The A-Z of Classic Who | Doctor Who and The Silurians: A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Reptile Party

Doctor Who has had a long and interesting relationship with politics, which has worked both to the advantage and the detriment of the show's ability to do its job and produce entertaining television. I'll leave it up to the individual reader to decide which examples fit into which category, but I think it's fairly safe to say that in most cases Doctor Who and The Silurians fits into the former. Politically, it's ideas and messages are expertly crafted by writer Malcolm Hulke (you know, the actual communist from Colony in Space?) while the story and characters are top notch. All of this works to create an exceptionally effective story that is also entertaining and nearly always has the viewer's interest. Clearly someone should tell *insert writer who's political inclusions into the show you don't like* this is how it should be done.

THE YELLOW CAR CLEARLY SYMBOLISES A SECRET LIB DEM CONSPIRACY IN THE BBC - THE
POLITICAL MESSAGES ARE EVERYWHERE

Doctor Who and The Silurians dates from 1970, a fascinating time in the history of the 20th century. The Cold War was finally beginning to thaw into détente, the hippy sixties were fading into memory, Britain's political establishment was beginning to change irreversibly and trust in it was falling just as irreversibly, race relations in the country were at an all time low, the social consequences of science and technology were being felt for the first time and the long-term consequences of colonialism were finally being understood by the general public. It seems a little excessive that this story tackles nearly all of these issues, but it does so with grace and subtlety that makes them rather more poignant than just screaming 'CAPITALISM IS BAD' for the entire story like many writers in the future (Hulke himself included of course, as we remember from Colony in Space) would do.

The story is at its heart a mirror of the Cold War, the Silurians being the representation of the Soviet Union - something that for many people was unknown, scary and an enemy that needed to be destroyed. The Brigadier is the story's representation of this - he's not a bad man by any means, but his fear of what the Silurians can do leads him to the only conclusion he can think of - to fight them head on and to remove the threat to the human race in a rather permanent fashion. On the other side, you have the Doctor, who is determined to negotiate and avoid conflict by any means necessary, representing a growing body of public opinion at the time. This analogy is helped by the Silurians not being black and white villains - there are some good eggs and some bad eggs within their ranks, and this makes them somewhat more sympathetic. But the good egg ends up on the floor dead while the bad eggs end up attempting to destroy the humans. Not an entirely accurate depiction of the Soviet Union of course, because neither would I be sitting here writing this nor would you be sitting here  reading it, but it's close enough to home that the intent is clear.

What the dinosaur represents is probably open to interpretation

As well as the Doctor and the Brigadier, you have other characters who play their roles in the story. Lawrence, played perfectly by Peter Miles, is a cold bureaucrat interested only his career and explodes into a ranting raving lunatic when it comes crashing down. He is certainly Hulke's representation of the British political establishment - cold and self-interested. The useless, boring, rigid bureaucracy of the civil service is represented by Masters, the glory hunting scientist by Quinn and the idiot army type by Major Baker - they all are parts of the British political establishment who's reputation was falling during this period, and Comrade Hulke probably had no qualms about tearing apart on screen.

But, as mentioned, the story is definitely not black-and-white in terms of morality. The only characters you could say are uniformly one or the other are the Doctor and Liz - otherwise, everyone is a shade of grey, even the xenophobic murderous Silurian contigent. It's perfectly reasonable to argue that they were acting desperately in self-defence, or to reclaim their lost home. I probably wouldn't agree, but it's fairly clear Hulke is trying to at least make a potentially open debate when most writers would make them straight up bad guys. Indeed, the anti-colonialist aspect of the story is one of it's most fascinating, as it's very much open to interpretation who's the coloniser and who are the indigenous people. Sure, the Silurians were here first, but they're the ones with superior technology trying to disrupt and remove a settled civilisation for their personal benefit. 

The Doctor was wondering when the politics would finally stop

Okay, well let's look at the actual story. Thankfully, it's also very strong. The characters are all strong and interesting, the story feels well paced, it's atmospheric in the right places, the cave sets are actually quite good and the tension is built really well. For instance, we don't even see a Silurian until the second episode, and until the end of the third episode, we only ever see silhouettes, glimpses and from the Silurian's own point of view. 

sErIeS eLeVeN hAd ThE bEsT cInEmAtOgRaPhY eVeR!

When they're actually revealed, it's far from disappointing. Although they looked a bit dated today, the Silurians look like actual reptiles and not just humans with scaly skin, unlike a Silurian redesign done by a CERTAIN SOMEONE. 

Although of course, prehistoric reptiles tended not to be obviously made of rubber

The dilemma at the centre of the Silurian plot is strong and the scenes of the disease spreading across the UK are quite unsettling, but also brilliant in there way. The acting is top notch as well - Pertwee is clearly settling into the role, Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney are top as ever, etc. It's not perfect of course - there are a few too many plot threads that don't really go anywhere, it's probably a bit too long at seven episodes, and the last episode is definitely the weakest, with the interesting moral dilemmas and the disease plot forgotten about in favour of the Silurians technobabbling and then getting technobabbled by the Doctor. The ending, however, is fantastic, with the Brigadier's fear of the 'enemy' winning over everything else, and the Doctor standing solemnly as he's realised he's failed. 

"I'm seeing triple here! Six Liz Shaws!"

So, in a hearty conclusion, Doctor Who and The Silurians is not only an effective and fascinating political analogy, but a damn good Doctor Who story to boot. Complex, interesting and entertaining, i.e everything modern Who isn't, it's a classic of the era. What's more the political ideas put into the story give an insight into the time it was made in a way few other stories truly can. In some instances this would date a story - here it manages to make it more timeless, as let's be honest - there's still a Cold War of sorts, race relations still suck and colonialism's legacy hasn't disappeared, the British political establishment is now even more hated and distrusted than it was then. Between 1970 and 2019, some things haven't changed at all.

Except Doctor Who. Doctor Who is now much much worse.

Final Score: 9/10. A few plot inconsistencies and a slightly weaker final episode keep it from a 10, but this story is clever, fascinating, morally interesting and entertaining with some solid ideas and characters to back it up. 

Next Episode: Dragonfire