N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
OK, so it’s fair to say its palæontology and geology are a teeny bit wonky, resulting in another inaccurately named race courtesy of what I now call the Chumbley effect, but Doctor Who and the Silurians nevertheless continues the top-notch start to the Third Doctor’s era.
“Hello! Are you a Silurian?”
The Doctor,
Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 4
If these reptiles were Silurian, they’d be around 420 million years old but given that they have a pet T. rex might that put them in the 68 to 66 million years bracket instead? (For the sake of a somewhat flimsy argument, let’s assume it’s not meant to be an allosaurus from 150 million years ago.) Apes were not thought to have developed until 40 million years ago, but let’s give the Silurians the benefit of the doubt and say they meant primates in general, that could take us back to 70 million at least. Would that make them Cretaceous (rather than Silurian)?
The Doctor suggests that it’s the earth’s collision with the moon that sends them into hibernation, whereas that event must be much older – 4600 to 4000 million years ago? Could the Doctor (and the Silurians) be confusing it with the impact that created the Chicxulub crater around 66 million years ago?
These questions and speculation suggest to me two things:
1) the reptiles are definitely not Silurian (and you could argue that in persisting in calling them such is akin to referring to the indigenous peoples of the Americas as Indians – you know it’s wrong, it’s based on an incorrect assumption, but somehow the name sticks, no matter how ignorant and offensive it might be), and
2) my grasp of palæontology and geology is similarly skewiff.
“I’ve found enough to make me very, very worried. “
The Doctor,
Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 1
But, not one to allow scientific accuracy necessarily to get in the way of a good story, I found Doctor Who and the Silurians to be gripping from start to finish. As with Spearhead from Space, there are shards of realism throughout. There’s the tense personal relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier, the clashes between UNIT and the research laboratory (particularly Dr Lawrence), the Doctor’s earnest (and ultimately futile) attempts to broker some kind of peace between human and reptile. The scenes of civilians dying as a result of the rapidly spreading virus are also particularly disturbing.
The regulars are backed up by excellent heavyweight support from the likes of Fulton Mackay, Peter Miles and the lugubrious Geoffrey Palmer as Masters – his death as a result of the aforementioned virus being especially worth of praise.
“I am a scientist, not an office boy.”
Liz,
Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 6
Indeed, there’s not much to offer on the lighter side of things. The wit of the dialogue is pointed once more; Liz wins again with her ‘office boy’ retort, although I did like the Doctor’s ‘it’s not worth fifteen million pins if it doesn’t work’ (to Dr Lawrence), and his barbed ‘All set to start playing soldiers, are we?’ (to the Brigadier) early on.
We do get our first sighting of Bessie, there is lots of impressive location shooting, making it all look jolly expensive and the Doctor’s tattoo gets another airing! But Doctor Who and the Silurians is a serious tale, told seriously – and it’s all the better for it.
Before finishing, it would be remiss of me not to mention the score. Whilst there are benefits to having the consistency of using a single composer – Dudley Simpson for much of the 70’s, Murray Gold for the past decade – on occasion it can get a bit samey. That’s not something you could say about Carey Blyton’s work here.
Whether it’s the lovely rural piece he composed for the scenes on the farm or the demented kazoo-like motif he wrote for the Silurians themselves, it’s never less than memorable. The line between noticed and intrusive is a fine one as far as musical scores go, but for me here it just about works. Variety of composer and score was something I loved about 60’s Doctor Who and we get far fewer of these more experimental scores as the decade goes on, so I for one am glad of its presence here.
With its downbeat ending and continuation of the grittier feel of its predecessor, Doctor Who and the Silurians might seem a bit of a departure from the adventures of the cosmic hobo or the grumpy grandfather, but underneath it all, with the Doctor’s moral compass still very much intact, this to me still feels like Doctor Who.
"It is rude that the Silurians call us 'apes' but it is also rude that we call them 'Silurians' - because they're not!
"In the middle of Episode 6 you can see 'Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee' in faded letters." [My son is more observant than I am; I'd never noticed this before! - UT]
"I think the music is weird, but I kinda like it."
