Warriors of The Deep - Production

Production

Early in the production of the story, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced a Parliamentary election. This created a sudden demand for BBC studio space, and as a result, the production schedule for the story unexpectedly lost two weeks. Production was completed, but many signs of hurried production are evident. Many scenes had little or no rehearsal, and many scenes received only one take. Perhaps the biggest problem came with the Myrka costume. It was completed only an hour or so before it was scheduled to be used, so that the two puppeteers inside could not be fitted and had no time to rehearse in it. The costume smelled strongly of paint and adhesive, which one puppeteer said made him feel like he was sniffing glue. The paint on the costume had not dried by the time filming started, and tended to rub off on the sets and other costumes, as can be spotted in several scenes.

Many in the cast and production crew have expressed a sense of disappointment with the quality of the finished show; the DVD commentary by visual effects designer Mat Irvine, script editor Eric Saward, Peter Davison and Janet Fielding contained many criticisms of Pennant Roberts' direction of the story and John Nathan-Turner's production of the programme, as well as comments on the special effects, sets and other production problems (the Myrka specifically caused a great deal of amusement). The scenes with the Myrka in Episode Three were also later used by former BBC One controller Michael Grade during his appearance on Room 101 as an example of why he found Doctor Who pathetic and took it off the air. In an interview for the DVD's extra features, scriptwriter Johnny Byrne said that he thought that the basic story was quite solid and effective.

This story was Byrne's final televised Doctor Who story. Byrne later submitted a script entitled The Guardians Of Prophecy which was a sequel to The Keeper of Traken (1981), featuring the Sixth Doctor battling an evil immortal with an army of Melkurs who were threatening the remainder of the Traken Union. However, nothing came of his story. Johnny Byrne died in April 2008. Warriors of the Deep was shot on 1-inch Type C videotape, the first Doctor Who story to do so. Type C videotape replaced 2-inch Quadruplex videotape on Doctor Who and many other shows.

It was during production of this story that Peter Davison and Janet Fielding announced their departures from the series. Producer John Nathan-Turner had offered Davison a fourth season in his role, but he feared he would be typecast if he stayed beyond three years on the programme.