Doctor Who - The Hungry Earth

Sorry for the late recap, but I have class on Saturdays now. I know, lame, right? Anywho… without further ado, here is your recap of The Hungry Earth. *insert usual SPOILER ALERT here*

This week gave us part one of the two part episode which brought back the classic Who villains, the Silurians. If you were a fan of the original series, the last time you saw these guys was during Warriors of the Deep, which featured Peter Davison as The Doctor. Our Doctor's adventure with them starts with a "big mining thing" and his natural curiosity that has gotten him into trouble countless other times before.

In terms of the Silurians, past encounters have been due to research or military bases that have awakened the creatures. This time it is a drilling project that does it.

While The Doctor and Amy is directly dealing with the danger, Rory gets sucked in to a problem that is connected with the Silurians underground activities (and we use the term "underground" in the literal sense here). There are bodies in the graveyard that have gone missing, and one of the townsfolk have asked Rory to figure out why.

Something I have noticed in watching both the current series and classic Who is that humans tend to be very foolish on the show and rarely ever trust The Doctor, even though he usually knows best how to handle the situation. There was more of this seen in this episode, especially from one person in particular. I love that the kid trusts The Doctor almost immediately but his Mom is skeptical throughout the show. It just goes to show how perceptive kids can be and how easily they except even the most impossible of scenarios. It's a shame we tend to lose this as adults. Perhaps Doctor Who can be a lesson to try to keep the inner child from dying within us all.

Back to the matter hand though… Our bit of sunshine through the rain - when they are trying to get inside the one building but the door sticks:

Rory: Can't you just sonic it?
Doctor: It doesn't do wood.
Rory: That's rubbish.
Doctor: Oy! Don't dis the sonic!

Words to remember, folks. Words to remember...

It is worth noting that we don't actually get our first glimpse of the Silurians until halfway point. That should have been our first clue this would be a two-parter (assuming you hadn't read about it somewhere before). It also takes about this long for The Doctor to figure out who (or what) they are dealing with.

It is always fun watching The Doctor interact with different species, but it is especially true with the Silurians. They have been on Earth since before even the human race and have always fascinated The Doctor as a race. He also has always regretted not being able to negotiate a lasting peace between the two species. "Nobody dies today," he says. Fans of the classic series remember the last encounter with the Silurians and you will know just how important it is to him to keep that promise.

Part 1 of our adventure ends thus: The captured Silurian says one of our group will kill her and ignite a war between the two species. Meanwhile, The Doctor and his TARDIS are dragged underground where the rest of the Silurian tribe is (which turns out is really an entire civilization). Oh, and Amy is in danger of being dissected by a member of said tribe.

Will The Doctor be able to keep his promise and keep Amy and the rest of them from dying? You'll just have to tune in next week to find out.