Doctor Who review: The original Silurian story is still the best
By James Aggas
Doctor Who and the Silurians wasn’t just the first story to feature Homo Reptilia. It’s also still the best Silurian story to date.
After Jon Pertwee’s strong opening story Spearhead from Space, things get a little darker and more morally complex in the second serial of Season Seven, Doctor Who and the Silurians (and yes, that is the actual title of the story). At seven episodes long, this is almost twice the length of Spearhead. Usually, stories struggle when they’re stretched out to six episodes, let alone seven!
However, The Silurians doesn’t have that problem. Despite being heavily focused on just a few sets across all seven episodes, The Silurians never gets dull, and remains an exciting story throughout.
One key reason that helps is how fantastic all the characters are. So many of them have clear flaws, especially the human characters like Dr Quinn, Dr Lawrence and Major Baker. While none of them are “evil”, each of them causes a very delicate situation to rapidly escalate, through their own fears, ambition or greed. The characters in this story all feel real and fleshed out, thanks to Malcolm Hulke’s excellent script.
A strong idea
If that wasn’t good enough, the central idea of the story certainly is: namely, what if there was an earlier sentient species that walked the Earth before humankind? And what if they suddenly came back to find their world essentially taken from them?
This is still an incredibly original science-fiction idea, one that surprisingly hasn’t been explored much outside of Doctor Who. Of course, after the success of this story, it has been explored in the New Series, particularly in Eleventh Doctor story The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, and even in the later Third Doctor story The Sea Devils (which has the most epic sword fight ever).
But it’s in the original story that the idea is explored best. While some Silurians are clearly xenophobic and do want to wipe out humanity, there are still some who believe that peace could work. Even this early on, we get a wonderfully interesting subversion of the usual invasion story – particularly as this race arguably has a valid claim to the planet.
The Silurians
Despite the fact that the Silurians don’t show up in full until the end of the serial’s third episode, they’re built up extremely well. But how do they look now? While they admittedly look rubbery today, their original design is still extremely distinctive.
Honestly, it’s more memorable than what we have now, although it is understandable why the producers went for a different look when they brought them back. Particularly as they wanted to show the Silurians with clear expressions on their faces, which the rubber masks don’t provide. But there’s no question that their original look is still a classic.
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Conflict
Perhaps my favorite aspect of this serial though – even more than the characters, the complex moral situation and the race themselves – is the drama between the Doctor and the Brigadier. At this point, their friendship is still relatively new. The Brigadier does trust the Doctor – he has saved the Earth quite a few times, by this point – but he certainly doesn’t agree with him on everything. Especially when it comes to the Silurians.
The very best drama occurs when different people with completely different aims believe they’re right, and you can sympathize with each of them. And that’s exactly what happens with the Doctor and the Brigadier in The Silurians. The Doctor believes that a peace can be achieved between Earth’s two sentient races. But the Brigadier knows early on that the Silurians have attacked several humans already, and as the story goes on, he finds less and less reason to trust them.
This leads me to the ending, which is absolutely fantastic. The final scene is not only shocking, but features a wonderful performance by Pertwee, as his trust in the Brigadier is completely shaken – perhaps almost broken. It’s an iconic moment, and ends the original and best Silurian story perfectly.
Next. Old vs New – Spearhead from Space vs Rose. dark
Would you agree that the original Silurian story is the best one? If not, which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.