Doctor Who and the Silurians is a seven-episode story from season seven of Doctor Who, first broadcast in 1970. It stars Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, Caroline John as Liz Shaw, and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It also has a certain guest-star make an appearance, although he is not in episode one, alas and mew.
It starts with two mannys exploring a studio when they hear a rar. Either bravely or foolishly, they keep on exploring until one of them meets a studio monster, and this immediately set us cats who are watching into an argument with Dragon as to whether this was a dragon (as he claimed) or a dinosaur (which was our consensus opinion). One of the mannys gets nomed while the other one runs away.
The Doctor has acquired a car since the last story, and has been doing some science on it when Liz comes in with an "urgent message from the Brigadier." The message, which is doubtless full of important exposition to get this story going, reads:
"Miss Shaw and the Doctor will report themselves forthwith to Wenley Moor. Attend a briefing meeting at precisely..."which is as far as Liz gets before the Doctor interrupts her. He isn't interested until Liz tells him about the famous caves.
The Doctor has named his car "Bessie," which understandably makes Elizabeth Shaw worried that he might be a loony.
"I see," she says when she sees him blow a kiss to the car, maintaining her outward calm while inwardly plotting to get out of her contract at the earliest possible opportunity.
After a brief scene of the Doctor and Liz driving around with the incidental music sounding like it's time to go nationwide,
we go from them to Peter Miles, famous as Davros's left-hand manny Nyder, but today playing Dr Lawrence. He is shouting at some other mannys while the Brigadier looks on. The Brigadier meets with the Doctor and Liz, and introduces them to important named characters - Dr Lawrence, Dr Quinn (played by Fulton "Mr" Mackay) and Major Baker (no relation, as far as I'm aware, to either Tom or Colin).
Their "atomic research centre" has been suffering from "unexplained leakages in the power supplied by the nuclear generator" and they need the Doctor to find the explanation. So far this seems a fairly mundane sort of problem for UNIT and the Doctor to use their talents on, but appearances can be deceptive and, since this is a seven-part story, there is still plenty of time for the mystery to deepen and for even better guest-stars to appear.
Dr Quinn shows the Doctor and Liz the nuclear reactor they use to power their cyclotron.
"What happens if one of these power losses occurs at a particularly crucial time?"
"So far, we've always managed to stabilise."
"If you didn't?"
"Well, theoretically..."
"Your nuclear reactor could turn into a massive atomic bomb."
You see, already its looking pretty serious. Dr Quinn tells the Doctor about the mannys from the first scene, and the Doctor goes to see the one that ran away.
The manny has been drawing on the walls of his room, and when the Doctor tries to ask him about it he goes mad and attacks the Doctor.
Even though we will not see a Silurian for a while yet, they are cleverly foreshadowed here in the manny's drawings.
Dr Quinn conspires with Miss Dawson, who is worried UNIT are "bound to discover something." This lets us know they are really baddys, and that there are others, who she refers to as "them," that are causing the power losses. Miss Dawson thinks she and Dr Quinn should change sides and tell the Brigadier what's going on. She says
"It's not worth the risk."But Dr Quinn replies with
"The knowledge I shall gain is worth any risk."
This gives us an insight into Dr Quinn's motivation.
Dr Quinn does a nuclear test, which involves a big glowing red thingy on the wall. There is a power failure while they are doing it, and the more it goes wrong the more the camera zooms in on the glowing thingy.
One of the mannys goes mad and attacks Miss Dawson until the Brigadier and the Doctor rush in to help.
The Doctor works out that the cyclotron room is near the caves, and becomes convinced that all the clues he has found are pointing that way. So he goes to investigate the cave where the studio set from the first scene is, even dressing up like the mannys to recreate their exploring as closely as possible. This works out well for him, as almost immediately he hears a rar just like they did.
He sees a dinosaur and makes an 'oh noes!' face - cliffhanger!
Notice how, in later Doctor Who they would end episodes with a crash-zoom to the Doctor's face, but in a long story like this one there is time for a crash-zoom to both the Doctor's face and the dinosaur's.
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