‘It’s Racist to Say Sea Devil’: Doctor Who Spin-Off Introduces New ‘Homo Aqua’ Name for Classic Villain Race
Upcoming Doctor Who spin-off The War Between The Land And The Sea will introduce a new name for the series’ classic Sea Devil villains — who prefer to be called “Homo Aqua.”
Speaking to Radio Times magazine, current Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies said that the sea-dwelling race now go by the name of Homo Aqua, as viewers will learn “it’s racist to say Sea Devil.”
Davies continued by saying that fans should also not call the race monsters, as humans would be highlighted as the villains of the series. Set to debut in the UK via the BBC later this year (and internationally via Disney+ at a later date), The War Between The Land And The Sea features a sci-fi take on climate change.
“When they first approached me about coming back to Doctor Who in 2021, this was the first bit of my pitch,” Davies revealed, referring to the start of his latest tenure as franchise showrunner — a period in which it was once hoped the BBC’s flagship brand could be “Marvel-ized” using Disney cash.
“I had this idea separately first,” he continued. “But weirdly, it needs the Doctor Who setting. If I just go and pitch this cold, saying, ‘There is a race of creatures that live in the sea,’ They’d say, ‘Really? You sure?’ The pre-existance of the Sea Devils takes all the problems out of it.”
The aquatic race originally featured in the 1972 Jon Pertwee-era serial The Sea Devils, and notably returned in the 1984 Peter Davidson story Warriors of the Deep, where they battled alongside their sister reptilian race, the Silurians, to reclaim Earth (both races having existed prior to the evolution of humanity).
Reaction to the upcoming name change has been mixed, with fans noting that the Silurians themselves previously referred to their sister race as Sea Devils, and that the genus “homo” is specifically used for the branch of great apes (mammals, not reptiles) from which humans are descended.
Others have likened the change to Davies’ previous decision to no longer show Davros, the creator of the Daleks, using a wheelchair-like device.
“We had long conversations about bringing Davros back because he’s a fantastic character,” Davies said previously of his changes to Davros. “Time and society and culture and taste has moved on, and there’s a problem with the Davros of old in that he’s a wheelchair user who’s evil. And I had problems with that, and a lot of us on the production team had problems with that, of associating disability with evil, and trust me, there’s a very long tradition of this.
“I’m not blaming people in the past at all, but the world changes, and when the world changes Doctor Who has to change as well.”
Last week, the BBC ended months of uncertainty over Doctor Who’s future by finally confirming the franchise’s co-funding deal with Disney was dead. A single episode, to be written by Davies and funded by the BBC, is now scheduled for Christmas 2026. It’s expected that this one-off return will see the showrunner wrap up his dangling cliffhanger that introduced Billie Piper, before the show moves forward into a fresh era.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
