The Silurians
Previous: Spearhead From Space
The Silurians
Oh, Three's titles, how long has it been since I saw you?
Miners in a mine hear a strange noise. Gee, I wonder where this could possibly be going.
Rubber Suit Monster: 1, Miners: 0.
And we return to UNIT HQ with Three singing The Jabberwocky and UNEXPECTED CROTCH SHOT HELLO
"Miss Shaw, I never report myself anywhere. Particularly not forthwith!"
Wait. This is the serial right after Spearhead From Space...so Three and Liz have only known each other HOW long? They seem pretty matey.
Bessie's maiden voyage! And does anyone else find it weird that Liz convinced Three to come out because of "the caves"? Clearly I'm twelve.
"Ah, there you are at last!"
"There YOU are at last!"
HELLO BRIG.
If the Brig keeps talking to the Doctor like a bothersome child, I will be laughing forever.
Also, short skirts: Liz wears them. I'm surprised that the Classic companions' wardrobes are still surprising me.
I think that's the first time in anything I've ever seen somebody go from drawing on the wall to strangling someone. And Three fends him off
"He's just frightened, that's all."
"So was I. What's made him like this?"
"Some kind of fear."
GEE YA THINK.
Jeez. What IS it with people going crazy and strangling other people in this story?
Apparently Time Lords adopt red ascots as part of their cave-going gear.
Ah, that old-school middle-eight. Haven't heard that in a while...
Rubber Suit Monster: 0, Doctor: 1, even though he didn't even do anything.
"Could it have been prehistoric?"
"Well, it was certainly some kind of dinosaur..."
"That's typical of the military mind, isn't it? Present them with a new problem and they start shooting at it!"
Rubber Suit Monster: 1, UNIT: 0.
Apparently the Silurians see in red-triangle vision.
So if the Silurians have been established as reptilian, how can they still be so active without sunlight?
So green means "item get" and red means "mind control"?
"Get on to the police! Tell them there's something in my barn!"
"What sort of something?"
Something that's probably going to attack you.
"Is he qualified to make such an investigation?"
"The Doctor is qualified to do almost everything."
Note that he didn't say "anything."
Wow. Three is quite a speed-artist. So is Pertwee, apparently, considering how fast the pen's moving. Unless Pertwee's just scribbling.
OH CRAP NOT LIZ. Also, these cliffhangers don't feel the same without the electronic screech to accompany them.
Guys, I do not understand what the music is doing right now. It sounds like it's dreaming of being at a haunted party naked. #descriptionwin
Okay, so you're just going to knock Liz over and consider making a run for it? Okay...
Three/Liz is quickly becoming an OTP. I've already reached the point where I can't look at them and NOT go "d'aaaaaaaaaawwwww..."
Also, I decided to turn InfoText on, just for the fun of it.
It's certainly interesting, but also really distracting. Maybe I should turn it off. Also, WINDOW PERTWEE.
Unless I'm mistaken, that's a prehistoric globe Liz is holding.
I AM NOT MISTAKEN. *glares at Earthshock*
Annoyed Three is annoyed at interrupting!Brigadier.
Complete with facepalming.
It amuses me a little more than it should that this episode ended with Three's WHAT-face.
*extends hand* "Hello. Are you a Silurian?" Oh Doctor...
Always the diplomat. Also, wow: Silurians = cannot take seriously. This should NOT surprise me at ALL.
Silurians: 1, UNIT: 0.
Is it just me, or is Liz wearing a shorter skirt than before? Also, Three seems to have become fond of double-facepalming.
Fake caves are fake. According to the InfoText, these scenes were supposed to be shot in real caves, but they were too far from London.
"Well you can't without one of those things that it was carrying."
"Yes, of course!"
"I suppose you just HAPPEN to have one in your pocket?"
So of COURSE the Silurians can't hear our protagonist's unusually loud whispering.
Looks like the Doctor's "attack an alien and it'll hate humans" mantra is ringing true here.
Wow. The Silurian's third red eye is certainly quite a multi-purpose little bugger.
I'm no expert on prehistorical dialects, but I'd almost say that one of those Silurians has the reptilian equivalent of an American accent.
The origin of the moon according to Doctor Who: a "small planet" neared Earth, drove the Silurians underground, and got pulled into orbit.
"Would your people agree to this?"
"Well, they're not my people."
Strange how easy it is for me to forget that the Doctor isn't human.
When your team is about to die of oxygen deprivation, someone hyperventilating and doodling on the wall probably isn't the best thing.
"When the apes used to raid our crops..." Wait, I thought you guys were long gone before apes evolved?
Guys, this music really bugs me. It sounds like an electronic clown is laughing musically at me. #moredescriptionwin
"The Brigadier and the Doctor are risking their LIVES trying to solve your problems."
"That's a matter of opinion."
BURN.
And now this piece of music sounds like "Taps" except...not.
"Major Baker...you are ill. You are very very ill." Um. Three. He's infected with a DEADLY BACTERIA. WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR TIME WITH THIS.
Don't you think it's kind of unfair for a species to evolve an appendage that SHOOTS INVISIBLE DEATH RAYS?
So Masters was played by Geoffrey Palmer! One of Those British Guys whose names I know but whose works I can't identify...
Huh. For just a few seconds at the beginning of this ep, I could see the faint "ghost" of the end credit reading "Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee."
Also, dead Major Baker is dead.
Is laboratory tiems nao.
Turned on the InfoText again out of curiosity. It has a "don't try this at home" disclaimer for Liz giving Three an injection.
There's that "credit ghost" again...
Oh BALLS. Nearly everybody who came in contact with Baker is sick, and now Masters has caught it and is BACK IN LONDON.
I actually cringe just a little bit every time he gets NEAR anybody.
Even the Silurians have picked up on the turn-and-speak-to-the-camera gimmick.
"At this time, Doctor Who serials were deemed to be set roughly ten years in the future." Unit Dating Controversy: Solved.*
Uh oh, now the ticket man at the train station is collapsing.
Now EVERYBODY AT THE STATION IS GOING DOWN. I love the sense of scale we're starting to get here. (No pun intended)
Obviously whoever wrote the InfoText has a sense of humor. They refer to "copies of The Times and other less exalted newspapers."
"I'm beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life. And that covers several thousand years." WHAT.
I've heard the Doctor's age gradually increase in hundreds over the years but...THOUSANDS? That's just not right. Two said he was about 450.
And the InfoText makes note of this. Good.
Okay, Dr. Lawrence just has no good sense at all. He's DYING for Christ-sake and he's STILL accusing the Brig of a conspiracy.
Also, uh oh, looks like Three isn't "fine" anymore...
WOW. InfoText tells me there was some unintentional Enforced Method Acting going on that resulted in Lawrence's rage being a RAGE-SPLOSION.
FOUND CURE HAS BEEN FOUND.
Okay, seriously, this is the THIRD episode this serial that's ended with Three's WHAT-face. THE SITUATION IS DIRE. WE GET IT.
About a Radio Times photoshoot: "Between official shots, Pertwee clowned around as a Silurian-headed Doctor."
"With inspired lunacy, he then became a flat-capped Silurian-headed Doctor."
*Doctor-dragging* Okay...seriously...he didn't HEAR THEM BURN THROUGH THE WALL AND WALK UP BEHIND HIM?
Okay, so my eyes are scarred forever by Pertwee-in-shower, but Pertwee-with-tight-tshirt makes me GUH a little bit. What the hell, brain?
Wow. So after all that ambition and killing his own leader, that one Silurian is volunteering to die to save his own people.
I wish I could come up with a clever portmanteau of "Pertwee" and "tattoo" to refer to a certain dragon on his arm.
Is that an early hint of neutron flow I hear? "Pertwee found the phrase memorable because he realized that he could sing it."
"...to the tune of 'When I Was a Lad' from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore." I'll have to look that up later.
And the Silurian base goes "s'plody." Not happy Doctor is not happy.
I think I spent too much of the past few episodes reporting on the InfoText and not the actual episodes. I'll try to monitor that better.
Sorry about that, but since I'm not watching many of these on DVD it shouldn't be a major recurring problem.
Also I should point out that I refuse to call this story "Doctor Who and the Silurians." For reasons. That I have.
*Despite this, I still used the Present Day tag for this episode for several reasons: One, the date is never explicitly stated in the actual episode. Two, the date suggested by the InfoText still falls within the range of Classic Who airdates (between 1963 and 1989). Three, the environment is still perfectly passable as the time in which it was shot and aired, especially with all the on-location shooting in London.
Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. It gets a little frustrating sometimes.
Next: The Ambassadors of Death