Classic Doctor Who 7x02 "Doctor Who and the Silurians" ep 7 full reaction
Added 2022-05-29 09:40:48 +0000 UTCComments
She posted a list of the stories she'll be reacting to for the third Doctor a while back. Unfortunately, Ambassadors wasn't on there, but then neither was The Daemons (or other really good ones like The Claws of Axos, Day of the Daleks, Frontier in Space and Invasion of the Dinosaurs)! Both are really good stories, but if there's a possibility of fourth Wall adding just one more story to her schedule, I would go with The Daemons. I actually like Ambassadors more as a story, but Daemons has more important character stuff she needs to see and it's also the conclusion to a loose story arc running throughout season 8.
Azmat Mahmood
2022-05-29 16:02:07 +0000 UTCI’m curious to know if you are going to react to The Ambassadors Of Death. There are only four stories this season. The Ambassadors Of Death is another seven part story. Then the season finale is the epic Inferno. Both Seasons 7 and 8 have 25 episodes. When you get to Season 9 onwards the series will then have 26 episodes! Glad you enjoyed Doctor Who And The Silurians!
James Gorman
2022-05-29 13:43:06 +0000 UTCThe Silurians’ is a brilliant story. I really love the concept of certain humans being driven mad with fear the closer they are to the caves, or if they have a direct encounter with a silurian. Not only is it a great hint that we’re dealing with something from far back in the Earth’s history, it’s also just creepy that certain humans unlock genetic memories within themselves that throw their minds back millions of years. It also serves an important narrative purpose. It shows us the silurians' pov, it tells us what they see us as. To them we are and will always be just like mindless cattle (or apes rather) that they easily hunted and killed, which is why it's hard for some of them to accept our evolution into becoming a much more intelligent species. They can't accept sharing a planet they ruled over first with a species they consider inherently inferior. It's basically racism on their part and I think it's really interesting to show a totally 'alien' (technically they're not as the silurians are from Earth) species having this view of humans. This is also why I think this much weirder, original design of the silurians works better. There's such a stark, physical contrast between humans and silurians that it's almost impossible for them to relate to one another. I feel this is lost with the modern designs, which are just humanoid with scaly skin. They're too close and within reach of humans for the conflict to work as well as it does in this story. This story does a brilliant job of not only showing moral conflict, but a visual one too. I also think that the silurians retreating into hibernation because of the moon coming into the Earth's orbit is a really clever idea. Their disaster never happened and so they understandably feel like their planet was stolen from them, they feel cheated. It gives them a proper motivation as to be angry and want their planet back. It is because of this that the virus subplot feels like a natural progression, as harrowing as it is. I absolutely adore how those scenes are shot too. It really gives the story a sense of scale and doom. It really feels desperate and that the world is ending. It's also eerily prescient for what's been happening over the last 2 years.... Particularly the scene Lawrence refuses to take the inoculation and denies the existence of the pandemic..... This story also perfectly shows how lost the Doctor is in this alien environment (he's not from Earth after all) after being exiled by the Time Lords. Him being stuck between humans and silurians and desperately trying to make peace and tragically being unable to do so is brilliant. It was an ingenious move to have this kind of story to properly kick off the stuck on Earth era. The real knife in the heart moment is the fact that the Brigadier - someone he thought he could trust and thought was better than that - betrayed him. What happened here is a reality check for the Doctor. He realises that he doesn't really understand humans (even the ones he considers friends) and their complex political, and personal, situations all that well. The problem is that he's now stuck here! He has to deal with all this shit for the foreseeable future. This story is an excellent set up for the rest of Pertwee's era. I really do love how they slowly build up the Brigadier going more and more against the Doctor and wanting to take action throughout this story. It makes what he does at the end that much more believable and even understandable. I totally see why the Brigadier felt he had to destroy the silurians after what they did, but I also completely understand the Doctor's disgust because wholesale slaughter is never an option and not all of the silurians were actually bad. And no matter the Brigadier's reasoning, the way he went about it is in no way justifiable. As much as this story focuses on the differences between the silurians and humans, perhaps the best part of the story is showing the similarity of how there is in fighting on both sides and that there are some who want peace on both sides. This shows that there was a chance, no matter how slim, for peace if the humans and silurians just agreed to talk! The way this story presents all sides in a very morally grey kind of way is brilliant. It doesn't beat you over the head by telling you what or who's wrong or right. It asks the viewer to make up their own mind, makes them think. One of the best stories ever.
Azmat Mahmood
2022-05-29 11:58:17 +0000 UTC
