This Saturday gone was certainly very hot. So much so that I thought about heading outside and watching at a later date. Being the hardcore nerd that I am, I stayed and stuck this episode out. With the benefit of hindsight, I think this is one episode which I wouldn't have felt bad about missing on first transmission.
Every new series, the revived show has reintroduced a monster from its original run. This year sees the return of the Silurians. We only got a glimpse of two Silurians in this episode. One being a foot-soldier, Alaya, and the other being some kind of surgeon. I can't say I'm that keen on the new design. It feels like it deviates too much from the previous versions. The non-human faces forced viewers to empathize with something alien and different rather than letting them feel comfortable with something that had human appearances. Perhaps contact lenses in the eyes would have been better.
The story itself seems to have elements cherry picked from various parts of the Jon Pertwee era. We had a Drilling project going wrong, like in Inferno. We also had a village being surrounded by an invisible shield, similar to The Daemons, and the Silurians were sucking people into the ground as the Tractators did in Frontios. It was a pity that we didn't see any actual villagers reacting to the invisible shield.
The Drill Crew and their families were at least different. Tony Mack and Mo felt like a very earthly characters and hands on compared to the elitist scientists we saw in the Pertwee Years. Nazreen Choudry also appears to be a likeable character so far. Elliot was nice enough but his mother is obviously being set up as the antagonist who is likely to throw a spanner into the Doctor's plans for negotiation.
Matt Smith was okay in this episode, but his confrontation with Alaya felt like it was written for David Tennant in the parts when he proclaimed Alaya beautiful and that he was the last of his species.
Amy Pond continues to show no real interest in Rory as she appears genuinely surprised that they stay together. It was nice to see her getting a bit emotional as she was sucked into the ground and trying not to be frightened when a scary Silurian scientist approached.
Rory is actually a fairly decent companion, getting to investigate the grave robbing side of things. I think I like him more than I like Amy.
Meera Syal was very likeable in the role of Nazreen Chaudhry. This might be a Pertwee derivative tale, but at least the base leader was likeable this time. Tony Mack seemed like a fairly likeable everyman. Elliot was decently played for a child part.
At the end of the day, this was a very traditional tale, with no real surprising elements.
Next: The story continues. I hope it gets better next week.
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