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| "Dr John Smith - Plumbing through space and time" |
The Silurians is definitely the dreariest Doctor Who tale yet. From either a thematic or visual level, there is nothing positive about this story. It's very depressing.
PLOT
A nuclear research centre attracts the attention of a race of reptilians who were hibernating below the Earth. Upon waking up, they reveal themselves to be the original owners of the planet and attack the humans with a virus to claim the planet back. After they're outwitted by the Doctor and sent back to sleep, the Brigadier sneakily blows them all up.
Over the course of Seven. Looooong. Episodes.
To give the story some much needed credit, the last two episodes are brilliant, with Episode 6 showing the terrifying infection of London(for once, I'm with Mary Whitehouse on this one) and Episode 7 showing the betrayal of the Brigadier, from a certain point of view anyway.
But the rest of it is just a loooong wait until the Silurians show their faces and then a looong, noise-filled battle of wits between the Silurian leader and a leftover from Potter Puppet Pals. And I'm not kidding about the noise, it even beats that five-minute alarm from The Invasion.
CHARACTERS
For no apparent reason, the Third Doctor is very cranky in this serial. And while I can understand his being depressed about being on Earth, he should've expressed that, not constantly hamper everyone's cooperation and patience. If he hadn't been so stubborn and had carefully explained his plans to the Brigadier, events might've moved on in peace.
And why is he still wearing those borrowed clothes?
In contrast, Liz has calmed down considerably from her Isobel Travers-style feminism attack in the last story and is now a perfectly spunky-yet-loyal assistant a Doctor needs. She's really good.
The edgy relationship between the Brigadier and the Doctor is really interesting and to give good old' Steve Moffat an ounce of credit, I can completely understand that scene in Death In Heaven when the Brigadier wanted the Doctor to salute him. Makes total sense, for once.
The guest stars are all great. I loved Peter Miles as Dr. Lawrence. He's so passionate about being annoying that you can't just ignore it. No wonder they brought him back.
Masters is a morally strong businessman and very creepy when sick.
Even characters like the headstrong Major Baker and the Silurian youngster(that performance is classic "so bad it's good") stand out. In fact, all the characters are very remarkable in this story.
NOTES
*The Silurian costumes aren't very good. They look like costumes and only the mouths move - barely.
*Masters is really dedicated to his job, isn't he? I mean, he's covered in blisters and in complete delirium and yet he still heads for the ministry, step by step.
*I don't think I've mentioned the new intro yet. It's good, but looks like a bad copy of the previous ones. And why is it shorter?
*As another reviewer pointed out, Nicholas Courtney is an excellent on-the-phone actor.
*What is that liquid that the Doctor pours into Bessie at the end, I wonder.
*Of course, the Doctor conveniently wrote the formula right before getting kidnapped.
*And the crumpled paper is of course the last place Liz checks.
BEST QUOTE
"Heureka!"
CONCLUSION
Sad and overlong, but has its strengths. A classic, even though it's not necessarily that good.
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