Speak of the Devils!
- Publication: TV Times
- Date: 2022-04-16
- Author: Steven Perkins
- Page: 11
- Language: English
JODIE WHITTAKER on the Time Lord's battle with a classic monster
DOCTOR WHO
NEW EASTER SUNDAY,
7.10PM, BBC1 DRAMA
There's fin-tastic adventure on the high seas as the TARDIS lands in 19th-century China in Doctor Who.
The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop) find themselves in deep water when they cross paths with pirate queen Madam Ching (former Casualty star Crystal Yu), as well the Time Lord's old foes the Sea Devils, making their first appearance since the 1984 serial Warriors of the Deep.
Here, Jodie, 39, reveals all about her penultimate outing as the Doctor...
What can we expect from Legend of the Sea Devils?
We stumble across a period in history that is a first for the Doctor Who universe. The TARDIS knows that it's going to China, so Yaz and the Doctor have prepared appropriately for it, but Dan gets a bit of a bum steer and his costume is all wrong! It's a Pirates of the Caribbean-style sci-fi action adventure that marries historical and Whovian characters.
Did you enjoy battling the Sea Devils, with Craige Els as their leader?
It's interesting to see Craige [who starred in the last series as alien Karvanista] and his interpretation he's a different kind of Sea Devil than we've seen before. Because of the costume and the mask, his lines were recorded, so that added complication, but it looked great. Although I spent the entire time with him saying, 'What did you say?' because of his mask!
What can you tell us about Madam Ching?
She's such a great character, and Crystal is brilliant. She was never tired; she was running around, swinging off things, fighting, memorising lots of lines, and at no point did she ever stop smiling. She's a wonderful person to have on set - it was really lovely.
You have a new costume in this episode, too. What did you make of it?
There weren't as many tweaks being made to it throughout filming so I didn't get to hang out with my wonderful dresser, Ian, as much as I'd like to, because once this costume was on, it was on! What always seems to happen on Doctor Who is that you wear a thick, heavy material in summer and a thin T-shirt in winter, so I was sweaty, but I still felt like
I looked a million dollars!
Did you get to do any stunts?
For one scene, I needed to slide down the ship, but the ship didn't have a side on it - it was really high! If I did topple over the other side, it probably would have been quite a dramatic day at work, but I was absolutely adamant [about doing it]. It was actually really controlled. I don't know if it looked as good as I thought it was going to, but I was really proud of it!
DOCTOR WHO is previewed on pages 44-45
DEVILS IN THE DETAIL!
Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall was thrilled to Bring back the Sea Devils for the Easter special
'The great thing about Doctor Who's history is that sometimes the perfect monster has already been created!' says Chris, 52. 'Then the question is whether you do a big redesign, as we did with the Silurians on Matt Smith's first season, who were originally created by the same writer, Malcolm Hulke, and are cousins to the Sea Devils! We're retaining the incredible design by John Friedlander, updated by Robert Allsopp and Ray Holman, our costume and monster designers. We felt we could fit that original, brilliant design into this story and have some fun with it!'
Caption: Pirate queen: Crystal Yu as Madam Ching
Caption: Monster workshop: Designer Ray Holman with a Sea Devil's head. Left: The final effect
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- APA 6th ed.: Perkins, Steven (2022-04-16). Speak of the Devils!. TV Times p. 11.
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- Chicago 15th ed.: Perkins, Steven. "Speak of the Devils!." TV Times, edition, sec., 2022-04-16
- Turabian: Perkins, Steven. "Speak of the Devils!." TV Times, 2022-04-16, section, 11 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Speak of the Devils! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Speak_of_the_Devils! | work=TV Times | pages=11 | date=2022-04-16 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=9 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Speak of the Devils! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Speak_of_the_Devils! | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=9 May 2025}}</ref>
