Dinosaurs, on a Spaceship

After the excitement of last week I wasn't expecting much from this episode (I think the second and third stories of recent seasons have been poor), and whilst it rolled along quite happily, this ultimately won't be remembered for much other than a silly romp with dinosaurs, on a spaceship. It sort of stinks of Moffat throwing the poor writer the ingredients (dinosaurs, on a spaceship, oh, and Rory's Dad), and the guy has to come up with his best plan of bringing it together. The backstory, a Silurian 'ark', was a great idea. Except it wasn't as good as it should have been, wasted without the Silurians. If the ship had fake beaches why not other fake environments where the dinosaurs would have been much more at home. And without their Silurian masters the barriers could be breaking down... And why not give us a handfull of Silurian survivors into the mix as well, hiding out in different environs? So many missed opportunities. Could have been an epic two parter.

And how long had those dinosaurs been on that ship? Are we talking of the numbers necessary to maintain genetically viable breeding populations? Surely the Silurians, as experts in hibernation, would have put the big reptiles to sleep for the journey... much easier... and talking of reptiles, how exactly did those dinosaurs thermo regulate and maintain body temperature? Silly little things I know, but a good script could have covered these. And if the Doctor drops the dinosaurs off at the end on some planet 'Siluria' somewhere, what a missed opportunity to give the Silurians, if we'd had a couple, a new home planet and story concept for their furture development and use. One the biggest problems with them is the lack of potential for storylines...

I fear the Silurians are being slowly turned into a 'Star Trek' style supporting alien race and will pop up more and more. Shame, I was hoping we would have a break from green reptilian monsters before bringing back the Ice Warriors... but we certainly needed to get the Silurians into space to fit with them turning up with the Pandorica, don't we? I wonder if will we've got a Moffat after story before the pre story here, if you know what I mean, surely they won't waste the idea of Silurians, on a spaceship, with dinosaurs. Plus it would be a nice echo of the original Hartnell 'Arc' story, which also visited an ark, or be it with a different cargo, in two different time periods.

But the episode did have that 'big production' feel which they are obviously aiming for this series - so much so it almost felt like a silly christmas episode. In fact it should have been a Christmas episode, it was that light-weight. And so many elements of the story appeared overly familiar, from within the show itself, to influences from outside it. I'm all for recycling, but weren't some elements just overly Jurassic Park? I think the 'raptors should have been dumped in favour of some other threat, from the young T-rex perhaps, which would have surely woken and smelt them down.

As predicted we had the now typical jumping all over history to introduce the characters and bring Amy and Roy along. And the update on Amy's life, right at the climax of the episode, just took away all the dramatic effect that the episode had managed to built up. I like the idea of them leaving and carrying on their lives, but we don't need it every week - what was the point of dropping them off last week to pick them up again this? And did we really need the random historical characters? I'm all for historical stories, and characters, but not used like this. I really think the Doctor needs to loose control of the TARDIS again and go back to not knowing where she's taking him. What's the betting these two don;t turn up again before the end of the season, or for the end of the season!

In summary, for me, an inconsequential episode. And I didn't like the use of innuendo, it just made me cringe, epsecially in an episode aimed so obviously at the kids. But credit where credit is due - the dinosaurs were good, and so was the spaceship (although why, if it was Silurian, wasn't it very, err, Silurian on the inside?).

Shame, I'm going to put this one down as a misinterpretation of Who events, and pretend that in my version of Who it all happened the same same but slightly differently! One of the advantages of being dillusional.

Off Target

Here's another mock early Target cover, this time a rendition of Warriors of the Deep but with a Troughton Doctor, so following on from the other Silurian stuff I posted here.

The image is by Daryl Joyce, whose online galleries can be found here. Daryl's done a lot of official Who work, see the TARDIS wiki for more info. There's more of his work on DeviantArt, here.

I think this is a great image, and even more interesting to think of Warriors as a Troughton story. Would it have been better? Probably not - even Troughton and team would have stuggled to make this story work. But it couldn't have been any worse.

Silurian spin-offs

As we know, the Silurians first appeared in the Third Doctors second story, Doctor Who and the Silurians (yep, thats the official name after the full script title appeared on the screen titles, rather than just The Silurians), also known as The Cave Monsters (from the Target novelisation). Later, in Pertwee's third season, their cousins the Sea Devils took their turn to try and reclaim the earth.

All went quiet under the earth until Davison's third season, when they both returned in Warriors of the Deep. Whilst the Silurian head design included the third eye, for some reason the script forgets about this ability. As far as the classic TV series is concerned, this was their last appearances.

In the Virgin New Adventures novel (number 19), the Seventh Doctor meets the Silurians in Blood Heat. Featuring the Brigadier, Liz and Jo, events turn out to be taking place in an alternative universe where the Silurians were successful in defeating the Doctor in the first encounter. There's a detailed story synopsis here. There's a whole host of crazy things that happen in the Virgin New Adventures, which I'm not even going to touch on here... have a look here for references and links (including other odd spin-off bits and bobs).


We also have the Silurians reappearing, this time including versions hybridised with Sea Devils, in the Missing Adventure novel The Scales of Injustice, with the third Doctor and Liz Shaw. Again find the synopsis here


This story is available online on the BBC Classic Who website which is available online here, together with some interesting artwork in the style of the Target series for the period, including a mock Chris Achilleos style cover.


And the Silurians again return in the Big Finish audio Bloodtide, with the sixth Doctor this time taking his turn to deal with some menacing Silurian scientists.


Doctor Who Weekly magazine ran a two part comic strip story Twilight of the Silurians, in issues 21 and 22. The story, which didn't feature the Doctor, was dedicated to Malcolm Hulke, who had died in May 1979.


The Doctor Who Monthly 1992 Summer Special features a story called City of Devils with Sarah-Jane and K9 (the only example of comic strip in this format, itself supporting the spin-off K9 and Company).

And then Doctor Who Monthly ran the story Final Genesis in issues 203 to 206 which again followed on after the events of the original Silurian story, with the Doctor again failing and being killed before alternative events unfold...

Cold Blood

So, the second part of our Silurian epic leaves us with yet more loose ends, and with the end of season finale getting progressively pumped up, one wonders how it's all going to get sorted out... but of course, that's the point.

Now I'm still moaning about the loss of the Silurian third-eye, and I don't think the appearance of a long sticky tongue fills the gap. Rather than being evolutionary superior to humans, as they undoubtedly were in their first TV appearance, these Silurians are perhaps more our equals. Again we have Silurians killing each other rather than respecting their own authoritarian systems, which I find a bit two-dimensional and undermining my ability to believe in their intelligence or civilisation.

Anyway, whilst Cold Blood touched on aspects of Silurian history and culture, and echoed many elements of their original Pertwee story, it didn't really get to grips with any single theme and develop it to give us something new. The Big Finish audio Bloodtide is an example of what could have been done - and it's not as if the new series hasn't been afraid to raid the BF plot book before (check out Jubilee, by Rob Sherman, and then watch Dalek, by, err, Rob Sherman).

The opportunity for the development of a thread on climate change was sadly missed, something which I am sure their creator, Malcolm Hulke, would surely not have shied away from. I was hoping for a Silurian plan to accelerate global warming in order to re-colonise the earth. Next time hey. And by the way, why would our reptile friends want to block out the sun with their isolation barrier in last weeks episode? To make it dark just to scare us? Surely not.

But what we did get was good nonetheless, with the interesting development of the Silurian female warrior class, contrasted with our own human female warrior character of Ambrose, who I didn't really like. I guess that the development of the Silurian warrior class is to fill the gap previously uncomfortably occupied by the Sea Devils.

That poor old Dad, slipped the tongue by a Silurian last week, should decide to stay with the Silurians, along with Nasreen, appears a bit odd, but then with the Doctor telling them to set their controls to reawaken in 1,000 years time, we obviously have the makings of a follow up story, and apparently do get to see the Silurians again before the end of the season. Well, when you’ve spent all that money on rubber masks and costumes…

And poor old Rory gets killed again! Shame, I was actually beginning to like his character more than Amy, who just treats him like shit. I'm not sure that their relationship works, or that the actors are convinced of their roles either. At least we have their double appearance at the begining explained. But we're also pretty sure Rory will be back, as perhaps will everything that's been sucked into that crack... and I'm betting that the Doctor sacrifices himself, and the TARDIS, to seal up the crack and restore everything to normal in our season finale, and that Song gets the rap for killing him. I'm also thinking we may even get a Star Trek TNG style end of season cliffhanger... who knows.

8/10, not bad, but not as good as it easily could have been!

The Cave Monsters

Now I was thinking about Silurians and decided it was time to listen the audio reading of the Target novelisation, as I have a couple of these but hadn't yet listened to any. In truth, I wanted to listen to the audio recording of the original TV soundtrack, with linking narration, as I really like these. But I don't have it (yes, I really must save up my pennies and get that monsters box set tin... it's on the list!). And I fancied re-visiting the novelisation but didn't feel like dedicating my time to such endeavours. I’m a slow reader. I also find the audios useful as I can fiddle around on my computer whilst listening along.

So off I set on a journey back in time. Now I always liked Malcolm Hulke's work. His novelisations were always full of detail and background. I also liked his stories, which often had an ecological theme which I felt a particular empathy to, such as The Green Death, and also with wider concepts.

The Cave Monsters is number nine in the Target range, although that does not necessarily make it the ninth story to be published... Target only introduced their numbering system half way through, and decided to number those already published in alphabetical order, thus making the Abominable Snowman number 1 and the Cave Monsters number 9. In fact, the first 'proper' Target novelisation was the Auton Invasion, followed by the Cave Monsters, in 1974. These are, in publication order, numbers 4 and 5, after Target reprinted the first 3 Doctor Who stories (The Daleks, Crusaders and Zarbi) to launch their range. So, depending on which way you look at it, it could be the second book in the Target range, the fifth, or the ninth. But it is definitely Malcolm Hulke's first of seven novelisations.


The original Target publication had a classic cover by Chris Achilloes, with a great portrait of Pertwee, and the first few printings had the black block ‘Doctor Who’ lettering before the arched logo was introduced. It also contained 11 internal black and white line illustrations by Achilleos (you can find these online here). The book was later republished under the original TV series title of The Silurians and with a new cover by Alister Pearson.


The book also starts with a prelude missing from the TV story, which was shown in 1970, creating a powerful and almost, possibly, just about believable tale of the capturing of the moon in the earth's gravitational orbit during the time of the dominance of Silurian civilisation, and the reason for their hibernation. Why not, it definitely worked for me when I was 8.

The thing I like about this story is the unique position it places the Doctor in relation to his normally non-swaying support for humanity. By creating an intelligent reptilian race which predates mans evolutionary ascent on earth, and hence have valid claims to 'invade', the issue becomes a little more complex for our moral Doctor. I must admit I always side with the Silurians and hope they'll look after the earth better than we do. I'd double-cross humanity in a second - but then any power-crazed megalomaniac worth his salt would do the same.


The Silurian's third eye is evidence of their higher evolutionary path compared to modern humans, an element missing in their return story, Warriors of the Deep (apparently a production mistake), and again sadly in their current new series reappearance. It acts as a means of dominance over humans, and non-living matter itself. They also appear at one point to be able to communicate telepathically. Together with their technological superiority, this creates a powerful threat.

Hulke also like to paint his human characters full of weakness and selfish motives. He appears to take great fun of making fools of establishment figures, of men in suits and their attempts to control each other, in this story highlighted by the importance of chairs within the politics of power and human relationships.

There's a good detailed review of the story on the Doctor Who Reference Guide here.


Now I'm so inspired by this story, I still want to listen to the audio recording, and watch the video or DVD (was the DVD remastered?). Or perhaps I'll learn Dutch and read Doctor Who en de Holenmonsters. More likely I'm going to revisit Bloodtide, the Big Finish Silurian story, maybe I should try Warriors of the Deep. Or perhaps even read Blood Heat, the seventh Doctor Virgin New Adventure, which I have discovered includes Jo, the Brigadier, Liz Shaw and a few others. But, it all appears within the concept of an alternative universe, so can easily be forgotten about as none of it actually happened. No, really. Or there’s the Missing Adventure book The Scales of Injustice, which is available online on the BBC classic series website (find it here).

But as it's Petwee's second story, it sort of makes sense to start with the Auton Invasion and see if I can work my way through Pertwee's stories one by one... or perhaps I'll just pick out Hulke's stories... or just stick with the Target audio recordings or...

The Hungry Earth

Now I like the Silurians. Their original Pertwee story is, I think, a bit of a classic, and despite their later appearance in Warriors of the Deep, which was a bit pants, they stand as worthy of a return, even within the limitations of a plotline involving them. And I recently listened to them in their Big Finish audio outing, Bloodtide, which is definately worth a try if you haven't heard it already.

And so events of the Hungry Earth unfolded in a familiar if not completely predictable manner. The episode had a nice familiar 'classic Who' feel, even if it did take a bit too long to get going and before we had a proper look at our new Silurians.

I liked their reinvention, although was really disappointed not to get even an attempt at a Silurian vocalisation. Ssurely there sshould have been ssome hisssing or ssomething? I think the original Silurian voices were a huge part of their success. I did spend a second our two wondering if female Silurians would have boobs, but gave them the benefit of the doubt. But I spent more time wondering why they've dropped the third eye - an integral part of being a Silurian I would have thought.

I'm certainly not convinced by the alternative name of Homo reptillia. Now most of us know that the Silurians are named from a geological period in the earth's history, when, unfortunately, there were no reptiles, so not much chance of Silurians. However I'd rather put up with this and have a cool name, than make up some crap name which has even less going for it. Homo reptillia suggests the scientific Latin name for a man (or ape) like species which has evolved reptilian characteristics, being of the Hominid family, rather than a reptile humanoid. Stick with Silurian I say, and lets blame gaps in the fossil record (the same gaps which hide all evidence of the their civilisation).

The one big question hanging over the episode is Amy and Rory seeing themselves... now there's got to be more to that than meets the eye.

All in all, I'll give it 8/10, in the hope of a nine next week.