Day 132 — May 12th 2021
Doctor Who and the Silurians Episodes Three and Four
Doctor Who and the Silurians — Episode Three
This feels like new ground for Doctor Who. We’ve had plenty of optimistic humans teaming up with aliens for their own ends before, and more than enough people trying to get one over on their alien allies, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen someone actively try to blackmail the monster of the week like this before.
And Quinn pays the price for it, turning up dead almost as soon as he announces that he’s going to use the captured Silurian to force the hand of the others down in the cave. I’d entirely forgotten about all of this blackmail stuff, and indeed I’ve been enjoying piecing together the mystery of just what Quinn was up to over the last few episodes.
I have to say that after my moaning yesterday I’m enjoying the slow build in this story a lot more today. Now that I’ve bought into the characters and actively taking an interest it makes things far more enjoyable.
It also feels like the story is free to move off in a new direction after this episode. We’ve spent the time so far working out the mystery of what’s been happening at the complex and what might be lurking down in the caves. Now we’ve answered both of those questions and killed off the one character related to both. That’s quite exciting, really. I can vaguely recall some of what comes next, but I’m looking forward to refreshing my memory fully.
This episode also gives us a real chance to see UNIT in action, out on the moors searching for the missing Silurian. It’s an odd scene in that it both looks like there’s not many extras and they don’t really know what they’re supposed to be doing… while also managing to be quite large scale and impressive.
Helicopters are just a staple part of the programme now, but there’s still something exciting in seeing one zooming around above the soldiers, and even Doctor Who whizzing around the moors in Bessie holds up quite well.
I always forget that Paul Darrow is in this one playing a UNIT soldier, and briefly thought it was strange that Big Finish never (to the best of my knowledge) had him reprise the role. I’ve decided that might be a sign that he doesn’t make it out of this one alive. Would that count as a spoiler?
On the whole I’m still enjoying this well enough, though perhaps not as much as I’d been hoping to. Another 6/10.
Doctor Who and the Silurians — Episode Four
I had to make a relatively lengthy drive today, and I couldn’t decide what to listen to on the way. Which is my way of saying that I’ve cheated a bit for this episode, and downloaded the Narrated Soundtrack from Audible.
Oh, I know. I’m out of the 1960s, all the episodes exist from here on, and I don’t need to listen to the soundtracks any more. But I enjoyed them! And for some reason, they seem to suit this season in a way that they don’t with later ones. The collection I bought included the likes of The Pirate Planet and Destiny of the Daleks, which I can’t imagine ever listening to in this format (although they’re on my phone now, so maybe one day…).
Somehow listening to an episode from Season Seven like this doesn’t feel as wrong. I don’t know if it’s because the story was still made in the 1960s, or if it’s just because I’m desperately reaching to justify my actions, but I have no issue with it. So there.
And I’ll tell you what, I’ve enjoyed it! I always find the narration on these releases adds something to the story for me, and in this case it’s the description of a Silurian, delivered by Caroline John;
‘The Doctor gazes at the creature in wonder. It stands tall at over two meters and stares back with three eyes. The third eye forming the centrepiece of an elaborate crest of skin surmounting the head.’
It seems silly to say that I’ve enjoyed the reveal of the creature in a format where I can’t actually see it, but something about those few lines of description really works for me.
It also forms part of what I think might be Pertwee’s defining scene as Doctor Who. Upon encountering the Silurian he’s not frightened or moved to attack. He greets the creature as a friend ‘Hello,’ he says, ‘are you a Silurian?’.
People talk a lot about Doctor Who’s moral code and that the character is welcoming to all and doesn’t judge on appearances, but this feels like a rare example of that in this marathon so far. Oh, sure, Hartnell saw through the Dhravins’ beauty right away and knew that the Rills were the good guys, but as the Troughton years wore on and monsters became more the order of the day the general message was that anything different was evil and needed fighting. Take the Macra Terror, for example, in which he decides pretty quickly that because the Macra are hideous they need wiping out, and then he blows them up without a second thought.
I genuinely love Pertwee’s reaction to the creature, and it’s one of the moments from this story which has stuck in my head since my first viewing.
It helps that the design of the Silurians is a classic — one of the very best creatures the programme has ever given us. I’ll admit that the execution isn’t perhaps seamless (there’s a bit too much ‘loose’ rubber floating around for me) but that might be another reason why the Narrated Soundtrack has worked so well for me today. I can imagine the creature looking as brilliant as it does in the Target illustrations, rather than how it actually appeared on screen.
When they brought the Silurians back for the 2010 series there was a lot of grumbling about the updated look, especially when a concept sculpt emerged which was a more accurate update of this design. I used to think people were being silly and that the new versions were perfectly servicable. But the more I look at the original design here, the more I think they massively missed a trick.
I’m also enjoying the total indifference to authority Pertwee’s showing. He’ll be rubbing up against establishment figures for most of his tenure, so it’s good to see he’s lost none of the edge the earlier Doctor Whos had towards them;
Lawrence: ‘Now just a minute! This is the Permanent Under-Secretary!’
Doctor Who: ‘Yes, well, I’ve got no time to chat to under-secretaries, permanent or otherwise. I must find the Brigadier.’
A 7/10 for this one, and I promise I’ll go back to watching the episodes properly from tomorrow…
