The Deep (2010) User Reviews

Surprisingly good,

[piperofthemillenium · 7/10 · 14 May 2021]

Having read some of the critics reviews, most of which were not very complementary, I decided to give this miniseries a go considering I like most of the cast. Minnie Driver, Goran Visnjic. Sacha Dhawan (who played a delightfully evil Master in the most recent Dr Who series) and Antonia Thomas (from the Good Doctor) as talented people I have appreciated for some time, so I gave this a go. And I was pleasantly surprised.

While I did pick up on some issues with scientific inaccuracies (show me a sci-fi show that doesn't for the sake of speeding the narrative up) I did find the story and intrigue compelling. The characters weren't one-dimensional, they (mostly) had depth (pun intended) and the themes of international politics interfering with scientific endeavour were quite accurate. While politicians mouth "save the world", they are often in the pocket of corporations, so the notion that they are motivated by a desire for world peace and lowering our dependence on fossil fuels is naive when you consider how much money is involved. If a natural biofuel was discovered that replaced oil it would be fought, pure and simple.

That theme was explored here in depth in imaginative ways.

There are high prices that are paid along the way, friendships are made and lost.

The CG isn't perfect, but even on my 4K TV it still looked good today.

So, don't let the nay-sayers turn you off. Give The Deep a go. It's value Sci-Fi with a modern tale to tell.

In over its head!

[logans_place · 5/10 · 18 August 2010]

OK, so all you people out there who complain that reviewers slag off shows but haven't watched all of it need to simply accept this show is poor after one showing or all 3 shows I have seen so far and last night's 'epic' was the final straw. The premise about a deep sub going after minerals and a big mysterious sub going after oil and a big corporation going after ratings is OK, even acceptable but the execution is not. Sherlock this ain't and I can't help but feel that the elation of the Sherlock pilot must have made the BBC go a bit mad as they clearly splashed the cash for a few mundane actors and some very polished special effects.The real issue with the show is Minnie Driver who is reminiscent of the dreadful female headliner in Bone Kickers, she simply can't act and Goran is not much better. A good example is a piece of dialogue from last night: Clem? Clem? Clem? Answer Clem! Clem? What's going on Clem? Clem? Clem? Clem? Come in Clem? and then a few minutes later we were treated to 'Frances? Frances? Frances? Come in Frances? Frances?' Simply amazing TV.

In short there is not a lot here but a lot of cash wasted and I think the other reviewer is spot on with his description of mediocrity. I am guessing it will just keep on sinking as they eek a 1 1/2 hour story into a heart stoppingly exciting series.

Enjoyable despite its obvious flaws

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 3 September 2010]

When watching this BBC series it immediately becomes apparent that it has no connection to the 1977 film of the same name; rather than being set in the warm waters of Bermuda this is set deep in the icy waters of the North Pole. After one expedition is lost while exploring a field of hydrothermal vents a second mission is sent to discover what happened. One man on board has a particular reason to want to discover what happened as his wife was on board. The crew was the usual mix of people that we expect from the BBC and some of them seemed a little excitable for such a mission, acting more like sixth formers on a school outing than explorers heading into one of the world's most hostile environments.

As the crew headed into the freezing depths I was expecting them to encounter some sort of huge creature but that wasn't one of the many problems they face. Those they do encounter include Russians illegally drilling for oil, an overheating nuclear reactor, a microbe that eats through metal and people who wish to stop them from revealing the discovery of a cheap fuel source.

With a cast that included James Nesbitt, Minnie Driver and Sinead Cusack I'd expected something better; the story wasn't bad and the special effects were pretty good but the dialogue was frequently cringe-worthy and the characters somewhat unrealistic, for example would anybody really let a man who hasn't got over the loss of his wife go to explore the place that it is believed she died? With these flaws it might be surprising that I stuck with it but it had a certain indefinable something that made it gripping and for all its faults I found myself enjoying the story and caring about the characters even when the situation was rather silly.

Driver and Nesbitt must have REALLY needed the money!

[chicagorob1 · 5 September 2010]

I was looking forward to an intriguing science fiction story about some of the most unexplored parts of our planet. The potentially exciting SciFi icons: sentient ocean lifeforms, aliens, ancient civilizations, etc., etc., could have been used to great effect.

Unfortunately, whoever wrote this had no imagination whatsoever. We get scientists investigating a mysterious sub disappearance in a volcanic field under the polar ice. They discover a giant ghost sub and from there it devolves into a confusing series of disasters and stupid decisions that threaten everyone's lives over and over.

Unfortunately, in the end the bad guys cover everything up and 75% of the cast are killed (including a sad and disheartening afterthought shot of a dying woman drifting away in a powerless submersible).

Most annoying of all is the fate of Nesbitt's character, the hero trying to find his wife to bring her home for their young daughter. He is simply shot after accomplishing nothing and is blown up with the giant Russian sub. The last scene is of his wife bawling in front of their young daughter after getting home.

The next time the BBC wants to do Science Fiction, they need to find someone who actually knows something about it. The audience doesn't want an insipid and disheartening soap opera set on a couple of submarines.

Some weaknesses, but definitely good entertainment.

[imdbr · 7/10 · 15 October 2010]

I don't watch a great deal of television, so maybe there are better shows out there, but I liked this. It was well acted, and for the most part, well written. James Nesbitt was very convincing as a desperately distraught husband - I can barely imagine facing that kind of pain - although I'll admit that some of his scenes felt a little drawn out. Minnie Driver also made for a respectable captain and those playing the remainder of the Orpheus crew worked very well together. They were certainly convincing as a group of professional civilians in a high risk job.

I loved the sets. I don't doubt that the Russian sub was just some random industrial facility, but it worked exceedingly well. I do wish we could have seen more of it though, and really gotten a feel for what it was like working down there. Maybe they could have included some flashback sequences of what happened as it was happening.

The action on the surface was weak, both in the ice field, and back at the cottage. Much of these scenes should either have been extended or dropped altogether... especially the whole ridiculous sledgehammer and computer bit.

I ticked the "Contains Spoilers" box for obvious reasons, but I don't want to ruin too much. I will say however that I thought the last death was a mistake. I really feel that character deserved to live, and importantly, to be able to report what else had happened down below.

Despite the faults, I'm still going to give seven stars for the considerable enjoyment it's given me over the last few nights. It's not often that I watch a TV show and go away afterwards immediately wanting to buy the DVD. This time though, I probably will. This wasn't a fantastic show, but it was refreshingly different, with a solid backbone of good characters and I certainly hope the creative talents involved go on to other equally interesting work.

Great idea, but it never quite takes off

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 12 September 2010]

Now this did have the potential to be great. I loved the idea and I like James Nesbitt and Minnie Driver. However, despite this great concept and a great cast(on paper that is), The Deep never quite takes off. In fact, a vast majority of it was awful I'm afraid, and I honestly didn't want to say that.

The Deep does have some redeeming qualities. The scenery and photography are excellent and the effects are above average.

However, The Deep has a number of problems. One, the pacing is incredibly sluggish. Two, while the concept was great the story was repetitive and dull. Three, the dialogue is banal and stupid more than it is intelligent and thought-provoking. Four, the direction is pretty heartless. Five, some scenes drag really badly and not helped by some very awkward pauses. Six, the character situations are clichéd and the characters you don't feel anything for. Seven, the acting was not great... at all- it is not the matter of that nobody can act, it is that nobody has anything worthwhile to work with. James Nesbitt(Murphy's Law and the brilliant Occupation) tries hard but is let down by his dialogue and character, while Minnie Driver has some really wooden delivery. Goran Visjinc did little for me either, while there are some members of the cast that don't delve into their characters enough or are too young for them. Finally, the final part of the drama is really quite laughable to say the least.

To conclude, I tried to like The Deep, but the story, pacing and dialogue really spoil what could have been an intriguing drama. 2/10 for the scenery mainly. Bethany Cox

Watch this!

[doncouzens · 7/10 · 26 October 2018]

If you are mature enough to look past some basic cgi scenes the heart of this takes me back to great movies like the abyss. The plot moves fast and each episode is totally not predictable and if it can keep me awake where some series like Bones put me strait to sleep, it has some merit. So no flashing cool Cgi, great sets, good cast, good plot, fast paced. I enjoyed it.Reminds me a bit of the older style british cimena which you can view as dated or classic, but well worth a watch.

Avoid at all costs!!

[simon-james · 1/10 · 1 September 2010]

I saw this being advertised on the BBC and it looked quite interesting so I watched the first part. And I was hooked! OK the bad acting was a little off putting, but the show had created a mystery about a Submarine that goes missing in the Arctic ocean and something gigantic had caused it's disappearance.

I told all my friends about it, and said to catch the repeat in the week and I got on-board a few people that was hooked to.

And then part two happened! The mystery has been solved you learn about the something gigantic and the bad acting is still there and this is only part 2 out of 5.

By the end of part 3 you are now bored and know how the story is going to pan out.

You find yourself uninterested and really don't care what happens to anyone, and actually hope that they all somehow meet a horrible icy death by the end of part 5.

I really wish I had not invested 5 hours of my life in this predictable, badly written, poorly acted rubbish.

And I have to say a big SORRY to my friends that I dragged into this boring show. Can you forgive me?

Adventures from the Abyss!

[zoz-603-463961 · 9/10 · 21 August 2010]

I've never been too fond of underwater/submarine movies, James Cameron's The Abyss movie from 1989 being a wonderful exception. BBC's The Deep explores similar territory to Abyss... What the heck is down there? Excellent sets, colors & moods with a fantastic cast.

James Nesbitt is in my top five UK character actors and though he is hard-pressed to top his brilliant Hyde/Jekyll in the mini-series "Jekyll" he once again brings a depth to his role that most can't even begin to touch.

I first became aware of the beautiful Minnie Driver from the sadly cancelled series The Riches (with Eddie Izzard)and every moment she is on screen in The Deep is sheer delight.

After three episodes The Deep is a tense, exciting, slightly sci-fi drama that once again places the BBC in the top slot along with HBO.

Highly recommended IMHO!

Thank god it's over!

[princess919 · 2/10 · 1 September 2010]

This mini series was to my mind a complete waste of time and money.

The series started off reasonably well, a decent amount of mystery, a few likable characters and a group of actors whose previous work I have loved. It all went down hill pretty soon, I had no respect for the characters who were more concerned with their own personal agenda's and social problems than with the mission in hand. The script had a couple of amusing moments but for the most part dropped and I was able to predict with absolute accuracy which characters would and wouldn't survive the series. The 'frantic' efforts to get the sub going was pretty hilarious and had me yelling at the screen "Stop wasting time!" a sure sign that I was wasting mine.

Surprisingly it was the unknowns (pretty much unknown to me) in the group that kept me interested in this, I found myself fast forwarding through the Minnie, Goran, Orla and James moments to get to the people that interested me.

Finally the ending was predictable and had me relieved that the series wouldn't ever continue, I am incredibly surprised that the BBC churned out this rubbish but then again they are responsible for the recent travesty known as 'Alice and her six dads' a reality show that was really just a showcase for a self obsessed bride.

I was Hooked!!

[danieldwilkinson · 8/10 · 17 December 2021]

Man I wish this wasn't a mini series cause Im a huge fan of these concepts in shows where they are trapped in a sub in deep sea or a ship in space etc..... This would have been an excellent show to have for 2 maybe 3 seasons.

The only thing I would have changed is to have clem and Svetlana survive.

The Deep 2010 How Bad Can a TV Serial Be ?

[loren-834-405799 · 1/10 · 2 September 2010]

If I said this was really tripe I might insult tripe. I wanted to like it, I really did.

The synopsis looked good; The crew of a research submarine, who encounter disaster thousands of feet underwater in the Arctic Circle.

I never saw a trailer for it (not sure if they made one perhaps not enough film to make a good reel). Let's start out with the good and buzz when you see where this is going.

a) The cast list was amazing...(false hope) buzzzzz ! b) The film work, sets etc. wonderful, nice lighting. c) Good sound. d) The storyline ideas were acceptable, no cheesy graphics. e) Nice personality, pretty eyes, you get the idea.

Unfortunately when it came to the story, and thus the directing what a load of tripe (sorry tripe). If perfect casting can be touched on for a moment Goran Visnjic from ER fame is perfectly cast but unfortunately no medical training (real or imaginary) on this planet could rescue this story from the terminal poor writing/directing. Now in this sort of situation you could often blame actors normally, but I believe they did all they could and saved the show if possible.

I think when you define bad story lines, and detail, I think it is when stupid things happen for no reason that really offer no value, or worse take away from the story line, that the worst damages are here. But that is almost every scene, where you think this is really bad.

This story good be easily tweaked to be seriously good or as a spoof and seriously funny. Unfortunately it was just seriously bad.

I never watched a multi part TV serial before thinking well the next episode (this was a 5 parter) has to be better than that last one. Unfortunately it too plunged deeper.

All that can be hoped for is that the actors do not sue for having their careers lost at sea, I will remember them for quite a while for this stinker (unfortunately).

It is worth watching for how bad it is (but I hear people have been known to wear shoes on the wrong feet for the same reason.

Rating 1 out of 10 (awful)

Mediocrity Thy Name Is The BBC

[journalist1 · 12 August 2010]

Mediocre - average: lacking exceptional quality.

The once great BBC has fallen foul yet again to that great modern British attribute; mediocrity. While usually I would applaud the BBC for it's policy on social cohesion the actors inclusion is just well......formulaic. The way in which the BBC put together this drama is almost as though it was drama-by-numbers.

All the building blocks are there:

Ethnic minorities represented (including the new kid on the British block the eastern European) check.

Evil state puppet to attract liberals: check

SF concept to attract males under 45: check

Unnecessary romance to draw in female viewers: check.

Complicated yet vague plot: check.

Sum of all it's parts....FAIL.

The dialogue was ABYSS-mal, the characters seemed to ALIENate the audience rather than draw them and I do understand why viewers might seem DEEPly LOSTed when watching it.

The Deep-ly flawed....

[Rob_Taylor · 5/10 · 28 August 2010]

What can I say about this show. I was quite looking forward to it when it was announced but, as each new episode appears it just gets more and more foolish.

First annoyance. A female character who is completely annoying and irritating and seemingly incapable of being rational. How such a character would have survived a train cancellation is a mystery, let alone how she got on the crew.

Later, in another episode, a male character becomes almost a clone of her, shrieking and panicking in a most pathetic way.

I suppose the intent was to make the drama more human, more realistic. To show how humans might react under great stress. All it actually served to do was annoy you and make you hope the above characters came to a sticky end - which they do, though of course one of them has to make a heroic sacrifice (tm) beforehand.

In addition, the motivations of the crew seem at times to be jarringly at odds with the reality of their situation. At times you want to scream "What the hell are you talking about?!? Get on with it!" at the screen.

Now, I like character development, but this show has altogether too much random twaddle being spouted by one character to another for no real purpose. The characters are simplistically constructed. So much so that you understand their goals, motives and such very quickly. But it seems the script called for endless rehashes of the same points, as if the targetted audience was assumed to be particularly stupid and needed the same fact repeated ad nauseum.

All in all, the show is overlong. It should be three episodes, not however many its dragging on for. In addition the characters are not terribly likable or empathetic. It's hard to care what happens to any of them really. The plot is rather simple so far, albeit rather ludicrous in its scope.

So to summarise, not worth your time unless you are very bored. But being very bored is much preferable to having to watch this overblown nonsense.

Weak and flawed

[steven-j-ellis · 1/10 · 25 August 2010]

This show is simply terrible. Episode one looked the goods but it has been rapidly down hill since then. The script seems to have been written by a 14 year old, terrible dialog and just ridiculous interaction between characters. To appeal to any kind of scientific based audience, you at least need some kind of viable and realistic science - it fails on all fronts here. Needing to go into a radioactive area to insert the control rods in a nuclear reactor... get serious; only having one motherboard that controls the whole of the ships systems and when it fails at 2000 feet, thats it.... hmmm. Very disappointing.

What a stinker!

[pawebster · 2/10 · 26 August 2010]

All those head-hunted bosses ("We'd lose them to other broadcasters if we didn't pay them vast salaries") entirely failed to spot that they were spending millions on piffle.

The story is completely arbitrary. Crises suddenly blow up because of gobbledygook, along the lines of "Oh no, the crinkly squigglegram is about to blow!", but this doesn't matter because, whew, they can also be solved by similar bits of nonsense. They never quite say "It's a long shot, but it might just work", but that's what they mean. As for the ridiculous business about the nuclear reactor and radiation, I won't say more to avoid spoilers.

Apart from the bogus crises, the story moves along like a glacier. Someone decided to spin it out over numerous unnecessary episodes. This has a terrible effect on the dialogue, which involves pointless silences and repetitions ("The squigglegram!" "What, the sqigglegram?" "No! It can't be the squigglegram!?" Pause. "I'm afraid so. It's the squigglegram.")

Greatly shortened, this might have made a moderately entertaining serial for CBBC. As it is...

inspired by the film of its title

[edumacated · 5/10 · 31 August 2010]

this series is inspired by the film of the same title, but starts out as flawed as the original film ends.

what else can i say. this series uses poor c.g. to amuse a somatose audience, and uses filler dialog in the same way.

whoever put this series together deserves a good old fashioned trip to the wood shed.

it has few plot points, obviously filled between with incongruous character reactions and stupid dialog which prompt time-filling conflicts, which stretches this tripe from a ninety minute show, into a British series length.

i was insulted by the watching, but unfortunately i kept viewing to see if it would get better or worse. the good news is it didn't get any worse. it played mediocre all the way through.

amazingly awful

[mike-earrey · 2/10 · 2 September 2010]

I liked the premise, unknown danger, underwater thus claustrophobic thus small cast (including Minnie Driver who I've always liked). I still think the idea could have worked. However what we got was an absolute disaster. It failed on every level I can think of. There were so many holes in the plot you would be hard pressed to find enough large underwater vessels to drive through them all. The personal relationships between the characters was shallow and unbelievable, and their responses to events totally absurd. It may have been slightly helped by reducing the run time from 5 hours to 90 minutes.

Where are the new BBC programmes to rival Doomwatch and Out of the Unknown, or the fantastic Edge of Darkness. Maybe I'm just getting rather old.

How many BBC executives are going to get a bonus for this one I wonder?

And as for one reviewer using this production to compare the BBC with HBO I just despair.

Trawling the depths

[doorsscorpywag · 2/10 · 1 September 2010]

The BBC do indeed make some excellent drama the recent Sherlock a perfect example but now and then they make programmes like The Deep. It started off quite well and gave the viewer a sense that we were in for some kind of sci-fi experience with maybe an alien or enormous sea monster. Then episode 2 came along and we found we were just in some kind of greedy Russians versus the free world trying to protect the Arctic scenario and it went downhill fast from there. How one single member of that crew would have been considered suitable for deep sea exploration is beyond me as they were a bunch of emotional wrecks led by Minnie Driver who spent more time gazing lovingly at here boyfriend rather than trying to keep her crew alive. Something in which she failed miserably at by the way.

By episode 4 I was watching just to see how ridiculous this could get and by episode 5 I was not disappointed as it trawled a depth rarely seen by the BBC and ended with one of the stupidest hours in BBC history. The Deep could have been a really good drama if someone had taken time to reason out a decent storyline instead we got a 5 hour waste of everybody's time. Some decent actors but not a shred of decent acting on display. The dialogue was banal and dull and the actions of some of the characters simply too stupid for words. The laughable final segment as they struggle to breathe and then are rescued by whales too stupid for words.

Awful does not do The Deep justice and it got an extra * for some nice scenery.

Bland repetitive stuff that does nothing to engage or thrill the viewer (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 7 September 2010]

The Deep was a BBC miniseries that was launched with a certain amount of hype to it but not so much that any sense of mystery was lost about what it was all about. On the face of it there did seem to be potential for it to be good – it had a budget, it had ambition (for a BBC miniseries anyway), it had some "big names" and the mystery around the plot meant that I was interested from the start. Sadly this interest did not last because The Deep is sunk (hey, every other review is full of puns) by terrible writing – from the overall concept through to the individual lines handed to the cast.

I've posted that this review contains spoilers so that I can "spoil" the mystery here, but to be honest it is all so generic that once you realise that this is not The Abyss, the rest sort of fills itself in. Essentially we have secretive agencies, a discovery that threatens "big oil", internal fights and lots of momentary crisis. And I mean lots. Rather than base the drama on a strong bed, the writers fill the 5 hour runtime (and you'll feel every minute of it) by having one crisis after another. Something is always about to explode or flood, someone is always cut off from somewhere else but the good news that every single one of the problems can be solved with an equally momentary solution that involves someone going somewhere at risk, twisting something or some other solution that has come straight out of the "submarine drama" handbook. Very quickly it just comes over as repetitive and you stop caring. Characters die, you don't care. Characters sacrifice themselves for the greater good – you don't care. Not caring is a bit of a problem when you're supposed to be watching a show for 5 hours – it is not the emotion most writers go for in their viewers but these ones couldn't have nailed it better if they had tried (which I'm not convinced they weren't).

Outside of the specific crisis of that moment, the overall plot is poor as well. It is all very vague (even once you get to the end) and none of it hangs together, failing to capture the feel that such a large plot needed. The "importance" of the plot is global, the stakes are life and death but the delivery is mundane and stagey, which really takes the edge of the bigger picture and essentially means the viewer is only left with the current momentary crisis – which, as I said, are repetitive and "genre 101". The dialogue is just as bad. Everything is explained several times so that viewer can understand what the next crisis is and how it can be solved. There are very few dialogue scenes that do not serve as exposition and this just adds to the tiresome effect.

The cast are not huge names but the main players are big names for this type of thing, shame then that none of them have anything to work with. The same vagueness in the overall plotting has infected the direction of the cast because none of them seem to be able to capture the tone of the piece in their performances. Driver does not convince as the captain of this boat – not because she is a woman or young but just because her performance is so poor. She is not only reading lines but they are awful lines. Nesbitt does himself no favours here apart from showing that he will always try hard. On paper his character is the most interesting and has the "strongest" scenes in terms of emotion but the writing of them leaves him alone and in the end he just ends up overdoing his emotion without any internal base, making it feel hammy and empty. This goes the same for Brady. Visnjic has little to do – his days as global heart-throb on ER seem a long time ago now. Dhawan, Fitatova and "the other girl" are simply too young to convince – it is all very deliberate casting in terms of having young faces up to attract younger viewers but (a) it doesn't work as they never convince and (b) any younger viewer attracted on the basis of the casting will quickly be tuning out on the basis of the writing.

I know I have not really had a good word to say about The Deep but I will concede that it is not awful, it is just that it is simply not any good. It is incredibly bland in the overall delivery and the writing is roundly poor. The dialogue is mostly bad because it is used to explain the next generic crisis that is happening to the crew. These are boring and the overall story is never really constructed in any sort of effective manner.

I can't believe someone got money for this

[wetnall · 1/10 · 30 December 2010]

Anyone hungry? Try tripe...or this show. Big name actors to entice us; James Nesbitt, Minnie Driver - but what a waste of viewing time. The scriptwriters should be shot. Oohh look, there's a thing; ooh look, it's big; ooh look, nasty Russians. Bland, bland, bland.

The story did not develop the characters for us. We are expected to trust the script and almost automatically know that Minnies character is the leader, that she's in love with another, that James character is the broody tough guy who will overcome the adversity, that Svetlana knows 12 languages and is not just a pretty face. Also, add in a token black female character cos somehow, that balances the crew.

I thought scientists in a sub would all wear the same clothing, you know, overalls or wet weather gear.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was better and that was 40 years ago.

One hour never to be recovered. Forget the next four.

Horrible.

[snowboarding_babando · 2/10 · 2 March 2022]

2 characters under the water deserved to live, and neither do. Such a dissatisfaction of time spent. Could have been an interesting story. But just stupid decision after stupid decision.

Starts out strong and then takes a nose dive to extreme boredom

[evilcartman01 · 2/10 · 5 December 2023]

By the middle of the third episode I just didn't care. There's some kind of mystery and it's impossible to care. The plot started to fall apart and the behavior of the characters became ridiculous and unreasonable. I thought there was the bones of a fantastic story in here but between the horrible acting and even worse dialogue, I could not even force myself to finish. I don't even know what happens and I don't even have enough interest left to look at a summary. That's how bad it went from compelling to losing my interest completely .

I'm not even interested enough to delve into what went wrong here. Despite it having the pace of a snail they managed to dangle plot threads and completely miss out on the chance to deliver some compelling mystery and drama. I'm not even judging the scientific inadequacies of this thing but it was clearly written by someone that knows nothing about diving. About the pressures involved in the challenges. It's completely ridiculous by the third episode and it really did start out strong. It's sucked me in with characters that vanish to be replaced with empty planks of wood.

Honestly by the end I was hoping everybody would just die.

HOT MAGMA

[webhead-97553 · 5/10 · 23 January 2023]

Unless they are known to actually exist there, putting volcanic vents under the ice caps seems like poor writing to me. Wouldn't they melt the ice?

Drilling deep through an 800 degree 'volcanic field' is more likely to produce hot magma, than oil. Drilling underwater, serviced by subs, seems problematic. Not 'cheep' energy at all. And could not be kept secret for long.

Unless they are known to actually exist there, putting volcanic vents under the ice caps seems like poor writing to me. Wouldn't they melt the ice?

Drilling deep through an 800 degree 'volcanic field' is more likely to produce hot magma, than oil. Drilling underwater, serviced by subs, seems problematic. Not 'cheep' energy at all. And could not be kept secret for long.