Sorry this review's both late and short... my bad :P Too busy packing!
DR WHO: THE HUNGRY EARTH
In Which: The Doctor, Amy and Rory turn up at a mining facility in 2020 who are drilling down further than man has ever drilled before... But something's drilling back up towards them!
What did I think?: Could this episode have been anymore old-school-Who if it had tried? And I mean that in a good way. A small cast, a returning enemy (who, granted, look completely different to how they used to look, but enemies on Dr Who do that on a remarkably regular basis), a companion separated and imprisoned... the list goes on.
Firstly, can I say that the team of Doctor, Rory and Amy seems to be working incredibly well, at least in my eyes, but then I've always preferred three-man TARDIS-teams.
Guest stars this week did a wonderful job, and special credit goes out to the child actor for not being annoying like, well, most other child actors. (For an example see the kids who played young Jacob and MIB in LOST).
So the earth is eating people having been bio-programmed by the Silurians? I buy that, and it leads to creepy images of people being "eaten" by the earth, including, (shock, horror) Amy! But it turns out they haven't been killed, merely captured for some, as yet undetermined purpose.
Loved the "dome" over the village when the Silurians attacked, and loved Rory and The Doctor bundling their captive into the meals on wheels van. Oh, and the Silurian makeup was superb!
Obviously, a lot of this episode was setup for next weeks resolution, so it was the little elements that stood out for me. The Silurian predicting her death at the hands of one of the three characters facing her (Rory, Tony and Ambrose) , Nasreen entering the TARDIS and being overawed and excited, and, of course, the Silurian City reveal at the end of the episode...
It all looks like it's leading up to excitement, which is good.
Obviously, it wasn't all perfect, the "10 years hence Rory and Amy" I'm starting to wonder whether it's a plot point or just a joke, and the silly reason for Rory to split up from the other two at the beginning (putting the ring in the TARDIS) could have been better thought through. Also, I'm sad that the scene that was shown (mostly) in Dr Who Confidential was cut, as it looked to be some nice character banter between The Doctor and Amy.
The Good: Most of it. Felt very old-Who, which I liked as a change, performances suitably brilliant as always, loved the Silurian make-up.
The Bad: A bit slow (But I can forgive that as it's a Part One), Rory getting split off from the others early on was very contrived, and I almost felt that we shouldn't have seen any shots of Amy after she was captured, because we didn't learn much, and it would have sustained the question of if she was OK...
Conclusion: 8/10
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