Doctor Who S05E08: "The Hungry Earth" [Spoilers]

[Bedlam]

A midling episode from my point of view not great not terrible.

I had high hopes for the return of the Silurians but I dont think they're living up to their potential. It would be nice to have a bady you can sympathise for but so far their clearly bad people attacking with little provocation.

I cant say I like the look of the Silurians much, its to humanoid for my tastes I would prefer a more Alien looking creature rather than a mammal (with mammialry Glands) with Scales.

Amy being sucked under the ground didn't get me as much as the previous Dr looses his companion stories, generally I'm not feeling the Amy love much she seems to mostly be legs on legs.

I wonder when the other half of the companions seeing themselves will come? Probably somewhen in the next episode, they will get sent back to set something up. Although they might set it up for something in the sesion finally.

[Srelex]

They got the attitude right, but I think these Silurians are too antropomorphic as well--unless they handwave that in the second episode, but at least they could give them snake-like eyes.

Otherwise, it was okay.

[Bedlam]

They got the attitude right, but I think these Silurians are too antropomorphic as well--unless they handwave that in the second episode, but at least they could give them snake-like eyes.

Otherwise, it was okay.

I wonder if they might be some sort of hybrid thing created using the bodies from the cemitery, I think I saw a clip of a more traditional Silurian in the preview so you never know.

[Lord Woodlouse]

Well, bizarrely they were called "homo reptillius". So apparently they are a human race.

[Mari Wolfe]

Mamaries on a Salurian? Some thing is wrong there they are not mammals.

[Pcm979]

Well, nobody fucked a cloud. That's a plus.

[Captain Seafort]

I think these Silurians are too antropomorphic as well--unless they handwave that in the second episode, but at least they could give them snake-like eyes.

The Doctor commented that they were a different branch of the Silurians/Eocenes/Sea Devils/whatever.

Well, nobody fucked a cloud. That's a plus.

This is Doctor Who. Not even the worst of it is as bad as S1 Torchwood.

[Crazedwraith]

Future Amy/Rory was an odd bit. I'm ambivalent on this one. Nothing really stands out as exceptionally good or bad. Though it was weird that not one noticed the kid wasn't there for ages. Sure The Doctor was the last to see him, but how long did it take his mum and grand-dad to notice?

Hoping the second part brings the quality up on average.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah I was thinking it was a bit odd it took so long to notice the kid's absence. Oh well
. I also thought it a bit odd they manage to set up all those cameras and things in about eight minutes, and set up all the wires and other gizmos. Oh well

The Silurians do look too anthropomorphic. My dad asked the same thing, "If she's a reptile, why does she have mamaries?" My answer "Because make-up coudlnt be bothered to conceal her tits"

In fairness, they did call them "Homo Reptilius" or something like that, and they said it was a different branch

I rather liked the future-companions appearing, if only briefly. No doubt it will be significant at some point to come

[NecronLord]

These Silurians are miles better than the old ones, simply because they don't need to subject us to aeons of that horrible grating sound the old ones made.

As for Homo, well, I think that may be no more accurate a name than 'Silurians'

[Crossroads Inc.]

Very interesting... I keep hoping the Doctor brings up the first time he met them, but I doubt these Silurians ever had contact with the ones from the OS, so they probably don't know him.

That said very interesting very good First half. It really brings back how Dr.Who used to be better when they had more time to tell a story. Much of the new series seems overly rushed, overly fast and needlessly crammed with things because its barely 40min long. Your average old Dr.who was usually anywhere from 6 to 12m 25min segments, a Full 'episode' could be nearly three hours. Sure its hard to do something liek that today, but Two parters are almost always better.

That said there was a pretty big glaring error as far as im concerned. This episode brings back bits from two previous Dr.whos "Inferno" and of course the original Silurian episode. The first is similar to this one in that it had a Team drilling down through the earths crust, the second had a particle accelerator deep deep underground, BOTH of those involved immense operations that were overseen by Unit because of their dangerous nature.

Now here we have a Drilling team going down over 20km And there is, what Six people involved? You are telling me you have an immense drilling operation boring down way WAY further then anyone before, and its overseen by six people? Who the hell is funding this? Where are the maintenance people? Security? Operators? That rig looked almost six stories tall, you would need dozens of people on it! Seriously, the New Dr.Who has a budget Many times over the original, yet they can't be arsed to make things more believable by having a decent operation? You could still do the story with less people, have the Dr only tell those in charge, the who thing could still run with just the two main people, the mom, dad, and son involved.

Moving on...

Can anyone tell me why The older guy told NO ONE that a strange toung shot into his neck and infected him with who knows what? No one else saw that? He has someone who calls himself "The Doctor" and he doesn't seek medical attention? I mean, I can see it frm a mile away that this will some how set himself up as the one who kills the Silurian, maybe it will turn him crazy or something, but still. if that happened ot me the first thing id do is yell "Oh my GOD I just got stung in my neck, Doctor!!!"

Finally, why does the new series love to make everyone so "Evil" ? there is no empathy with the new Silurians, no sympathy or emotion for them. they are clearly the "bad Guys" and will clearly end up getting screwed by the Doctor. I am pretty sure the next episode will end with them all getting buried or maybe even killed by the Doctor to save Mankind, thats just the way the new series seesm to roll these days....

[Srelex]

In fairness, they did mention that the operation had 'staff', although I don't recall them mentioning where they actually where.

[TC Pilot]

Can anyone tell me why The older guy told NO ONE that a strange toung shot into his neck and infected him with who knows what? No one else saw that? He has someone who calls himself "The Doctor" and he doesn't seek medical attention? I mean, I can see it frm a mile away that this will some how set himself up as the one who kills the Silurian, maybe it will turn him crazy or something, but still. if that happened ot me the first thing id do is yell "Oh my GOD I just got stung in my neck, Doctor!!!"

They did see it. His daughter even yelled "My dad's hurt" when the Doctor came rushing over to them. Presumably the "infection" didn't start manifesting itself until later, maybe not even until the scene where he actually checks on it.

[Gramzamber]

Finally, why does the new series love to make everyone so "Evil" ? there is no empathy with the new Silurians, no sympathy or emotion for them. they are clearly the "bad Guys" and will clearly end up getting screwed by the Doctor. I am pretty sure the next episode will end with them all getting buried or maybe even killed by the Doctor to save Mankind, thats just the way the new series seesm to roll these days....

It seems as while they're always saying the Doctor has to make tough decisions he feels guilty over, the writers go out of their way to make the decision as easy as possible by making his opponents evil/unreasonable.
Hell they even did it with the Time Lords. Moral dilemma about sending his own people back to hell again? No it's okay they all want to end time and Gallifrey is about to knock Earth out of orbit. Dilemma solved!

[Soontir C'boath]

These Silurians are miles better than the old ones, simply because they don't need to subject us to aeons of that horrible grating sound the old ones made.

Their heads were pretty damn awesome though. I was very disappointed in seeing a practically human face under the mask.
__
In the original Silurian series we had some of them who's mindset were exactly like the captured one here. They both want to destroy the humans and reclaim the Earth that they think belongs to them so I don't see what's wrong with that here especially when we have met only one of them.

It is presumably why the Doctor wanted to go below since he is looking for the more reasonable Silurians.
__
If there was anything I was bothered about the boy's disappearance, it was that the Doctor let him go when there were barely any time left before the Silurians breached the surface. He tells his companions and everyone else to stay but not the boy in that moment? It felt like it was done to create drama with the mother at the expense of making him a fool.
__
Overall, I thought it was a good episode. I liked the part where the Doctor bludgeon the drillers that they were the ones who disturbed the Silurians in the first place and that they actually listened to the Doctor about taking care of the captured Silurian. When they had the human speak about dissecting the Silurian and then move on to the scene where the father was dissected, I thought it was a good way of making people think about what the Silurians were doing was basically what the humans would have done themselves.

[mr friendly guy]

Doctor : Actually I am making sense, you are just not keeping up.

That just seems so vintage Doctor Who.

This is pretty good, but then a lot of DW two parters start off good on the first episode then become let down on the second. For now I am going to give it a 4 and see if they can pull off the second episode.

[Stuart Mackey]

Haven't seen it all yet, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that that I am in lust with Karen Gillan.

[Drooling Iguana]

Well, bizarrely they were called "homo reptillius". So apparently they are a human race.

That stood out for me, too. I could understand "Reptilius Sapiens" or something along those lines, but you can't have a reptile in the genus Homo. Linnean classifications do not work that way!

Was that something from the original series that they decided to reference, thinking that continuity callbacks are more important than not mangling science, or it this an all-new brand of stupidity?

All in all, this felt like a typical early-season two-parter. I guess Moffat's decided to switch things around for his run, with the good two-parter coming first and the shitty one second.

[Stark]

The silurians were always a bunch of awful-science nonsense. The geology espoused by the 'geologist' in the original story was absurdly wrong.

[Stuart Mackey]

Well, bizarrely they were called "homo reptillius". So apparently they are a human race.

That stood out for me, too. I could understand "Reptilius Sapiens" or something along those lines, but you can't have a reptile in the genus Homo. Linnean classifications do not work that way!

Was that something from the original series that they decided to reference, thinking that continuity callbacks are more important than not mangling science, or it this an all-new brand of stupidity?

Or you could say that a person, who knew next to nothing about such matters, saw that they were bipedal and came up with the name.
Not every person in sci-fi shows is a scientist, it would be very boring show if every character was a know it all, so lets not be picky.

[PREDATOR490]

3

Stupid episode.

Silly intro with them waving to themselves for no 'apparant' reason... what ?

Magically set up all that techno gear in 9min... what ?

The Doctor just standing there like a complete twit when the gran-dad was getting sucked down but sure enough he rushes to save Amy... what ?

The Doctor getting pissy at scared people and they actually think about taking up arms... what ?

The Doctor, a self stated parent, pays no attention to a kid running away on his own when they are about to be attacked... WHAT ?

This episode simply reeks of being contrived to the point its like they dont even give a shit what they are putting out.

I liked the new 'companion' although shes gonna be brief anyway but so far Amy has achieved nothing. She started out well enough but it seems DW is content to reduce her to simply looking hot and being 'the Scottish girl'. It's sad that the way they have depicted the Doctor thus far he gives the impression he dosent give a shit about anyone except if they service him. If Rory was falling through that dirt... I have hard time imagining the Doctor rushing as fast to save him unless Amy is there to watch his 'heroics'


As for next episode, I'm hoping it will be better but after this I foresee typical reset button being pushed and more 'Doctor is awesome' with 'Stupid creatures for not listening to the Doctor'.
From the apparant 'disections', working on another super plague again ?

We know of course Amy isnt going to be touched and I highly suspect the others will be found unharmed. Especially the kid because if he turns up dead... I really dont see how DW is going to dig him out of that one so he comes out looking like a hero that can still jaunt around the universe without a care. Probably going to have one of the humans kill the captured one just so the Doctor can get all hissy over it.

The bit with that gun telegraphed that but its not going to be the mother I think. Far too obvious... I'll go with Rory. Ample chance for the Doctor to boot him out of the TARDIS and have the Doctor 'impress' Amy with his superior 'compassion'
Of course... the Doctor just left a bunch of scared folks with an alien that can sting them again within 24 hours and has demonstrated a desire to kill them. It's not like its a bad idea leaving scared folks like a mother who has lost her son and husband, a guy who lost his girl and a gran-dad that has his grandson AND be attacked by the things.

[Bedlam]

In fairness, they did mention that the operation had 'staff', although I don't recall them mentioning where they actually where.

I think they make some mention that most of the staff dont live locally, presumably they comute in some way. They did seem to suggest that the night shift consists of only one person though and unless the force shield went up earlier than shown it doesn't say why no one turned up in the morning.

[Straha]

Chris Chibnall can't write for shit.

And the dialog in this episode was amongst the worst I've ever heard.

2. Maybe a 3, at best.

Especially crap after last week.

[Straha]

I should add that Matt Smith continues to impress me, especially his ability to make a script as dismal and, frankly, god awful as this mildly bearable.

But, yeah. The rest of the episode? Pure crap. From the sheer ludicrous nature of the characters, to the absurdity of the dialogue, to the fucking idiotic plot. It's as bad as the Sontaran two-parter, possibly worse.

[Stark]

It's as bad as the Sontaran two-parter, possibly worse.

Are you serious? I might have to actually watch this one.