Doctor Who and the Silurians
Encyclopedia
Doctor Who and the Silurians is a serial in the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from January 31 to March 14, 1970. The story is the first appearance of a recurring family of Earth-dwelling reptiles
. The title is sometimes reduced to The Silurians.
research centre built into a network of caves in Wenley Moor is experiencing mysterious power drains and a high incidence of mental breakdowns. UNIT
are called in to investigate, and the Third Doctor
and Liz
meet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
at the plant. While exploring the caves, one of the workers at the centre was killed, with wounds that look like giant claw marks, and his companion's mind has been traumatised to the extent that he can only scrawl primitive cave drawings of reptilian
creatures on the walls of the ward. Lawrence, the Director, resents UNIT's presence and feels that it will interfere with the working of the plant, which is trying a new process to convert nuclear energy directly into electric power
. Off in a corner, Dr Quinn, the Deputy Director, argues with Miss Dawson, his assistant, when she protests that they should stop "them" from taking the power. Major Baker, the security chief, believes there is a saboteur in the centre, and the Doctor
discovers that the logs of the nuclear reactor's operation have been tampered with. When the Doctor makes his way into the caves, he is attacked by a dinosaur
-like creature.
The creature is called off by a strange whistling sound. The Brigadier decides to explore the caves with armed men. Baker fires at a humanoid figure he spots in the caves, and is attacked by the dinosaur-like creature, but it is again called off by the same sound. The Doctor returns to the centre with Baker, taking samples of the blood that was drawn when Baker fired at the humanoid. Examining the blood, the Doctor finds similarities to the "higher reptiles". In the meantime, the humanoid has reached the surface and stumbles into a barn to hide. Quinn goes into the caves to a hidden base, where he demands the knowledge he was promised. He is told that he must first see to the wounded humanoid and is given a signal device which emits the sound heard earlier.
The humanoid is discovered by a farmer and his wife, and attacks them. The farmer dies of a heart attack
, but the wife survives and identifies her attacker. Liz, investigating the barn, turns to see a reptilian biped
. She screams in fright, but the creature knocks her unconscious and flees.
When Liz awakens, she tells the Doctor and the Brigadier, and the latter orders a manhunt across the moor, just as Quinn arrives at the barn. Making an excuse, he leaves and summons the humanoid with his device. When the Brigadier and the Doctor discover the humanoid's tracks, they end in tyre marks.
The Doctor goes to Quinn's cottage, and notes that it is remarkably hot, like a reptile house. Quinn replies that the thermostat is broken. Quinn does not react well to the hints the Doctor is dropping or to his veiled attempts to get him to co-operate, and asks the Doctor to leave. Breaking into Quinn's office, the Doctor finds a globe that depicts the Earth
's continents, as they were 200 million years ago, which the Doctor identifies as during the Silurian
period. Back at the cottage, Miss Dawson tries to persuade Quinn to tell the Doctor everything, but Quinn is adamant that he will keep the wounded Silurian
captive until he is given the advanced scientific knowledge he wants. Later, when the Doctor goes to the cottage to once again try to reason with Quinn, he finds the scientist dead in his chair. The Doctor retrieves the signal device from Quinn's body and is surprised by the Silurian, who is still there.
The Doctor attempts communication, only for the Silurian to run away. Baker, still convinced that the answer lies in the caves, overpowers the UNIT man guarding the sickbay and enters them by himself. He is soon captured by the Silurians and interrogated as to the capabilities of the humans. The Doctor and Liz explore the caves following Baker's route and open the entrance to the Silurian base with Quinn's signal device, where they find Baker in a locked cage. He tells them that they must warn the surface. The Doctor and Liz leave undiscovered, but not before they see a Silurian being revived from hibernation
by a machine, explaining the energy drains that the reactor has been experiencing. Meanwhile, Masters, the Permanent Under-Secretary in charge of the centre, arrives for a personal inspection, and Lawrence complains to him about UNIT's interference. The Doctor decides to tell them all about the Silurians in the caves, urging a peaceful contact instead of the Brigadier's proposed armed expedition. However, this falls on deaf ears when Miss Dawson reveals that Quinn was killed by the Silurian he held captive. The Doctor goes to warn and reason with the Silurians, but they put him in a cage. Then when The Doctor tries to reason with the younger one, it attacks him psychically using its third eye.
The older Silurian puts a stop to it. The older Silurian tells the Doctor how their race retreated underground when they saw the Moon
approaching Earth millions of years before. The hibernation mechanism malfunctioned, and they did not revive until a new power source — the nuclear reactor — was discovered. The Doctor manages to persuade the older Silurian to release the Brigadier and his men, but the younger Silurian orders Baker infected with a virus
before he is released. When the older Silurian discovers this, he releases the Doctor, giving him a canister of the virus so he can discover a cure. The younger Silurian kills the older one for this act. The Doctor reaches the centre, and he warns everyone to stay away from Baker, who collapses with the virus. Masters, however, decides to return to London
, unaware that he has also been infected. Baker is taken to a local hospital without the Doctor's knowledge and dies there. "The first one." The Doctor grimly notes.
The Brigadier holds Baker's doctor and nurse at gunpoint to prevent them from leaving and spreading the virus while the Doctor returns to the centre to work on the cure. The Brigadier and Liz try to warn London, while all of the centre's staff are inoculated with a stopgap vaccine. All, that is, except for Lawrence, who refuses. Masters, in the meantime, has reached London and eludes the search parties desperately looking for him. The virus begins to spread and the deaths begin. The infection even reaches France
. Doctor Lawrence, who eventually dies from the virus, complains in his last moments that the affair has ruined his career. The young Silurian decides the Doctor must be killed before he finds a cure. The Doctor has indeed found one, and as he writes down the formula, the Silurians attack the centre and stun him with their third eyes, taking him away.
Liz, however, discovers the formula and it is soon being mass-produced and distributed. The Silurians have a back-up plan, however. They intend to use a weapon to destroy the Van Allen Belt and make the Earth's environment hostile to humankind, and will force the Doctor to connect the reactor to provide power to the weapon. UNIT troops are lured into the caves and commence a battle with the Silurians while the younger Silurian takes the Doctor to the reactor control room along with Liz and the Brigadier. The Doctor, however, overloads the reactor and tells the younger Silurian that the area will be irradiated for at least 25 years. The Silurians disengage from the battle with UNIT and re-enter the caves to hibernate until the danger has passed. Since the mechanism is faulty, the younger Silurian will stay awake to operate it and sacrifice his life, while the new leader of the Silurians having orders to return to the area in 50 years and exterminate Humanity as the colony's first order of business. The Doctor and Liz, meanwhile, repair the reactor, and go to the underground base, where the younger Silurian realises he has been duped into sending his race back to sleep. He attacks the Doctor in a rage, but is killed by the Brigadier.
Later, on Wenley Moor, the Doctor tells Liz that he proposes to revive the Silurians one by one and try to reach a peaceful compromise between them and humanity. However, the Brigadier has other orders, and the Silurian base is blown up. The Doctor is horrified at this act of genocide, but Liz guesses that the Brigadier was acting on orders of his superiors, who obviously did not want to take the chance of this alien and openly hostile power threatening Humanity again. The Doctor, still disgusted, drives off.
was titled "The Death of Doctor Who" on-screen). Although it was common in production paperwork to prefix "Doctor Who and..." to the story title at the time, the prefix was usually dropped when the director ordered the titles from the captioning department for transmission. However, this was not done for this particular story.
The reasons why this happened are not entirely clear. Director Timothy Combe states that he was presented with a story called Doctor Who and the Silurians and that it was always intended that the serial go out with that name. However, as Doctor Who historian Andrew Pixley points out, this was Combe's first serial as a full director and there was effectively no producer at this time, as noted above. In addition, the rehearsal scripts for the serial simply have The Silurians as the title. Pixley theorises that Combe was unaware of the standard production practice and gave the order to the captioning department for the "proper" title, as he believed it to be at the time.
Whichever the case, production paperwork from this point on stopped the practice of adding the prefix, perhaps as a measure to prevent the "mistake" from happening again.
, was published by Target Books
in January 1974 under the title Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters. In this adaptation, the Silurians were given names like Morka, Okdel and K'to. The novelisation gives extensive background to the reptile culture, including a prologue featuring their hibernation beginning. Large parts of the novelisation are told from the reptiles' point of view and there is an extensive back-story given to several characters including Quinn and Major Baker (for some reason, the character is called Major Barker in the novelisation). The novelisation avoids referring to the reptiles as Silurians (the word turns up as a UNIT password) but identifies the dinosaur in the caves as a tyrannosaurus rex. The novelisation was also translated into Dutch
, Finnish
, Japanese
and Portuguese
. An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actress Caroline John was released on CD in September 2007 by BBC Audiobooks.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from January 31 to March 14, 1970. The story is the first appearance of a recurring family of Earth-dwelling reptiles
Silurian (Doctor Who)
The Silurians are a fictional race of reptile-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The species first appeared in Doctor Who in the 1970 serial Doctor Who and the Silurians...
. The title is sometimes reduced to The Silurians.
Plot
An experimental nuclear powerNuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
research centre built into a network of caves in Wenley Moor is experiencing mysterious power drains and a high incidence of mental breakdowns. UNIT
UNIT
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
are called in to investigate, and the Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
and Liz
Liz Shaw (Doctor Who)
Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw is a fictional character played by Caroline John in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs...
meet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
at the plant. While exploring the caves, one of the workers at the centre was killed, with wounds that look like giant claw marks, and his companion's mind has been traumatised to the extent that he can only scrawl primitive cave drawings of reptilian
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
creatures on the walls of the ward. Lawrence, the Director, resents UNIT's presence and feels that it will interfere with the working of the plant, which is trying a new process to convert nuclear energy directly into electric power
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
. Off in a corner, Dr Quinn, the Deputy Director, argues with Miss Dawson, his assistant, when she protests that they should stop "them" from taking the power. Major Baker, the security chief, believes there is a saboteur in the centre, and the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
discovers that the logs of the nuclear reactor's operation have been tampered with. When the Doctor makes his way into the caves, he is attacked by a dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
-like creature.
The creature is called off by a strange whistling sound. The Brigadier decides to explore the caves with armed men. Baker fires at a humanoid figure he spots in the caves, and is attacked by the dinosaur-like creature, but it is again called off by the same sound. The Doctor returns to the centre with Baker, taking samples of the blood that was drawn when Baker fired at the humanoid. Examining the blood, the Doctor finds similarities to the "higher reptiles". In the meantime, the humanoid has reached the surface and stumbles into a barn to hide. Quinn goes into the caves to a hidden base, where he demands the knowledge he was promised. He is told that he must first see to the wounded humanoid and is given a signal device which emits the sound heard earlier.
The humanoid is discovered by a farmer and his wife, and attacks them. The farmer dies of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, but the wife survives and identifies her attacker. Liz, investigating the barn, turns to see a reptilian biped
Biped
Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs, or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning "two feet"...
. She screams in fright, but the creature knocks her unconscious and flees.
When Liz awakens, she tells the Doctor and the Brigadier, and the latter orders a manhunt across the moor, just as Quinn arrives at the barn. Making an excuse, he leaves and summons the humanoid with his device. When the Brigadier and the Doctor discover the humanoid's tracks, they end in tyre marks.
The Doctor goes to Quinn's cottage, and notes that it is remarkably hot, like a reptile house. Quinn replies that the thermostat is broken. Quinn does not react well to the hints the Doctor is dropping or to his veiled attempts to get him to co-operate, and asks the Doctor to leave. Breaking into Quinn's office, the Doctor finds a globe that depicts the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
's continents, as they were 200 million years ago, which the Doctor identifies as during the Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
period. Back at the cottage, Miss Dawson tries to persuade Quinn to tell the Doctor everything, but Quinn is adamant that he will keep the wounded Silurian
Silurian (Doctor Who)
The Silurians are a fictional race of reptile-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The species first appeared in Doctor Who in the 1970 serial Doctor Who and the Silurians...
captive until he is given the advanced scientific knowledge he wants. Later, when the Doctor goes to the cottage to once again try to reason with Quinn, he finds the scientist dead in his chair. The Doctor retrieves the signal device from Quinn's body and is surprised by the Silurian, who is still there.
The Doctor attempts communication, only for the Silurian to run away. Baker, still convinced that the answer lies in the caves, overpowers the UNIT man guarding the sickbay and enters them by himself. He is soon captured by the Silurians and interrogated as to the capabilities of the humans. The Doctor and Liz explore the caves following Baker's route and open the entrance to the Silurian base with Quinn's signal device, where they find Baker in a locked cage. He tells them that they must warn the surface. The Doctor and Liz leave undiscovered, but not before they see a Silurian being revived from hibernation
Hibernation
Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernating animals conserve food, especially during winter when food supplies are limited, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate...
by a machine, explaining the energy drains that the reactor has been experiencing. Meanwhile, Masters, the Permanent Under-Secretary in charge of the centre, arrives for a personal inspection, and Lawrence complains to him about UNIT's interference. The Doctor decides to tell them all about the Silurians in the caves, urging a peaceful contact instead of the Brigadier's proposed armed expedition. However, this falls on deaf ears when Miss Dawson reveals that Quinn was killed by the Silurian he held captive. The Doctor goes to warn and reason with the Silurians, but they put him in a cage. Then when The Doctor tries to reason with the younger one, it attacks him psychically using its third eye.
The older Silurian puts a stop to it. The older Silurian tells the Doctor how their race retreated underground when they saw the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
approaching Earth millions of years before. The hibernation mechanism malfunctioned, and they did not revive until a new power source — the nuclear reactor — was discovered. The Doctor manages to persuade the older Silurian to release the Brigadier and his men, but the younger Silurian orders Baker infected with a virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
before he is released. When the older Silurian discovers this, he releases the Doctor, giving him a canister of the virus so he can discover a cure. The younger Silurian kills the older one for this act. The Doctor reaches the centre, and he warns everyone to stay away from Baker, who collapses with the virus. Masters, however, decides to return to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, unaware that he has also been infected. Baker is taken to a local hospital without the Doctor's knowledge and dies there. "The first one." The Doctor grimly notes.
The Brigadier holds Baker's doctor and nurse at gunpoint to prevent them from leaving and spreading the virus while the Doctor returns to the centre to work on the cure. The Brigadier and Liz try to warn London, while all of the centre's staff are inoculated with a stopgap vaccine. All, that is, except for Lawrence, who refuses. Masters, in the meantime, has reached London and eludes the search parties desperately looking for him. The virus begins to spread and the deaths begin. The infection even reaches France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Doctor Lawrence, who eventually dies from the virus, complains in his last moments that the affair has ruined his career. The young Silurian decides the Doctor must be killed before he finds a cure. The Doctor has indeed found one, and as he writes down the formula, the Silurians attack the centre and stun him with their third eyes, taking him away.
Liz, however, discovers the formula and it is soon being mass-produced and distributed. The Silurians have a back-up plan, however. They intend to use a weapon to destroy the Van Allen Belt and make the Earth's environment hostile to humankind, and will force the Doctor to connect the reactor to provide power to the weapon. UNIT troops are lured into the caves and commence a battle with the Silurians while the younger Silurian takes the Doctor to the reactor control room along with Liz and the Brigadier. The Doctor, however, overloads the reactor and tells the younger Silurian that the area will be irradiated for at least 25 years. The Silurians disengage from the battle with UNIT and re-enter the caves to hibernate until the danger has passed. Since the mechanism is faulty, the younger Silurian will stay awake to operate it and sacrifice his life, while the new leader of the Silurians having orders to return to the area in 50 years and exterminate Humanity as the colony's first order of business. The Doctor and Liz, meanwhile, repair the reactor, and go to the underground base, where the younger Silurian realises he has been duped into sending his race back to sleep. He attacks the Doctor in a rage, but is killed by the Brigadier.
Later, on Wenley Moor, the Doctor tells Liz that he proposes to revive the Silurians one by one and try to reach a peaceful compromise between them and humanity. However, the Brigadier has other orders, and the Silurian base is blown up. The Doctor is horrified at this act of genocide, but Liz guesses that the Brigadier was acting on orders of his superiors, who obviously did not want to take the chance of this alien and openly hostile power threatening Humanity again. The Doctor, still disgusted, drives off.
Continuity
- This story marks the first appearance of the Doctor's yellow vintage car, Bessie.
- The Doctor remarks in this episode, "You know, I'm beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life — and that covers several thousand years." This comment adds to the many conflicting ages for the Doctor provided in the television series over the years.
Homo reptilia
- The term "Silurian" is never actually used by the creatures themselves; only by humans and the Doctor. Its use resulted in many letters from scientists and geologists who argued that it was impossible for a reptilian lifeform to have existed in the SilurianSilurianThe Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
period. In the later The Sea DevilsThe Sea DevilsThe Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
, the Doctor admits that the name "Silurian" is inaccurate and states they should more properly be called "EoceneEoceneThe Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...
s", again an unlikely candidate for the creatures' own era. Both names are mentioned in "The Hungry EarthThe Hungry Earth"The Hungry Earth" is the eighth episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 22 May 2010 on BBC One. It was written by Chris Chibnall, who had previously written for Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood...
", along with the more generalised - though far more obviously inaccurate - "HomoHomoHomo may refer to:*the Greek prefix ὅμο-, meaning "the same"*the Latin for man, human being*Homo, the taxonomical genus including modern humans...
reptilia". The Virgin New AdventuresVirgin New AdventuresThe Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
, beginning with Love and WarLove and War (Doctor Who)Love and War is an original novel written by Paul Cornell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and introduces a new companion, Bernice Summerfield...
refer to the creatures as Earth Reptiles for the most part. Ben AaronovitchBen AaronovitchBen Denis Aaronovitch is a London-born British writer who has worked on television series including Doctor Who, Casualty, Jupiter Moon and Dark Knight...
's The Also PeopleThe Also PeopleThe Also People is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.-Plot:...
calls them Indigenous Terrans.
- The Sea Devils, the aquatic cousins of the Silurians, would appear in The Sea DevilsThe Sea DevilsThe Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
(1972). The Sea Devils and the Silurians return in Warriors of the DeepWarriors of the DeepWarriors of the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 5 January to 13 January 1984...
(1984). In Warriors of the Deep both they and the Sea Devils use "Silurian" to refer to themselves.
- The Virgin New AdventuresVirgin New AdventuresThe Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
novel Blood HeatBlood HeatBlood Heat is an original novel written by Jim Mortimore and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Mortimore, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #205...
features an alternate universeParallel universe (fiction)A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
where the Doctor died in captivity during the events of this serial and Earth was subsequently conquered by the Silurians. The Virgin Missing AdventuresVirgin Missing AdventuresThe Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and...
novel The Scales of InjusticeThe Scales of InjusticeThe Scales of Injustice is a Virgin Missing Adventures original novel written by Gary Russell based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
is both a sequel to this story as well as a prequel to the events of Warriors of the Deep. Other novels in both series, such as The Also PeopleThe Also PeopleThe Also People is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.-Plot:...
and Happy EndingsHappy Endings (Doctor Who)Happy Endings is an original novel written by Paul Cornell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the fiftieth book in the Virgin New Adventures series...
, reveal that at some point the Silurians will be revived and successfully integrated with human society. The Silurians also appear in the Big Finish ProductionsBig Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio play Bloodtide, which explains why they did not wake up from hibernation and what role they played in human evolution. They also appear in UNIT: The CoupUNIT: The CoupUNIT: The Coup is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It stars Nicholas Courtney reprising his role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the former commander of UNIT...
(given away free with Doctor Who MagazineDoctor Who MagazineDoctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
#351) and attempt to create a peace with mankind, with the aid of General Lethbridge-Stewart.
Production
- After the previous story, producers Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant (who was originally to have the producer's credit on this story) was transferred to the television series Paul Temple, and the BBC intended for Barry LettsBarry LettsBarry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
to become producer. However, Letts was committed to another production, and could not be released until after the location work on Silurians was completed. Script editor Terrance DicksTerrance DicksTerrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
and his assistant Trevor RayTrevor RayTrevor Ray is a British actor who has appeared in many TV-series..Ray penned the final version of the first episode of the Doctor Who serial The Ambassadors of Death, though he was not credited on the episode...
shared the production responsibilities for the location work. - The incidental music for the serial was composed by Carey BlytonCarey BlytonCarey Blyton was a British composer and writer best known for his song Bananas In Pyjamas which later became an Australian children's television series, and for his work on Doctor Who....
, who would also contribute music for Death to the DaleksDeath to the DaleksDeath to the Daleks is a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast from February 23 to March 16, 1974, it comprises four 25-minute episodes. The narrative begins as the TARDIS suffers an energy drain and crash-lands on the planet Exxilon...
(1974) and Revenge of the CybermenRevenge of the CybermenRevenge of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 19 April to 10 May 1975.-Synopsis:...
(1975). - This story is the first to be recorded using colour studio cameras. The previous serial, Spearhead from SpaceSpearhead from SpaceSpearhead from Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1970. The serial opened Series 7 of the show and was the first to be produced in colour. The serial introduced Jon Pertwee as the...
, was the first in colour, but was shot entirely on location (i.e., outside the electronic TV studio), and on film (as opposed to videotape, the standard method for recording Doctor Who). Due to the move to colour, the production team made use of a technique known as Chromakey (or sometimes CSO), which allowed images to be superimposed over each other using colour separation. This was used extensively in the series for many years, beginning with this serial. - Whilst working on Bessie, the Doctor sings a rendition of "JabberwockyJabberwocky"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense verse poem written by Lewis Carroll in his 1872 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
". - Location filming took place at Marylebone StationMarylebone stationMarylebone station , also known as London Marylebone, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It stands midway between the mainline stations at Euston and Paddington, about 1 mile from each...
in London on 12 November 1969, but after the prints were damaged, the scenes were reshot on 24 November after the rest of the serial had been finished. Other location work was undertaken in SurreySurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, with the heathland scenes filmed at Hankley CommonHankley CommonHankley Common is a common near Elstead, Surrey, England. It is an area of heathland with sandy infertile soil. The dry areas are covered in common heather and bell heather with patches of bracken Hankley Common is a designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest .-Atlantic Wall...
.
Alternative titles
This was also the only time the name "Doctor Who" was used in the title of a serial on-screen (although Episode 5 of The ChaseThe Chase (Doctor Who)
The Chase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. The story is set on multiple locations including the Mary Celeste, the Empire State Building, and the planet Aridius...
was titled "The Death of Doctor Who" on-screen). Although it was common in production paperwork to prefix "Doctor Who and..." to the story title at the time, the prefix was usually dropped when the director ordered the titles from the captioning department for transmission. However, this was not done for this particular story.
The reasons why this happened are not entirely clear. Director Timothy Combe states that he was presented with a story called Doctor Who and the Silurians and that it was always intended that the serial go out with that name. However, as Doctor Who historian Andrew Pixley points out, this was Combe's first serial as a full director and there was effectively no producer at this time, as noted above. In addition, the rehearsal scripts for the serial simply have The Silurians as the title. Pixley theorises that Combe was unaware of the standard production practice and gave the order to the captioning department for the "proper" title, as he believed it to be at the time.
Whichever the case, production paperwork from this point on stopped the practice of adding the prefix, perhaps as a measure to prevent the "mistake" from happening again.
Cast notes
- Actor Paul Darrow would return to the series playing Tekker in TimelashTimelashTimelash is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 9–16 March 1985.-Synopsis:...
and also appeared in the audio play The Next LifeThe Next LifeThe Next Life is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the culmination of the "Divergent Universe" saga.-Plot:...
. - Fulton Mackay also appears in this episode. See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.
- Geoffrey Palmer who played Masters also appears in The MutantsThe MutantsThe Mutants is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1972....
and in the "Voyage of the DamnedVoyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...
". - Peter Miles later played Professor Whitaker in Invasion of the DinosaursInvasion of the DinosaursInvasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...
and Nyder in Genesis of the DaleksGenesis of the DaleksGenesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...
. He also played Tragan in the radio drama The Paradise of DeathThe Paradise of DeathThe Paradise of Death is a radio audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on BBC Radio 5 from 27 August to 24 September 1993. The original radio play was released on CD as part of the BBC...
and Gantman in the audio play Whispers of TerrorWhispers of TerrorWhispers of Terror is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Summary:...
. - Norman Jones had previously appeared as Khrisong in The Abominable SnowmenThe Abominable SnowmenThe Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....
and would later play Hieronymous in The Masque of MandragoraThe Masque of MandragoraThe Masque of Mandragora is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 4 September to 25 September 1976. It opened Season 14 of the series.-Synopsis:...
.
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Malcolm HulkeMalcolm Hulke
Malcolm Hulke was a British television writer and author of the industry "bible" Writing for Television in the 70s...
, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
in January 1974 under the title Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters. In this adaptation, the Silurians were given names like Morka, Okdel and K'to. The novelisation gives extensive background to the reptile culture, including a prologue featuring their hibernation beginning. Large parts of the novelisation are told from the reptiles' point of view and there is an extensive back-story given to several characters including Quinn and Major Baker (for some reason, the character is called Major Barker in the novelisation). The novelisation avoids referring to the reptiles as Silurians (the word turns up as a UNIT password) but identifies the dinosaur in the caves as a tyrannosaurus rex. The novelisation was also translated into Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
. An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actress Caroline John was released on CD in September 2007 by BBC Audiobooks.
VHS, CD and DVD releases
- The original 625-line PAL videotapes of the serial were wiped by the BBC for reuse, although they retained 16mm b/w film recordings. In 1993, the colour signal from a 525-line NTSC version of all seven episodes (except for part of the beginning of episode four) was used, along with traditional colourisation techniques, to colourise the film prints for the VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
release, which was in July of that year. - In October 2006, the story's original soundtrack was released on CD as part of the 'Monsters on Earth' tin set, again alongside The Sea DevilsThe Sea DevilsThe Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
and Warriors of the DeepWarriors of the DeepWarriors of the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 5 January to 13 January 1984...
, with linking narration from Caroline John. The CD was then individually re-issued in January 2008. - On January 14, 2008, a fresh restoration of the story (the black and white prints and off-air colour recordings were mixed together, with the colour prints distorted to reduce fringing and both prints were VID-FIRED'd to restore originally video sections to 50 frames each second rather than 24 frames each second) was released on DVD as part of boxed set called "Beneath the Surface" with The Sea DevilsThe Sea DevilsThe Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
and Warriors of the DeepWarriors of the DeepWarriors of the Deep is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 5 January to 13 January 1984...
.
External links
- Doctor Who Locations - The Silurians
Reviews
- Doctor Who and the Silurians reviews at Outpost GallifreyOutpost GallifreyOutpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...