The War Between the Land and the Sea is a swearier, sexier Doctor Who

For beleaguered Doctor Who fans, the past few years have felt like a fever dream. First, there was the lack of certainty over the show’s future, as recent co-producers Disney refused to commit to further series. Then came Ncuti Gatwa’s surprise exit, with reports of reshoots suggesting his second series was meant to end very differently.

And then there was that big Billie Piper-shaped cliffhanger, which won’t be answered for at least a year. While the show will continue on the BBC after Disney+’s departure, having to wait until 2027 for a new series has done little to assuage my frazzled feelings.

So there’s something darkly funny (or mildly depressing, depending on how you see it) in the fact that the franchise is finally receiving its long-promised shake-up when this era is already dead in the water. The War Between the Land And the Sea is a Torchwood-esque spin-off from showrunner Russell T Davies – and it’s the most grounded, mature storytelling that Doctor Who has seen in years.

The War Between the Land And The Sea was the final project commissioned as part of Disney+’s big bucks Doctor Who deal with the Beeb. But when Disney+ pulled the plug on the partnership early in October, the BBC swiftly announced that the spin-off had been bumped up from its scheduled release from next year to this weekend.

With rumours about Gatwa’s exit and the future of Doctor Who having dominated discussion for so long, there’s been relatively little interest in The War Between the Land And the Sea – or information to stoke it, for that matter. We knew it would be a five-part story starring former Doctor Who guest actors Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, with the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) defending humanity from a prehistoric race of fish-people called the Sea Devils.

Led by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), UNIT are known for their gravitas when helping the more emotional Doctor – or in this case, standing in for him while he’s gallivanting around who knows where.

But when the Sea Devils (now known more sensitively as Homo Aqua) appear out of the blue and demand to reclaim Earth after humans polluted the waterways, they’re not interested in all this bureaucracy. “They were here first, millions of years ago; the planet belongs to them,” muses Kate. “What if they want it back?”

Homo Aqua are led by Salt (Mbatha-Raw), a humanoid version of the species. Beneath Salt’s blue scales and gills, Mbatha-Raw conveys a proud, measured exterior with rage bubbling beneath, bursting forward as she spits fury about the way the seas have been poisoned by plastic and petroleum.

In a show of power, Salt refuses to accept UNIT’s choice of ambassador for Earth. “We would speak with him,” she barks, and points at the guy who books UNIT’s taxis, Barclay Pierre-Dupont (Tovey serving as a charming Doctor stand-in). He gulps: “Me?” Barclay’s only involved in the Homo Aqua summit at all as the “civilian” representative. “I’m just a regular guy,” he insists. A little on the nose, but you get the picture.

Doctor Who might have been dominated by Gatwa’s charisma for the past two series, but The War Between the Land and the Sea is surprisingly richer for his absence. Everyone’s favourite Time Lord isn’t going to appear in a deus ex machina and magically sort everything out. In other words, take the Doctor out of Doctor Who, and the stakes become higher.

One question that seems to have been missed in the rushed marketing of the series is who it’s for, exactly. I wouldn’t say it’s trying to be “Doctor Who for Grown-Ups” quite as aggressively as Noughties spin-off Torchwood, but there’s a smattering of swearing and raunchiness, both of which will exclude the youngest fans.

The real maturity comes from the storytelling. Straying from the usual procedural structure, the show has less of a need to wrap up each 45-minute episode with a neat bow. We get one ongoing story (rather than five individual adventures) over the series, while characters gain depth and the show’s morals are displayed with unexpected nuance.

Sure, the explicitly environmental message will continue to infuriate the people who have spent the past decade complaining about Doctor Who “going woke”, although the delineation between “goodies” and “baddies” is far less clear here. The damage that humanity has done to Earth is laid out clearly, yet Homo Aqua are ruthless and bloodthirsty. It’s hard to know whose side to be on.

Using the last of the money from the Disney+ deal, The War Between the Land and the Sea looks predictably impressive. Without the adventure ricocheting between planets and timelines, the effects, both practical and digital, feel lush and sturdy. And the powerful score by Hans Zimmer collaborator Lorne Balfe contributes to its epic grandiosity.

It’s hard to watch The War Between the Land and the Sea and not daydream about what a big-budget Doctor Who could have been with more consistent writing and room to breathe. But these spin-offs can break the rules that the regular series has to stick to for the sake of tradition. Doctor Who would never be allowed to push the boundaries like this.

Davies struggled to stick the landing in both of his finales with Gatwa, building tension and excitement that amounted to very little, but The War Between the Land and the Sea demonstrates a willingness in Davies to challenge Whovians and not simply feed them the same stories over and over again.

The Doctor Who bosses have time to regroup before its return – if they’re smart, they’ll look to this spin-off for inspiration.

‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ starts on Sunday at 8.30pm on BBC One