History Trivia / DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep

---->I was very specific in my description of the base -- rusting, leaking, virtually forgotten by all except those on board -- the atmosphere and look was something like ''Film/{{Alien}}'' with the Myrka essentially a lurking deadly presence waiting to reveal itself.

** Pennant Roberts, who had previously directed four Creator/TomBaker serials (including the unfinished "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]"), would say of this story: "This is not ''Doctor Who'', just one battle after another".

** Ian [=McCulloch=] was originally considered for Vorshak before being cast as Nillson.

* CreatorBacklash:

* OldShame: Everyone involved cites this as an example of how not to do a ''Doctor Who'' story.

** He also stated that the base looked nothing as he envisioned it:
--->I was very specific in my description of the base -- rusting, leaking, virtually forgotten by all except those on board -- the atmosphere and look was something like ''Film/{{Alien}}'' with the Myrka essentially a lurking deadly presence waiting to reveal itself.

* ActorInspiredElement: It was Creator/IngridPitt's idea for Solow to fight the Myrka.

* OnSetInjury: Creator/PeterDavison contracted hypothermia from the stunt that required him to fall off a high bridge into a pool of water. Due to budget, they didn't heat the water and it was ice cold. The actors in the Myrka costume, on which the paint hadn't dried, also reported becoming light-headed and dizzy from the fumes as they were effectively sniffing glue.

** Doctor Solow and Preston were at first male, but Pennant Roberts changed their gender. This ended up indirectly resulting in the former's notorious death scene, as Solow was supposed to be an elderly man who was killed because he couldn't outrun the Myrka, but the casting of the much younger Ingrid Pitt (to say nothing of how lumbering and awkward the Myrka itself ended up) forced them to change things.

** The Myrka was originally supposed to be just a much bigger and stronger Sea Devil. However, the production team did not feel that this was suitably impressive, and instead had it redesigned into a quadrupedal beast. Considering the Myrka's reputation as one of, if not ''the'' worst-realised monster in the show's entire history, odds are they'd have been better off sticking with the original incarnation.

** Doctor Solow and Preston were at first male, but Pennant Roberts changed their gender.

* FatalMethodActing: Averted. Creator/PeterDavison contracted hypothermia from the stunt that required him to fall off a high bridge into a pool of water. Due to budget, they didn't heat the water and it was ice cold. The actors in the Myrka costume, on which the paint hadn't dried, also reported becoming light-headed and dizzy from the fumes as they were effectively sniffing glue.

* TroubledProduction: UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher announced an election and all the studio space was given to the coverage, meaning this serial lost two weeks of valuable production time, and thus most scenes were shot in one take and much of it was not even rehearsed. There were many rewrites, partially to Bowdlerise/remove political subtext that might influence the election, and partially due to Ian Levine, a meddling PromotedFanboy obsessed with preventing {{Series Continuity Error}}s.[[note]]Though at least some of Levine's concerns seem to have been justified, considering that writer Johnny Byrne was initially oblivious to the fact that the Silurians were ''originally from Earth'' and wrote them as just a bunch of generic invaders who intended to wipe out humanity ForTheEvulz.[[/note]] The Myrka costume was completed only half an hour before filming and the paint and glue on it weren't dry — it visibly smears on the sets as it staggers around, the actors inside the costume being light-headed from the fumes — so the director had ''begged'' to be allowed to ditch it. Creator/PeterDavison had NoStuntDouble and got tossed into an ice-cold pool of water because the stunt arranger's request to use warm water hadn't been followed. Byrne wanted the base to be dark and the sets had been built with that in mind, but due to the fact that this was the first story to use 1-inch Type C videotape (replacing the old 2-inch Quadraplex tape), there were concerns over how the original intention would look, leading to the brightly lit sets that made it to screen.

* TroubledProduction: UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher announced an election and all the studio space was given to the coverage, meaning this serial lost two weeks of valuable production time, and thus most scenes were shot in one take and much of it was not even rehearsed. There were many rewrites, partially to Bowdlerise/remove political subtext that might influence the election, and partially due to Ian Levine, a meddling PromotedFanboy obsessed with preventing {{Series Continuity Error}}s.[[note]]Though at least some of Levine's concerns seem to have been justified, considering that writer Johnny Byrne was initially oblivious to the fact that the Silurians were ''originally from Earth'' and wrote them as just a bunch of generic invaders who intended to wipe out humanity ForTheEvulz.[[/note]] The Myrka costume was completed only half an hour before filming and the paint and glue on it weren't dry — it visibly smears on the sets as it staggers around, the actors inside the costume being light-headed from the fumes — so the director had ''begged'' to be allowed to ditch it. Creator/PeterDavison had NoStuntDouble and got tossed into an ice-cold pool of water because the stunt arranger's request to use warm water hadn't been followed. Byrne wanted the base to be dark and the sets had been built with that in mind, but due to the fact that this was the first story to use 1-inch Type C videotape (replacing the old 2-inch Quadraplex tape), there were concerns over how the original intention would look, leading to the brightly lit sets that made it to screen. In the end, this story deeply stained ''Doctor Who'''s reputation, and BBC execs used the FightSceneFailure of the Myrka sequence as grounds to cancel the show.

** Johnny Byrne was very unhappy with how the episode turned out, from Creator/EricSaward's re-writes to the design of the Seabase to the Myrka.

** Johnny Byrne was very unhappy with how the episode turned out, from Eric Saward's re-writes to the design of the Seabase to the Myrka.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: Whilst Peter Davison was no doubt dissatisfied with this story, contrary to fan rumour it played no part in his decision to leave the show, which had been taken some time before filming on this season began.

* StuntCasting: Film/HammerHorror veteran Ingrid Pitt as Doctor Solow. Her appearance is mostly memorable due to her character's death scene being one of most embarrassing moments in all of science fiction.

* TroubledProduction: Legendarily so. UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher announced an election and all the studio space was given to the coverage, meaning this serial lost two weeks of valuable production time. Thus most scenes were shot in one take and much of it was not even rehearsed. There were many rewrites, partially to Bowdlerise/remove political subtext that might influence the election, and partially due to Ian Levine being obsessed with preventing {{Series Continuity Error}}s. The Myrka costume was completed only half an hour before filming and the paint and glue on it weren't dry — it visibly smears on the sets as it staggers around, the actors inside the costume being light-headed from the fumes (the director, Pennant Roberts, had ''begged'' Creator/JohnNathanTurner to let him drop it). The writer wanted the base to be dark and the sets had been built with that in mind, but due to the fact that this was the first story to use 1-inch Type C videotape (replacing the old 2-inch Quadraplex tape), there were concerns over how the original intention would look, leading to the brightly lit sets that made it to screen.

* TroubledProduction: Legendarily so. UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher announced an election and all the studio space was given to the coverage, meaning this serial lost two weeks of valuable production time. Thus most scenes were shot in one take and much of it was not even rehearsed. There were many rewrites, partially to Bowdlerise/remove political subtext that might influence the election, and partially due to Ian Levine being obsessed with preventing {{Series Continuity Error}}s. The Myrka costume was completed only half an hour before filming and the paint and glue on it weren't dry — it visibly smears on the sets as it staggers around, the actors inside the costume being light-headed from the fumes (the director, Pennant Roberts, had ''begged'' Creator/JohnNathanTurner to let him drop it). The writer wanted the base to be dark and the sets had been built with that in mind, but due to the fact that this was the first story to use 1-inch Type C videotape (replacing the old 2-inch Quadraplex tape), there were concerns over how the original intention would look, leading to the brightly lit sets that made it to screen. In the end, this story deeply stained the show's reputation, and BBC execs used the FightSceneFailure of the Myrka sequence as grounds to cancel the show.