Doctor Who - 5.8 - The Hungry Earth Reviews

Rating		Votes
10	1%	1
9	2%	2
8	14%	14
7	43%	42
6	20%	20
5	12%	12
4	7%	7
3	0%	0
2	0%	0
1	0%	0
Average Rating 6.6
Votes 98

Synopsis

From wikipedia

The Doctor, Amy and Rory land in the small Welsh village of Cwmtaff in 2020 instead of their intended destination, Rio de Janeiro. They encounter a mining operation led by Doctor Nasreen Chaudhry, who is studying minerals deep in the earth that have not been seen for over 20 million years. Nasreen is assisted by a local, Tony Mack, whose daughter and grandson, Ambrose and Elliot, are investigating the disappearance of bodies at the nearby church graveyard. An earth tremor causes the ground to open and sends Tony and Amy falling into it; Tony is rescued but Amy is pulled under by unknown forces. The Doctor surmises that the minerals form a bio-reactive defence system triggered by the drilling operation. The group is soon alerted to the presence of three life forms travelling up the drilling shaft from 21 kilometres (13 miles) below the earth, and they barricade themselves in the church. The Doctor explains Amy's disappearance to Rory and assures him he will get her back.
The three beings are discovered to be reptilian humanoids, and in a scuffle, they capture Elliot and strike Tony with a venomous forked tongue; the Doctor and Rory subdue one while the other two retreat with Elliot back into the earth. The Doctor realises the beings are a new form of Silurians, and that they have relented in their attack since both sides hold a hostage. The captured Silurian calls herself Alaya; she is a member of the warrior caste, awoken by the drill. Alaya believes, as do all Silurians, that the Earth still belongs to them, that the drilling was a form of attack by the humans, and that they will defeat humanity eventually. Tony, suffering from the effects of the venom, says they should dissect Alaya, but the Doctor warns that it would be seen as an act of war. The Doctor decides to travel in the TARDIS down the drilling shaft to talk to the rest of the Silurians and work out a truce; Nasreen accompanies him.
Amy awakens to find herself strapped to an examining table, near to where Ambrose's husband Mo is also ensnared. Mo explains that the Silurians intended to vivisect her, as they have vivisected him awake. The Doctor and Nasreen arrive underground in the TARDIS; the Doctor explains about the Silurians and says that he expects to encounter only a few of the creatures. The show ends on a cliffhanger as the Doctor and Nasreen behold an immense Silurian civilisation in the caverns below the earth.

Has Prerequisite Story

0 out of 21 (0.0%) raters say this story requires a previous story.

Extended Ratings

Plot

6.8

(26)

Acting

7.4

(26)

Effects

7.4

(26)

Replay

6.5

(26)

11th Doctor

Amy Pond

Rory Williams

Silurians

Cast

Matt Smith

Karen Gillian

Arthur Darvill

Neve McIntosh

Meera Syal

Robert Pugh

Nia Roberts

Alun Raglan

Samuel Davies

Director:

Ashley Way

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

Reviews

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5.8 - The Hungry Earth

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Reviewed By: MercuryReview Date: 1/7/19 2:34 pm

0 out of 0 found this review helpful.

This is the first part of a two part story written by Chris Chibnall who was later to become Showrunner after Steven Moffatt left the role. The story involves the Doctor, Amy and Rory arriving in a near future Earth in South Wales where a drilling operation encounters Silurians. It is clearly influenced by some bits of 3rd Doctor stories Inferno and The Green Death but is not in their league. This reintroduces the Silurians who were first shown in another 3rd Doctor story bearing their name.

This first part is fun and interesting with solid characterisation and acting and an effective new look Silurian. Some may dislike the rebooted Silurians because they are different to those who first appeared in Season 7 of the classic series. I have no problem with that as the design is good enough and meets needs for a modern, slick series. This is one of many 'retcons' of the Moffatt era, to have a different Silurian race and add to their back story but in this episode there are no new problems with the creatures. The only problem is a pre-existing one from their original concept which is that they were a native Earth species long before humans. This concept was always poor and the fact they reinforce that concept in this 'reboot' is a shame. I never understood why they did not suggest the Silurians originated from another world and simply arrived on Earth in prehistoric times. They could certainly have included that in this story to retcon the Silurians with much improved concept logic. Instead they (Moffatt as well as Chibnall) chose to keep it that they were native to Earth and originated hundreds of millions of years ago. The reality of this is ridiculous as only very early forms of life are known to have existed near that time. The idea of a highly developed race with very advanced technology and science coming from such an ancient time in Earth history is a stupid idea they should have changed. To be fair I cannot judge this episode too harshly for keeping an idea which arose in an otherwise superb story from the classic show. However, I can judge the second part of the story for worsening the believability with new aspects.

In this episode problems are at a minimum and there is fun, excitement and drama so this is a decent episode. Nothing special but a solid 7.5/10. Part 2 would turn out to be less satisfactory.

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5.8 - The Hungry Earth

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Reviewed By: doctorwhnoeReview Date: 1/28/18 11:42 am

0 out of 1 found this review helpful.

I can't hidde it: I didn't like Matt Smith's Doctor. His voice is boring and slow, his acting is very poor and his Doctor think like a child and it became irritating. Amy is boring to and this episode could've been forgettable if the Silurian weren't in.

The Doctor don't do anything interseting, peoples diapear so he investigate. He haven't any great line. He is so stupid it became very very boring to heard always the same things or have the same skecth of 'Rio ! Ha, we aren't in Rio'.

Amy, I didn't like her, she is blank, to blank. She is kidnapped after 15 minutes and stay under the Earth during the whole episode. Without any movement or any good line.
Rory is the best character of this episode, funny, human. Well he cat like a real human would act if he was in front of aliens or if his lover was captured. Darvill is a good actor and it's sad that he appeared alongside this Doctor.

The plot is good,I haven't anything special to say about it.

The supporting characters are intersting (some of them) or useless (the others). The Silurian aren't the good old hardback beast we've know with their T-rex. Here they're really ugly, the actor's mask is very very ugly and didn't look like the real Silurian of the good old 70' (perhaps they're mutants). But they were the only real good point of this story.

Just watch this if you can't sleep. Matt Smith and his slow voice will make you fall asleep quickly.

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