Doctor Who designers reveal updated Sea Devil design
Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor will face off with a revamped version of the classic monsters in April.
We’re only a few weeks away from Jodie Whittaker’s penultimate Doctor Who episode, which sees the Thirteenth Doctor battling classic foes the Sea Devils as well as some dastardly human foes on the Chinese seas.
And while we don’t know too much more about the episode than we did when it was first announced in January, some new details have emerged of how the Sea Devils were updated for the 21st century, thanks to the Who production team.
“You have to go through the process of thinking, ‘Do we change it so much that it becomes something different?’" costume designer Ray Holman told SFX.
"And if it’s something modern and different, which has animatronics and all sorts of other things, will it have the same flavour as the originals?”
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Some changes had to be made to the classic design. For starters, the Sea Devils are now a little shorter than they were in the 1970s, thanks to Jodie Whittaker being much shorter than Third Doctor Jon Pertwee.
Another more obvious change comes from the Sea Devils’ fashion choices, with the iconic silver nets (and so-so “samurai” costuming) from their earlier appearances eschewed in favour of something more piratical.
Still, Holman still included some nods to the original look, weaving netting through the costumes and in the pattern on the new Sea Devil's armour (see above). Behind-the-scenes, Creature Costume Maker Robert Allsop was also turning to classic Who for inspiration, using a vintage mould of a Sea Devil head to make sure there was continuity.
"I did have access to a plaster cast that was taken, I’m guessing, around 1980. So I was able to take some key measurements for the overall proportions from that, and then I was working very much from photos of the original episodes," he told SFX.
In other words, the new Sea Devils may have some updates, but there’s more than a touch of the old series about them – and the team noted that they were pleased with the "amazing" reactions they’d had for the revamped design after it appeared in a first-look teaser trailer.
You know what they say – the (Sea) Devil’s in the details.
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Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils comes to BBC One this spring – previous episodes of Doctor Who are available on BBC iPlayer. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
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Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
