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The Silurians
The Silurians is a very dated story. It really should be viewed as a piece of history in itself, a record of how television was written and made in 1970. It is overlong by modern standards, being seven twenty-five minutes episodes, and the difficulty of stretching the plot tells in the way the story changes from being about the Silurians emerging from their caves to the attempt to stop the plague they created being spread throughout the UK and Europe. It is very much a reflection of the politics and public perception of political and environmental issues of the time. 7/10
Commentary Early in the commentary Letts and Dicks make a very good point about the fact that having stranded The Doctor on Earth meant there were only two possible storylines – alien invasion or mad scientist, and the Silurians, being of Earth, in fact gave them a third possibility. Shortly after this, though, we get into the first dig at the New Series from the Old Guard, when they point out that the new 45 minute formula does not allow for ten minute scenes of The Doctor tinkering with his car. Similar complaints about the pace of the new series, the loudness of the music and other issues litter the first four episodes of commentary, and the impression given is of three old fogies moaning that it’s just not like the good old days. But in the second disc commentary, when they are joined by Nicholas Courtney and Geoffrey Palmer, the latter being extremely proud of his recent role in the New Series Christmas Special, it is pointed out that this leisurely seven part formula is too long. There is no way to stretch a single plot this far. The only way this story makes it is by adding in the subplot of the Silurian plague killing humans all over London and beyond and The Doctor searching for a cure. It just saves this story from being tedious and stretched beyond belief with slow scenes such as The Doctor at his microscope. And really, the problem is not that the new series is rushed so much as the old series, especially the VERY old stories like this one, are too slow. Time has moved on, and Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks really have to accept that. 8/10
Extras Isolated Music score – I am not that impressed by the music that I would want to sit and listen to this DVD without any dialogue. Not for seven episodes. If the music was arranged in some way and condensed into an hour or so, in the way the Murray Gold CDs of the New Series music are we might have something. 6/10 What Lies Beneath is a documentary which examines the historical, political and social context of the Silurians. It is very instrumental in putting the story into that context. It considered the Cold War, the xenophobia of Enoch Powell, the public perception of scientists, the army and of the civil service and politicians and showed how Silurians holds up a mirror to those issues. The shoot first and ask questions later military, the civil servants and politicians creating more problems than they solve, and the general mistrust of scientists as people who were not acting in the best interest of the general public were all explored in the story. So was the issue of suspicion of foreigners, racism. The Silurians with their antipathy to Humans and the Human reaction to the Silurians both underpin this issue. All of this is almost certainly obvious to somebody watching The Silurians with a view to writing a sociological paper about it, but at the time of broadcasting its message was probably more subliminal, disguised beneath a science fiction romp about monsters. 10/10 Going Underground is a documentary about building and filming in the caves built as a set in the studio. Barry Newberry, Designer and Barry Letts, producer, talk about the problems of actually getting the set built – most of which seem to sound like the problems of getting a repair done by our local housing association. The problems with the ‘dinosaur’ somewhat echo the problems with the Myrka in the much later story. Director Timothy Combe talks about his idea of the three lenses, one painted red, that created the Silurian eye view and everyone has a grumble about the Silurian costumes. Combe talks about the attempt to make a moor in Surrey look like hilly Derbyshire – something that doesn’t work at all. 10/10 Now and Then looks at some of the locations used to show how they have changed or not changed over the years. The most striking is Marylebone Station, used in the death of Mr Masters and the spread of the plague, and the hospital used in other scenes connected to the plague outbreak. The bits of moor obviously haven’t changed much. Since most of the rest of the story was filmed in studio there isn’t a lot more to it. We probably didn’t need to know that the quaint, Tudor Sheephatch farm didn’t have toilet facilities for a BBC film crew. 10/10 Musical Scales discusses the music written by Cary Blyton, which some of the crew liked and others disliked. The use of a crumhorn, a very basic instrument from which other instruments ‘evolved’ from for the Silurian theme was very clever but the tune that was produced actually is a bit annoying. But the fact that a composer was engaged to write music specifically for Doctor Who, instead of the fall back to stock music, then that really was a good thing. It very much foreshadows the Doctor Who ‘signature’ music of Murray Gold in the New Series. The documentary is very interestingly made. It could easily have been dull. Two facts not mentioned in the documentary are that Carey is the nephew of Enid Blyton and the composer of Bananas in Pyjamas. The first is not his fault. The second is something that should have haunted him for all of his life! 10/10 Colour Silurian Overlay talks about the problems of reconstituting
a colour version of this story, which previously existed partly in
black and white because the colour video recording was lost. They
took a high quality black and white recording and a fuzzy colour home
video recording that are merged and a lot of very clever things done
with computers to produce a high quality colour version for the DVD
release. The effort is probably lost on viewers coming to the DVD
for the first time. But anyone who has SEEN the 1993 VHS release and
compares them will be pleasantly surprised. It also goes to show just
how much extra work is going into these DVD releases compared to the
VHS. 10/10 Coming soon details The Time Meddler. This is a new ‘innovation’ on these DVDs, but just seems like another way of filling space. 0/10 Radio Times Billings are a tedious waste of time, mostly, another filler. 1/10 Production Subtitles have information not being given by the commentary but some of it is patchy and covered elsewhere in the documentaries on the package. 9/10
The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils, made in 1972, is a little easier to swallow than the seven episode Silurians. The story feels much less stretched and there is enough variety in the intermingling of the story of The Master and his trickery and the Sea Devils and their desire to emerge from the sea and take over the planet. There are some truly memorable scenes, including the one where Jo and The Doctor are trapped in a minefield on the beach with the Sea Devils approaching. 10/10
Commentary
There are quite a lot of comparisons with the new series. Some complimentary, such as when it is suggested that Sea Devils could stand as a modern story, some less so, like the constant digs at the use of the frequent use of the sonic screwdriver in the new series. Letts and Dicks seem to be quite grudging in their acceptance of the new series in this commentary. Though not as a much as they are in the Silurians. 9/10
Extras Hello Sailor – the making of Sea Devils. The design of t 10/10 8mm Film is an amateur film shot by a bystander during filming at the Naval Base, including some action scenes and between shoot chats between Jon Pertwee and the serving sailors. Since Pertwee was a sailor in WWII, he obviously enjoyed meeting them. 10/10 The isolated score by Malcolm Clarke is not something I think I would
want to bother with. Again, as with the Silurians, I think it would
be better compiled into a shorter ‘concert’ of the incidental
music. 5/10 The Making of Doctor Who CD ROM PDF of a children’s book which I think I might have read in 1972. It is rather disappointing in that it has very few pictures in it and has extremely closely printed, so I was probably the only one in my age group to get through it. Massive Nostalgia value, if only because it talks about Doctor Who as a success story after running for eight years! Try forty-five! 10/10
0/10 9 out of 10
Warriors of The Deep
9/10
Commentary
10/10
Extras The Deep is a ‘making of’ documentary mostly involving the writer, Johnny Byrne and Visual Effects Designer, Mat Irvine. There is also a rather odd bit with Ian Levine, a jumped up fan who makes himself out to be somebody special. He was a ‘friend’ of John Nathan Turner and was unofficial ‘advisor’ looking at the script and making comments about continuity until the writer and director apparently gave up. Last year, Russell T. Davies famously told Levine to ‘F*** off’ at a press conference and it is a pity JNT didn’t do so in 1983 and the makers of this documentary hadn’t done the same. The rest of the documentary is much more interesting with discussion of the shortcomings of the effects and other issues that dogged the production. 9/10 The Came From Beneath The Sea concentrates on the monsters of Warriors, the Sea Devils and Silurians. Again Johnny Byrne and Mat Irvine have a lot to say. The phrase ‘there should have been another way’ could have been the by-line of the documentary when they talk about all the shortcomings of the costumes. And again the longing to have a go at it again with the new series special effects budget is obvious. The Myrka is a bugbear they all talk about in detail, including the two poor men who had to be inside it, who talk about it with very good humour and that is the best you can say for them. 9/10 Science in Action looks like a Blue Peter insert, with a presenter
who sounds like John Noakes but has the strange name of Kjartan Poskitt.
It seems to be an educational programme, since it starts with a discussion
of what a polymer is before introducing Mat Irvine, younger and with
even crazier hair than he has in the present day, to explain how polymers
are used to produce models for Doctor Who. It is actually quite interesting
despite the dated appearance, the horrible accent of the presenter
and the didactic and “talking down to children nature”
of the presentation. 9/10 The trailers and continuities are totally pointless filler. 0/10 Coming Soon, again features The Time Meddler the same as the other discs in the package 0/10
0/10 Production Subtitles are an alternative view of the ‘making of’ information of the commentary and aren’t bad. 8/10
9/10 9 out of 10
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Sea Devils and the origin of their net dresses is one large thing.
The co-operation of the Royal Navy, to the point where they actually
had some speaking parts was another major section of the documentary,
quite the most satisfying part of it, especially when they interviewed
ex-sailors who were involved. The interviews with Stuart Fell, the
stuntman who made his debut in this story and was involved in many
later episodes is also illuminating. 
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