Season 14 All But Confirms Doctor Who's Next Spinoff With 1 Sneaky Reference

Warning: spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 4.

Summary In Doctor Who season 14, episode 4, the Doctor drops the phrase "the war between the land and the sea."

The War Between the Land & the Sea is the title of Doctor Who's rumored upcoming Sea Devils spinoff.

The title could mean a violent awakening of the Sea Devils as they attempt to reclaim Earth.

With a knowing wink, Doctor Who season 14 casually references its next spinoff series in "73 Yards." The return of Russell T Davies as Doctor Who's showrunner and the franchise's migration onto Disney+ has triggered an overarching expansion of the Whoniverse. RTD has repeatedly expressed interest in exploring future spinoffs after previous efforts Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Class, and the first of these offerings came with Tales of the TARDIS in October 2023.

Alas, Tales of the TARDIS was not a Doctor Who spinoff in the original sense. While original material featuring former Doctors was included to bookend each episode, Tales of the TARDIS essentially just reran beloved adventures from the classic series, and that leaves plenty of room for further entries into the Whoniverse after Doctor Who season 14's finale. Indeed, Doctor Who's next spinoff is seemingly already in the works, according to reports, and this very project is curiously teased by the Fifteenth Doctor in "73 Yards."

Season 14, Episode 4 All But Confirms Doctor Who's Upcoming Spinoff

Did You Spot This Line In Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4?

Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor is barely in Doctor Who season 14's "73 Yards," but he spends most of his allotted time waxing lyrical about the Welsh coastline the TARDIS is perched upon. During his sales pitch for Welsh tourism, the Doctor uses the term "the war between the land and the sea" to describe the meeting of water and rock he and Ruby are looking at. In a fascinatingly meta Easter egg, The War Between the Land & the Sea is the name of the rumored Doctor Who Sea Devils spinoff currently in development.

No official source has yet confirmed The War Between the Land & the Sea is actually happening, although the rumors have been widely reported and contain various key details regarding the supposed production. Russell T Davies using the rumored title as a line of dialogue in Doctor Who season 14 does, however, strongly imply that The War Between the Land & the Sea is a genuine spinoff coming to the Whoniverse. Back in Doctor Who Magazine #598, RTD hinted that a project with an eight-word title was brewing behind the scenes, lending the name-drop in "73 Yards" even more significance.

Related New Doctor Who Spinoff Reports Aren't Anything Like We Expected (But That's A Good Thing) Reports give some indication of what Doctor Who's next spinoff will be about, but the teased concept is very far from what many would have expected.

What "The War Between The Land & The Sea" Actually Means

How Doctor Who's Spinoff Title Relates To The Sea Devils

As far as Doctor Who season 14's "73 Yards" episode is concerned, the phrase "the war between the land and the sea" is little more than a poetic way of describing the perpetually crashing waves against the Welsh shore - the water never ceasing in its relentless assault and the land never giving an inch in its staunch defense. Doctor Who's next spinoff will, presumably, not center upon the geography of Wales' scenic coastline, and so the phrase takes on a much different meaning in the context of the Sea Devils.

If a group of Sea Devils stirs from slumber and attempts to reclaim Earth from the glorified apes who seized it in their absence, a true war between land and sea would occur.

Introduced during the Third Doctor's era as part of the wider Silurian race, the Sea Devils were dominant on Earth before humanity had evolved, but went into a self-imposed hibernation to avoid a cataclysmic event that ultimately never transpired. Their technology failed, and the Sea Devils remained dormant deep below the planet's surface while humans reigned on top. On the few occasions a colony of Sea Devils has woken up in Doctor Who, they have reacted badly to Earth's new number one species.

The Sea Devils are an aquatic offshoot of the Silurians, and these two races have teamed up against humans previously in Doctor Who.

The proposed Doctor Who spinoff title The War Between the Land and the Sea, therefore, hints towards another violent awakening from the Sea Devils. If a group of the creatures stirs from slumber and attempts to reclaim Earth from the glorified apes who seized it in their absence, a true war between land and sea would occur - not the metaphorical sort the Fifteenth Doctor muses over in "73 Yards." Alternatively, the phrase may suggest Doctor Who's upcoming spinoff will be about a battle for supremacy in the ancient past between the land-based Silurians and their ocean-dwelling Sea Devil cousins.

Sources: Doctor Who Magazine #598

Episode Disney+ Release Date "Space Babies" and "The Devil's Chord" May 10 "Boom" May 17 "73 Yards" May 24 "Dot & Bubble" May 31 "Rogue" June 7 "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" June 14 "Empire of Death" June 21