Silurian Who?
Next Saturday another classic Doctor Who enemy returns after a 26 year absence. For the benefit of our readers who are asking, “who on earth are the Silurians?”, let’s take a brief look back.
The Silurians first appeared in a story originally broadcast in 1970 starring the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. The seven-part serial was aptly titled Doctor Who and the Silurians.
The plot involved the Doctor being called in to check strange goings-on around a nuclear reactor. His investigations lead him into caves underneath the plant, where he discovers a race of intelligent, humanoid reptiles who have been awoken from hibernation and are now keen to retake the earth they have lost to the humans. The Doctor hopes to negotiate a peaceful resolution, but as ever, things don’t go to plan.
In 1972, in a story called, The Sea Devils, it was revealed the Silurians had aquatic cousins who had been dubbed, the Sea Devils. These creatures were physically quite different from the Silurians the Doctor met before. They were larger, had turtle-like heads and were hibernating underwater instead of on land. The Master awakens them to try and wipe out the human race.
The Silurians didn’t return until over a decade later in 1984. This time the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) encountered them in story called Warriors of the Deep. They had allied themselves with the Sea Devils in hope to retake earth once again. And that was their final TV appearance until now.
Which leads us to next Saturday’s episode, The Hungry Earth. The reptiles we’ve seen in the trailers and publicity pics certainly look quite a bit different to previous designs. We’re wondering just how connected they are to the old ones. Perhaps we’ve only seen one group and there are other Silurians that look closer to the older designs.
You can check out all three classic Who stories on the Beneath the Surface DVD. If you haven’t seen these episodes before, it’s well worth a look (even if Warriors isn’t on par with the other two stories).