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| The Doctor tries to make peace between humanity and the Silurians. Few on either side agree with him. |
7 episodes. Written by: Malcolm Hulke. Directed by: Timothy Combe. Produced by: Barry Letts.
THE PLOT
UNIT is called to investigate a series of power failures at an atomic research facility. The Brigadier is inclined to agree with the facility's security chief that sabotage is responsible. But high occurrences of nervous breakdowns lead the Doctor in a different direction. After he sees the most recent patient, who witnessed a friend's death in the caves beneath the station, drawing detailed paleolithic designs on the walls of his hospital room, he becomes convinced that something is in those caves.
The caves are home to the Silurians, a race of intelligent reptiles who ruled the Earth long before humanity evolved. They went into suspended animation when their scientists projected a disaster that would rip away Earth's atmosphere. Now they are beginning to awake, to find that the guttural apes have evolved into humanity and taken over their world.
The Doctor wants to find a way for the two species to peacefully co-exist. Unfortunately, he seems to be the only one even trying to make peace. Scientist Dr. Quinn (Fulton Mackay) wants to exploit the Silurians' knowledge for his own gain, and Security Chief Baker (Norman Jones) fires a careless shot that accidentally injures one of the aliens. With an aggressive young Silurian (Peter Halliday) gaining power among his race by urging violence, and with the Brigadier ordering soldiers into the caves in force, it seems inevitable that this hostile first contact will erupt into a full-blown inter-species war!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: As good as Pertwee was in Spearhead from Space, he is even better in this serial. He brings both credibility and authority to the role, reacting to moments of high drama and intensity without indulging in ham. Note particularly his line deliveries for the Episode Five cliffhanger ("The first one") or his reaction to the serial's final scene. He nails the gravity and emotion of the situation while still remaining effectively understated.
I particularly enjoyed his interactions with the Brigadier. In the beginning, when investigating the mystery of the power outages, he shares every discovery. Once he learns of the Silurians, however, he becomes increasingly secretive. From Episode Three onward, he is pursuing his own agenda, withholding information from the Brigadier and even acting against him at one point. This is far from the "UNIT Family" of later years. The Brig and the Doctor are two intelligent, strong-willed individuals... but in the right circumstances, they are as apt to work against each other as with each other.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: He dismisses the Doctor's evidence in Episode One, noting that a mental patient drawing pictures on a wall isn't proof of anything and that torn out pages from a logbook could as easily be concealing incompetence as sabotage. This isn't Lethbridge-Stewart being a stubborn fool. He is, instead, challenging the Doctor to do more. "Bring me something I can't dismiss," he snaps when the Doctor protests.
He is also quite ruthless in doing whatever the situation dictates. There's a tiny, entirely nonverbal moment at the start of Episode Six. As the Silurian disease is spreading to a nearby hospital, a doctor and a nurse stand over a dead body, wondering what is happening. The Brigadier orders them to go back inside. When they hesitate, he draws his gun and holds it at the ready. His body language is such that we are in no doubt that he is fully prepared to shoot both of these civilians, if that is what's necessary to prevent them spreading the disease.
Liz Shaw: Liz represents a middle ground between the Doctor and the Brigadier. When the Brigadier takes his action at the end, the Doctor is shocked. Liz is not. She didn't have foreknowledge, but she understands what was done and why. Liz is the closest thing to an audience stand-in that we have... and she does not fully endorse either viewpoint. She understands the Brigadier's deeds; she understands the Doctor's outrage; and she neither supports nor condemns either man. It is left to the viewer to decide; and given the events of the final two episodes, I suspect more than a few contemporary viewers felt that the Brigadier was in the right, or at the very least that his actions were defensible.
Dr. Quinn: His desire for fame and credit is key to the entire series of events. Had he listened to the urgings of his assistant, Miss Dawson (Thomasine Heiner), to go to the Doctor with what he knew, then the situation would likely have turned out very different. Instead, he jealously guards what he knows. By the time the Doctor manages to catch up with Quinn's knowledge, it is already too late. Though this role is essentially a villainous one, actor Fulton Mackay plays against that, emphasizing Quinn's outwardly calm and friendly manner. He's so genial, it's a bit startling when that mask finally dissolves into angry paranoia in Episode Three.
THOUGHTS
Barry Letts took over as producer with this serial. The handover from Sherwin to Letts is all but invisible, though Letts' influence is felt in the toning down of humor. If anything, bits of it may be too straight-faced. Dialogue such as, "She was found in the barn, paralyzed with fear. She may have seen something!" cannot help but provoke giggles, particularly when Pertwee delivers the line with such gravity.
Still, these moments of unintentional comedy are few in number, and they do little to interfere with a gripping and intelligent story. Malcolm Hulke's scripts, fine-tuned by script editor Terrance Dicks, are expertly structured. Like Spearhead from Space, the episodic structure is used in a very methodical way.
Episode One sets up several mysteries (the presence in the caves, the power outages, the logbook, the drawings on the wall). We start to get answers as early as Episode Two... but at the same time, the stakes begin to rise. Baker's careless shot, which ricochets and wounds a Silurian, sets in motion the conflict that comes to dominate the rest of the serial. Episode Three effectively follows a manhunt for the wounded Silurian, and the end of that episode and the beginning of Episode Four represent the last points at which the crisis might be forestalled.
Episodes Four and Five shift focus to the Silurians themselves. The pace sags a bit here, not helped by the obvious rubber monster outfits, but this section is still vital to the story. We see that the violence of the "ape creatures" has sparked a power struggle, with the results ratcheting the tension to the crisis point for the final episodes.
Episode Six, centered on the Silurian plague, offers the spectacle of a gradually spreading epidemic. This subplot is (perhaps too easily) resolved in Episode Seven, but there's no release granted, as the story barrels right along to its climax. Even after the Doctor stops a potential catastrophe, there's no reassuring tag to grant viewers release. The serial ends on an uncomfortable note. The Doctor wins, in that he stops the Silurians from wiping out and/or subjugating humanity. But in his other goal - peace between the Silurians and the humans - he fails utterly.
I'd be remiss in not mentioning how expertly the story plays with the Silurians' reveal. In Episode One, Dr. Quinn and Miss Dawson discuss a mysterious "them," but the aliens are not shown at all. Episodes Two and Three allow us glimpses of them, but only in shadows or silhouetted by the sun. The rest of the time, their scenes involve point-of-view shots, with the viewer only allowed to see the reptilian arms. It is only at the cliffhanger to the third episode - the point at which the narrative thrust changes from investigating a mystery to dealing with the fact of the Silurians - that we actually see one of the creatures clearly.
It is a wonderful build-up, and it makes the Silurians real. By the time we actually see one, the obvious rubber suit barely matters. The world in which the serial exists has become believable, making it easier to accept the Silurians. One of the triumphs of Season Seven in general, and this serial in particular: By presenting each setting, and the characters populating it, with such a strong sense of authenticity, the monsters and aliens become more real, and thus far more interesting (and unsettling).
Rating: 10/10. Despite a slight sag in the middle, this remains one of the series' all-time greats.
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