After all the drama with the Dreamlord in the previous story its time that Doctor Who did best (or new Who anyway) and that was bring back a monster that appeared during the ‘classic’ era. The Silurians for those who don’t know first appeared 40 years ago in ‘Dr Who and the Silurians’ (1970) with Jon Pertwee in only his second story. They wouldn’t appear until ‘Warriors of the Deep’ (1984). That story wasn’t as good because they had to share screen time with the Sea Devils.
The plot takes a bit from Inferno where the Doctor arrives and finds humans are burying into the earth. There is also a bit taken from the Daemons where the town is cut off by an invisible dome. The Doctor and Amy meet Dr Nasreen Chaudhry (played by Meera Syal) and Tony Mack (played by Robert Pugh) who are running this drilling operation in a welsh village (like The Green Death) called Cwmtaff in 2020. Another nod to the Green Death was when Tony showed that when he got attacked by Alaya his veins and skinned started to turn green like they do when the maggots attacked people in the 1973 adventure. The Silurians are well imagined in this episode. They are given more human characteristics than before which makes their threat seem more real. The mask that Alaya wears is pretty scary and probably should have worn that for more of the story. I thought the cliffhanger like The Time of Angels was a bit bizarre. It just seemed to come out of nowhere, there was no sense of danger for the Doctor which is a good thing cause you know he’s going to be around for the next five episodes so there’s not point putting him in danger. The real cliffhanger for me came with the Doctor Silurian coming at Amy with the intention of opening her up. It’ll be interesting to see how that gets resolved.
Matt Smith was very good in his first encounter with a classic monster that wasn’t a Dalek or a Cyberman (which will come later). I wouldn’t say this was his best performance but it was still a good outing for him. Karen Gillan didn’t really seem to have much to do. Apart from arrive with the Doctor and Rory and then being sucked into the ground and then the ending she didn’t really do much. This will presumably be resolved later on in the story. Arthur Darvil puts in another good performance as caring but dopey Rory. Pretending to be a policeman because of a misunderstanding was quite comical.
Of the guest stars obviously Meera Syal is quite a big name because of her role in the Kumars at Number 42 and Goodness Gracious Me. She is married to Sanjeev Bashkar who appeared in the Paul McGann audio adventure The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web in 2009. Her character was the usual sceptical at the beginning and then holy trustworthy at the end. Her reaction to the inside of the TARDIS was a refreshing change. Robert Pugh’s performance as Tony Mack was very good as well. He had previously appeared in Torchwood as Jonah but this was a much more natural performance. Together they were like a married couple even if they weren’t.
As an episode it’s a good one. The Silurians involvement is slowly bought into the story and the Doctor is revelling in what’s going on.
The plot takes a bit from Inferno where the Doctor arrives and finds humans are burying into the earth. There is also a bit taken from the Daemons where the town is cut off by an invisible dome. The Doctor and Amy meet Dr Nasreen Chaudhry (played by Meera Syal) and Tony Mack (played by Robert Pugh) who are running this drilling operation in a welsh village (like The Green Death) called Cwmtaff in 2020. Another nod to the Green Death was when Tony showed that when he got attacked by Alaya his veins and skinned started to turn green like they do when the maggots attacked people in the 1973 adventure. The Silurians are well imagined in this episode. They are given more human characteristics than before which makes their threat seem more real. The mask that Alaya wears is pretty scary and probably should have worn that for more of the story. I thought the cliffhanger like The Time of Angels was a bit bizarre. It just seemed to come out of nowhere, there was no sense of danger for the Doctor which is a good thing cause you know he’s going to be around for the next five episodes so there’s not point putting him in danger. The real cliffhanger for me came with the Doctor Silurian coming at Amy with the intention of opening her up. It’ll be interesting to see how that gets resolved.
Matt Smith was very good in his first encounter with a classic monster that wasn’t a Dalek or a Cyberman (which will come later). I wouldn’t say this was his best performance but it was still a good outing for him. Karen Gillan didn’t really seem to have much to do. Apart from arrive with the Doctor and Rory and then being sucked into the ground and then the ending she didn’t really do much. This will presumably be resolved later on in the story. Arthur Darvil puts in another good performance as caring but dopey Rory. Pretending to be a policeman because of a misunderstanding was quite comical.
Of the guest stars obviously Meera Syal is quite a big name because of her role in the Kumars at Number 42 and Goodness Gracious Me. She is married to Sanjeev Bashkar who appeared in the Paul McGann audio adventure The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web in 2009. Her character was the usual sceptical at the beginning and then holy trustworthy at the end. Her reaction to the inside of the TARDIS was a refreshing change. Robert Pugh’s performance as Tony Mack was very good as well. He had previously appeared in Torchwood as Jonah but this was a much more natural performance. Together they were like a married couple even if they weren’t.
As an episode it’s a good one. The Silurians involvement is slowly bought into the story and the Doctor is revelling in what’s going on.
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