Doctor Who - Audio Details

The prehistoric Earth is dying.  Thunderclouds roll across the skies, cloaking the land in darkness.  The seas crash and boil as the rain turns to acid.  The remnants of the Silurian race place themselves in suspended animation, deep below the surface.

One day they will awaken and reclaim their world...

The TARDIS has landed on the Galapagos Islands, a desolate outcrop of rocks shrouded in mist and fear.

In the settlement of Baquerizo Moreno, there are rumours that prisoners have been mysteriously disappearing from the gaolhouse.  A fisherman has been driven insane by something he saw in the caves.  And the Doctor and Evelyn are not the only new arrivals; there is also a young natural philosopher by the name of Charles Darwin…

Doctor Who is about the monsters.  Take the monsters out of Doctor Who and all you have is a lot of implausibly-costumed people with strange names arguing with each other.  As a child, the reason I watched Doctor Who was because of the monsters.  And the scarier they were, the better.

But the Silurians are a bit different.  Not only are they scaly green reptiles, but they are scaly green reptiles that have a greater claim on the planet Earth than we do.  Indeed, the whole premise of the Silurian race raises interesting moral and ethical questions about mankind's place in nature.  And that was, essentially the starting point of this story.

Before I go, a quick word about historical accuracy.  None of the events depicted in this play happened, but they are nevertheless portrayed with complete accuracy.

Jonathan Morris, March 2001