Doctor Who Spinoff Is Changing the Name of the Classic Sea Devils

In tragic news for those of us who’ve been determinedly calling the forthcoming (questionable) Doctor Who spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea “that Sea Devils show” or something vaguely similar, we’re going to have to update our terminology. Because in the world of this series, that term is actually kind of offensive. Yes, really. 

Apparently, the classic villains, first introduced in Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor era, actually prefer to be called “Homo Aqua,” and in the context of this story may not actually be the bad guys at all. Granted, the name shift kind of makes sense—-dumb sense, but sense!—if only as a sort of in-universe reason to explain why this particular flavor of the creatures has slightly more humanoid features than the decidedly scalier versions we last saw in 2022’s “Legend of the Sea Devils”. (Which, if you want to be technical about it, did include a moment where Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteen was criticized for using Homo Aqua’s now former moniker.) 

“It’s racist to say Sea Devil,” screenwriter Russell T Davies (half?) jokingly told the Radio Times during a visit to the series’ set. 

Specific plot details are scarce, but what we do know is that the show will involve a climate change-fueled conflict between humanity and the ancient creatures, who are presumably quite fed up after years of humankind polluting the oceans Homo Aqua call home. Violence seems inevitable, unless human negotiator Barclay (Russell Tovey) and not-a-Sea-Devil ambassador Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) can find a way forward for both their species. 

“I think every writer in the world is thinking, how do you write about the climate crisis?” Davies said. “We’re already in a climate war. This just dramatizes it.” 

Ostensibly, the show is meant to explore how humanity deals with an alien threat when the Doctor’s not around to help, meaning that the not-so-secret government agency UNIT will inevitably play a significant role in everything that goes down. And, according to Davies, The War Between the Land and the Sea will have a very different feel than the flagship series. 

“It’s deliberately tougher. There are things here that would never happen in a Doctor Who story,” Davies says. “It’s in the same universe, but just a different slant. I’m really pleased with it.”

The trailer for the series does have a Torchwood: Children of Earth vibe, including some interesting, not really romantic, but also not that tension between Salt and Barclay, who presumably will have to get past their cross-species tensions to find a way to save the world together. A Whovian take on The Shape of Water, perhaps? 

Whatever it turns out to be, audiences outside of the British Isles will have to wait some time to find out—despite transmitting in the U.K. in December, The War Between the Land and the Sea won’t air elsewhere until some still-to-be-determined point in 2026. At this point, I’m just hoping they let poor Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her hot second-in-command kiss.