Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Empire take a look at The War Between The Land And The Sea this issue, and sit down with Russell T Davies to talk about the series. It’s an interesting piece, notes Alasdair Stuart, and it directly addresses the Interesting Times the show and its fandom have been living through recently. Empire pull one quote in particular:

“I wanted to show the BBC what this universe is capable of,” Russell T. Davies tells Empire of the show. “And the potential that it has, and the punch that it can deliver.” The plan is for a Who-adjacent series that engages an older audience in a drama speaking directly to our times. “It’s very 2025 in its bones,” Davies says. “We even deal with the water companies and their profiteering bosses laughing in our faces. In a series about the water you have to!”

In the immortal word of Donald Glover? GOOD.

The last time Doctor Who, and Davies, did this was the Torchwood mini-series/season 3 Children of Earth. Following a global contact event with an alien race, the show unfolded over five episodes and five days. It revealed Jack’s terrible  role in the last time the aliens were here, what they really want and the terrible consequences for the world and for Torchwood in particular. It’s the best season the show ever did and one of the best pieces of British TV drama in decades. It achieves this for the exact reason Davies references above. It’s both of its time and About Something. Specifically the human tendency to fold and endure rather than fight back, and the terrible, calcified class system that has tried to doom the UK for as long as I’ve been alive.

It’s a lot but it’s also incredibly good and if Land and Sea is built in the same way then I’m even more excited to see it. Focusing on the diplomatic, and military, clash between humanity and the Sea Devils, the show centres on Barclay (Russell Tovey) a UNIT officer and Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) a Sea Devil. They’re both fiercely talented and Tovey speaks highly of the script in the same piece. So hopefully that’s another good sign.

The War Between The Land And The Sea is on BBC One and iPlayer from 7th December and Disney+ outside the UK some point in 2026. Children of Earth is on iPlayer and is incredible.