diplomat, the person looking for peace and to de-escalate. Barclay, who we glimpse in military gear at one point, seems to be the avatar for that. If she can talk him down, maybe there’s hope for us all.

0.39 – Rising from the waves

A good look at the all new all spindly Sea Devils rising from the waves in full armour.

0.40 – Sobbing Barclay

Barclay embracing someone we don’t see anywhere else in the trailer and sobbing. Either nothing good’s happened or his season in hell, or perhaps underwater, is over.

0.41 – Eggs?

We get a very brief shot of what look a lot like Mermaid’s Purses in a body bag. Mermaid’s Purses are the casing surrounding the eggs of chondrichthyans like sharks, skates, and perhaps, Sea Devils?

0.42 – Face Off

The visual of this moment is really unusual. The Silurian is elevated with Barclay lower than her and the power dynamic looks clear cut. But then you see what looks like a human soldier in the background. Also Barclay seems to be in the suit from the court sequence. So is this later? Has the Silurian been captured, perhaps in the moment we saw earlier?

The War Between The Land And The Sea is expected to be released later this year or early next. If you haven’t watched Children of Earth, you really should.