#its complex and its awful and things could nevee go back to how it was. cuz no natter what one of them or both will always be unhappy

[othercrossee]

Could u imagine irida, altho trained for so long to be the next leader, never believed in herself to sucessfully be chosen? how she felt when her name was called upon after all day shed been telling her older friend palina she was the one to take on duty? Could u imagine the anxiety? The feeling that she had betrayed the only person who had treated her with an ounce of care? The feeling that her entire world was shifting? How she had to keep a smile and a prideful look to appear as the correct answer, a strong new leader to lead her people? How she realizes lina and her could never be friends on equal ground? Although it was never equal to begin with?

[the-desolated-quill]

The Hungry Earth - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

The day Steven Moffat announced he was finally going to relieve us of our torment and leave the show for good, my reaction was mixed to say the least. On the one hand, yes that bastard is no longer going to be ruining one of my favourite shows, but on the other hand he’s being replaced by Chris Chibnall. A writer who’s almost as incompetent as Moffat and has written some of the worst episodes of Doctor Who and its god awful spinoff series Torchwood. (And to those who occasionally ask me if I’m going to be reviewing Torchwood at some point, the answer is a definitive no. I have got other things to do, you know. Stop pestering me). While he has earned some of my respect since then by casting Jodie Whitaker as the first female Doctor (and about time too), I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t deeply concerned about the quality of the show moving forward.

I mention this because this two parter, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood, was written by Chris Chibnall and I feel perfectly demonstrates all of his weaknesses and shortcomings as a writer.

In a small Welsh village in the year 2020, some scientists have drilled deep into the Earth’s crust, further than anyone has ever done before. But something is drilling up to the surface to meet them and has left some bio-programmed dirt (just go with it). Some guy called Mo, upon seeing this suspicious patch of dirt with steam coming out of it, does what any smart, sensible person would do and sticks his hand in it.

So he gets dragged underground, and soon enough Amy joins him in an admittedly tense scene where the Doctor desperately tries to hold on to her.

From there, this giant energy dome thing seals the village off from the outside world and the whole thing becomes a bog standard base under siege story. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with a base under siege story. It’s just the base under siege story has been done so often in Doctor Who now that it’s hard not to let your eyes glaze over while you’re watching it. Of course it’s possible to revitalise the base under siege narrative, like The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit did, but The Hungry Earth most certainly doesn’t. So the whole thing was a bit of a snoozefest for me if I’m honest. Everything you think is going to happen does happen and with an extra dose of stupidity. 

The Doctor tells everyone to set up shop in the church, but wouldn’t the TARDIS be safer? I know you can’t fly it because of the energy dome thing, but surely it’s better than a church. Then he gets everybody to set up a security surveillance network that covers the entire village in 8 minutes flat, which is remarkably daft even by Doctor Who’s standards, and it never goes anywhere. Then he gives Ambrose a strict telling off about her rather sensible decision to stockpile weapons. Sigh. I think I’ve mentioned numerous times before how much I despise New Who’s pacifist bullshit considering that the Doctor has always been pretty violent and has frequently used guns before despite claims to the contrary. I wouldn’t mind except the Doctor then completely contradicts himself a few minutes later. How is knocking the Silurians out with a sonic pulse any less violent than hitting them over the head with a cricket bat? And then, after bonding with the kid Elliot, he stupidly lets the kid run off to fetch his headphones just two minutes before the Silurians are due to arrive. What a pillock! Not that I was upset to see Elliot get taken. He’s a bland, one dimensional kid whose only character trait is he’s got dyslexia. Also I can’t fucking stand children. Especially fictional children. if I was there, not only would I hand Elliot over to the Silurians, I’d offer to gift wrap him for them as well. (Yes I am an arsehole. How did you know?).

Yes The Hungry Earth sees the return of classic series ‘monsters’ the Silurians, and my God do I wish Chris Chibnall wasn’t writing a Silurian story.

The thing is the Silurians have only ever had one good story, Doctor Who And The Silurians, way back in the Jon Pertwee era, and it was phenomenally good. A seven part serial that’s nuanced, morally complex and with a truly shocking ending that cemented the Doctor’s frosty relationship with UNIT. It’s one of my all time favourite Doctor Who stories and I recommend everyone should watch it. In all honesty, I’d have been okay if the Silurians never came back after that because it was a truly brilliant one shot story, but if we must keep bringing them back, they could at least find some way of moving the story forward. Instead all the BBC ever seem to do is just repeat the same story over and over again to diminishing returns. The Sea Devils was basically the same as Doctor Who And The Silurians only without the moral complexity, the reptiles now emerging from underwater rather than underground, and the pantomime villain the Master was in it for virtually no reason. Warriors Of The Deep tried to use the Silurians and Sea Devils to make a Cold War allegorical narrative that really didn’t work. And now here we are with The Hungry Earth. So this is the fourth time they’re telling story now and I’m sure you all know the drill (no pun intended). Reptiles want their planet back. Humans don’t want to give it back. Whatever shall the Doctor do? Been there, done that, got the T shirt.

Now let’s quickly address the elephant in the room. The new look for the Silurains. For the benefit of @captainivyb and others who may not be familiar with the classic series, this is what the original Silurians looked like:

YYYYYYeah. What can I say? It was the 1970s. But Doctor Who And The Silurians is still good, honest!

The new makeup definitely looks more convincing than the original Silurians, but I’m not too fond of it. They just look a bit too human for my liking. Couldn’t they at least have kept the third eye?

A definite highlight for me was seeing the Doctor interrogating Alaya, the Silurian they take hostage. It’s a really good two hander between Matt Smith and Neve McIntosh, who both add a lot of dramatic weight to a scene that, let’s be honest, doesn’t really deserve it. The reason Doctor Who And The Silurians worked so well was because all of the characters, human and Silurian, were well written and complex. It wasn’t a simple case of good vs evil. Both sides had a point and both sides do horrible things to the other, motivated either by fear or self preservation. Chibnall tries to replicate this here, but he’s not doing a very good job so far. While McIntosh gives a good performance with the material she’s been given, the character of Alaya is boringly one note. A rabid zealot with no sympathetic qualities whatsoever. The humans too are drawn with very broad strokes. Most of them aren’t even remotely interesting and despite the Doctor insisting that they can just trade hostages and everything will be okay, they’re still talking about dissecting Alaya. There’s no slow buildup or anything. No nuance or depth. They just jump straight to the most violent option. So much for showing the best of humanity. Frankly I’m amazed the Doctor still thinks a peace can be brokered between the two species considering this is the fourth time he’s tried to do this now and it’s always ended in disaster.

The only character I gravitated towards in any way was Nasreen, played by Meera Syal from The Kumars At No. 42. I enjoyed her open mindedness and scientific curiosity, and right from the off both she and the Doctor seem to have a mutual respect for each other. And Syal is always a ton of fun to watch in everything she’s in. In fact I liked her so much that at the time I may or may not have written Doctor Who fanfic with her as the companion... Well I’d sit down and watch that.

So that was The Hungry Earth. Bit dull and uninspired, but maybe things will get better in Part 2, right?