Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 5

The one where Silurian civil war breaks out...

First there was Captain Knight, then Captain Turner, then Captain Munro, and now Captain Hawkins. UNIT had a swing-door policy on captains in its formative years, eventually settling on Captain Yates of course, but I wonder why they didn't keep John Breslin's Munro on for this story, or Paul Darrow's Hawkins on for Season 8? Both captains were solid and reliable, and Darrow in particular makes a good impression as the Brigadier's right-hand man.

This fifth episode is a pretty pedestrian affair as it's principally made up of a lot of people talking in rooms/ caves. For the entire episode, Masters, Dr Lawrence, Liz and Miss Dawson go round in circles arguing about the pros and cons of sending troops down into the caves, getting nowhere very fast, as demonstrated when Masters insists on doing nothing until he gets his next report. Cue arduous scene with all four of them watching a telephone, waiting for it to ring.

There's also an awful lot of exposition in the caves as the Doctor tries to convince the Silurian leader that making peace with the humans is the best option. It's good that we learn a lot about the Silurians and how they came to be in the caves, but it can make for pretty staid viewing, especially if you're a younger viewer.

The Silurians went into suspended animation millions of years ago when they detected the approach of a "small planet" that looked set to destroy all life on Earth. That small planet was actually the moon, surmises the Doctor, and there was no such catastrophe in the end. All this really doesn't hang together for me, because the current prevailing belief about the formation of the moon is that it was created when a Mars-sized body called Theia smashed into the proto-Earth some 4.51 billion years ago. That's considerably longer ago than the period the Silurians/ Triassics/ whatever are from. Maybe the Silurian astronomers mistook the moon for an approaching planet when they first saw it in the night sky, and rather than correctly assuming it had been there all along, orbiting the Earth, they thought it was rushing headlong towards them, so jumped into their hibernation tanks. Either way, the chronology in Malcolm Hulke's story struggles to hang together.

What Hulke excels at though, is depicting the Silurians as a believable species not unlike ourselves (apart from the flashy third eye). They argue, they disagree, they consider and they experiment, and have discussions just like the human characters do. There's dissent in the ranks too, as the Old Silurian leader finds to his cost when the stroppy Young Silurian murders him in cold blood, intent on becoming leader himself and destroying the human apes for good.

The disagreement between the Silurians, and the Younger Silurian's thirst for power, reminds me directly of similar goings-on in The Sensorites, with the City Administrator plotting behind the leader's back, and threatening others unless they help him. The Doctor's chat with the Old Silurian convinces him that man and reptile can co-exist, with the reptiles building cities in the hotter, more inhospitable areas of the globe where man tends not to thrive (jungles, deserts etc). I have to say though, that the Silurians' wish to reclaim their planet from the apes is perfectly justified, seeing as they were there first. Co-existence is the more peaceful option, but I can see the Younger Silurian's point of view, even if he is rather like a bolshy teenager.

Barry Newbery's cave sets are very dimly lit by Ralph Walton and this really helps draw a picture of what sort of environment the Silurians are used to. The scene where Major Baker tries to escape, and is chased along corridors by half-lit Silurians who loom from the shadows with their arms outstretched is really effective, spoilt only by Carey Blyton's consistently awful music and that bloody rubber dinosaur. It's amazing how much Blyton's score undermines Timothy Combe's atmospheric direction.

UNIT spends most of this episode trapped in a cave with the air running out, because Malcolm Hulke can't think of anything else for them to do while the Doctor's doing his peacekeeper thing. It's blatant padding, and the moment where Private Robins flips and starts drawing unidentified creatures on the cave wall is a narrative cul-de-sac (what exactly is he drawing? An armadillo?). Why it happens isn't clear (he hasn't seen any Silurians or dinosaurs), and it leads precisely nowhere.

As the episode draws to a climax (if you can call it that), things begin to hot up again. Major Baker has been released by the Silurians carrying a deadly disease ("This is diabolical," says the Doctor), and he's cornered by the Doctor back at the research centre. Pertwee affects his natural command of the room by pointing rather mercilessly at Baker and declaring: "Major Baker, you are ill. You are very, very ill."

Foolishly, Dr Meredith (mentioned a lot, but not seen since episode 1) transfers Baker to Wenley Hospital, where the infectious bacteria can spread. When the Doctor and Brigadier arrive there in Bessie, they find Baker collapsed on the hospital driveway, dead ("The first one"). What a tragic demise for a character who's played a relatively important role in the story so far. Plus, we already suspect that Permanent Under-Secretary Masters may be feeling a little off-colour, but the worst of it is, he's on his way back to Westminster...

First broadcast: February 28th, 1970

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: An honourable mention for Peter Miles as sharp-tongued Dr Lawrence. He doesn't have an awful lot to do apart from criticise other people, but he's actually a very realistically written and acted character, representing reason in the face of everybody else's credulity (he has no personal experience of cave monsters or vanishing walls, so why should he believe these people?). "More fairy stories, Brigadier?"
The Bad: The Brigadier trapped in the cave is a complete waste of time.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 2 - It's not exactly the same, but the Doctor says to the Silurian: "Please, you must listen to me."
Neck-rub tally: 0

NEXT TIME: Episode 6...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 6; Episode 7

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/04/doctor-who-and-silurians.html

Doctor Who and the Silurians is available on BBC DVD as part of the Beneath the Surface box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Beneath-Silurians-Warriors/dp/B000ZZ06XQ.