Doctor Who Spinoff Review: ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ Fails to Make a Splash
When Russell T.Davies promised Doctor Who’s return would spawn exciting spinoffs, fans imagined the next Torchwood or the brilliant Sarah Jane Adventures. They did get instead The War Between the Land and the Sea, a show that held promise, potential, and impressively high production values, yet somehow it managed to be as underwhelming as a soggy fish out of water.
The series is real, it’s out, and critics are befitting it up. While some fans have hailed the daring of reviving the aquatic terrors for their first major outing in over 50 years, many professional critics are at a loss to explain why they persevered through what is essentially a UNIT bureaucracy simulator with extra environmental messaging.
A Visually Strong But Emotionally Weak Spinoff
The premise itself isn’t bad. Russell Tovey’s Barclay Pierre-Dupont is a low-level UNIT agent who suddenly becomes humanity’s unwitting ambassador when an ancient underwater civilization—the Homo Aqua (newly renamed to avoid problematic connotations), rises from the depths to take back their world. It’s a concept with legs, or in this case, fins. The show even has some genuinely spectacular special effects and a cast that almost seems too good for the material they’ve been given to work with.
But this is where clarification becomes obscured. A number of reviewers have commented that the spinoff has an identity crisis. It shuffles along at a snail’s pace relative to the normal Doctor Who episodes, prompting one reviewer to joke that children will be getting out their phones in the first few minutes. The prose attempts to grapple with weighty subjects, the annihilation of the ocean, political gridlock, humanity’s oneness with the natural world but does so with the nuance of a sledgehammer wrapped in kelp.
When your perspective on climate change and environmental destruction is too naive in a series whose title itself contains the words Doctor Who, you might just have a problem.
UNIT Overload: The Spinoff Feels Dull Drama
The Independent’s verdict was scathing, taking no prisoners in describing the whole business as “a bit fishy” and observing that the more UNIT shows up in Who stuff, the more dull things get. It’s just the law of the land now at this point. And yes, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is stunning in her Sea Devil prosthetic makeup (although Russell Tovey’s dog Rocky didn’t agree), but looking good doesn’t automatically mean dramatic gold.
What is Especially Amusing For Fans?
Some fans genuinely enjoyed the character drama and the tense diplomatic negotiations between humans and Sea Devils. One reader full of enthusiasm gave it 9 out of 10, complimenting the production design and the emotional centre. But others wondered if the BBC didn’t just rush this spinoff out-window the post-Disney Doctor Who era begins, perhaps with Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler stepping up as the next incarnation of the Doctor.
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Competent, But Not Compelling Enough for the Whoniverse
The Land and the Sea War isn’t disastrously bad, It’s competent. There are a few genuinely interesting moments, some decent acting performances, and it’s obvious that someone spent a lot of time and money making it look pretty on film. The trouble is that competence pales in comparison when you’re handling one of television’s most-loved franchises and the ability to do basically anything with its expanded universe.
Maybe the real takeaways is that not every Doctor Who villain merits a spin-off and not every spin-off needs to kill off the Doctor. The show was intended to run without the Time Lord, and to its credit, it makes an attempt. But what the fans actually craved were things that recaptured that particular magic which Torchwood delivered – danger, drama, and a feeling of real consequence.
Conclusion
The War Between the Land and the Sea isn’t a trainwreck, but it’s not the crazy Doctor Who spinoff pack felt it would be. Though it boasts excellent visuals and a solid cast, the series drowns in sluggish pacing, rather heavy-handed messaging and an identity crisis it never manages to solve. It’s fine by the end but when you’re expecting the genius, the ambition and the emotional gut-punch that previous Whoniverse spinoffs have given you, competence just doesn’t cut it.
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