Monday, December 08, 2025

My Review of The War Between The Land And The Sea: "Plastic Apocalypse"

 


Written by Pete McTighe
Directed by Dylan Holmes Williams 

Kate: "You have to stop this!"
Salt: "We are cleaning up your mess."

Yeah, we're picking up from where the opening episode left off, things certainly went from one extreme to another. Barclay went from an ordinary bloke to the most important man on the planet and a source of contention for both UNIT and his ex-wife.

UNIT - specifically Kate took little time in grilling Barclay about a potential past alliance with the Sea Devils, which Barclay denied. It did turn out that Salt saw Barclay's small act of compassion over a dead Sea Devil in the opening episode. It's why she chose him to be Ambassador for humanity.

I think Barclay's compassion might be both his weakness and a blessing. In the latter category, he knew what to say to get Salt on side a few times. This included a scene where Salt nearly got Barclay to drink dirty water from the Thames, only for Barclay to openly condemn humanity's abuse of the waters.

As for Salt's demands - they were both understandable but also not likely to pan out. Were Homo Amphibia/Aqua really going to wait forty years for humanity to clean up the water? Salt didn't think so, which meant dredging all the mess from the oceans and dumping it back on land. Salt wasn't messing about with her demands.

The demand of humans no longer using modes of travel isn't something that Salt can expect humanity go along. In fact, it was something that was pushed during the Diplomacy H20 scenes. It also provoked a different facet to Salt as well. A facet that genuinely surprised me.

As for the last demand, Kate couldn't get Barclay to stay on script throughout the episode, so I expected him to do something reckless. I'm not sure agreeing to the next meeting underwater was the wisest decision there, Barclay.

- Salt momentarily turned male and was played by Joshua Sinclair-Evans. I wonder if this will happen again if she's really angry. Those scientists working on Salt's dead kids can't end well either.
- Barclay was born November 12th 1982. He's a year younger than Russell Tovey himself. 
- Trinity Wells (Lachele Carl) appeared in this episode and Albion were also referenced along with the Doctor. I'm also not keen on Kate and Ibrahim being a thing.
- Chronology: Exactly where the first episode left off.

Plastic Apocalypse was a bit better than the opening episode. It certainly had a great time with living up to its title and you can tell that money was well spent on these first two episodes so far. It's heavy handed on its messaging but I'm enjoying the show.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

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