Season 7@50 Unexpectedly
this episode seems gruesomely topical right now and judging from this week’s
headlines very little has changed when it comes to dealing with a dangerous
virus or infection. What was entertainment fifty years ago is now a reality
though I doubt if a race of subterranean lizards are responsible. Given this
accidental topicality it is even easier to admire the manner in which the
production handles it. Plotting the outbreak from Masters to the ticket
collector to other passengers and then a phone call that reveals the first
foreign case you can see how easily something like this can take hold. Just
like our current coronavirus the Silurian’s version doesn’t infect everyone but
some die quickly. I think the way the production conveys all this is masterful
and quite bold. After all imagine that back in 1970 over seven million viewers
watched several minutes of two actors doing chemistry, putting blood samples on
slides, making notes and looking at the sample under a microscope. Somehow in
the current light it seems much more urgent and serious than it might back
then.
