“Doctor Who and the Silurians”, also known as “The Silurians, is an adventure of the seventh season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1970. It follows “Spearhead in Space” and it’s a seven parts adventure written by Malcolm Hulke and directed by Timothy Combe.

The story

UNIT is put in charge of the investigation about the mysterious energy losses in an experimental nuclear power plant built in the caves of Wenley Moor. As if that weren’t enough, a percentage higher than normal of the personnel suffers from nervous breakdowns. The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Liz Shaw (Caroline John) meet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) at the power plant immediately after yet another strange incident in the caves which claimed the life of an employee while one of his colleagues became almost catatonic.

Investigating the caves, the Doctor is attacked by a species of dinosaur, which however is called off by a strange sound. A more thorough exploration of the cave leads to the discovery of the presence of other creatures, which turn out to be intelligent. They are reptiles who had created a civilization in ancient times and entered into suspended animation when a disaster was threatening the Earth. Something went wrong and those creatures weren’t awakened but now they want to be again the rulers of the planet.

Extras

This DVD is rich in extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, Radio Times Billings, a trailer about the next “Doctor Who” DVDs to be released and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney, actors Peter Miles and Geoffrey Palmer producer Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks and director Timothy Combe.

Isolated Music. The option to watch the adventure with Carey Blython’s soundtrack in an isolated audio track.

What Lies Beneath. A documentary that shows the influence of the socio-political climate of the late ’60s on this adventure.

Going Underground. The producer, the director and the designer discuss the problems posed by shooting in caves and by monsters that live in caves reproduced in a television studio.

Now and Then. A look at several places used for filming the way they look today and at that time.

Musical Scales. A look at an era of musical experiments in “Doctor Who”, in particular to those created for “The Silurians” and “The Sea Devils”.

Colour Silurian Overlay. A short documentary that explains how this adventure was restored by combining several copies with various technologies.

At the end of the seventh episode a trailer for the adventure “The Ambassadors of Death” starts automatically.

At the beginning of the seventh season, the production of “Doctor Who” passed through many important changes: the Doctor regenerated, the adventures were now produced in color and it was decided that seasons had fewer episodes. To make the most of the budget for the seventh season, only four adventures were scheduled and three of them were composed of seven episodes each.

Even the production team was changed but the new producer Barry Letts was still busy with a previous work so the available staff had to handle the production as well and this caused a few small problems.

The title “Doctor Who and the Silurians” was used because at the time it was normal that the script titles started with “Doctor Who and” and that this initial part was then removed. In this case, this wasn’t done and only later people started calling this adventure with the “normalized” title “The Silurians”.

The name Silurian is actually wrong because the Silurian is a geologic period dating back over 400 million years ago, when reptiles didn’t exist yet. It was a name that the author liked but several letters of criticism arrived because of its use.

Due to the length of seven episodes, “The Silurians” has some moments that are really slow, sometimes even by the standards of the time. Especially at the beginning of this adventure not much happens to only near its half the pace starts being faster. The first episodes basically serve to introduce the story and its characters, to take a look at the experimental nuclear facility and the caves where most of the action takes place.

The Third Doctor was exiled to Earth and is starting to adapt. He collaborates with UNIT because Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in return provided the means by which he hopes to make the Tardis work again. Meanwhile, he also started modifying Bessie, an old car that makes its first appearance in “The Silurians”.

Despite their slow pace, the first episodes include several elements and some twists but it’s in the second part that “The Silurians” really becomes a big story. In “Doctor Who” there were already a number of monsters and aliens, some of whom wanted to conquer the Earth. In this case, however, the antagonists of human beings are also Earthlings and their civilization predates even the birth of humanity.

The Silurians went into suspended animation to escape a possible catastrophe for the Earth but their system didn’t work properly and didn’t start waking them up. Therefore, they found a world where the continents changed positions and especially has a new dominant species.

In that situation, the Doctor sees the rights of both species and attempts to mediate a deal that would lead to sharing the planet between humans and Silurians. On both sides there are those who want a peaceful solution but there are many who don’t believe that this is possible and want to destroy the other species.

Even for the Doctor, it’s an impossible task. The second part of “The Silurians” becomes more and more bitter with humans and Silurians reaching a point of open fight to decide which species the Earth belongs to. At the time, that adventure was by far the most morally ambiguous ever produced.

The strength of “The Silurians” is that there are no good guys versus bad guys but two species, each with its own rights, which end up clashing because on both sides instincts prevail over reason in spite of the Doctor’s appeals.

The story is also enhanced by a good cast that gives depth to the characters. Inevitably, humans are more developed but at least the Silurian leaders have a certain depth. In the end, despite its slow start, “The Silurians” is overall an excellent adventure accompanied by good extras in the DVD edition.

This DVD is part of the “Beneath the Surface” box set – available on Amazon UK , Amazon U.S.A. and Amazon Canada – so a global judgement of that box set must necessarily be given only at the end of the reviews of the adventures it contains.