The War Between the Land and the Sea - new series starts Sunday 7 December 2025 on BBC1 at 20.30

[IwantToRetire]

I thought this was going to be a new SF drama and got quite excited.

But turns out to be a Dr Who spin off, so less excited.

Cant see a thread about, so adding this.

Only review I have seen has spoilers so wont post link but this is the iPlayer link.

2 episodes this sunday, 2 the following and just one Sunday after that.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002mt0s

I am only 45 mins into this so reserving judgement until I have watched it all. I like Russell Tovey and am enjoying watching him in this, though I do remember him being in an episode of Dr Who years ago - the Christmas one with Kylie Minogue?? But actors often appear more than once as different characters in the Whoniverse - Peter Capaldi being the main one (excellent and best ever Doctor imho). AND the main military guy in 'The War Between the Land and the Sea' I'm certain was in an episode during the Capaldi era where there were ghosts in an underwater complex - great episode, and I definitely remember him from that. I'm sure there will be others as well. Best to not think too deeply about it really. It is sci fi after all, we have to suspend reality a bit.

I've watched the first two episodes in full now and I'm going against the grain on here to say that I really liked it. I thought it was really engaging and thought provoking. It was indeed preachy, and I have to say that past preachiness from RTD in Doctor Who has gone down like a cup of cold sick with me, but I felt differently about this one. The ruination of the oceans by man made pollution is a fact and I haven't seen it tackled this way or this visually before, I thought the raining down of garbage onto the land was a powerful way to bring home the damage we have done - and you couldn't sympathise with humankind in this instance because they brought it on themselves. I do get what people are saying - why didn't the Homo Aqua just do that in the first place if they had the power to; I suppose they were waiting for humans to take responsibility for the mess they had created, and they basically didn't, just tried to kick the can down the road which is what always happens in real life too. We see this every single day in the news, environmental pledges by politicians that never go far enough and which then get reneged upon or watered down a few years later. Our own rivers and waterways in UK are a dumping ground for literal shit, and it can't go on. I like the way the subject has been tackled in this programme, I think the casting is great, the subject and characters are engaging. I think because RTD is annoyingly preachy so often there is a danger of dismissing this as more of the same, but actually I think it is better than what has gone before and it actually has a good point to make. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series and how the issues actually get resolved. I hope the water companies are watching, I'd love to set the Sea Devils on them.

The thing is, no matter how misguided his stewardship of Who has been lately, I never find it possible to forget that RTD created Years and Years - and I am reminded of that story by the news every single day. No way did I imagine, when he showed migrants being housed in army barracks in England that that might come to pass in my lifetime, in peace. But here we are.

So I’m a bit afraid of what he writes. He’s been astonishingly prescient.

Some of us are old enough to remember Queer As Folk. Another brilliant TV series by RTD, Years and Years was in many ways a follow-up to it.

Which is why I get so irritated with him when he writes this trite stuff 😆

ETA: I meant that It's A Sin was a sort of follow up to Queer As Folk.

Ha! I remember being amazed when someone got an Uber in Queer as Folk! It really was revolutionary. It’s a shame he seems to have lost the knack of showing rather than telling.

Just seen this:

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/tip-toe-channel-4-first-look-russell-t-davies-newsupdate/

That must have been in a different series. Or a different taxicab type? As Uber didn't start until 2009.

I bet the gay bloke's a Brexit-supporting meanie, right? And the builder is an inclusive good 'un.

😆

He ordered a taxi on an app, @GoldenBracelet. I’m not really interested in searching through the episodes for the specific scene!

I'm loving it, don't mind that it's preachy and woke which sounds a bit dog whistly to me and I'm looking forward to the conference under the sea.

I've never been a Dr Who fan, purely because I don't know where to start and I'm not going all the way back to 1960fckknows.
I do love DT , LC and MS , so I might start with one of them . Any recommendations?

Nobody on this thread has called it 'woke', have they? Maybe check your dog whistle hearing.

1956, Hungarian refugees housed in old RAF barracks, in England, following the Russian invasion of Hungary. In my lifetime. Was at school with some of their children.

Maybe it's the woman doctor or the black doctor, I'm getting confused with. I seem to remember a lot of jumping up and down at the time.
Anywho ,I will endeavour to check properly next time before I make assumptions - apologies 😉.

Have you actually read this thread?

Yes I did. But I get it, you're bored, but I'm a bit busy, so I'm not going to get into it with you, over a slight observation I detected over a couple of comments I read.
As the kids say, if they don't apply, scroll on by 👍.

Well why did you say this then?

Maybe it's the woman doctor or the black doctor, I'm getting confused with.

What relevance has that got to this thread?

I think the point was that it wasn't about "refugees" ie people displaced from the country of origin by violence or persecution seeking shelter in the UK. It was about UK residents also being forced into into the barracks.

I think the politics is this is just tub thumbing and assuming it had orginally been meant for children or a younger audience actually an insult to them. And put over in a really mawkish way.

The writing has become of parody of what it once was.

@MinnieCauldwell I was going to pick up on the word ‘refugees’ - but for a different reason. Rhetoric, ‘hostile environment’ boats, etc, etc … What we’re looking at now feels very different.

Start with the Christmas invasion. The Doctor has just regenerated from Chris Eccleston into David Tennant. It's sets the DT characterisation up in light-hearted way. Plus it's the festive season!

Then go straight into series 2.

Doctor Who (2005–2022), The Christmas Invasion: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074f9p

Aww I forgot about DT, thank you 👍I will.

It’s totally bonkers and I’m loving it. The special effects are amazing too.

The special effects are amazing too.

That's the Disney money. Apparently it cost multi millions of dollars per episode.

No more of that now, unfortunately...

I have a question as I wasn't really paying attention, but is the Salt character a hybrid? She seemed to have more human features than the other sea devils who were more reptilian?

I love it, not least because it’s so funny seeing g some of my old workplaces being used as locations.

I think ‘she’ is a bit of a shape shifter - did you not see the bit where suddenly she became male?