Doctor Who - "The Hungry Earth"

WHOSCALE: 9 out of 10

The second two parter for this season was penned by Chris Chibnall, who had previously contributed the Tenth Doctor story, "42."

Under the direction of Moffat, Chibnall is the second writer to have a kind of redemption story since the Davies era.

The idea behind this story was obviously to reintroduce the classic villains, the Silurians. To do that, Chibnall borrowed heavily from the flavor of the Third Doctor era, which was when the Silurians got the most air time.

There were tons of nods to the original series in this episodes, particularly the structure of the episode. It contained all the traditional elements you would have found in a Earth-based Third Doctor story - a mining operation, a small, rural village, and a scarce team of scientists drilling into the Earth's crust. Additionally, Chibnall successfully overcame the issue of avoiding present-day times while still setting the story relatively close to 2010 (in 2020), thus there's no reason to suspect that touch screen technology and present day clothes wouldn't still be the norm.

The plot is poured on thick in the beginning, with strange grass growing in the cemetery, a man swallowed up by the Earth, and empty graves with no visible sign of being disturbed. Although I knew well before this episode aired that it would be a Silurian story, I imagined when watching this time around what it must have been like for someone who hadn't followed production of the season before it aired, with absolutely no clue what this one was about. I expect it was even more of treat for Third Doctor fans than it was for me.

Everything seemed spot on in this episode. The pacing was a bit faster than that of "The Time Of Angels, " but not enough to feel like the producers were having to cram a six episode story into one. The music was sparingly used once again, if not a slight bit more powerful than what was used in "The Time Of Angels."

The Doctor is once again leading the way in this episode, with companions Amy and Rory tagging along as they should, and the two puzzled scientists joining in. Strange for the new series, but Amy was absent for much of this episode, having suffered the same fate as Mo near the beginning. She only appears in a couple of shots then, one of those being from a Silurian viewpoint, and a short scene near the end of the episode where a Silurian surgeon is apparently about to dissect her, having already done so on Mo.

As with most of the episodes from Moffat's debut season, I could find very little that just turned me off about it. If I just had to pick any minuses, it would be the slight over-injection of drama from The Doctor as Amy is pulled underground, the other being the CGI backdrop at the very end, and the ridiculous time discrepancy when The Doctor & company are setting up a security system - they had eight minutes to do, and it's hardly feasibly to accomplish what they did in that time. The "montage" format that is used even further indicates that far more time than eight minutes passed.

The production team took a new approach to the look of the Silurians, which has gotten mixed opinions since the episode aired. Personally, I think they looked fantastic. All mask and costume and no CGI will always win in my book. However, they did seem to fall a bit short on the facial features; the new breed of Silurian retains more human characteristics than their 1970s predecessors. No doubt this was to better smooth the transition for audiences. A sort of "safety measure" so they wouldn't look too far-fetched alien. At any rate, I think the revamp of the Silurians turned out far better than that of the Cybermen.

As with traditional Doctor Who style, the episode ends on a cliffhanger, leading up to the setting of the second part.