The War Between the Land and the Sea spoilers for episodes 3 and 4 follow.

Aside from shirtless Russell Tovey and an aquatic Gugu Mbatha-Raw, most of the cast featured in this Doctor Who spinoff will be familiar to anyone who’s watched recent seasons of the flagship show. With more focus now on members of UNIT, standout characters like Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley) and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) finally get a chance to shine away from The Doctor’s shadow.

Just because some humanoid fish are threatening the whole of humanity doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy at least a little downtime with UNIT beyond the emergencies they typically find themselves in.

The first couple of episodes leaned into this by confirming that Kate and Colonel Christofer Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient), a senior officer at UNIT, are actually in a relationship. Doctor Who already hinted as such, but it’s still endearing to see this play out on screen. Not only does it add more depth to everyone involved, but it also expands the reach of this Whoniverse beyond Easter eggs or casual mentions of The Doctor.

Or it would, if we actually got to spend a meaningful amount of time with them…

While military leaders discuss using sonic weaponry to fight off Homo Aqua, a diplomatic mission led by Tovey’s Barclay ventures down to their world under the sea. Down where it’s wetter and down where it’s better, by all accounts.

jenna redgrave, the war between land and the sea

BBC

Except, things don’t get better. They get a lot worse, actually, when one of these so-called diplomats sets off a bomb to assassinate Mbatha-Raw’s Salt. She escapes and manages to save Barclay too, but everyone else who was in that chamber is killed by the blast.

That includes General Austin Pierce (Colin McFarlane), a high-ranking American UNIT officer we last saw in Torchwood, and also Colonel Ibrahim. You know, the guy we just found out is in a committed relationship with Kate.

Scenes from earlier in the episode, where Ibrahim laments keeping their love a secret, pushing Kate to switch off from work to appreciate their time together, are very clearly engineered to make his death all the more devastating.

And it works, for Kate at least.

doctor who the giggle alexander devrient as colonel ibrahim

BBC / Bad Wolf / James Pardon

In the episode that follows, Kate regularly breaks down, all while still trying to do her job. There’s too much at stake for her to just rest and recover, but the tragic loss of Ibrahim threatens to break Kate completely.

Redgrave is very believable throughout, channelling the agony that comes with grief while also getting reckless in her quest for revenge. The problem is that the show itself does very little to make us feel the same way.

Sure, there’s a whole lot of story to get through in just five episodes. But if you’re going to pull off a stunt like this, you need to invest more time in the relationship before it’s ripped apart. Otherwise, you’re just going to get a “meh” from viewers, no matter how many shots of a memorial or Kate crying are included.

doctor who the giggle jemma redgrave as kate stewart

BBC / Bad Wolf / James Pardon

There’s an argument to be made that we were already familiar with these characters before they showed up in The War Between the Land and the Sea. The issue with that, however, is that we never even knew for sure that they were dating, and most interactions between them were very much work-related.

It’s hardly a sweeping love story that transcends time and space in its grandeur. That kind of obsession is solely reserved for Russell Tovey’s biceps at this point.

With just one episode to go, it doesn’t look like much will be done to rectify this, unfortunately. The team at UNIT have finally been given a chance to step out of The Doctor’s shadow, but with so little time devoted to them each as characters, they’ve just been left standing in the shadow of Tovey and said biceps instead.

The War Between the Land and the Sea is available to watch from Sunday 7 December on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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Headshot of David Opie

After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival. 

In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.

David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.

Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends. 

As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound. 

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