Grumblings Underground: Doctor Who and the Silurians

We now move from comics back to television and the debut of the titular creatures.

Looking at my bluray set I see that the remaining TV stories from this season are all 7 parters. I am unable to remember if I've watched this story previously, though I recall them well from Warriors of the Deep where the Myrka would have made most viewers forget even the most Oscar-worthy Silurian performance. While I understand why many fans roll their eyes and/or groan at the Myrka, I don't mind it, though I think Peter Davison was onto something when he offered that it should have been shown in darker settings. Anyway, Pertwee's era begins by introducing two new antagonists that would return, though not often, I grant you. 

We begin with a couple of spelunkers descending into a cavern, a rather well-lit one, at that. They hear a nasty roar that would have sent most mortals scrambling back up their rope ladder but not these guys. Rather than fleeing, they decide to investigate. One fellow moves towards the stentorian call and encounters a large dinosaur-like beastie which dispatches him with ease. His companion moves to investigate the bloodcurdling scream and, upon seeing the monster, flees like they should have in the first place.

Bessie! The Doctor is working on the beloved automobile as Liz looks on in a very fetching mini-skirt. They receive word that the Brigadier requests their company. After several decades of fandom and 3 comics of summons by the Brig, this is old hat. But, at the time, this was the debut of this start to Pertwee stories on TV.

It was here that I noticed a dramatic decline in picture quality from Spearhead in Space. A feature on the story's restoration explains. The original masters to Doctor Who and the Silurians no longer exists, having been wiped a la most or every one of the First and Second Doctors' stories. But a black & white telehoolie was made of it, i.e. - they filmed it on a TV screen, and an intrepid viewer in my hometown of Chicago videotaped its broadcast on channel 11 in 1976. So the raw material exists to do some video alchemy to produce something more or less like what was seen on TV screens back in the day. Presumably the 16mm film of Spearhead From Space is still around, hence its high quality.

Ere long the Brigadier shows up at an atomic research facility with the Doctor and Liz in tow. The place is run by a real hard ass named Dr. Lawrence. Lawrence is talking to his crew of lab-coated boffins (didn't notice any pocket protectors) trying to motivate them and have them ignore the UNIT fellows strewn about. I immediately took him to be an asshole and one that had read Machiavelli. He seemed to have had enough self-awareness to know that he wasn't loved and so figured he would be feared.

The center is deep underground and features a proton accelerator which is this big red circle in the control room. A bit HAL-like. But, unlike it (and BOSS too) it doesn't talk so there were no scenes of "I'm sorry, Doctor, I can't do that." The facility is experiencing unexplained power outages and several members of the research team have suffered mental breakdowns or other similar maladies.

The story until this point has a Nu Who feel with everything being straightforward and things getting to the point quickly. Very little dilly-dallying. But it's 7 parts so there is no doubt plenty of dilly-dallying ahead.

Sharing Lawrence's annoyance with UNIT's intrusion is the center's head of security, Baker. He is not afraid to let our heroes know that they are unwelcome.

UNIT assumes control. UNIT assumes control. The Brig is to oversee security, the Doctor the scientists, and Liz personnel. Too bad for Liz. She was so capable and had so much promise in Spearhead From Space but now she's HR.

A Dr. Quinn is the lead researcher. He's more affable than his boss but his smile is hiding something, something that his fellow scientist, Miss Dawson, seems to know a bit about. Or perhaps even more.

As you can imagine, the power outages are due to the Silurians. Just as with the Cybermen in Tomb of the Cybermen, the Silurians kind of lumber around so they don't fall over their big (reptile, in this case) foot costumes but they can haul ass when needed. They've awoken from their long slumbers and are not happy to find that the Earth they once ruled is now overrun with apes.

They allied themselves with Quinn who has entered into a bargain where he gives them power in exchange for scientific knowledge. Miss Dawson is in on it too. She's apparently good friends with her superior. I wonder if there's a romance between them in the novelization as she apparently has a key to his cottage. But maybe platonic friendships were all the rage back in 1969/70. Or it was just too difficult to pull off a key party in an underground research facility.

To the story's credit, we don't get to see a well-lit Silurian until about halfway through. When we did, I noticed that they have their own musical motif on the soundtrack: the decidedly retro sound of a crumhorm. At least I think that's what it is. (It's not a shawm, is it?) And it wasn't just some dark melody to let you know these are the bad guys; there were these frantic, almost atonal runs that made me wonder if Ornette Coleman had been commissioned for the task.

It reminded me of just how normal the music in Nu Who is. The theme went from a spacey and vaguely eerie bit of electronic weirdness to a string-laden Wagnerian micro-epic. And can you imagine free jazz-like motifs on a medieval instrument in Nu Who? Unpossible.

At one point the Doctor is captured by the Silurians. He is locked in a cage in their base which has an oppressively dark color scheme that reminded me of the ones in The Brain of Morbius as well as The Babadook. I felt distinctly uncomfortable watching the scenes in the Silurian base. But we get to know the reptilian creatures a bit more beyond them being perfectly happy with their choice in paints. There's the leader, the scientist, and the tall thin Silurian who is presumably younger as he has a higher voice and is rather impetuous.

The Doctor agrees to be an envoy for peace and convinces the Silurian leader that he will do his level best to convince the humans to coexist with them.

Of course this plan fails as the Brigadier is never really convinced of the potential of the offer and the tall, thin guy kills the dear leader in a coup and assumes control. He pulls off the assassination by using his third eye which does something I'm not quite sure of but it lays the leader low. I just love it when the Silurians use their third eye because their heads wobble in a manner that makes you wonder if they're doing the St. Vitus Dance. It's just so ungraceful.

Back at the atomic lab, Lawrence has had enough of UNIT's presence so he calls in the Undersecretary of Something or Other who shows up in all of his no nonsense splendor. The actor looked very familiar but I couldn't place him. Speaking of which, Paul Darrow is a UNIT squad leader here. I did a double take when I first saw him. Not Avol yet so he dutifully carried out his orders with no jiggery-pokery whatsoever.

The new Silurian leader decides to commit genocide and has the scientist pull out an old virus that they used back in the day against our ape ancestors. They infect Baker, the security fellow, whom they had captured and let him loose.

With a virulent disease on the loose, the Doctor seeks a cure with Liz's help. There follows a scene that hit a little close to home. Lawrence is looking for the Brigadier but he ends up confronting Liz. He doesn't believe there's a disease being spread, he doesn't believe that the Silurians exist - this guy's doubt puts even Descartes' to shame. I am not convinced he even thought the power outages were genuine. He complains to Liz that his research has ground to a halt and that his staff has been subjected to compulsory injections.

"It's for their own good," Liz replies.

"Rubbish," retorts Lawrence.

This exchange gave me a real sense of déjà vu as ones like it played out countless times during Covid. Lawrence isn't really a bad guy, per se, he's more like the Rani with an almost amoral desire to do his research.

The Undersecretary returns to London infected and the disease appears to take out everyone at a train station. Not a good look for public transit. I thought of how transit got blindsided during Covid with people working from home and distancing rules.

The Doctor eventually finds a cure and devises a subterfuge to fool the Silurians into thinking the atomic reactor is about to undergo meltdown and release lethal radiation. They decide to go into hibernation once again until this whole thing blows over. Rather than laying the groundwork for peaceful coexistence in the future, the Brigadier sets off explosives which seal in the proud reptile race. The Doctor is quite unamused that the Brig would do such a thing behind his back and the story ends on a rather downer of a note. Poor Silurians. Plus the Brigadier has disobeyed the Doctor who wanted the Silurians to be left in peace to sleep away.

At 7 parts, this story has its share of filler. For instance, there are times when the Doctor explores the caves and gathers evidence to explain what's happening. By the way, when he is spelunking, he wears a lovely red cravat just like the old duffer in Spearhead From Space. So he returns to the research center, tells Liz and the Brigadier what he's discovered, and then he says, "I'm going back to the caves." There's also a scene where Liz, the Undersecretary, and Lawrence, I believe, are waiting for on the ground reports to come in so he, the Undersecretary can make some data driven decisions. We see them literally doing nothing but looking around waiting. It is a point in Nu Who's favor that they'd never do a scene like this today.

And poor Liz. Here's she largely confined to going through paperwork, though she does some forensic work in a barn in one scene. To her credit, she is knocked unconscious in that scene by a Silurian on the lam and, upon recovering, isn't the least bit intimidated or reluctant to carry on. Stiff upper lip and all that. Plus, she is the one who sees through Quinn's charade by comparing what he says about his whereabouts to a map of the area. She's capable but relegated to desk duty by the Brigadier and the Doctor sides with the UNIT commander.

A few other random observations. There were some nice POV shots of the Silurian on the lam. They had a neat tri-frame look with the top one colored red to mimic the view of the creature. I appreciate the variety they added to the look of the story. Also, the look on the Doctor's face when he is confronted by the big beastie in the caverns or when a Silurian turns its third eye on him is classic. Pertwee goes all bug-eyed and looks hilarious. And about those third eyes. It's never explained what they are or how they function. We simply see them kill via unknown means and burn through rock. Multifunctional things. The Swiss Army Knife of the ocular world.

This is a fun story despite being overlong. Bessie and the Silurians make their debut, Liz looks very comely in those mini-skirts, and the show is dealing with contemporary issues. I won't say it never did previously but what we have here really goes beyond an exciting tale of adventure with some political overtones here and there. The commentary just seems more overt now than it ever was before. The danger of atomic energy and the Silurians as the Soviets. Was screenwriter Malcolm Hulke a Communist? As in a card carrying member? If not, I recall hearing that his political views were rather far to the left.

My hope is that Liz doesn't turn out to be a proto Mel, the computer genius who never touched a computer on the show beyond hanging onto the TARDIS console now and again. She needs to do some complicated research and/or some derring do.