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

A doctor (not the Doctor) and a nurse (not the Nurse) come out to help Major Baker, not knowing he is already ded, and the Brigadier has to pull his gun on them to keep them away. Now they have to quarantine the entire hopistal.

The Doctor and Liz try to find a cure, and begin by giving everyone "broad-spectrum antibiotics." There is a little scene where Liz has to give the Doctor an injection, with a big needle and everything, that serves as a clever lesson for little mannys in the importance of injections and that it doesn't really hurt at all. I find it helps if you are made from socks.

Dr Lawrence and Masters are the only mannys who have not been given the injections, and Liz can't find either of them until she finds out that Masters has gone to London. They realise how serious this is and the Brigadier immediately sets out to try and catch him.

Masters gets off a train and tries to pretend he isn't ill. In accordance with the laws of drama, he leaves the station just seconds before the policemannys sent by the Brigadier arrive.

The Doctor and the Brigadier are still arguing about whether or not peaceful coexistence with the Silurians is possible.

"Maybe one of the Silurians is friendly but the rest seem determined to wipe us out."

I think the Brigadier makes a good point here - the situation seems to be analogous to that of The Aztecs, where Barbara believed the Aztecs could be turned aside from their historical path and so may have been saved from destruction, but really she had just met one exceptional individual leader, Autloc, who was enlightened enough to see her perspective, while the rest of the Aztecs were more like the baddy Tlotoxl. But we have so far seen so few of them that we cannot yet tell if the Silurians as a whole are more like Green Face (the Silurian Autloc) or Pink Face (the Silurian Tlotoxl).

Green Face is ded, and Pink Face literally says "I am the leader now!"
The other Silurians (at least the only two we see) seem to accept this as a valid transition of power, so it is once again not looking good for Team Barbara.

Dr Lawrence refuses to see the seriousness of the situation and refuses to get injections, being more concerned with his upcoming reelection campaign research centre being shut down. Even when told by Liz that the plague is real and "Major Baker is dead" he dismisses her and clings on to the false reality he has constructed in his mind.

"He may have been ill for some time."

and

"I will admit nothing. There is no epidemic."

'FAKE NEWS!'

Meanwhile, mannys at the train station start to get ill.

In the caves a UNIT manny gets attacked by a Silurian, but not before he has time to telephone Captain Hawkins's mannys, which makes Captain Hawkins want to go to the rescue. He sees the manny is ded, and when the Silurian pewpewpews his sergeant, he shoots back - quick on the draw as ever, purr.

Watching this on their TV, Pink Face and his friend see that the UNIT mannys have resisted the plague so far. Pink Face's friend is worried that the Doctor may be able to cure the plague, so they decide they have to capture him.

Mannys at the train station are starting to fall over from the plague, and there is a montage sequence of the Brigadier on the telephone and the Doctor and Liz working on a cure, before we see Masters running around and falling over, looking confused with a 'How can this have happened to me? I'm a senior civil servant for Hoff's sake!' expression on his face.

The policemannys finally catch up with him, but only at the very moment he goes

...or maybe this is the point where he regenerates into Roger Delgado?

The Doctor and Liz do more science while the Brigadier answers multiple telephones at the same time to show his best Ian Levine impression how busy he is. Eventually even the Doctor begins to despair.

"You know, I'm beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life. And that covers several thousand years."

Liz suggests they try some technobabble to see if that does anything.

"Have you considered the addition of A37 in the presence of Z19 might well be effective?"

The Brigadier hears on the telephone (well, one of them) that

"Outbreaks of the disease are being reported all over London."

Dr Lawrence comes in looking like the other plague victims, but is still more concerned with his own career.

"You think I don't know what's going on, don't you? This whole business has been a plot to get rid of me!"

He goes mad and tries to strangle the Brigadier with his tiny paws, and then he goes

In the laboratory, the Doctor says "Eureka!" which, as we all know, is Greek for "this bath is too hot."

The Brigadier hears more bad news:

"The first one abroad. Paris."

So the stakes have just been raised even higher. Liz says

"If we can't contain it in Britain, what chance has the world got?"

and because Liz is a goody I don't think she means 'if we, the Great British, cannot contain it, what chance do a bunch of foreigners have?' but I suppose it's one interpretation you could put on that line of dialogue...

Pink Face and his friend pewpewpew a wall to make it glow. It makes a tunnel they can walk into - at this rate their hypno-eyes are getting worse than the sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor thinks he has found a cure at last, and they use it to make one manny in the hopistal feel better. The Doctor goes off to write down the secret formula for the cure so that other mannys can make it.

Captain Hawkins comes in to tell the Brigadier that the Silurians are attacking. The Brigadier goes to take action, but first he has to take a telephone call from the Daily What.

"The Daily What? How did you get hold of this number? Look, I have no comment to make. Now will you please get off this line?"

This is an interesting scene in that although it is pure padding since, unlike the equivalent scene of the Brigadier dealing with the press in Spearhead from Space, it does not advance the plot in any way or assist in building tension or upping the stakes, but it does add a small moment of realism and world-building to the situation.

The Doctor is busy writing down his formula when he hears a noise. The camera zooms in on the door and it starts glowing like the Silurians' wall did earlier when they pewpewpewed it.

Suddenly Pink Face and his friend come in and pewpewpew the Doctor, causing him to make a face. By now we know the Doctor making a face can only mean one thing - it's cliffhanger time!