Doctor Who "Doctor Who and the Silurians - Episode 1" (1970)

This serial serves as the second to feature Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor (not to mention Caroline John as Liz Shaw) and is starting to firmly entrench itself in the new formula of the Doctor stranded on Earth battling alien menaces with the help of UNIT under the authority of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart who previously appeared twice with Patrick Troughton. The characters are still getting to know with one another but have developed enough of a trust with one another that they make an efficient team in combating this week's alien menace. Being the first episode the stage is set for the troubles at the Wenley Moor power station which is experiencing personnel problems along with regular power drains during the testing of its proton accelerator. As the trouble has been occurring and increasing over the last three months UNIT has been called in and the Brigadier immediately sends for the Doctor and Liz to help him determine what is causing the problems.

We start off with a very sweet scene of Liz and the Doctor where she attempts to explain that the Brigadier is requiring them to depart for Wenley Moor immediately. The Doctor will have none of it however and decides he would rather continue to work on his new antique roadster which treats us to the first appearance of Bessie, a staple of the Pertwee era (at least for the Earth-bound adventures). Despite the fact that Liz has been drafted into UNIT pretty much against her will she still takes her duties seriously and has already been put in the precarious position between the Brigadier and the Doctor. She shows off how well she knows him already by peaking his curiosity about some unique caves that are in the same vicinity of the power station. This scene alone shows how far the Doctor and Liz's working relationship had advanced in such a short time where the two feel comfortable with speaking with one another and able to prod the other to go along with them by appealing to certain aspects of their personalities. There is a sister scene which highlights the reverse later in the serial.

Despite the fact that Doctor and Liz hit it off so well having just met in the previous serial, we immediately see that the Brigadier and the Doctor have actually a little more adversarial rapport in their working relationship in that the Doctor at first feels the Brigadier is wasting him time forcing him to the power station and the Brigadier grows frustrated with the Doctor not taking his UNIT responsibilities seriously. The Brigadier obviously tries to maintain his authority over the Doctor by assigning him to particular duties and making sure he remains on task however he is aware that the Doctor is a keen intellect and an expert on all things scientific and is respectful of his methods in examining the problems of the power station.

Aside from establishing the character dynamics of the regular cast we are also introduced to the main guest cast for this serial. Dr. Lawrence (Peter Miles) the director of the power station is a bureaucrat who is already wary of UNIT's presence and how it will affect his standing in the scientific community if he cannot get the power station back to full working order as soon as possible. Dr. Quinn is brilliantly played by Fulton Mackay (who apparently was in consideration to be the Fourth Doctor). He is quite able to project a friendly and non-threatening persona to the UNIT people which puts him in stark contrast to Dr. Lawrence's open hostility and it is surprising that it is almost immediately revealed that he is aware of who is causing the power drains and is keeping the information to himself. It also interesting to note that everyone except for the Doctor appears to be fooled by his casual demeanor. Finally we get Norman Jones as Major Baker who is head of security for the power station and takes his job very seriously. He performs background checks on all the UNIT people and quite incensed when he cannot find out anything about the Doctor and also believes the power drains are the work of internal sabotage. With these characters established the stage is well set for the remainder of the serial and I must say it's looking to a very good one indeed.

Favorite moment: The Doctor and Brigadier's discussion regarding the Doctor's fears that the power station should be shut down immediately. The Brigadier calmly listens to the Doctor's findings while coming up with other possible explanations and pointing out the fact that Doctor has no real proof. The fact that these two men who have staunchly opposite views of the world: the Doctor an explorer and the Brigadier a soldier, are able to have a civil conversation regarding a plan of action without truly getting mad at one another shows how much the two men do trust one another. While the Brigadier is not quick to act on the Doctor's fears he does take his concerns to heart and listens more to him than he would if anyone else was telling him the same information. The ending banter where the Doctor states the Brigadier is no Sherlock Holmes himself and the Brigadier calls him Dr. Watson is also a sweet touch.