Silurians

[close] The Silurians are a race of reptile-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The species first appeared in Doctor Who in the 1970 serial Doctor Who and the Silurians, and were created by Malcolm Hulke. The first Silurians introduced are depicted as prehistoric and scientifically advanced sentient humanoids who predate the dawn of man; in their fictional backstory, the Silurians went into self-induced hibernation to survive what they predicted to be a large geological upheaval caused by the Earth capturing the Moon. The Silurians introduced in the 1970 story are broad, three-eyed land-dwellers. The 1972 serial The Sea Devils introduced their amphibious cousins, the so-called 'Sea Devils'. The 2010 episode "The Hungry Earth" introduced a more human-like version of the species.Their warriors wear bug-eyed silver masks that perfectly fit their faces. Another name for the species is mentioned in passing by the Doctor as "Homo reptilia" in "The Hungry Earth", and by his companion Amy Pond in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", taken from the novelisation of their first appearence written by Malcolm Hulke. The terms "Silurians" and "Eocenes" are human misnomers.

In their first appearance in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a group of Silurians were awakened from hibernation by the energy from a nearby nuclear power research center. The Doctor initially manages to negotiate an honorable compromise with the colony's leader. Unfortunately the colony's leader was assassinated by his own son who was intent on a far more aggressive policy. To that end, the Silurians then attempted to reclaim the planet from humanity by releasing a deadly virus and attempting to disperse the Van Allen radiation belt. Both plans were thwarted by the Third Doctor, an alien from the race known as the Time Lords, who was at that time stranded on Earth. Despite the Doctor's best efforts to broker a peaceful solution, the Silurians are still determined to exterminate Humanity, only to have their base destroyed by the fictional United Nations Intelligence Taskforce on the orders of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to preempt this open threat. In The Sea Devils (1972), an amphibious variety of Silurians were awakened from their hibernation by a renegade Time Lord known as the Master, who persuaded them to reclaim the planet from the human race. Despite the Doctor's efforts to convince them otherwise, the Sea Devils eventually decided to go to war, forcing the Doctor to destroy their base. It was revealed, however, that there were many colonies still in hibernation around the world. The land-based Silurians and the 'Sea Devils' next appeared, together, in Warriors of the Deep (1984), where they attempted again to reclaim Earth from the humans. Set in the year 2084 during a prolonged "cold war" between factions of humanity. The Sea Devils in this episode were described as being elite warriors; they sported bullet-proof samurai-style armour. The Fifth Doctor tries in vain to prevent any bloodshed against either species; he tells companions Tegan and Turlough to give the Silurians oxygen to keep them safe from the hexachromite gas he released into the base's atmosphere. The last surviving Silurian in the episode, however, is killed by Turlough, leaving the Doctor despondent.

In the 2010 two-parter "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood", Silurians are awoken in 2020 by an underground drilling operation. These Silurians lack the third eye of their 1970-1984 counterparts, and wear masks. Having misinterpreted it as a deliberate attack on the Silurians, the Silurians take hostages, including Eleventh Doctor's companion Amy Pond . The Doctor's attempts at a peace negotiation between humans and Silurians is ruined when Alaya a war hungry Silurian warrior provokes a panicked human mother into killing her. The Silurian leader Eldane recognises that humans and Silurians have the potential to reach some common ground in the future, and allows the Doctor and some of his allies to depart, leaving two humans behind with the Silurians to act as ambassadors to the human race when the Silurians re-awaken in a thousand years. In "The Pandorica Opens", some Silurians appear in 102 AD alongside various alien enemies of the Doctor (including alien Daleks, Sontarans, Nestenes and other species) to imprison the Doctor in the mythical "Pandorica" in order, as they see it, to save the universe from him. Another Silurian called Vastra appears in "A Good Man Goes to War" (2011); exposition reveals she encountered the Doctor having escaped into the Victorian era London Underground and went on to become a detective with a human companion, and to kill Jack the Ripper. The Doctor calls on her to go to war alongside him when Amy is abducted. Silurians are mentioned in the 2011 Torchwood: Miracle Day episode "The Blood Line"; Jack Harkness briefly muses that the Blessing (an ancient phenomenon beneath the Earth's surface) could be out of "Silurian mythology". A Silurian doctor is seen attending to Winston Churchill in "The Wedding of River Song" as part of an aborted timeline. Hope returns to play a Silurian seen only on a computer screen in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", in which the titular spaceship is a Silurian one searching for a new planet with a cargo of dinosaurs. The Silurian colony on board have all been ejected from the ship by Solomon prior to the episode. The ship is shown (by a postcard) to have reached a planet named Siluria with its dinosaurs at the episode's conclusion.