Classic Who Catch Up

I have been a big fan of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005 but was too young to have watched the original series. On this blog I shall be recording my thoughts on every story from 1963 onwards!

35: Doctor Who and the Silurians

“The Brigadier won’t listen to reason. Maybe the Silurians will.”

Format: 7 episodes, each 25 minutes long

Team TARDIS UNIT:

• Third Doctor (John Pertwee)
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Head of UNIT)
• Liz Shaw (Cambridge Scientist) 

Story: The Doctor is called to a Nuclear power research centre where strange things are happening. The reptilian race that ruled the Earth before humans, the silurians, want to reclaim it. The Doctor tries to get the two sides to negotiate but it seems that neither is willing.

What I liked: 

• The Third Doctor is actually pretty awesome. I love him now.
• A tale of morals. The silurians were no worse than the humans.
• The disease episode brought the story to a much bigger scale, probably the biggest so far.

What I disliked:

• Apart from being a good scientist, Liz is useless.
• The prosthetics on the silurians weren’t the best…

Overall thoughts:The fact that many of the themes from this story were brought back along with the silurians in the 11th Doctor’s time shows how good they are. Having the leader of the silurians wanting to talk to the humans is great and its good that the human race, whilst not really the villains, are not the good guys either. The Third Doctor is pretty awesome, hurtling through the countryside in his new car, Bessie, though Liz Shaw is a pretty forgettable companion. Overall this was a great story which dealt with all sorts of moral issues and brought the UNIT fight against the unknown into political ground and on a much bigger scale. Cracking!

Next Time: A mission to Mars goes horribly wrong…