After promising Amy and Rory a trip to Rio de Janeiro (a nice excuse to get Karen Gillam to show off those legs), it seems the good Doctor still can't pilot his own Tardis correctly after nearly a century, as the trio end up in the slightly less lush Welsh countryside of Cwmtaff. Only it's ten years in the future, and sandy beaches are nowhere in sight. But as you'd imagine, strange things are afoot, as graves are missing bodies, and the local mining rig has been coming up with the most peculiar readings as their massive drill digs deeper into the earth's core than ever before. Oh, and it seems that the drilling has angered an ancient human-like race of reptilian warriors that have a major beef against the current rulers of the surface - and they're taking hostages.
And thus begins the second two-parter in the latest series of the Matt Smith-era of Doctor Who. This one ain't for the squeamish, that's for sure, and you'd better keep reading for the rest of the "The Hungry Earth" micro-review!
"The Hungry Earth" is what happens when you combine the thematic elements of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs with your standard Who mythos, only with less religious fervor and more emphasis on local terror. After a local mining rig celebrates digging deeper into the Earth's core than ever before, the Doctor and Amy Pond (Karen Gillam in short shorts) strike up a friendly relationship with the two on-staff engineers, Nasreen Chaudhry (Meera Syal) and Tony Mack (Robert Pugh), while Rory (Arthur Darvill) is mistaken for a policeman by a worried mom (Nia Roberts) and her dyslexic son Elliot (Samuel Davies) as they explain that bodies have gone missing from graves - only there's been no signs of good old-fashioned grave robbing. The bodies seem to have been gone missing from inside the ground itself, which seems to be related to the unnatural readings that the Doctor is observing from the mining equipment. "As you've been digging down," he explains, "someone has been digging up."
The idea that something could be tunneling up from within the inner reaches of the Earth's core might be fascinating to some, but after Amy is taken hostage by them, things start to get real. The Doctor instructs the rest to create a perimeter of sensing technology, as their expected guests may not be of the appreciable variety. A brief struggle - and subsequent capture - of one of these newly unearthed terrestrial explorers helps fill in the blank spots as the Doctor begins to recognize them for what they are. Green, scaly, and highly intelligent, it seems they are none other than the ancient race of Silurians, the original masters of planet Earth. Except they haven't come up for a quick chat; they want to take the surface back from the current inhabitants, and they're taking hostages.
The reptilian humanoid Silurian are great Who villains, and it's wonderful to see them reactivated after a nearly thirty year absence ("Warriors of the Deep"). While some may point out their resemblance to Land of the Lost's similar reptilian Sleestaks (an apt comparison) these underground dwellers couldn't be any more different. As the original intelligent species to rule Earth, Silurian scientists predicted the moon would collide with the planet, and to survive moved their entire civilization underground. An advanced race that developed some 300 million years before humans evolved, they've been anxious to ascend and reclaim what they feel is their rightful place on the surface from the "apes".
I've come to grips with the scattershot effects of the Matt Smith era, so the occasional cheap-o CG here and there doesn't really bother me anymore. The Silurian make-up is really great, and aside from a poorly rendered Silurian tongue lashing, the real focus here is on establishing the proper mood - terror. There's just something about getting a group of survivors/strangers into one room and having them defend themselves that strikes a chord with fans. Breaking this ambitious tale into two-parts was a great choice, as that only peaks interest for next week's concluding chapter. While Amy's absence was definitely felt, putting her fate at the hands of Silurian doctors is a textbook example on how to craft a real cliffhanger. As such, there's no real conclusion to speak of, and we'll have to wait to see how - or should that be if - the Doctor can once again save the universe. Hmm, I wonder what's going to happen...
All in all, "The Hungry Earth" was a surprisingly thrilling opener to what I hope will be the second great two-parter in the current series, and one of the best in all of recent Who history. The ending - which suggests horrible things await the human captors - was genuinely creepy and hit with more resonance than I thought it might. The return of the reptilian Silurians to the active enemy list was a great choice, as I think just about everyone was getting a little fed up with never-ending Dalek and Cybermen attacks (not that we don't love them), and only helps confirm what a great series this is turning out to be. Can't wait for next week's concluding episode "Cold Blood" to see how it all wraps up!
After less week's depressingly light bounty of extras, the official BBC website is back in business, as the bonus features are worth your effort. I love a good mask, and they've got a cool PDF file of a creepy masked Silurian face that more dedicated fans than myself can download, print, and spook out the neighbors with. A generous factoid about dyslexia is also there for the reading, all of which you can explore for yourselves right HERE!
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