The Silurians [4.1]

Summoned "forthwith" by the Brigadier to investigate problems in an underground nuclear reactor, the Doctor and Liz quickly discover that something nasty lurks in the cave system nearby. A race of lizard-people from the dawn of the Earth are coming out of long-term hibernation, and are not remotely happy to see that their world has been overrun by apes.

Fascinated, the Doctor tries to negotiate some kind of a peace treaty between the humans and the Silurians, but there are loud voices on either side calling for the immediate eradication of the other group. Ultimately foiled by their greed, paranoia and incompetence, the Doctor must watch helplessly as the humans blow up the Silurians.

The Majesty

Despite coming in at a whopper 7 episodes, the Silurians packs in quite a bit of story, so there is always some new development going on. It's not exactly fast-paced, but it proceeds through the story steadily. When the Silurians release their deadly plague on the humans, the level of conflict and peril rockets through the roof.

We have a couple of excellent actors turning up in the show with Fulton Mackay playing Dr Quinn and Geoffrey Palmer playing Masters. Both bring a touch of class to proceedings. But what really sets this story apart is the clinical look it turns on the human race themselves. Who are the real baddies here – the humans or the Silurians? We aren't gives any clear answer: both answers are morally debatable, though some individuals are always worse than others.

The Misery

After the long delay in ever seeing a Silurian, the final reveal in the cliffhanger of Episode Three is actually a bit disappointingly bland. In terms of production design, neither the Silurians themselves nor their cavernous home have really aged well. Ill fitting rubber suits and obvious studio floors make it hard to suspend disbelief. Also, we never see more than about four Silurians at once – all of which we are apparently to recognise by their voices. (Talking of which, one has got a really annoying accent!) Similarly, the music is pretty dreadful – sounding more like invasive screeches and sound effects rather than enhancing the drama of the scenes.

Also, sometimes the story can grind to a halt for a bit, such as when the Silurian is wandering around the moors, or when Quinn is searching for it and it seems that we spend a lot of time with dull HR investigations and such like.

Magical Moments

• We get to meet Bessie – the Doctor's car – for the first time. The Doctor tinkers around under the chassis, singing Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. When the Doctor kisses the car, and pats her bonnet, she leaps into life like an affectionate dog eager for walkies.
• Dr Quinn calls Miss Dawson on the telephone. She picks up and answers despite standing about three metres away from him. Nobody seems to notice that this is odd. (I guess it wasn't scripted for such a small room!)
• “You're not exactly Sherlock Holmes yourself” snaps the Doctor to the Brigadier, irritated at lack of progress. Suddenly the power goes out in the base. “Come on, Doctor Watson,” shouts the Brigadier as they rush off.
• The “reptilian eye point of view" camera as the wounded Silurian wanders about the moors is great. Unfortunately the shots go on for far too long, but it's a great effect.
• “You got a pen?” The Doctor spends about 10 seconds sketching a Silurian. The resultant monstrosity is barely distinguishable as having eyes and a mouth. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” he asks the hospital patient, thrusting the drawing in her face. No wonder she screams.
• When Liz comes round after being attacked, she doesn't scream or cry or go to pieces as earlier companions like Victoria would have done. She speaks calmly and intelligently: “I saw it”.
• When Doctor Quinn arrives in the barn, it's suddenly raining, though it was dry in the previous shot. He wears a funny little Cossack hat. When we cut from the wide to the close up shot, his coat is again completely dry.
• The Doctor wanders round Dr Quinn's cottage, uninvited. “Oh very nice, very nice.” It actually is very nice.
• It is quite the shock to discover Dr Quinn's body, lying dead in his armchair. It's so unexpected.
• Dr Lawrence tries to call up about 15 people on the telephone. Every time, Mr Travers quickly tells him that he's called them up already.
• It's quite nice to see a competent civil servant arriving, rather than the usual bumbling bureaucrat, but the Doctor is less convinced: “I've no time to speak to secretaries, permanent or otherwise!”
• Miss Dawson comes across as a stereotypical admin mouse until Doctor Quinn's death. Then she turns into an avenging angel: “We must destroy them before they destroy us!” “Send troops into every one of these caves!” “We've got to attack them first!” “Get more troops and destroy these monsters!”
• “Everyone move well away from Major Baker.” The Doctor's shout electrifies the room, as everyone backs away from the sweating, trembling man. A plague outbreak has begun.
• The moment he hears that the base will be quarantined, Masters decides to take the train to London to get out. Watching in 2021, it's a chillingly familiar move. Denial, fear and selfishness puts the lives of millions at risk.
• The scenes with Masters in London, slowly succumbing to the disease and infecting everyone in his path are particularly powerful.
• Dr Lawrence bursts into the Brigadier's office, his face falling to bits with plague and his combover flapping. “This is all a plot to get rid of me.” He leaps onto the table, tries to strangle the Brigadier, then clutches his chest, wheezes and dies. It's all very dramatic.
• When the Silurians attempt to raise another of their number from hibernation, it truly looks like someone is trying to get me out of bed in the morning
• The Doctor's final anguished monologue sums up the whole story, as well as the complex relationship with UNIT and the Brigadier. “That's murder. They were intelligent alien beings. A whole race of them. He's just wiped them out.” It's one of the strongest finishes to any Dr Who story.

In Summary

“Dr Who and the Silurians”, to give it its full title, is a strangely mature sci-fi story. It's deliberately slow-moving, following a thoughtful progression of investigation, discovery and synthesis. There are a lot of scenes of flawed authority figures debating what to do, and no clear answers emerge. Even at the end, while the Doctor fumes at the Brigadier's genocide, he is unaware that in the caves, the 'bad-guy' Silurian is attempting to wake up his allies. If everyone had followed the Doctor's advice at the end of the story, the human race may well have been plunged into a planetary war within a fortnight. While this moral ambiguity feels very contemporary, the style of the storytelling feels very slow and dated. Too much takes place in the bland nuclear centre or the Silurian base, neither of which would have felt out of place as sets even in William Hartnell's era. It's a difficult story to rank, as it has very strong pros and cons on either side, but it is a must-see from the Pertwee era.