A Matter of Time: Doctor Who and The Silurians

ORIGINAL BROADCAST: 14/03/1970

Forty years ago today, the Silurians appeared in their first ever adventure, starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. The name ‘Silurian’ resulted in many letters from scientists and geologists, arguing that it was impossible for a reptilian species to have existed in the Silurian era. In the later story ‘The Sea Devils’, the Doctor admits that the name ‘Silurian’ is inaccurate, and states that they should instead be called ‘Eocenes’. Could this be the name they go under in Series 5?

This story is the first to be recorded using colour studio cameras. The previous story, ‘Spearhead from Space’, was the first Doctor Who in colour, but was shot entirely on location and on film, as opposed to the standard videotape method for recording Doctor Who. The incidental music for this story was composed by Carey Blyton, who would also contribute music for ‘Death to the Daleks’ and ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’. Most people find his music comical, and not scary like intended.

This was the only time the name ‘Doctor Who’ was used in the title of a story, except for Episode 5 of The Chase which was titled ‘The Death of Doctor Who’. Although it was common in production paperwork to add ‘Doctor Who’ to the beginning of the title, the prefix was usually dropped when the director ordered the titles from the captioning department. However, this was accidentally forgotten for ‘The Silurians’.

Please comment and rate below.