Warriors of the Deep is the first serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 5 to 13 January 1984.
The base's crew is led by Commander Vorshak and his senior officers, Nilson, Bulic, Security Chief Preston and Lt. Michaels, who is killed prior to the story commencing.
Sea Base 4 undergoes a practice missile run, but Maddox, the temporary sync operator, is uncertain of his skill at the job.
Nilson and the Base's chief medical officer, Doctor Solow, who are enemy agents for the opposing bloc, plan to program Maddox to destroy the computer circuitry.
The Silurians and Sea Devils launch an attack on the base and the Doctor, recognising their ship on the monitor screen, tries to warn Vorshak not to fire on them.
Solow's accomplice, Nilson, is revealed as a traitor and he attempts to escape by taking Tegan hostage but the Doctor blinds him with the ultraviolet device.
Bulic stays in the chemical store to ensure that the gas keeps flowing, while the Doctor and his companions leave for the bridge to try to stop the Silurians.
This created a sudden demand for BBC studio space and, as a result, the production schedule for the story unexpectedly lost two weeks.
One of the biggest problems came with the Myrka costume, which was completed only about an hour before it was scheduled to be used, meaning that the two puppeteers inside could not be fitted and had no time to rehearse in it.
The scenes with the Myrka in Part 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[4] and wanted to get rid of it.
Scriptwriter Johnny Byrne was unhappy with numerous alterations and edits that Eric Saward made to his script, notably the deaths of the human characters of Preston and Commander Vorshak, who were originally intended to survive.
Stuntman Gareth Milne, who had played George Cranleigh in Black Orchid (1982), doubled for Peter Davison when the Doctor fell in the tank at the climax of episode one.
This story, originally written by Johnny Byrne, was novelised by former Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks and published by Target Books in 1984.
The story's original soundtrack was released on CD along with Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) and The Sea Devils (1972) as part of the 'Monsters on Earth' tin set in October 2006 and linking narration was provided by Janet Fielding.
The serial was released on DVD as part of a boxed set called Beneath the Surface with Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils on 14 January 2008.