The Hungry Earth

This is the 2nd two-parter of the Matt Smith era of the new Doctor and just like the Angels episode it delivers! This set of episodes is all about the Silurians (see below) and also serves to advance the overall season arc further forward although only incrementally.

OK, ultimately a really good episode and one that you will remember. While to some extent expected, the final scenes are extremely haunting.

This is the story of our planet, Earth, of the day 1000 years past when we came to share it with a race known as Humanity. It is the story of the Doctor who helped our races find common ground, and the terrible losses he suffered. It is the story of our past, and must never be forgotten.

In the continuation to Part 1, The Doctor has entered the Silurian city and has quickly become captured – placed on the examination table Malokeh (a Silurian scientist) now has the Doctor and Nasreen strapped to slabs in his laboratory. First, he scans the Doctor and then attempts to decontaminate him of the surface bacteria. However, this instead harms him since he is not human, and Malokeh stops the procedure. While Malokeh is examining The Doctor Amy and Mo (Elliot’s dad) are able to escape. Finding Elliot they are unable to rescue him but he is alive, only in some sort of suspended animation.

With some internal dissension in the ranks of the Silurians, the military group (Restac) wants to kill The Doctor and take the fight to the surface. However Malokeh is able to revive the leader of the Silurians (Eldane) who upon The Doctors urging agrees to a parlay with the humans to discuss peace terms for the two races and mutual sharing of all resources on the surface of the Earth. Unfortunately while The Doctor is negotiating peaceful terms, Ambrose (Elliots mother and Mo’s wife) fatally tasers Alaya after she continues to provoke her (the Silurian captured in Part 1 – The Hungry Earth) …

While the humans above ground make their way below, Amy and Dr. Chaudry successfully negotiate a sharing of land and technologies with the Silurian people. As the meeting concludes, the Doctor enters and comments on how well things had gone. However, it is at this moment that Rory enters with the body of the dead Silurian and The Doctor is devastated that the humans had done this and fears that all of the work to peace has been irrevocably damaged. The Doctor tries to ensure that the two races do not start a war but Restac revives Silurian soldiers from suspended animation and sets out to destroy the humans.

In a selfless act, Eldane decides to use a toxic gas to force the Silurian’s back into suspended animation and then send up an energy surge that would destroy the drill. Tony decides to stay since the venomous sting he received earlier is causing him to mutate (I wonder if we’ll see him again in a different fashion at a later stage??) and Dr. Chaudry stays back with him too. Eldane has set the clock on the chambers to awaken after 1000 years and tells everyone that they must spread the word that after that time, the Silurians were coming to share the Earth.

Everyone else escapes to the Tardis, but just before he enters it, The Doctor sees again the crack and reaches into it to see if he can discover anything. He pulls out a piece of smoking debris and is about to look at it, when he is confronted by Restac. Taking a final shot at The Doctor, he is saved when Rory takes the shot meant for him and dies in his stead. As Amy is forced to leave the dead Rory’s side, his body is consumed by the energies of the crack thus erasing him from history.

The Doctor, Amy, Elliot, Mo and Ambrose leave the TARDIS in time to see the drill destroyed by the Silurian energy surge. Amy sees herself, once again, on the hill, and for a moment thinks she saw someone else, but quickly forgets about it and reminds the Doctor of his promise of Rio. As the Doctor returns, he looks at the debris he retrieved from the crack. It’s a scorched blue and white fragment of wood, with the incomplete words “POLICE TE” and “FR” in black on the white. The Doctor recognizes it immediately, and holds it against the TARDIS notice – “POLICE TELEPHONE FREE FOR USE OF PUBLIC” and is seen to be dreading the possible implications.

The Tardis materializes 10 years in Amy and Rory’s future and The Doctor and team are in the small Welsh village of Cwmtaff. Here a team is conducting the most ambitious drilling project in history and have managed to break through the crust 21 km’s below the Earth! But … while they have been drilling downwards – something else has been drilling up and some mysterious disappearances have started to plague the small town.

Rory gets separated from the others and when he is able to join them in the town, he is mistaken for a police investigator. Informed by the locals that bodies are being taken from the graves – without any sign of the graves being disturbed above ground – Rory starts to investigate!

While Rory is investigating the graves, The Doctor and Amy break into the mine and speak to the Scientists there. An earthquake strike pulls Amy into the ground before The Doctor is able to persuade the scientists to turn their drill off. Searching for the cause of the earthquake and whatever it is that has sucked Amy into the ground, The Doctor reviews the sensors and determines that several entities are heading for the surface from deep beneath the ground. Herding all the remaining townsfolk into the church for safety, the attackers seal off the area with a dome-like forcefield and gradually blacken the sky to provide them with the cover of darkness.

In the chaos that ensues Elliot (the child of one of the previous abductees) is captured by the attackers and Tony (one of the scientists) is infected by them also. However, The Doctor and Rory are able to capture one of them and The Doctor quickly recognizes them as being part of the Silurian race (see below). The Doctor tries to negotiate peacefully with the Silurian but she is adamant that they will wipe humanity from the surface of their planet. Dismissing the threat as ludicrous, The Doctor states that a small tribe of dozens of Silurians will be unable to withstand the billions of humans and it is a futile struggle!

As his prisoner will not negotiate, The Doctor determines that he needs to travel below to speak to someone else and departs on the Tardis with Dr. Chaudry (the other scientist) … here, we are witness to the discovery of not a small tribe of Silurians but a massive city/civilization … definitely enough reptiloids to cause massive death and destruction as even with limited resources their technology is so much in advance of ours.

… on to Part 2

Doctor Who Villians – Silurians

OK, in case you haven’t seen the original Doctor Who series and do not know who the Silurians here, here is a brief summary of them for you.

Generally a peaceful race, the Silurians were Earth’s first sentient species and their time on Earth was a celebrated one with an extremely highly developed and technological society. Near the height of their civilization their scientists determined that a rogue planetoid was to crash into the Earth and with this in mind, the bulk of the civilization was placed into hibernation to ensure that the species survived. However, the hibernation technology was faulty, and never woke them. They were not aware that the dangerous planetoid that they believed would devastate their world was instead captured by the planet and became the Earth’s moon.

Over the courses of the many Doctor’s life’s and adventures, the Silurians have appeared in multiple episodes. Their initial purpose seems to be to wipe humanity of the face of the Earth and return as the rightful rulers of the planet; however in more recent episodes The Doctor seems to be making progress in uniting the two species Humans & Silurians into a new and more powerful force in the universe.

DR. WHO – COLD BLOOD (S5E09)

Doctor Who – THE HUNGRY EARTH (S5E08)