5.8 : The Hungry Earth

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Season 5, Episode 8 - The Hungry Earth

Written by: Chris Chibnall
Directed by: Ashley Way
Original Air Date: June 12, 2010

SYNOPSIS

2015: the most ambitious drilling project in history has reached deeper below the Earth's crust than man has ever gone - but now the ground itself is fighting back. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory arrive in a tiny mining village and find themselves battling a deadly danger from a bygone age. Meera Syal, Stephen Moore, and Neve McIntosh guest stars.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory have landed in the near future in a small Welsh village. It's beautiful, but danger is just beneath the surface (rather literally) ... the Silurians are back! The Silurians (Homo reptilia) were Earth's first intelligent inhabitants, cold-blood reptilians with a lifespan of over three centuries who developed a civilisation at least 300 million years before human beings evolved.

The Silurians last appeared in the Doctor Who episode, “Warriors of the Deep” and their motives do not appear to have changed very much since their debut story “Doctor Who and The Silurians” from 1970. They apparently are the original inhabitants of Earth and resent the ape like humans for invading their planet, and now they would like it back, thank-you very much.


Anywhoos - The story is set in a small mining village in Wales where a drilling team led by Dr Nasreen Chaudray and Tony Mack have drilled further into the Earth than anyone else in history. However in doing so they have disturbed the ancient race of The Silurians. These reptile-like creatures themselves happen to be drilling themselves as wll but upwards towards the surface. In this enterprise, they kidnap some of the local villagers, as well as the Doctor's companion, Amy Pond. When these good folk are taken, it appears as if the earth is devouring them, hence the episode name 'Hungry Earth' (rather clever that was).


What happens next - The village is then trapped in a force field and plunged into darkness where the Silurians begin to attack, however during the course of this the Doctor and Rory are able to kidnap a Silurian in return for Amy. This then allows the Doctor to try and broker a peace, and when that fails with the hostage Silurian he decides to go and visit the rest of the species under the Earth; however there appear to be more of them than he bargained for.

The BBC's Doctor Who page has a lorry-load of rather entertaining extras - you may wish to print off a Silurian Mask and send your knee-biters off to school with it on - check out this LINK.

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