Doctor Who and the Silurians - Episode 2

At the end of the previous episode, it looked like the Doctor was in trouble but it was dealt with in rather a wet way. No sooner was he in trouble that he walks back into the Brigadier’s office. I was slightly disappointed by this as I felt that it trivialised the cliffhanger. I know that having regulars in a cliffhanger can be a slightly futile idea but I would have liked a better resolution to the cliffhanger.

There are more examples of Liz Shaw being sent to the side-lines as when the Doctor and the Brigadier go into the caves, she’s told not to come. After six episodes, I cant say that Caroline John’s been particularly well used so far and if my memory serves me correctly, I don’t think that the character of Liz will get anything better to do.

Dr Quinn’s true colours is shown in this episode and shows that his nice as pie persona was just an act as we find him in the cave talking to one of the Silurians. Miss Dawson doesn’t really do much in this episode as I think that it gives Quinn the opportunity to stand out as the stronger of the two.

The cave sets are very impressive I should have said something yesterday but now I am putting it right. They are lit brilliantly and I believe that even though I know it’s a studio set, that its very atmospheric and its good to know there are more scenes set in these caves. Another thing which is distinctive but probably a bit grating in a few episodes is the music. It sounds quite good but there is a repetitiveness that wouldn’t be so bad in a four part story but in seven it just gets annoying.

I like how the actual silurians are being held back for so long. There was a brief dark shot of one of them in the early part of the episode. We get to see a POV shot and the occasional hand shot so its done to stoke our interest and give us something new to get interested in.

One of my favourite parts of the episode comes when the story moves to the farm and when the farmer discovers the Silurian. It leads to the cliffhanger which involves Liz and the whole barn section is good because it feels like a natural evolution of the story and I found the cliffhanger to be a sensible and exciting way to end the episode.

This is a stronger episode than the first as we get a glimpse of the Silurians and certain characters develop and become more interesting as a result. After two episodes my interest is still around and I feel like the Pertwee era is continuing to get better and it seems odd that I Jon Pertwee has settled into the role and the stories match his Doctor quicker than Patrick Troughton’s opening episodes. It took an awfully long time before Patrick Troughton got a grip of the character but after just a couple of episodes I feel like Pertwee has already got to grips with the role and is just having fun.