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Last week the original inhabitants of the planet – homo reptilia – came up to the surface of the Earth as a prelude to a war and to kidnap our loved ones, and a challenge was left to the human race, to be the very best example of what they could be…
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…which is easier said than done we discovered this week on Doctor Who in “Cold Blood,” the concluding two parter of the return of the Silurians.
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Chris Chibnall’s script was both touching and trite, exciting and exhaustively predictable. What should’ve been a much more action packed venture to round out last week’s relatively slow set up was instead far too talky and not saying all that much. For all this talk of humanity needing to let it’s weaker instincts go and rise up to it’s greatest of heights, it felt fairly under acted as well. Amy Pond was given far too many “quips” that didn’t fit and Matt Smith hasn’t really hit the same heights he hit since the Weeping Angels’ appearance…
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That said, an interesting aspect of the episode was that all the action that was indeed in the story laid with the women. Ambrose’ worried mother character taking action on Alaya, the merciless psychological taunter. Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond and the excellent and shining Meera Syal’s Nasreen’s taking their shot at being the best of humanity in their negotiations with the Silurians’ leader (though I’m amazed at how selfish humanity is until we’re offered new technology). And the quite headstrong military leader, Restac, played by Neve McIntosh, who also played Alaya. In fact, it seemed as if all the Silurian’s warrior caste were women, which is interesting and unique in a non-overly sexualized way in science fiction. It’s kind of interesting the way the men are all just kind of there, passive observers, either deliberately hands off or incredibly useless. Probably not too different than the norm, hmm?
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The Silurians and the Sea Devils as they were last seen.
All in all, the Silurians are an interesting concept, though I’m not sure how well I felt they were executed here. We were given glimpses of an interesting, multi-faceted society slumbering beneath the ground, but not nearly enough, and probably too muddled by involvement with “the apes of humanity.” I’d really like to see an episode next season with the Doctor visiting Nasreen and Tony and the Silurians a thousand years in the future and having a proper adventure there, something more similar to “The Beast Below,” but in a Silurian setting perhaps.
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Plus, the idea of the Silurians awakening and returning to the surface in a thousand years is an interesting one as well. Especially as the Doctor tells humanity to prepare for it and pass it along, to disseminate the information in whatever form it takes, by legend or prophecy or religion. Get the story out there because stories seem to inform our lives more than facts at times. Stories and fairy tales stick with us, don’t they?
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And really, this episode was all about not just one, but two big events that continued this season’s mythology of the cracks in time and space. The first: Bye bye, Rory. You were well liked but there was no way you could’ve stayed in TARDIS, so of course you’d get eaten by the crack, erased from history (at least until the Pandorica opens, of course), though the mechanics of such a thing could make you scratch your head: The Doctor can literally reach his hand inside the crack and yank out mystery shrapnel and is fine but Rory, who’s laying about ten feet from the crack is absorbed into it and the memories of him fade away (as his existence is erased)? All except for that engagement ring, of course.
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from here.
And, speaking of “The Beast Below,” don’t forget how upset the Doctor was about Amy knowing something the Doctor should and not wanting him to know it. Does this almost qualify as the same thing, only… more?
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Then there’s the big cliffhanger, that mystery shrapnel: a piece of the TARDIS itself.
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Is that what causes “the big bang” of this season’s finale, the explosion of the TARDIS? Is that what causes the cracks that appear all throughout time and space? We shall see. But it’s certainly an interesting notion, isn’t it? Just imagine, the future is on fire and it’s firing little bits of itself back into the past…
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Next time: Richard (Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill, the Bridget Jones film adaptations, and Love, Actually) Curtis takes us from Bill Nighy in the present day to Vincent Van Gogh in the past and scary, tentacled monsters and terror in starry nights…
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