Silurian (Doctor Who)

Affiliated with Earth Reptiles Home planet Earth First appearance Doctor Who and the Silurians

The name Silurians refers to a fictional race of reptile-like beings in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The Silurians were Earth's first sentient species, were scientifically advanced, and lived during prehistoric times. At some point, the Moon approached close to Earth, threatening to cause geological upheaval, and the Silurians went into self-induced hibernation to survive. The name Silurian is a misnomer and in the original story was coined and used exclusively by humans. The misnomer arose because the race was identified as belonging to the Silurian period when first encountered in the Third Doctor serial Doctor Who and the Silurians. The Doctor, in a later serial, mentions that Silurians should more properly be called Eocenes. However, that term appears to be equally inaccurate. The Silurians are seen using dinosaurs as guard animals, and by the Eocene epoch, dinosaurs had long become extinct (although there is some merit to the suggestion that the primitive Silurians co-existed with dinosaurs and their domesticated versions survived with them). In some of the New Adventures novels, the term "Earth Reptile" is offered as the "modern" term for them. Whichever period the Silurians actually belong to, it is the first name applied to them that has stuck. Silurians are scaly, cold-blooded reptilian humanoids, with yellow eyes and oval mouths. They are also possessed of a red third eye that has various abilities, such as stunning or killing their opponents, signalling each other, or opening doors keyed to emanations from the third eye. The eye glows when it is active.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. 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 centre. The Silurians then attempted reclaim the planet from humanity by releasing a deadly virus and attempting to disperse part of the Van Allen Belt. Both plans, however, were thwarted by the Doctor. Despite the Doctor's best efforts to broker a peaceful solution, the Silurian base was destroyed by UNIT on Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's order. Another group of Silurians turned up in the 1984 serial, Warriors of the Deep, where they allied with their aquatic cousins, the Sea Devils, in a second attempt to reclaim Earth from the humans. That attempt took place in 2084. Curiously, on that occasion the creatures used the terms "Silurians" and "Sea Devils" to refer to themselves, despite these terms previously being purely human phrases. Other appearances by the Silurians in the Doctor Who spin-off media include the Virgin New Adventures novel Blood Heat, which featured an alternate reality where the Silurians conquered Earth, the Big Finish Productions audio plays Bloodtide (with the Sixth Doctor) and The Coup (with UNIT). In The Coup, set in the present day (but see UNIT dating controversy), the Silurians attempt to finally make peace in the humans. How this links with the events of Warriors has yet to be explained. Appearances Doctor Who and the Silurians - January 31 - March 14, 1970 Warriors of the Deep - January 5 - January 13, 1984