Doctor Who "Doctor Who and the Silurians - Episode 4" (1970)

The last episode ended with our first full glimpse of a Silurian as it crept up behind the Doctor in Quinn's cabin. The Doctor immediately extends his hand in friendship and speaks with the Silurian. Before making any progress however, the Silurian is frightened by noise outside and flees. The Doctor had been attempting to insert himself as the intermediary between the humans and Silurians and is worried that if they do make their intentions clear the humans will get the wrong idea and make a preemptive strike on their base. Once he returns to the power station he withholds the fact that Quinn has been killed and confides only in Liz of his intentions to broker a peaceful accord between the two races. He swears Liz to secrecy but only if she is allowed to come with him, to which he agrees. At first hesitant before she threatens to go right to the Brigadier, after agreeing the Doctor appears quite content to have her along. They discover Baker in the a holding cell in the middle of the Silurian base after his forceful escape from the infirmary and solo expedition into the caves to gather intelligence. After being told that the Silurians are interrogating him regarding human strength and weaknesses, the Doctor realizes that if he does not act soon there may be no hope of peaceful relations.

While Liz and the Doctor infiltrate the Silurian base, the Permanent Under-Secretary Edward Masters (Geoffrey Palmer) has arrived on the scene after being called in by Dr. Lawrence. Played with understated charm, Masters serves as the voice of reason as he attempts to piece together the strange happenings at the power station with the vague reports he has received from the Brigadier. He also serves as a catalyst for Lawrence to show more depth of character. Previous to this episodes we would get snippets of Lawrence demanding to know why the Brigadier was causing more harm than providing aide. We get to see the character's motivations in his discussion with Masters. His career is directly tied to the success for the power station and if he cannot get it back online soon his career will be finished. We also get a hint of the friendship between Masters and Lawrence and it's fascinating to see such a lengthy dialogue scene between two guest characters. It goes to show how the multi-part serial format can work in the writer's favor as there can be lulls in the action so long as it is well written dialogue spoken by interesting characters.

Once the Doctor and Liz return the surface, his fears continue to grow as Masters is being urged more and more by the Brigadier to take more men into the caves. Miss Dawson (Thomasine Heiner) has also discovered Dr. Quinn's body and advocates a hard-line approach to dealing with the Silurians as she believes they killed Dr. Quinn in cold blood and cannot be trusted. While Masters decides to hold off in calling more troops, the Brigadier plans to take the men he has into the caves and the Doctor is put into a precarious position. He decides to head into the caves ahead of the soldiers and warn the Silurians in the continuing hope for peace. The Doctor's courage is admirable and Pertwee is able to convey the weight of his decision as it means he must continue to deceive the Brigadier. However once in the caves, the Silurians place him into a cage with Major Baker and use the knowledge of the soldiers' presence to set a trap for the Brigadier and his men.

Favorite moment: Despite the increasing tension as the Doctor tries to prevent a full break-out of hostilities between the humans and the Silurians there is a lighthearted comedic scene between Dr. Lawrence and Travis (Ian Talbot) in the control room regarding yet another power drain and the inability to contact any of the other key personnel. Travis in effect acts as the audience poking fun at Dr. Lawrence as he grows increasingly more frustrated. Travis actually manages to suppress a smile during the scene when he snatches the phone away from Dr. Lawrence. Whether this was a character break or a conscious decision on the part of the actor is unknown, but it fits perfectly into the interaction and provides a relaxing break to the escalating tension which only continues to grow in the next episode.