Doctor Who FAQ by Dave Thompson

Author:Dave Thompson [Thompson, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PER004000 PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / General; PER004040 PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / Reference
ISBN: 9781480342958
Publisher: Applause
Published: 2013-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

The Silurians and the Sea Devils

Two separate branches of the same species, the surface-dwelling Silurians and the aquatic Sea Devils are a race of bipedal reptilian humanoids whose mastery of the planet Earth predated the rise of man. Apparently, their science convinced them that the Earth was about to draw a new satellite (our Moon) into its orbit, precipitating geological upheavals of catastrophic proportions. The race went into self-induced hibernation, individual communities creating underground (or undersea) hives in which untold numbers of citizens were to remain in stasis under the crisis was past. Then they forgot to set their alarm clock.

Now they were awakening, and just as nobody expects to lose their home simply because they oversleep once, so they were less than overjoyed to discover that is exactly what had happened. And to make matters worse, they were misnamed as well. More than once.

Far from being Silurian, geologically speaking, the race actually dated to the Eocene era. The old name stuck, however, and insult was poured on indignity when the Eleventh Doctor casually described them as Homo Reptilia, giving them a home within the human genus. The last place any self-respecting reptile would want to live. Thankfully, we can assume it was probably just that incarnation of the Doctor trying once again to be clever. He’d never mentioned it before.

Not that he’d had too many opportunities.

The Doctor’s first meeting with the Silurians (Doctor Who and the Silurians, 1970) was precipitated by the construction of a nuclear power station. Awakened by the noise, the Silurians tapped into the station’s resources for their own needs, draining off sufficient power for UNIT to be called in to investigate.

The Doctor tagged along in his capacity of UNIT’s scientific adviser and made contact with the understandably uppity reptiles. A peace settlement, or at least a cessation of hostilities, was the upshot of his negotiations, but the Brigadier’s military superiors were having none of it. The moment his own men cleared the caves that lead to the Silurian base, Lethbridge-Stewart ordered them destroyed—and the Silurians with them.

Not for the first time, and certainly not the last (The Christmas Invasion, 2005), the Doctor departed in disgust, behind the wheel of Bessie, the massively modified bright yellow vintage car that would become his trademark. Neither did either he or the Brigadier learn anything from the experience. Two years later, the Third Doctor’s encounter with the creatures’ aquatic cousins, the string-vest-clad Sea Devils, likewise ended in mass destruction. (See Chapter 14.)

After such cataclysmic encounters with the surface dwellers, it would be a decade before the Eocene resurfaced, the land- and sea-dwelling creatures joining forces (Warriors of the Deep, 1984) to take advantage of an ongoing political “cold war” between different human factions.

No less than the Third, the Fifth Doctor attempted to act as a mediator between human and reptile forces, seeing both as rightful claimants to the planet and wishing only for them to learn to share it peacefully. He failed, however, and failed too to prevent the reptiles from being exterminated, this time by his so-called companion Turlough.

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