Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Hannah Sole | TV | December 24, 2025
In the absence of a festive Doctor Who special, the latest Whoniverse spin-off show The War Between the Land and the Sea had some big shoes to fill in winter programming, and its slightly later time slot suggested something more grown up and on the serious drama end of the spectrum. The mini-series concluded on Sunday evening in the UK, and wrapped up the UNIT-focused story of, well, a war, between … you get it. The spoilers are right there in the title, and more will follow.
The War… follows Barclay Pierre-Dupont, an Everyman character who 15 years ago would have been played by Martin Freeman, but in 2025 is played by Russell Tovey. In true Whoniverse style, it’s Tovey’s second character, having previously featured as Alonso (of ‘allons-y, Alonso!’ fame) in the 2007 Christmas special ‘Voyage of the Damned’, plus a cameo where he gets hit on by Captain Jack in Ten’s farewell tour. Not-Alonso is a low-level UNIT employee who gets in way over his head thanks to a mix up in HR, and ends up humankind’s spokesperson when the Fish People (homo aqua and homo amphibia) reveal themselves. They are not best pleased with humanity’s constant pollution of the waters of the world, and show up to say ‘stop that now, you dirty sods’.
Is that the war? Well, no. In fact, this might be better described as ‘The Series of Violent Flexes Between Representatives of the Land and the Sea During Intense Co-Existence Negotiations,’ but that’s even less catchy. The Fish People yeet all human trash out of the sea — so plastic, shipwrecks, and presumably beaucoup de turds. Huzzah! The seas are now clean! The streets are a bit of a mess though. The Fish People aren’t done there; they want humans out of their territory forever. No more boats, travel, sewage dumps, paddles at the beach or fish suppers.
It’s a hard line, but Barclay’s open to the idea, mainly because the spokesperson from the Fish People is compelling and hot. Salt, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (also in her second Whoniverse appearance, having previously featured as Martha’s sister, Tish) picked Barclay out of the crowd of humans because he showed compassion to one of her fallen kin. There is a mutual respect and curiosity between them. World leaders though, are not so keen on Salt. And there are factions within factions, which means dirty tricks follow. On the land, Kate’s UNIT team are trying to chase up the more militant types who want to just kill off all the Fish People by blowing up the negotiations or unleashing biological weapons on them. And Salt’s got hard liners in her camp as well, like Tide, who didn’t think the Great Turd Yeeting was a big enough demonstration, and is instead going to melt the ice caps, right after EATING PEOPLE’S DOGS. Too far, Tide. Too far.
What could prevent this going even further? It’s Christmas, so the POWER OF LOVE. Salt and Barclay have some Little Mermaid chemistry going on, though kissing the girl here means surviving an underwater explosion. Oh, and then growing gills. Unfortunately, forces are arrayed against them. Being together makes them both traitors. Barclay’s got a wife and kid at home! And the evil folks spying on him use him to unknowingly transmit a virus that wipes out 90% of the Fish People. That’s hard to work past. Plus THE EVIL PEOPLE KILL OFF KATE’S HUNKY BOYFRIEND, so I take it back, this show hates love and wants it to die.
Representatives of the 10% of Fish People who survived pop back one last time to admit defeat and swear revenge on the evil human factions who conspired to commit genocide. ‘Water will find you,’ says Salt. It’s a very hollow victory for humans; ‘Congratulations. Or shame on us all, I’m not sure which,’ says Kate, and it’s another classic instalment of Humans Suck. Poor Kate barely comes out of this unscathed, what with the HORRIFIC MURDER OF HUNKY BOYFRIEND and everything.
The series ends with not one but two metamorphoses. Barclay learns about his gills coming in, says goodbye to his wife and kid, and runs into the sea to enjoy water zoomies with Salt. Waving happily to Not-Alonso the Adulterer from the shore is Kate, before she spots a jogger casually throwing a plastic bottle on the sand, because Humans Suck and never learn, and Kate is MAD. She has PTSD and a gun, and ends the series yelling at some random butthead to pick the bottle up or get shot in the face. You killed off her boyfriend and turned her into a Karen, RTD? That isn’t very Christmassy!
It’s great to have some new Who content; I like the idea of a broader Whoniverse with more spin offs, plus there were lots of beautiful shots of the ocean, and Tovey and Mbatha-Raw were fantastic. UNIT’s world feels richer and full of enough potential human villains for a few more seasons. But I feel like this might have worked better as a Torchwood story. It needed a bit of camp, a bit of danger and more underwater shenanigans. Plus, Kate would never shoot some rando; swap Gwen Cooper in there, and you have a cliffhanger with some stakes.
Until next time: Let’s hope that Kate has a nice relaxing holiday and nothing else bad happens to her, or so help me, RTD, we will riot.
