Season 7@50. Familiarity
can dull the impact of creative material yet there are some things which remain
absorbing even though we know their every secret for example a favourite film
or album or place. Or a Doctor Who
story like `The Silurians`. The behind the scenes situation suggests this 1970
classic could easily have been a bit of a mess. With Derrick Sherwin and Peter
Bryant having left, Barry Letts unavailable for the location filming, a 7
episode storyline and a new Doctor still finding his way it was hardly a
settled production though nothing of this makes the finished version. Instead a
confident, bold narrative offers a fresh take on the traditional `aliens on
earth` story and a compelling representation of the Doctor as a high profile agitator
rather than the low key subversive the previous incarnation had tended to be. The
first episode is masterfully assembled and played and a sign that during this
era of the programme episode ones would almost always be top class.
