Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E08 The Hungry Earth

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The Doctor: Oh look, a big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio. Rio doesn't have a big mining thing.

The second two-part story of the the Eleventh Doctor's first series. Written by Chris Chibnall, head writer of Torchwood's first and second series and the Doctor Who series 3 episode "42".

It's 2020, near a small Welsh hamlet. The most ambitious drilling project in history has reached deeper beneath the Earth's crust than man has ever gone before, but now the ground itself is fighting back.

The episode starts with Mo, the aforementioned drill worker, spending some quality reading time with his dyslexic son Elliot, before being reminded by wife Ambrose that his shift at the local major mining project starts soon. Having witnessed this fairly tender family life scene, it makes us feel all the more for the poor sap when something starts going wrong with the drill during 'off-hours' when he's the only one on duty, since it's his misfortune to have to fill the quotient of someone getting killed horribly in order to demonstrate how serious the situation really is.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive. (They were aiming for Rio, but the TARDIS disagreed.) The Doctor, never to be dissuaded from something of interest, tunes out Amy's complaints as he examines the strange feel of the ground beneath him and patches of blue grass all over the place. And there are people in the distance waving at them. According to the Doctor, who's the only one to have binoculars on him, it's a ten years older Rory and Amy, come to visit the place out of a sense of nostalgia. The Doctor explains that it would be a bad idea to meet up with them, and instead goes to have a look at the big mining thing.

Rory puts Amy's engagement ring in the TARDIS for safekeeping. He stashes the ring away before setting out after them, but gets somewhat waylaid by Elliot and Ambrose. Judging from the Police Box, they assume that he's a plainclothes police officer come to investigate the disappearance of people buried in the graveyard, coffins and all. And since on the surface the graves to all knowledge and appearances haven't been touched, it's as if the ground has all but swallowed them up.

Amy and the Doctor sonic-and-enter the premises of the drilling project, and come across Dr. Nasreen Chaudhry and Tony Mack, the two people directing this project. They're trying to work out what's wrong with the drill, where Mo went to, and where that big hole in the floor came from. The Doctor's most worried by the last, especially since it's started to steam. And of course he's right, as the ground situated under the room begins to tremble and more holes appear in the floor in quick succession. Nasreen and the Doctor make it to safety, but Tony gets stuck; Amy dashes to help him instead of making her own escape, and she starts getting pulled down into the earth for her trouble. She just gets pulled out of his grasp and under the earth.

The Doctor and Nasreen decide to head underground to bargain with the Silurians (remember them?), one of whom is under the watchful eye of Rory, crazed mother Ambrose and Tony, Ambrose's father; they have taken at least three people hostage so far and stung Tony with something nasty. And green. Also, in the middle of all that, Nasreen and Tony discover that they're in love.

The Doctor quickly mobilizes the ragtag family into a makeshift army. The reptilians put a pitch-dark barrier dome around the area and kidnap Ambrose's son, but not before he manages to draw a very accurate map of the area and tremendously helps the Doctor. The Doctor realises that he should have watched the boy more carefully and vows to rescue him.

Amy is revealed to be in the Silurians' underground science lab, soon to be dissected while still completely conscious, as frantically warned by Mo, who hasn't completely healed from his ordeal. Also, it's not just one little tribe, as the captured Silurian Damsel in Distress says. It's an entire civilization.

Tropes that this episode provides

"Have you met monsters before?"
"Yes."

"Are you scared of them?"

"No. They're scared of me."

    • When she enters the TARDIS, rather than the customary "It's bigger on the inside!", Nasreen describes it as "Fantastic!"
    • Yet another Moff reference - the sonic screwdriver still doesn't do wood (but don't say that that's rubbish within earshot of the Doctor).

"Oi! Don't diss the Sonic!"

Doctor: ...ah. Maybe more than a dozen.

  • Playing with Syringes: The Silurian doctor as he approaches Amy.
  • The Reptilians: The Silurians, Doctor Who's most famous lizard-people, are back.
  • Ridiculously-Fast Construction: There is no way it only took them nine minutes to set up their makeshift surveillance system.
  • Rousing Speech: The Doctor gives one, following which Nasreen even starts clapping. She's the only one, unfortunately.
  • Shout-Out: The Night Vision Shades were extremely reminiscent of They Live!.
  • Slow Clap: Nasreen unsuccessfully tries to start one after the Doctor's Rousing Speech.
  • Some Kind of Force Field: Albeit revealed with a slingshot rather than by someone walking into it.
  • Strapped to An Operating Table: Amy and the drill worker.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Justified; they're slimmed-down Night Vision Goggles.
  • Taxonomic Term Confusion: Homo reptilia would mean they were descended from apes, the same way humans are. They'd be something along the lines of Reptilia sapiens (except reptilia is a class, not a genus).
  • Title Drop: Sort of. The Doctor references the episode's working title, The Ground Beneath Their Feet.
  • Tranquil Fury: When Alaya, the Silurian prisoner, tries to gain sympathy from the Doctor by lying about being the last of her species, his expression stays quite polite, until he begins talking, "I know what it's like to be the last of a species, because I'm the last of mine. I know how it sits in the heart so, please, don't insult me." And his expression goes Icy Cold..'
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: The Silurians' motivation is reminiscent of Zionism, and conflicts between native peoples and immigrants in countries such as America and Australia.

Alaya: We lived here long before the apes!
The Doctor: Doesn't give you automatic rights to it now, I'm afraid.

  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Played straight and inverted. The straight play comes to the fore in the following episode.
    • The inversion comes in the Silurans. They're more than happy to kill stinking apes...and vivisect them...while they're awake.
  • Who Wears Short Shorts?: Amy was dressed for RIO!
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