The Doctor Who spinoff Disney is still refusing to broadcast despite helping to pay for it, The War Between the Land and the Sea, is not very good. It’s not very good for a lot of reasons, but one of them in particular is that, for a show called The War Between the Land and the Sea that has a lot of characters talk about a war occurring between the land and the sea, it barely ever actually shows a conflict between the land and the sea. But that was apparently not always going to be the case.
Speaking recently at the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles, series co-showrunner Peter McTighe (via Cultbox) described a scene cut from an early moment in the show, as tensions between humanity and Aquakind (the show’s modernized term for the Sea Devils) begin to escalate.
“There was only one big effects sequence that we ended up having to cut which was from the start of Episode 2, which was going to open in this beautiful restaurant on the Italian coast,” McTighe explained. “This young, hot couple were arriving in a sports car and then went into this amazing restaurant that had glass view of the sea that was beautiful. They sit down and he was going to propose to her and say he loves her and then suddenly, a squid was going to slap onto the window. And they were like, ‘Sorry, what was that?’ And then another one would spat onto the other window and then another one, another one. And suddenly, there were all these squid attacking this restaurant and the windows exploded!”
McTighe went on to explain that the sequence was ultimately cut to save visual FX budgets for the same episode’s climax, which saw Aquakind representative Salt (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) ceremoniously dump every piece of waterborne trash dumped by humankind back onto land—a dramatic set piece actually important to War Between‘s overall story (even if the show ultimately shunts cleanup and response to the massive logistical issues of such an event into the background for the remainder of its run).
It makes sense as a budgetary cut in that regard, but it’s also a shame because it would’ve been one of the rare moments of tit-for-tat skirmishing between human and aquakind the show would’ve actually had, and would’ve helped actually communicate the growing escalation in conflict between the two sides as part of the supposed war that was meant to be happening in the background of the show’s ultimate interest, a Shape of Water-type relationship between Salt and lead negotiator Barclay (Russell Tovey).
Alas, it wasn’t to be. At least the last episode opens with an implication that Aquakind lures, captures, and eats every dog on the planet off-screen instead? Yeah.
The War Between the Land and the Sea is now streaming in its entirety in the UK on BBC iPlayer. The series is still expected to stream on Disney+ internationally at some point in 2026.
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