Big Gay Longcat reviews Captain Hawkins and the Silurians: Episode Three

After the recap of episode two's cliffhanger and some more POV shots of the wounded Silurian hiding from a policemanny, it cuts to Dr Quinn showing his "communications device" (wait, I thought it was a homing beacon?) to Miss Dawson, and from her he hears that UNIT are looking for the Silurian at the barn.

UNIT arrives at the barn and Captain Hawkins searches the place. I bet he's quicker on the draw than any of the other UNIT mannys, lol, but all he sees here is a chicken.

He smiles. Is this the first ever instance of a sardonic Paul Darrow smile? Purr.

He finds the hole out of which the Silurian escaped and tells the Brigadier, who decides they need to search "the whole area" for it. The Doctor asks Liz what she saw, and she describes the Silurian, but slowly, to increase the tension.

"It was like a reptile, but it walked upright like a man."

Dr Quinn arrives, and the Doctor grows suspicious of why he is there and the questions he asks, but the Brigadier wants him to help with their search.

There is some exciting footage of UNIT (including Captain Hawkins) on location doing their searching - they even have doggys to help them. No cats so far as I could see, although all the cats I know would have been happy to help Captain Hawkins.

Dr Quinn goes to a place where he can use the homing device to make the sound effect that is meant to summon the Silurian - I hope it doesn't summon any dinosaurs too, since it's the same as that noise. A doggy hears the noise, and so does Captain Hawkins, and he tells the Doctor and the Brigadier when they drive past him in Bessie. Captain Hawkins is even able to identify it as the sound they heard back when they were in the caves.

The sound gets faster and faster as Dr Quinn gets closer to the Silurian, and it uses its POV camera to see him and sneak up on him. The Doctor and the Brigadier hear the noise too, until it stops suddenly.

Fortunately for them there is another clue, as the Brigadier sees a Silurian footprint and they examine it, then he uses his own homing beacon to summon the rest of UNIT.

The Doctor is still suspicious of Dr Quinn so goes to his house, alone. He forces his way in and makes no secret to Dr Quinn that he is investigating. Even we cats can tell that Dr Quinn is lying when he answers the Doctor's questions with innoccent-seeming answers that he is forced to make up on the spot - the Doctor is like Columbo here, trying to trip him up.

"Only it is rather like the reptile house in the zoo, isn't it?"
"What do you mean, eh? What do you mean?"
"Nothing. I was just referring to the temperature of the room."

Eventually the Doctor says plainly

"You'd save yourself a lot of trouble if you'd let me help you."

But Dr Quinn only makes him leave as his way of answering.

I suppose I should have some pictures of things in the episode that aren't Paul Darrow, mew.

The Doctor and Liz investigate Dr Quinn's things, and find a globe where all the countries are wrong, which means it is from "200 million years ago." Miss Dawson catches them, but the Doctor quickly turns the tables on her and starts interrogating her. She is about to tell them what she knows when the Brigadier comes in and, for some reason, this changes her mind and she goes away without helping them. Even more inexplicably, the Doctor then acts as though this is the Brigadier's fault.

Miss Dawson goes straight to Dr Quinn's house and tries to persuade him to tell the Doctor what he knows. But Dr Quinn says

"He's a scientist too. He only wants to steal the credit for my discoveries."

This gives us further insight into Dr Quinn's motivation, and at the same time shows his increasing paranoia. Dr Quinn has decided to force the wounded Silurian, who he now has hidden in his house, to tell him the secrets of science before he will let it go. This seems like a foolproof plan that can't possibly go wrong.

The Doctor, Liz, the Brigadier and Captain Hawkins are having a meeting with Dr Lawrence to decide what to do, when Major Baker comes in uninvited and demands they attack the caves. Perhaps because the Brigadier would have been suggesting this himself before very much longer, he gets annoyed and orders Captain Hawkins to take Major Baker back to the hopistal.

As soon as Major Baker is gone...

"I must say, Brigadier, that I'm delighted that you didn't agree with him."
"Oh but I do. I intend to send for more men and mount a full scale search of those caves."

Told you so.

Dr Lawrence says the Brigadier must act quickly before the Master comes to take over. The Master! I didn't think he was going to be in this story - Roger Delgado and Paul Darrow in the same episode, purr. Best Doctor Who evar?

Oh, wait, I must have been getting overexcited - what Dr Lawrence actually says is

"I advise you to do your best to achieve some kind of results in the time available to you. Masters, the Permanent Under-Secretary, is coming down here to conduct a personal investigation."

Mew.

The Doctor decides to go and speak to Dr Quinn at his house again. After ringing the doorbell and waiting only a few seconds, he goes in - impatient Doctor, he must know the cliffhanger is coming up soon.

Dr Quinn is having sleeps in a chair. The Doctor finds him and takes the homing beacon from his paw. The Doctor turns it on and it summons the Silurian, who was hiding in the next room, and who walks into full view of the camera so that we see it properly for the first time only as the Doctor sees it. It's the big reveal at last and, unsurprisingly, the cliffhanger!