Bloodtide

Milions of years in the past, a Silurian scientist is exiled from his community for unethical experiments. As the Earth is ravaged by rapidly dropping temperatures, he and his creations are left to die. Millions of years later, the Doctor and Evelyn arrive on the Galapagos Islands and encounter none other than Charles Darwin and the crew of The Beagle on the expedition that will give Darwin his insights into his theories of evolution. The small colony also on the island have been experiencing some trouble, though; it seems that some of the residents have been driven mad, and claim to have sighted monsters in the caves nearby...

At LAST. After the sham that was Warriors of the Deep it is a great relief to see the Silurians treated with some respect. And to have them pitted against the sixth Doctor himself - wonderful. And dear Evelyn - she's getting a real treat as a companion, meeting all the classic monsters right away.

The pairing of a Silurian story with Charles Darwin is a fantastic idea given that the whole Silurian story from the start followed the entire evolutionary argument, even if humankind's ancestors were slightly differently portrayed. Artistic license, one supposes. And we get a proper explaination of what the Myrka is; even though we don't actually see it in this episode, it comes across as more credible in audio than it did staggering around the sets of SeaBase 1 back in 1984. I question the whole suspension of disbelief when it comes to Darwin not mentioning his encounter with the Silurians, though; he'd be reporting on giant tortoises and all manner of strange birds and plants, but how he'd leave giant reptile people out of the equation just because the Doctor says so is hard to swallow.

How do our Silurians stack up against their predecessors? They're more akin to the Silurians of 1970 with their voices and with their general disposition. There is dissent amongst their ranks about how to handle the humans that have now claimed the Earth as their own, but in an unoriginal moment they decide that maybe a plague is the best way to wipe them out. Ho hum. I seem to remember that not working once before, although they admittedly had modern antibiotics to work with at that time. An epidemic in the 1800's would have a much different outcome. And as always now that an old monster has been brought back for the audio, now comes the burning question of when they will return to the screen in the new series. Ice Warriors first, though!

NEXT EPISODE : PROJECT TWILIGHT