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Science FictionDramaAdventure

Doctor Who and the Silurians

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Investigating mysterious power failures and a death at an underground research centre, The Doctor discovers a colony of Silurians - prehistoric, intelligent reptiles who went into hibernation before man evolved. But now they have woken up, and they are prepared to wipe out mankind with a killer plague to get their planet back.

Release Date : 1970-03-14

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : BBC

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Jon Pertwee

Character Name : The Doctor

Original Name : Jon Pertwee

Gender : Male

Caroline John

Character Name : Liz Shaw

Original Name : Caroline John

Gender : Female

Nicholas Courtney

Character Name : Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Original Name : Nicholas Courtney

Gender : Male

Fulton Mackay

Character Name : Dr. Quinn

Original Name : Fulton Mackay

Gender : Male

Norman Jones

Character Name : Major Baker

Original Name : Norman Jones

Gender : Male

Peter Miles

Character Name : Dr. Lawrence

Original Name : Peter Miles

Gender : Male

Thomasine Heiner

Character Name : Miss Dawson

Original Name : Thomasine Heiner

Gender : Male

John Newman

Character Name : Spencer

Original Name : John Newman

Gender : Male

Geoffrey Palmer

Character Name : Masters

Original Name : Geoffrey Palmer

Gender : Male

Reviews

C

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2024-08-26

I struggle a bit with the eight parters. The story is often far too thinly spread out and the plot advances at a glacial pace until it's all wrapped up in episodes seven and eight. This one is slightly different, though, as it neatly separates into two semi-stories. The first sees the "Doctor" (Jon Pertwee) and "Liz" (Caroline John) drafted in by the "Brigadier" (Nicholas Courtney) to investigate some power outages at a top secret energy installation being run by "Quinn" (Fulton Mackay). Their arrival sets the cat amongst the pigeons, especially with the secretive Scotsman and his assistant "Miss Dawson" (Thomasine Heiner) who seem to know a great deal more about the nearby caves than either are prepared to let on. As the staff start to suffer too, it falls to team Time Lord to investigate and that's when he discovers that there is an ancient Earthly species awakening to find mankind's latter day occupation of the planet a nuisance to their plans. What now? Diplomacy or brute force? The eponymous sleepy-heads are visually akin to the "Sea Monsters" and the story from Malcolm Hulke does adequately, if rather verbally, as it builds up - but there's no work for the TARDIS here and by half way through I felt this wasn't really a "Dr. Who" at all, but a half-decent sci-fi adventure that relied on the usual television studio for most of it's action settings. Is there also supposed to be a moral here? Shoot first, collaborate later? It's all perfectly watchable, and little "Nellie" gets a welcome engine clean, but it takes too long to get going and when it does it becomes a shade predictable. Not one of the better series, methinks.