Doctor Who: Old vs New: The Silurians vs The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

The Silurians and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. Both of these key Doctor Who stories explore a conflict between humanity and the Silurians. But which is the stronger story?

Before we continue our ongoing re-watch of Jon Pertwee’s era with The Ambassadors of Death, we wanted to compare The Silurians with another major Doctor Who story that features Homo Reptilia. Naturally, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood with Matt Smith’s Doctor seemed like a good comparison. But which story is stronger?

Both of these stories essentially explore the same key idea. After millions of years in hibernation, the Silurians wake up, discover their world has been taken over by apes, and they want to take their planet back. In both stories, the core drama comes from the increasing tension and threat of war. The Doctor wants to prevent a war in both stories, but of course, the situation escalates. This is broadly the plot of both stories.

Characters

However, there are major differences that occur in each writer’s approach to the idea, particularly with the human characters. In Malcolm Hulke’s original story, the focus is on a group of humans working at an experimental nuclear power research center. For many of these people, the work is all that matters to them, particularly in Dr. Lawrence’s case.

In Chris Chibnall’s story however, while there is focus on a mining operation (which is an extremely Season 7 idea), there’s much more focus on an ordinary family, and how they’re caught up in a difficult situation.

This should make the story feel more personal than the earlier story, or at least have more relatable characters. However, some of the adult characters are written to be too simplistic. For them, we only get to see the family side because that’s how they’re written to be. Perhaps the most fleshed out character is Elliot. He helps out the Doctor as best he can, most likely because the Doctor allows him to help out, even when Elliot mentions that he’s dyslexic – something that Elliot’s father Mo seems to have more of a problem with than Elliot himself.

With the original story’s characters, there’s a considerable amount of depth to all of them. Dr. Quinn’s greed for knowledge; Dr. Lawrence’s panic over his potentially ruined career. They both have very clear motivations that make them believable. Even with security chief Major Baker, we’re given hints of how he’s made mistakes in the past and how that affects him now. So the characters feel more fleshed out in the original story.

Compared to the original story, things feel a little more simple in The Hungry Earth. The Silurians features incredibly high stakes, especially during the second half of the story. Stakes that Cold Blood doesn’t quite reach.

The new Silurian design is impressive. But is it stronger than the original look?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Design

The design of the Silurians is also a clear difference. I don’t have a problem with the newer design of the Silurians, at least the concept of it. After all, The Sea Devils established that it wasn’t just one single distinct race that ruled the Earth, but essentially several different ones.

As for how well the new design works: on a technical level, the new one is better. It looks more realistic and believable thanks to truly fantastic prosthetics.

However, it has to be said that, while not quite as impressive on a technical level, the original design still stands out better. Apparently, Steven Moffat wanted the new Silurians without a third eye like the originals had. The look was also designed to allow the actors to perform better, and clearly show more emotion in their performance.

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While I can understand those reasons, what was great about the original look was that they were so strange and alien, even though they were of our world. That added to the fear and paranoia on both sides – each was afraid of something that was so physically unlike them. Honestly, I’d love to see something closer to the original Silurian design in the future, but with the technical level seen with the new.

Shocking endings

One more similarity that I have to comment on is how both stories have truly shocking endings. Both very different, but still very effective. The Silurians‘s ending shook up the Third Doctor’s and the Brigadier’s relationship in a big way, while Cold Blood‘s ending left a major impact on the direction of Series 5. Both are very strong in their own way, and the later ending might be The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood‘s greatest moment.

Still, it has to be said that the original Silurian story is still the greatest. Matt Smith’s Silurian story is decent enough, but it lacks the complexity of the original episodes, even while it’s being told over two parts. Decades on, and Doctor Who and the Silurians still remains as an incredibly strong serial in its own right, perhaps one of the very best in Doctor Who history.

Next. When the Doctor did and didn’t forgive a friend. dark

What do you think? Which story do you prefer and why? Do you have a preference for the epic original story, or do you enjoy the more personal approach of the sequel? Let us know in the comments below.

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