Written by Malcolm Hulke, Sydney Newnam, and Donald B. Wilson
Directed by Timothy Combe

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series which has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Jon Pertwee.  This is the period of the show when the Doctor was confined to Earth unable to jump around through space and time.  His “companions” during this time consisted of humans involved with UNIT – Caroline John as Liz Shaw and Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.

The three of them are visiting a research facility working on a different type of atomic reaction.  It’s not known if a series of issues with not just this facility but others around Great Britain are due to scientific causes or are matters of national security.  The Doctor and UNIT are brought in, much to the consternation of the scientists.  Apparently there is more going on at the facility than meets the eye.

The Doctor goes to visit one of the technicians who had an accident in the caves, which the audience saw in the opening sequence and is attacked.  The man who was not much of an artist before has been drawing all over the walls of the room in the hospital.  The Doctor believes that whatever happened to him caused his brain to de-evolve millions of years.

During one of their experiments at the facility, there are wild power fluctuations as well as one of the technicians behaving erratically.  Liz’s research shows the people who have been affected recently all worked in the deepest part of the facility nearest the caves in the cyclotron room.  The Doctor goes exploring the caves on his own and comes face to face with a dinosaur-like creature.  While all of these technicians were hard at work trying to meet their deadline, they inadvertently awaken a dormant race of aliens known as the Silurians.

The Silurians apparently once called Earth home, then put themselves into a deep sleep believing it would enable their race to survive.  Humans and other creatures overran the planet, not realizing a race of intelligent reptiles slept soundly deep inside the Earth.  Now awakened, the Silurians want to take back what was once theirs.

The story is pretty good, especially for one that extends a total of seven parts.  There are a few times where the story seems to drag a bit, but overall it keeps moving pretty well and keeps the audience hanging on.  Viewers do not actually see the intelligent creatures inhabiting the caves for quite some time and without pre-knowledge of the story it keeps the suspense going fairly well.  There are a variety of different aspects to the story, and it works as first the mystery is what is happening at the nuclear facilities, then it becomes a battle with the Silurians, and finally there is the Doctor trying to be a diplomat in a world that is already facing a multitude of threats and really doesn’t need another enemy.  The stories work as both races have a point and neither one is about to give.

For a serial first aired in 1968, Doctor Who and the Silurians holds up surprisingly well. Although it has overtones rooted in the Cold War, the story is dominated by ideas that one needed to grow up in this era to understand.  There’s a little bit of everything here – military intrigue, zombie-like viruses, alien invasion, and more.  It all works quite well to create a story that doesn’t use those plot points in a gratuitous fashion.

The acting here is really good. Through watching the early years of Doctor Who, I have developed a soft spot for the Brigadier and Nicholas Courtney.  Anything he’s in seems to be a lot of fun as he’s caught between his military background and the dignity that goes along with it and dealing with the Doctor who has little use for the military but seems to genuinely like the Brigadier.  Liz Shaw is actually written better here than how some future companions get treated with some strong character moments rather than just screaming every time something happens.  It was a good role for Caroline John and she makes the most of it.  Doctor Who and the Silurians came early in Jon Pertwee’s turn as the Doctor and yet he is quite effective with the story.  He has the arrogance the Doctor has displayed through the years down pretty good this early on in his run.

The camera work in this was also ground-breaking for its time.  The story shows the view of the Silurian as it ambled toward a populated area; camera work which seemed to imitate modern stedi-cams.  Unfortunately, this early venture into something new wasn’t steady at all and made me feel dizzy watching it.  The aliens here are typical of the rubber-suited creatures fans of the series are used to seeing, but they actually end up working quite well although they don’t have a terribly menacing feel to them.

The two-disc DVD is loaded with extras.  There was a lot that had to happen for Doctor Who and the Silurians to see the light of day, and while it isn’t the greatest print I’ve ever seen, those who worked to restore this still need to be commended.  I could see evidence of the damage this print had sustained at various times during the story-arc.  In one case, the lower right seemed to have been over-exposed and was completely orange for no more than an inch of the picture in that corner.  Still, the job they did was truly amazing as the team had to combine elements from a variety of sources to create what we have on this DVD.  The few flaws are well worth having the story to watch once again.

I was sort of disappointed in the list of extras until I watched What Lies Beneath.  It’s a fairly in-depth look at the culture of Britain during the time period that the Doctor was created and evolved and makes a strong case that the show was really a show for the whole family.  Looking at those early shows with our 21st century eyes and values, it’s easy to dismiss, but this makes a strong case that the show was fairly cutting-edge with many of the ideas presented.  There’s also commentary, although it was missing Nicolas Courtney, and a slew of other specials about the show.

I watched this for the first time around the time the Silurians made an appearance in the new series. I was struck by how much the new series story The Hungry Earth resembled this one, albeit with different villains.  The story holds up surprisingly well with a variety of different elements that flow nicely instead of feeling like they were thrown in there.  The actors do a terrific job, especially considering how early this was in Pertwee’s run as the Doctor.  Doctor Who and the Silurians is definitely one of the better story-arcs from the early days of the show viewed with our 21st century standards.