Doctor Who and the Silurians is the second serial of the seventh season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in seven weekly parts on BBC1 from 31 January to 14 March 1970.
The serial is set in an English moorland, the cave system below it, and London. In the serial, the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) attempts to broker peace between humanity and the Silurians, an intelligent bipedal race of reptilians that ruled Earth before humans. This effort becomes undone by a xenophobic usurper Silurian, along with gung-ho human soldiers.
The story is the first appearance of the Silurians, after whom the Silurian hypothesis in science is named.
Plot
A nuclear powered cyclotron facility in some caves under a moorland is experiencing mysterious power drains and mental breakdowns amongst staff. The Third Doctor and Liz Shaw meet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart there to investigate. Major Baker, the security chief, believes there is a saboteur in the centre.
The Doctor and Liz discover a Silurian base with the signal device, where they witness a Silurian being revived from hibernation by a machine, explaining the energy drains that the reactor has been experiencing.
Masters, the Permanent Under-Secretary in charge of the centre, arrives. The Doctor tells them about the Silurians in the caves, urging peaceful contact. However, this is ignored when Quinn's assistant reveals that he was killed by the Silurian he held captive. The Doctor attempts to warn the Silurians, but they put him in a cage. He is able to reason with the leader of the Silurians, who attempts to convince his brethren to find a way of co-existing with humans. The younger Silurian refuses and kills the leader, usurping the title as leader.
Baker is later infected with a deadly strain of bacteria by the Silurians before he is released, resulting in an epidemic to spread across Britain. The Doctor is able to find a cure, which is mass produced, ending the epidemic.
The Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier are then abducted by the Silurians and taken to the power plant, where the Doctor overloads the reactor and tells the younger Silurian that the area will be irradiated for at least 25 years. The Silurians 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. The Doctor and Liz repair the reactor. The younger Silurian realises he has been duped into sending his race back to sleep. He attacks the Doctor but is shot by the Brigadier.
The Doctor insists that the caves are to remain untouched to allow the Silurians to hibernate peacefully, hopeful that talks of peace may occur between them and humankind in the future. However, the Brigadier orders the caves to be destroyed, killing the Silurians inside and horrifying the Doctor, who opposed the mass murder of the Silurians.
Production
After the previous story, producers Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant (who was originally to have the producer's credit on this story) were transferred to the television series Paul Temple, and the BBC intended for Barry Letts 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 Dicks and his assistant Trevor Ray shared the production responsibilities for the location work.
The incidental music for the serial was composed by Carey Blyton, This was used extensively in the series for many years, beginning with this serial.
Location filming took place at Marylebone station in London
thumb|The vintage car Bessie is introduced in Episode One
Episode One marks the first appearance of the Doctor's car Bessie, a yellow Siva tourer which appeared in several later stories. In the previous serial, the Doctor had acquired a taste for vintage cars after driving a stolen vehicle, and was granted his own car by the Brigadier.
Alternative titles
This was the only time the name "Doctor Who" was used in the title of a serial on-screen (although Episode 5 of The Chase was titled "The Death of Doctor Who" on-screen and at the end of The Gunfighters, the caption read "Next Week Doctor Who and the Savages"). 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.
Cast notes
Actor Paul Darrow would return to the series playing Tekker in Timelash (1985); he also appeared in the audio play The Next Life.
Geoffrey Palmer, who played Masters, also appears in The Mutants (1972) and in "Voyage of the Damned" (2007).
Peter Miles later played Professor Whitaker in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) and Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks (1975). He also played Tragan in the radio drama The Paradise of Death and Gantman in the audio play Whispers of Terror.
Norman Jones had previously appeared as Khrisong in The Abominable Snowmen (1967) and would later play Hieronymous in The Masque of Mandragora (1976).
Ian Talbot, who played Travis in Episode Four, would later return as Klout in The Leisure Hive (1980).
Richard Steele, who plays Sergeant Hart, previously appeared as Commandant Gorton in Episode 2 of The War Games (1969) and would later appear as a guard in The Mark of the Rani (1985).