As Doctor Who spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea continues to film, the show’s drastically redesigned classic villains have been spotted on set. Starring Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw and featuring the return of Jemma Redgrave’s Kate Stewart and several other UNIT characters, the show sees the Sea Devils launch a campaign against the land-dwelling humanity. The War Between the Land and the Sea‘s crew will feature a number of Doctor Who alumni behind the scenes, including Russell T Davies and Pete McTighe as writers, and Dylan Holmes Williams as director of all five episodes.
With production nearing an end on the upcoming spinoff, new The War Between the Land and the Sea set photos shared by Doctor Who Filming Locations on Twitter have given audiences their first glimpse at the series’ potential leading monsters. Taken on location from Newport Bridge, the photo features a possible Sea Devil running across the structure in the dark. The new potential sea devil has lost its turtle-like appearance compared to its classic appearance and its redesigned look from 2022’s “Legend of the Sea Devils”. Instead, the monster seen in the filming photo features a more humanoid design.
Click here to check out the War Between the Land and the Sea set photos.
What Could A Sea Devil Redesign Mean For The War Between The Land And Sea
A New Look Could Be A Way To Appeal To Newcomers
Despite the excitement surrounding Doctor Who‘s first large-scale spinoff under the current BBC/Disney+ production agreement, this first glimpse at The War Between The Land and Sea is sure to cause plenty of controversy among the fandom. While the monster’s costumes were undoubtedly cumbersome and a product of their time, there is still plenty of nostalgia for the design. For many, “Legend of the Sea Devils'” redesign struck a perfect compromise between updating the design while maintaining its iconography.
Related
Doctor Who’s Sea Devils Explained
Doctor Who’s Spring 2022 special will feature the return of the Sea Devils – here’s all you need to know about them ahead of their return!
Instead, the spinoff’s radically redesigned Sea Devils could be seen as an attempt to modernize the design to appeal to newcomers. With the monsters taking a more central role that could additionally add more complexity to them, the new look could have been envisioned to trade away the more exaggerated elements and make them into creatures that more casual viewers can take seriously. Alternatively, the mysterious creature may not be a traditional Sea Devil, and could potentially be a distantly-related variant or an entirely different species.
Our Thoughts On The War Between The Land And The Sea’s Potential Redesign
Many Doctor Who Monsters Have Received Drastic Overhauls
Though the exact nature of the species is unclear, The War Between the Land and the Sea‘s new potential Sea Devil isn’t the first time a Doctor Who monster has seen such a drastic reimagining. The Sea Devil’s distant genetic cousins, the Silurians, received a similarly humanized overall during season 5, where many of their most iconic elements were instead integrated into a battle mask. More controversially, fellow Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood featured the incomplete Cyberwoman, an alternative take on the Cybermen that had a revealing design.
Related
9 Doctor Who Characters Who Can Return In RTD’s Confirmed New Spinoff
The upcoming Doctor Who spin-off The War Between Land and Sea could be the perfect place to bring back classic heroes and villains from old stories.
With audiences having only just gotten their first glimpse at this potential new take on a classic monster, it is unclear where it could fall into the spectrum of revival redesigns. Audiences have grown used to the redesigned Silurians as time has passed, though the Cyberwoman still remains a controversial part of an otherwise solid episode. As such, if the mysterious amphibious alien is indeed a Sea Devil, viewers may have to wait until further context is given to determine whether The War Between the Land and the Sea‘s reinterpretation is a worthy addition to Doctor Who canon.
