Dr Who: Fury from the Deep Part 1

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I am going to have difficulty sticking to the subject of the post. (When don't you? Shouts the entire classic TV blogosphere) I will be upfront and say that while I am watching Fury from the Deep, what I am thinking about is reconstruction of missing Dr Who episodes.

The specific one I am watching is the Loose Cannon reconstruction. I know there has also been a BBC animated one - oh the irony of the BBC reconstructing shows after reusing the tapes! I have seen a few BBC animated reconstructions (Power of the Daleks, The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones) and also a BBC reconstruction using telesnaps. I am going to come right out with it and say that I prefer the telesnaps reconstructions. The animated ones just don't seem to have the right feel. As far as I know they aren't going any more but I also prefer the Loose Cannon ones - you can find them on the internet. You can also find out about Loose Cannon here.

I particularly like Fury from the Deep because it presses all my classic TV buttons. It is set in our world but the world of top secret bases, which Dr Who so frequently enters. It is more than fifty years old so isn't in our time really.

It is also famous for the first appearance of the Sonic screwdriver. That appearance takes place on a beach - Troughton's Doctor is so good at these human things like playing the recorder. What never fails to surprise me is how Jamie is never surprised at anything - he is way ahead of his time here, unlike Victoria, and yet takes the futuristic base in his stride. The other thing that strikes me is that once the companions left the Doctor, they would never have been able to talk about their experience again, because people would not believe it. That's quite some isolation.

The episode very effectively builds up the tension and makes you wonder what is going on. The mystery looks like industrial sabotage but also includes elements of the fear of science we see so often in sixties TV - here the familiar one that it can be dangerous in the wrong hands or when weaponised. There is a strange sensation to watching TV of this era in an age where people are dying as a direct result of refusing a vaccine for a deadly illness! (Incidentally vaccine sceptical comments will not be enabled)

The quality was deliberately never made perfect by Loose Cannon so as not to compete with future BBC releases, so if you want a high definition picture you are better going for the BBC version.

I have no criticism to make. Some people find this adventure rather scary, but I don't personally.

Highly recommended.