This story has been a bit of a grower on me over the years. Initially didn't like it as it had no monsters as such and was too Earthbound.

Watching the telesnaps recently, I enjoyed it a lot more. The incidental music is again good. Mr Oak and Mr Quill are creepy, especially when they attack Maggie Harris.

It's also great nobody dies in this and Victoria's departure is one of the more moving ones in Classic Who.

I just wish it had been one of those stories that had been recovered.

many years since I read the Target novel so can't remember an awful lot about it but from the tele snaps you are left with the feeling that Fury would not dissapoint if it turned up.

The best bit is when Victoria gets to save the world by screaming! Something no other companion ever did.

The cliffhangers are absolutely outstanding, throughout this story. It's very atmospheric, and the surviving Oak/Quill/Maggie sequence is quite frightening.

This seems to live up to the hype ... but we'll never know for sure ...

It seems ahead of its time, set in the "here and now", with recognisable characters (even a housewife who potters around a kitchen). The music has a more electronic Pertweefied edge to it All of this helps it to stand out from those stories around it, even though it's another "base under seige" story.

Coming to this story knowing very little about it except the surviving censor clips I agree with both your comments about its creepiness. Quill and Oak as a double act are very sinister. I like how they seem so ordinary but utterly lethal.

Yes it is a base under siege story but the formula works so why change a good thing. Its a new location out at sea and I like the sparse remoteness of the beach, the claustrophobia of the piping company. Its a story that feels it could definitely fit into the Pertwee years imo.There are some quite haunting images so praise to director Hugh David. I like very much seeing Maggie ( recons obviously) just walking into the sea and the scenes at the house as the foam intrudes. The script isn't half bad in a kind of heightened Invasion of the Body snatchers way. I like the brevity of speech as people are taken over. Robson's breakdown is entertaining to watch. He's rather gruff from the start & I rather like seeing him losing control and having hysteric outbursts which then makes his silence more unnerving. . Harris is a man on the indecisive edge I think too, having to hold his emotions in when he'd rather be with his wife.

Saying all that I think the foam and the monster ( and humans under the thrall of the monster) are the stars in this again mainly down to the direction (and the electronic score which is effective but also frankly irritated me in over the top screechy Arc of Infinity way but maybe that's the point to unsettle your audience). Unlike the Web of Fear I didn't feel I got to know the characters as well over the six episodes except perhaps Megan Jones when she tried to talk to Robson . It was all about the rigs until the last scenes where they were at the dinner table talking which is a shame.

Of course the regulars are all good. I love this team. They gel really well together. .I liked the moment between Jamie & Victoria when he thinks she's dead 'Victoria. Victoria. Say something. No. No, you can't be dead. Victoria, if anything happened to you, I'd never forgive myself' and she replies 'Oh Jamie, I didn't you cared'. A touch of something deeper between them possibly ? I loved the tender evening scene between them in the garden when Victoria asks him not to go without saying goodbye.

The Doctor is a bit slow to see Victoria isn't happy with the danger they head into but when he does he is very compassionate and understanding pointing it out loud that he knows she is unhappy. It is a good scene bringing his fatherly role full circle back to when he first asked her if she was happy in Tomb..Cybermen. How sweet is it that the Doctor and Jamie stay an extra day as Victoria isn't sure.

There are a couple of small gripes Mr and Mrs Harris seemed inoffensive but I'm surprised Victoria would want to stay with them in that out of the way place which she never liked much. Also everybody lived which I didn't feel was that well explained
considering how ferocious the foam was once people were caught in it, Mrs Harris, Robson, Van Lutyens . But I would still love to see this story back in the archives as it does have quite a spooky feel to it.

I think the idea was that they offered security, it was clear that as the story went on Victoria was getting fed up with all the dangers she constantly faced and for me that makes her unique. Very few companions have moaned about about the ever present dangers they encounter this much when travelling with The Doctor but here was a companion who is reacting as most people in real life would act if they were forever getting threatened by death and getting constantly possessed!

Plus I think it was a nice change that in 9th Doctor style, everybody lived!

Hi Daveyboy ☺ thanks for your comments which made me think of Tegan's exit " My Aunt Vanessa said, when I became an air stewardess, if you stop enjoying it, give it up". Victoria's exit is actually the better built one as she always wanted to return to the Tardis in most stories.
. Tegan's exit always felt rushed and quite sudden