The Hungry Earth

"From their point of view, you're the invaders!"

Writer: Chris Chibnall 

Format: TV

Broadcast: 22nd May 2010

Series: 5.08

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis 

The most ambitious drilling project ever reaches far below the Earth's crust - but the ground is fighting back! The Silurians are disturbed by what they consider to be an attack from a mining mission in South Wales and are taking human hostages, including Amy. Can the Doctor maintain peace and retrieve his companion?

Verdict 

The Hungry Earth was an excellent episode of Doctor Who and a great start to this two-part adventure that sees us get into the business end of Matt Smith's first series as the Eleventh Doctor. He is of course brilliant and by the time of this episode he has settled into the role with ease and his sheer brilliance shines through. I still maintain that he's my favourite incarnation of the Doctor on television and this episode gave me no reason to change my thoughts. After finishing The Glamour Chase novel yesterday, and as I mentioned in my blog entry of that how much I enjoyed the TARDIS trio, I thought it was good to see the Doctor, Amy and Rory on television and so this story was just the logical choice as it actually followed on from where the novel left off with Amy and Rory expecting to arrive in Rio but instead got something much better - a village in South Wales! I am of course biased when it comes to a Welsh setting as I am very patriotic when it comes to my home nation and I think that has just been escalated by living in England for the last six months. I just love it and any story in Wales immediately grabs my attention. It was the perfect setting for a mining story and once the Doctor arrived, things really got eventful. This was my first Chris Chibnall episode since his announcement as the new show-runner and I can't wait to see what he does with the Doctor over the course of a series. He really created suspense and mystery and I love how he was trusted to bring back the Silurians for the first time since Warriors of the Deep. The revamp of their appearance is outstanding and I like how in this part we only see Alaya and the doctor. The threat they provide is there without us seeing them and I think that's hugely impressive. I like how the Doctor referenced Doctor Who and the Silurians and I do hope that the 2020 setting was intentional as it would brilliantly follow that aforementioned Third Doctor story. The episode was very cleverly titled with Amy and Mo getting swallowed beneath the surface and at first it appeared that they might be the dead. The Doctor initially seemed horrified to lose Amy to beneath the surface but it just gave him the determination to work out what was going on here and to go about fixing it. The guest characters introduced were really good here with Nasreen and Elliot standing out as my favourites. The latter having dyslexia was made brilliant by the Doctor's reaction to it and just making him feel superior to everybody else and not inferior as some might. That was really great. The former's enthusiasm to go beneath the surface once she found out the Doctor had a means of getting there was fantastic. She had worked her whole life in excavation and now she was going to see exactly what was beneath the surface. I'm sure it's not what she was expecting. Nasreen and Tony were good together and the disease the latter has been infected with doesn't look good at all. I'm looking forward to seeing that continue in the second part. Amy's defiance to the Silurians was admirable and I also liked Rory's anger at the Doctor for having lost Amy. The cliffhanger didn't provide any immediate danger but I think it was a lot more effective than the one in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. It has immediately given a new direction for the story and the threat, though not imminent, of an entire Silurian civilisation is superb. Overall, a great start and I'm looking forward to the second part which is of course where the rating will appear.