A treasure hunt, a revenge vow, a noble sacrifice, unrequited love and more than a passing nod to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise – we were promised a swashbuckling Easter special, and it partially delivered. You don’t often get to see the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) sword fighting, we’ve never seen the Tardis open her doors like that underwater before, and there was a satisfyingly huge sea beast for good measure. But it all ended up slightly less exciting than that sounds on paper.
It was easier to warm to this episode from the second act onwards, once they had boarded the ships. The opening sequence in the village seemed very disjointed. It was raining in the village, but not on the beach, and there didn’t seem to be any set-up for the part with the Tardis crew trapping the Sea Devil in a net, Scooby-Doo style. It was as if five minutes of the episode was missing.
