Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 4

The one where we meet the Silurians...

"Hello, are you a Silurian?" What a perfect way to skewer the tension of that cliffhanger, while also adding so much to this Doctor's character and outlook. He's not scared of or threatened by the creature advancing on him, he's intrigued by it and keen to learn more about it. He offers his hand in friendship, and there's that lovely moment where the Silurian tries to reciprocate, but isn't sure how. A fantastic - and very Doctory - way to continue the cliffhanger. It's a pity it ends with the Silurian crashing his way out of the house, but then, monsters rampaging through country cottages seems to becoming a trait of the Pertwee era already!

This Doctor is very much a humanitarian, a peacemaker, and he knows already that unless he intervenes, the humans will try and destroy the Silurians. He may have a soft spot for Mankind, but he knows what we're capable of too, especially when we feel threatened. It could be said of the Daleks - "dislike for the unlike" - but it's very true of humans too.

Major Baker, who so far has been a pretty superfluous character, moves to the front of the narrative here after knocking Sergeant Hart to the floor with a nifty chop to the neck and escaping into the caves to find out more about the creatures he thought he saw. I feel sorry for Hart, especially when he's given a right roasting by the Brigadier for letting Baker go ("He jumped me!"). It continues the tradition of UNIT personnel being just a little bit too old, a little bit too paunchy, and fairly inept (except when directed by Douglas Camfield!).

Pertwee looks exhausted when the Doctor decides to confide in Liz about Quinn's death and what he thinks of the Silurians. He buries his face in his hands and sighs, as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and in many ways, he has. It's a very brief moment, a very human one, but it reminds us that this poor man, this eccentric alien from outer space who's continually trying to save civilisations from destruction, gets tired of it all sometimes. Maybe even a little stressed.

Down in the caves, the Doctor and Liz happen across a particularly nasty puddle, one which just moments earlier had incapacitated Baker. When the Doctor throws a rock in the liquid, it bubbles aggressively, as if being devoured or broken down. There's no explanation of what it is, but I automatically assume it's some kind of acid or protoplasm, seeing as it presents an impassable obstacle. So I'd expect Major Baker's feet to be burnt to stumps when we next see him, but they're not, and he seems perfectly fine and mobile...?

The Doctor and Liz's exploration of the Silurian base is classic Doctor Who, edging along corridors with backs to the wall, trying not be be seen. The Doctor lets slip one of his characteristic moments of annoyance with his assistant when Liz says: "It's a doorway!", to which he snaps: "Well anyone can see that!" No need to be arsey, Doc!

The Silurians' design is a mixed bag. They're obviously men in rubber suits with ill-fitting heads, but the faces themselves are beautifully crafted (despite the flappy ears), like some Cubist death mask. They also have a third eye which is able to control things. Peter "Packer" Halliday provides the voices, and I can't decide whether they work for me or not. On the one hand they're very alien and strange, but on the other they're also a little bit silly. The deep, bubbly vocals suit their subterranean nature, however. The actors playing the creatures have a very distinct way of moving too, with hands held up against the chest, and with a hunched gait.

The Silurians quiz Baker about humankind, including how many people there are, what weapons we have, and what we eat, in order to better understand the "enemy", but why didn't they ask all these questions of the much more amenable Dr Quinn? Later we see them drawing on the research centre's power to operate their revivification chambers, bringing more Silurians out of deep hibernation, directed with very low lighting by Timothy Combe to make them look like vampires rising from their caskets.

There's a brief hello from the rubbery monstrosity that is the Silurians' pet dinosaur, which is by and large utterly pointless and extremely poor to boot. Why they didn't cut the dino at the draft script stage is beyond me, because although it adds an early thrill to the story, it serves no direct purpose (the pot-holers could quite easily have been assaulted by defensive Silurians) and looks simply ridiculous.

My award for best guest turn of the episode goes to Ian Talbot as the smarmy Travis, who's sitting in for Dr Quinn but seems to have everything under control (or so he would have us believe). He is one step ahead of Dr Lawrence at every turn, having already done everything he thinks to do, and doing it with immense self-satisfaction and smugness. It's a great little scene, and Peter Miles gives Lawrence the necessary umbrage when Travis snatches the ringing phone from him! Maybe Travis should have been in control of the research station all along, instead of Quinn?

Then there's the delightful clash between the Doctor, Lawrence and Permanent Under-Secretary Edward Masters. Just as Lawrence is moaning about how impertinent the Doctor is, and how he does not respect his authority, the Doctor bursts in making more demands. Lawrence asks the Doctor to talk to Masters, to which the Doctor gloriously ripostes: "I've got no time to chat to Under-Secretaries, permanent or otherwise!" (look for Liz suppressing a smirk too!). The Doctor has no time for men in suits (or, come to think of it, men in army uniform), and he's probably right - these two men have self-interest at heart. They're old friends, with careers to protect at all costs.

Someone else who bursts into a scene at precisely the wrong moment is Miss Dawson, having just found Dr Quinn dead (it seems the Doctor just abandoned the body at the cottage!). The Doctor is desperately trying to convince the Brigadier not to go stomping into the caves all guns blazing, but then Miss Dawson reports that a Silurian has killed Quinn, and that the creatures' intentions are clear: "We must destroy them before they destroy us." You can feel the Doctor's progress slip through his fingers right there and then. There's no way the Brigadier is going to listen to his pacifist stratagem now.

The episode ends with the slightly more aggressive Silurian assaulting the Doctor with his magical third eye, after claiming that "this planet is ours. It always has been." These creatures are also native to Earth, just as humans are, and they see us as inferior, primitive even. It's a fascinating idea from writer Malcolm Hulke, that there might be an entire species which roamed the Earth 200 million years ago before Mankind evolved. They may be reptilian in appearance, but they're just as intelligent - if not more so - than Man in the 20th century. And now they're out of hibernation, they want their planet back!

Side note: The Doctor says the Silurians may be from 200 million years ago (in episode 3), but that is not the Silurian era, it's the Jurassic into Triassic period. If they are from 200 million years ago, they ought to be called Triassics, but if they really are called Silurians (and they seem to refer to themselves as such), then they're actually from over 400 million years ago. However, I'm not attempting to correct this puzzle, because I know that it just gets worse and worse...!

First broadcast: February 21st, 1970

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Ian Talbot's Travis makes a very brief appearance, but makes quite an impression - on both the viewer and Dr Lawrence!
The Bad: Stop showing that bloody rubber dinosaur!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 1
Neck-rub tally: 0

NEXT TIME: Episode 5...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 5; 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.