Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode Two

The dinosaur is about to claw claw bite the Doctor when there is a sound effect that makes it change its mind and it goes away instead. Phew, that was lucky! The Doctor sees a dinosaur footprint and thinks it is a clue, as if seeing the dinosaur itself wasn't enough for him.

The Doctor gets back and tells everybody about what he saw - the Brigadier, Liz, Major Baker, and a new character Captain Hawkins, played by... PAUL DARROW!

*Explodes!*

The others don't believe the Doctor's story, not even after he does a komedy bit.

"Well, it was certainly some kind of dinosaur. Certainly nothing that I've ever seen before, though."

"In museums, you mean?"

Major Baker is today's straight manny.

"No, I do not mean in museums. Well, on second thoughts... perhaps... perhaps I do, yes."

However the military mannys do want to go to the caves themselves and find out if there is a problem there that they can solve by shooting it. The Doctor says

"That's typical of the military mind, isn't it? Present them with a new problem, and they start shooting at it."

But when the Brigadier wants to leave Liz behind, even the Doctor gets in on the patronising.

In the caves, Major Baker wanders off on his own. He sees a Silurian and shoots at it, then he gets attacked by a very stealthy dinosaur until the sound effect once again calls it off.

The Brigadier and Captain Hawkins follow the trail of the Silurian, while the Doctor takes Major Baker back to the hopistal - I know which of those I'd choose to go with, lol!

The Silurian is injured and makes its way to the outside of the studio, where it wanders around on location, accompanied by some classic POV shots and the sounds of heavy breathing - this is no time to make a dirty 'phone call, naughty Silurian! All the time we still don't get a proper look at it, clearly this is being saved for a big reveal.

I don't know how many different ways there are of us not seeing the Silurian, but that there are so many varieties used here is evidence of a director at the top of his game.

The Brigadier loses its trail when it gets dark, by which time the Doctor has worked out that the Silurians are in charge of the dinosaur and called it off both times, so he thinks they "may not be hostile." I think the Brigadier is annoyed by this suggestion, since he really wanted it to be something he could shoot.

The POV footage reaches some houses and goes inside a barn.

Dr Quinn goes to the caves to meet with the Silurians and they shine a red light on him, either to hypno-eyes him or else just for the lols. He goes into a control room where he looks confused for a bit - so he probably was hypno-eyesed - then talks to a mysterious disembodied voice. From this we can deduce that the Silurians were obviously fans of Dr. No.

The voice gives Dr Quinn a pider in a box "summoning device" that will help him find the wounded Silurian, as they want Dr Quinn to bring him back to them.

A manny goes into the barn and gets a surprise when he sees the Silurian's paw in his pile of hay. The Silurian uses its POV powers to attack the manny.

The Doctor wants to shut down the nuclear reactor so the Silurians can't drain it any more, but Dr Lawrence is a dick ("pompous idiot" the Doctor calls him) and says its "out of the question."

The Brigadier gets telephoned about the manny with the barn who has been killed by the Silurian. They all go straight there and see the Silurians have different claw attacks from the dinosaur, but the Doctor says the manny didn't die from claws but instead "you might say he died of fear."
Alright then I will say that: he died of fear.

The Doctor is still prepared to give the Silurians the benefit of the doubt, but with the number of attacks on mannys mounting up the Brigadier and Liz both think it doesn't look good for them. Again they leave Liz behind while the Doctor and the Brigadier go off to speak to Mrs Manny, who also saw the Silurian in the barn. When they ask her what the Silurian did next, she tells them it's still in the barn.

Of course, this is where Liz has been left. She is busy doing science in the barn, so the Silurian can sneak up on her with its POV powers, much as it did to the manny before. Liz screams and it claws her face (in self defence, the Doctor would no doubt claim) - cliffhanger!