Doctor Who and the Silurians

There's trouble at the top secret underground nuclear research base at Wenley Moor. Mysterious power drains have put a strain on an already demoralized and exhausted workforce, but a death adds to the stress and triggers an investigation by the Brigadier and UNIT. The Doctor and Liz soon arrive as well and discover that the base is under attack from a race of reptile people called Silurians; the base has been built practically on top of their home where they have been sheltering for millions of years in suspended animation. The Doctor discovers that the Silurians pre-date humans on Earth and after being dormant so long are ready to emerge and take back "their" planet, which will mean the annihilation of humanity.

When Doctor Who went Earthbound under the Doctor's exile the storylines which could be used pessimistically were narrowed down to two: alien invasions or mad scientists. In a way it's not too unfair to put it that way; after all in a science fiction series there are not a lot of alternatives where one is staying in the same place all the time. Indeed, Spearhead from Space started the season with exactly one of those formula, the alien invasion, and Silurians looked set to follow the same path until the twist that the monsters in question were actually from Earth already. Humans now become the invaders in what is seen as a loose comment on aboriginal rights, with the show taking a slightly political edge to it. Given that it was the late 1960s when it was written and filmed, The Silurians is seen to have a few political metaphors in it, starting with the plight of the title characters and moving through to the distrust of civil servants as embodied by their portrayal in the script.

Metaphor was completely lost on me the first time I read this one; as with Spearhead I got hold of the

novel (which was re-titled Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters) first when in third grade and read that eagerly, although the fact that the Doctor on the cover doesn't really look much like Pertwee made me wonder if there was another regeneration I had missed somewhere. It took years before I saw the episode, and at the time all that was available was a black and white film print which loaned the serial a certain distinctness that the eventual colourized episodes seemed to lose (possible because the colourization was really just merging a colour video print with the black and white which made for terrible muddy colours). By then I was in ninth grade and after watching a few of the Earthbound stories my math teacher commented to me that they seemed more like murder mysteries than what we were used to, which is again the side effect of the confined Doctor on Earth if you ask me. In one of the Doctor's more humanizing moments he is seen working on repairing a vintage yellow car which he affectionately nicknames "Bessie"; with the TARDIS out of service this car will serve as his alternate transport throughout the Third Doctor era.

I love the Silurians as monsters though. Here they are an advanced civilization waking up out of a hibernation to discover that the humans have overrun their planet, much the same as when one goes back to one's cottage after a winter and discovering it full of mice or other vermin. They're not all as bloody minded as that though; not all of them want mass extermination and can see the Doctor's ideas for sharing the planet with humans as a possibility, but one would have to convince the humans as well as the Silurians to rise to that challenge instead of going to war. The Doctor is caught between the aggression of the Silurians and his newfound affiliation with the Brigadier, and while she may be a scientist, Liz can see that this is not going to be as cut and dry as the Doctor would like it to be. Here's a bit of naivety on the Doctor's part; he can see the solution but he doesn't get why the parties involved can't just switch off their instincts and coexist. Seeing just how wrong he is about things is something that could drive a wedge between the Doctor and the Brigadier.

Thankfully the potential of the Silurians is not ignored and they return eventually in the series, although their Big Finish and printed page appearances outnumber their televised ones. And they will also return in the new series but with a different and more Star Trek look to their realization; there are always complaints about actors in rubber suits on Doctor Who but when it comes to the Silurians their eventual "humanization" look really detracts from their menace. The originals were best, no question.

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