Sea Devils Renamed In Physician Who Spinoff The Battle Between The Land And The Sea

Physician Who mastermind Russell T. Davies has revealed a pivotal identify change for The Battle Between the Land and the Sea‘s central monsters. The upcoming Physician Who spinoff, which can premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer within the UK this December — a global Disney+ launch date has but to be confirmed — will reintroduce the Sea Devils, final seen throughout Jodie Whittaker’s period as 13.

These Sea Devils aren’t like those that first appeared throughout Jon Pertwee’s Traditional Who reign because the Third Physician, although, and even very similar to those 13 encountered within the 2022 particular episode “Legend of the Sea Devils.” Not solely have these specific Sea Devils undergone a radical makeover, however in keeping with Davies, they’ve additionally collectively determined to alter their identify.

The Physician Who showrunner and Battle Between the Land and the Sea screenwriter defined to Radio Occasions that, throughout the context of the five-episode miniseries, calling these creatures Sea Devils is “racist.” As a substitute, they like to be known as “Homo Aqua,” and so they aren’t too eager on being labeled as “monsters,” both. Of their eyes (and understandably so), people are the actual monsters.

The Battle Between the Land and the Sea will see Russell Tovey painting Barclay, a human negotiator who will get caught in the midst of the battle between the Homo Aqua and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart’s (Jemma Redgrave) UNIT. The Homo Aqua, led by Gugu Mbatha-Uncooked’s character Salt, are out for blood after enduring humanity’s air pollution of their underwater sanctuaries for years. Can Barclay negotiate peace, or will violence prevail?

“We’re already in a local weather warfare. This simply dramatizes it,” Davies informed Radio Occasions, recalling how he got here up with the concept for this specific Physician Who-adjacent story. “I believe each author on the earth is considering, how do you write in regards to the local weather disaster?”

“After they first approached me about coming again to Physician Who in 2021, this was the primary little bit of my pitch,” Davies defined. “I had this concept individually first. However weirdly, it wants the Physician Who setting. If I simply go and pitch this chilly, saying, ‘There’s a race of creatures that dwell within the sea…’ They’d say, ‘Actually? You positive?’ The pre-existence of the Sea Devils takes all the issues out of it.”

Regardless of that all-important Physician Who connection (and several other returning UNIT characters), followers should not count on the Physician’s TARDIS to land through the restricted sequence. The truth is, Davies identified that The Battle Between the Land and the Sea’s story can be “harder” than what you’d count on from a typical Physician Who journey.

“There are issues right here that will by no means occur in a Physician Who story. It’s in the identical universe, however only a totally different slant. I’m actually happy with it,” he mentioned. Beforehand, Davies informed the BBC that “It is a large, spectacular Christmas deal with, with heroes and monsters and battles and romance, in a world on the sting of catastrophe.”

Following the dissolution of the BBC’s and Disney’s partnership — the BBC has confirmed that it’s going to proceed producing Physician Who, beginning with a 2026 Christmas Particular — The Battle Between the Land and the Sea represents one final big-budget hurrah earlier than Physician Who reinvents itself yet again.

The Battle Between the Land and the Sea will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer within the UK this December. The sequence is predicted to drop on Disney+ in 2026.