Doctor Who writer explains how new revamp of "unloved" Peter Davison story will address "failings" of original version

Pitting the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) against the united force of the Silurians and the Sea Devils onboard an undersea military base, against the backdrop of a looming nuclear war... it sounds like perfect fodder for a classic Doctor Who adventure, but 1984's Warriors of the Deep has long been considered one of the weaker entries in the show's long history.

It's possible that could be about to change, though – with a new special edition of the story available on the Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21 Blu-ray set looking to repair its reputation by retroactively addressing some of the issues which impacted its production 42 years ago.

Speaking at a BFI Southbank screening, Pete McTighe – writer on Doctor Who and spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, who also oversaw the revamp of this story – called Warriors of the Deep "quite an unloved story", adding that it was "was kind of crying out [to be revisited], purely because I actually felt there's a really, really good story buried in [...] the original version."

McTighe explained: "We know from the history books that they were so challenged in terms of time in the studio. Pennant Roberts, the director, didn't have enough time to get all the coverage he wanted, so the battle scenes were just locked-off wide shots. They didn't have time to get the lighting right, so there's lots of issues…

"In my opinion, a lot of the failings of it happened because they were so under pressure in the studio to to actually just finish the thing."

The original plan for the special edition was simply to use modern visual effects to replace the Myrka – one of Doctor Who's less-convincing monsters – but this soon expanded to encompass a more thorough reworking, including shooting new footage.

"Looking at the story, I felt there was so much more we could do with it," said McTighe. "It could be re-edited to be tighter. A lot of the battle sequences in Warriors of the Deep, they weren't able to get the coverage – so we decided that we would go back and reshoot bits…

“There's a lot of really subtle fixes in there. There's a lot of shots in [the original] Part Four where Sea Devil heads are literally falling off in the background... they didn't have time to go and quickly straighten them, they had to keep shooting. So we've done things like cut around those, and replace heads where we needed to… there's a lot of shots in there that are kind of invisible as well as the obvious.

“So it was a three-fold thing: replacing the Myrka, editing to just make the whole thing tighter, and then just spicing up the action sequences. So obviously the original is still there on the disc, because we all love the original, but there's an alternative viewing experience for you now, which is something quite different."

McTighe also revealed that he and VFX supervisor Chris Thompson "spent a lot of time going back and forth" about the new version of the Myrka, for a surprising reason...

"Chris's initial effects were actually a bit too good!" McTighe said. "I didn't want it to be a Jurassic Park monster suddenly turning up in Doctor Who, I wanted it to be something that felt like it could have actually been on the studio floor."

The upcoming Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 21 Blu-ray includes a wealth of new bonus material, with several stories featuring updated special effects, including The Awakening, Frontios, Resurrection of the Daleks and The Caves of Androzani.

Additional features include behind-the-scenes documentaries on Resurrection of the Daleks and The Twin Dilemma, a new audio commentary for The Awakening, and an In Conversation special with Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Matthew Waterhouse, hosted by Matthew Sweet.

Fan favourites return too, including Behind the Sofa and a new instalment of The Doctor Who Escape Room. Other highlights include Look Who’s Boating with Peter Davison and Janet Fielding, 48 Hours with Fielding, Tales of the TARDIS (a 2023 re-edit of Earthshock), The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot with new commentary, plus HD galleries, info text, PDF archives and selected archive DVD extras.

Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21 set is currently scheduled for release on 16 March, 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

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