Watching Classic Who: The Silurians
Who_Daily Link: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/177593.html">The Silurians reviewed by < lj user=persiflage_1>
The Doctor and Liz Shaw have been asked by the Brigadier to investigate an atomic research station housed in caves below Wenley Moor. There have been problems at the centre, including mysterious power losses which are endangering the research programme under the direction of Doctor Charles Lawrence, and a number of personnel suffering from mental and physical illnesses. In addition, a scientist who went pot-holing in the caves was killed, and his companion, Spencer, has apparently been driven insane with fear. When Liz and the Doctor visit Spencer in the sick bay they see he's drawing pictures of reptile-like monsters on the wall of his room. The Doctor is suspicious and goes down into the caves where he comes face to face with a live dinosaur which is called off by an eerie whistling noise. He has also found a large reptilian footprint in the mud. When UNIT troops arrive to verify the Doctor's story, the footprint has dried up. Major Baker, the security officer at the centre sees something moving in the shadows and opens fire. He hits it, and the Brigadier, assisted by Captain Hawkins, follows a trail of blood to where the caves emerge onto the moor. However, the creature they have been tracking has taken refuge in a barn and the troops are unable to locate it. The following morning the creature attacks the farmer, Squire, and his wife calls in UNIT. While Liz is working alone in the barn, the reptile creature attacks her and then flees.
Dr John Quinn, one of the scientists at the centre, goes into the caves next and enters an alien control centre where he is instructed to find and return the wounded creature. He's given a summoning device to call the creature to him, which he uses when he's out on the moor. He hides the creature in his cottage, hoping to gain the scientific knowledge of the creatures for himself.
The Doctor is suspicious of Quinn and searches his office at the centre where he finds a globe of the world as it was 200 million years ago. One of Quinn's colleagues, Miss Dawson, seems to know what is going on, but she refuses to talk to the Doctor. He goes to see Quinn at his cottage but Quinn has been killed, and the Doctor finds himself face to face with the creature, that he later refers to as a Silurian.
Major Baker returns to the caves and is captured by the Silurians. Following a map found in Quinn's cottage, the Doctor and Liz also enter the Silurians' base. The Doctor sees a Silurian being revived from hibernation and realises this is the reason for the power losses being suffered by the centre. When the Doctor returns to the centre, he finds that Edward Masters, the permanent under secretary, has refused the Brigadier's request for more troops to search the caves. Miss Dawson arrives and informs everyone that Quinn is dead, and the Brigadier becomes determined to search the caves with the men he has. The Doctor re-enters the Silurian base to try to warn them but he's captured and in the meantime the UNIT troops find themselves trapped in a cave with no exit.
The Doctor manages to reason with the Silurian leader and learns that the Silurians used to be the dominant race on Earth, but they went into hibernation when a small planet threatened to crash into it. However, they did not know that the planet would become the moon, and the disaster they had predicted never took place, with the result that they underwent an extended period of hibernation. The Doctor offers to help them to find a way to live in peace with humanity.
However, not all the Silurians agree with this plan and a younger Silurian decides to take matters into his own hands, infecting Baker with a virulent disease that the Silurians once used to cull the apes. Baker is then set free to spread the disease far and wide. The Silurian leader tells the Doctor what's happened and gives him a sample of the virus in the hope that he'll be able to find a cure. After the Doctor leaves the Silurian base, the young Silurian kills the older Silurian leader, and above ground the virus starts to spread. First Major Baker, then doctors at the hospital to which he was taken, start to fall ill and then die. Liz treats everyone at the base with antibiotics to ward off the illness, but unknown to her or the Doctor, Edward Masters has left for London and the capital city is soon in the grip of the virus, which then spreads to Europe. The Doctor manages to find a cure for the disease, but the Silurians attack the centre and kidnap him. Luckily Liz realises which formula recorded by the Doctor is the one for the cure and she arranges for its manufacture and distribution.
Thwarted the Silurians decide to make Earth uninhabitable for humans by using a molecular disperser to convert the centre's energy into microwaves in order to disperse the Van Allen filter belt around the Earth (meaning that people would die of sunburn on a cloudy day), thus destroying life on the planet. They return to the centre, forcing the Doctor to assist them, however he causes a power surge which destroys the disperser unit but also forces the reactor into overload. The Silurians return to their base where, apart from the young Silurian who must remain to operate the equipment, they return to hibernation.
The Doctor and Liz manage to stop the reactor from overloading and the Doctor returns to the Silurian base where the young Silurian leader tries to kill the Doctor, but the Brigadier arrives in time to shoot it. The Doctor reveals he wants to revive the Silurians one by one in order to reason with them, and also wants to gain access to their scientific knowledge. After he and Liz leave to go up to London, the Brigadier sets off the mines in the caves thereby sealing them permanently. The Doctor and Liz are still on the moors when Bessie, the Doctor's car, develops a fault and as the explosives go off they watch helplessly from the road.
* * * *
I've wanted to watch this serial for ages, but my desire to see it increased after I listened to The Companion Chronicles: Old Soldiers by James Swallow as that story is set immediately after The Silurians.
Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait. There's quite a bit of tension in this story, and an interesting moral dilemma too. This is the first time the Doctor and the Brigadier are at odds with each other over a planned action, although it won't be the last time.
Things I liked - Liz fussing over the Brigadier when he gets back from being trapped in the caves (yep, I'm shipping Liz/Brig quite happily now, thank you!); the Third Doctor in tight trousers and a t-shirt as he works to stop the reactor overloading (what? I'm shallow, OK!); Bessie! (and I'm not even that interested in cars!); the wobbly rocks - seriously, someone was leaning on one and got up, and it wobbled, which left me giggling!.
This is the first story I've seen of Liz Shaw's tenure, and I shall be eagerly watching more (I've got Spearhead from Space and Inferno lined up already, and someone on my FList has recommended Ambassadors of Death as well).
The Doctor and Liz Shaw have been asked by the Brigadier to investigate an atomic research station housed in caves below Wenley Moor. There have been problems at the centre, including mysterious power losses which are endangering the research programme under the direction of Doctor Charles Lawrence, and a number of personnel suffering from mental and physical illnesses. In addition, a scientist who went pot-holing in the caves was killed, and his companion, Spencer, has apparently been driven insane with fear. When Liz and the Doctor visit Spencer in the sick bay they see he's drawing pictures of reptile-like monsters on the wall of his room. The Doctor is suspicious and goes down into the caves where he comes face to face with a live dinosaur which is called off by an eerie whistling noise. He has also found a large reptilian footprint in the mud. When UNIT troops arrive to verify the Doctor's story, the footprint has dried up. Major Baker, the security officer at the centre sees something moving in the shadows and opens fire. He hits it, and the Brigadier, assisted by Captain Hawkins, follows a trail of blood to where the caves emerge onto the moor. However, the creature they have been tracking has taken refuge in a barn and the troops are unable to locate it. The following morning the creature attacks the farmer, Squire, and his wife calls in UNIT. While Liz is working alone in the barn, the reptile creature attacks her and then flees.
Dr John Quinn, one of the scientists at the centre, goes into the caves next and enters an alien control centre where he is instructed to find and return the wounded creature. He's given a summoning device to call the creature to him, which he uses when he's out on the moor. He hides the creature in his cottage, hoping to gain the scientific knowledge of the creatures for himself.
The Doctor is suspicious of Quinn and searches his office at the centre where he finds a globe of the world as it was 200 million years ago. One of Quinn's colleagues, Miss Dawson, seems to know what is going on, but she refuses to talk to the Doctor. He goes to see Quinn at his cottage but Quinn has been killed, and the Doctor finds himself face to face with the creature, that he later refers to as a Silurian.
Major Baker returns to the caves and is captured by the Silurians. Following a map found in Quinn's cottage, the Doctor and Liz also enter the Silurians' base. The Doctor sees a Silurian being revived from hibernation and realises this is the reason for the power losses being suffered by the centre. When the Doctor returns to the centre, he finds that Edward Masters, the permanent under secretary, has refused the Brigadier's request for more troops to search the caves. Miss Dawson arrives and informs everyone that Quinn is dead, and the Brigadier becomes determined to search the caves with the men he has. The Doctor re-enters the Silurian base to try to warn them but he's captured and in the meantime the UNIT troops find themselves trapped in a cave with no exit.
The Doctor manages to reason with the Silurian leader and learns that the Silurians used to be the dominant race on Earth, but they went into hibernation when a small planet threatened to crash into it. However, they did not know that the planet would become the moon, and the disaster they had predicted never took place, with the result that they underwent an extended period of hibernation. The Doctor offers to help them to find a way to live in peace with humanity.
However, not all the Silurians agree with this plan and a younger Silurian decides to take matters into his own hands, infecting Baker with a virulent disease that the Silurians once used to cull the apes. Baker is then set free to spread the disease far and wide. The Silurian leader tells the Doctor what's happened and gives him a sample of the virus in the hope that he'll be able to find a cure. After the Doctor leaves the Silurian base, the young Silurian kills the older Silurian leader, and above ground the virus starts to spread. First Major Baker, then doctors at the hospital to which he was taken, start to fall ill and then die. Liz treats everyone at the base with antibiotics to ward off the illness, but unknown to her or the Doctor, Edward Masters has left for London and the capital city is soon in the grip of the virus, which then spreads to Europe. The Doctor manages to find a cure for the disease, but the Silurians attack the centre and kidnap him. Luckily Liz realises which formula recorded by the Doctor is the one for the cure and she arranges for its manufacture and distribution.
Thwarted the Silurians decide to make Earth uninhabitable for humans by using a molecular disperser to convert the centre's energy into microwaves in order to disperse the Van Allen filter belt around the Earth (meaning that people would die of sunburn on a cloudy day), thus destroying life on the planet. They return to the centre, forcing the Doctor to assist them, however he causes a power surge which destroys the disperser unit but also forces the reactor into overload. The Silurians return to their base where, apart from the young Silurian who must remain to operate the equipment, they return to hibernation.
The Doctor and Liz manage to stop the reactor from overloading and the Doctor returns to the Silurian base where the young Silurian leader tries to kill the Doctor, but the Brigadier arrives in time to shoot it. The Doctor reveals he wants to revive the Silurians one by one in order to reason with them, and also wants to gain access to their scientific knowledge. After he and Liz leave to go up to London, the Brigadier sets off the mines in the caves thereby sealing them permanently. The Doctor and Liz are still on the moors when Bessie, the Doctor's car, develops a fault and as the explosives go off they watch helplessly from the road.
* * * *
I've wanted to watch this serial for ages, but my desire to see it increased after I listened to The Companion Chronicles: Old Soldiers by James Swallow as that story is set immediately after The Silurians.
Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait. There's quite a bit of tension in this story, and an interesting moral dilemma too. This is the first time the Doctor and the Brigadier are at odds with each other over a planned action, although it won't be the last time.
Things I liked - Liz fussing over the Brigadier when he gets back from being trapped in the caves (yep, I'm shipping Liz/Brig quite happily now, thank you!); the Third Doctor in tight trousers and a t-shirt as he works to stop the reactor overloading (what? I'm shallow, OK!); Bessie! (and I'm not even that interested in cars!); the wobbly rocks - seriously, someone was leaning on one and got up, and it wobbled, which left me giggling!.
This is the first story I've seen of Liz Shaw's tenure, and I shall be eagerly watching more (I've got Spearhead from Space and Inferno lined up already, and someone on my FList has recommended Ambassadors of Death as well).