Doctor Who and The Silurians – a long hibernating race of lizard people awaken – and want to take “their” world back!
Product Description of Doctor Who and The Silurians (1970) starring Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney
It’s a rude awakening for the Silurians, an intelligent dinosaur race only now emerging from a hibernation begun at the dawn of the Ice Age.
Part 1
UNIT is summoned to Wenley Moor research station which is experiencing power losses.
Dr. Meredith: I take it you’re yet another member of the UNIT team?
The Doctor: Yes. Depressing, isn’t it?
Part 2
Investigating the caves, the Doctor is attacked by a dinosaur-like creature. This prompts Major Baker to start shooting at a reptile man. And they’re sure to retaliate …
Major Baker: Your men will be armed, sir?
Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart: Small arms, grenades, nothing very substantial.
Major Baker: We’ll be a bit short on firepower.
Doctor Who: That’s typical of the military mind, isn’t it? Present them with a new problem, and they start shooting at it.
Part 3
The creature from the caves, wounded and dangerous, is on the loose on Wenley Moor. We finally see a Silurian on screen, and Doctor Quinn harbors one of them.
Part 4
Despite Dr. Quinn’s death, The Doctor attempts to make peace between the humans and Silurians.
Part 5
There’s interesting intrigue amongst the Silurians. The elderly leader’s inclined to pursue peace, which the Doctor’s been recommending. The younger Silurian, who wishes to become the leader, however, infects Major Baker with a virus and release him to spread the infection.
Part 6
As the Silurian plague quickly spreads, the Doctor and Liz desperately search for a cure. And in a bit of intrigue, the young Silurian murders the elderly leader, and seizes control of his people. Planning the destruction of the human race.
The Doctor: I’m beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life – and that covers several thousand years.
Part 7
While Liz distributes the cure to the virus, the Doctor discovers that the Silurians intend to destroy the Earth’s protective Van Allen Belt, destroying mankind. In the end, the Brigadier does something to protect humanity from future attacks. Creating a rift between himself and the Doctor that goes on into future episodes.
Cast of characters
- Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space) … Doctor Who
- Caroline John (Doctor Who: Inferno) … Liz Shaw
- Nicholas Courtney (The Five Doctors) … Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart
- Fulton Mackay … Dr. Quinn
- Norman Jones … Major Baker
- Peter Miles (Quo Vadis) … Dr. Lawrence
- Thomasine Heiner … Miss Dawson
- Ian Cunningham … Dr. Meredith
- Roy Brannigan … Roberts (as Roy Branigan)
- John Newman … Spencer
- Bill Matthews … Davis
Trivia for Doctor Who and The Silurians
- The color master tapes of this seven-part serial were wiped by the BBC in the 1970s and the BBC only held 16mm black and white telerecordings. The serial remained only in black in white until the 1990s, when the color signal from a domestic NTSC recording and the black and white telerecordings were used to create new color masters.
- The idea of a superior race living underground may have come from the 1871 novel “The Coming Race” (also called “Vril, the Power of the Coming Race”) by Edward Bulver-Lytton.
- Fans voted this number 33 in a countdown of the 163 Doctor Who stories in Outpost Gallifrey‘s 40th anniversary poll in 2003.
