Doctor Who: We're Not Hungry For This "Earth"

Oh, two part episodes. How are we supposed to deal with you? Or rather, how do the writers/producers of any given show deal with you? Do you broadcast the show over two hours as a “special movie event?” Or do you build in a cliffhanger?

Other factors enter in: is your show usually a done-in-one mystery/monster of the week show? Or are you an ongoing serial? Clearly, the ongoing serial has the advantage here, as technically, every episode leads directly into the next, so we’re really watching a 22-part episode. Kind of. But how does a (usually) done-in-one show like Doctor Who deal with the two-parter?

There's actually a pretty clear pattern to Who’s twos. We usually get a continuing story in two very different settings, with different focuses, but the same villains. Take, for example, the Weeping Angels episodes from earlier this season. The first episode took place mainly the Labyrinth of the Dead, as the Doctor and his companions were stalked by a never seen Weeping Angel, horror movie style. The second episode was set in a jungle as they were attacked – in completely different ways – by an army of Angels.

Was their plot connecting the two episodes? Surely. Were their callbacks, and a character build over the two hours? Yup. And could you watch one hour and not the other? Hells no. But those two hours, at least, worked as a two-parter. As I previously wrote about, the first hour of that, in particular, brought us one of the tightest, most mature hours of television the show had ever produced (and the second hour was pretty much business as usual). They were separated by a week, but didn’t suffer from it – they worked as their own episodes of the show.

Which all brings us to this week’s episode, “The Hungry Earth.” And the formula is all pretty much there: this episode, the Doctor ends up in a small town where the Earth seems to be literally eating people. Turns out it’s the old school Who baddies The Silurians, ancient reptilian Earth dwellers who live far below the surface. They have an updated, Star Trek look, and end up trapping our heroes in a church, horror movie style. Then we end with a cliffhanger, almost literally, where The Doctor looks over at a giant Silurian city in the center of the Earth. Next episode? Silurians! More of 'em!

So why doesn’t this work?

It’s not bad, exactly – there were some great moments, including an especially well played and scored “death” scene for Amy Pond. I don’t think I’m spoiling too much when I say that the second lead of the series wasn’t killed half-way through the season, but watching the Doctor hold on to Amy as she was sucked into the Earth was terrifying and heart-breaking. And the idea of ancient Earth dwellers responding to human’s drilling by drilling back up at us is pretty clever.

The problem is that it doesn’t feel new, and it feels padded – I was watching this episode, wondering why we couldn’t resolve this problem easily in an hour. Like the Weeping Angels episodes, we get an unseen enemy stalking our crew, like a horror movie, in the first half, and then we open it up in the second half (next week). Yet since they’ve already given us this once this season, why do we need to see it again? Is that really necessary? Also, the idea of a bunch of humans turning on the alien they have captured (a Silurian locked in the church with them) calls back to a far, far better episode from season four, “Midnight,” which had a similar situation – but was extremely well written.

Point is, I understand it’s hard to come up with new ideas thirty-something seasons in, but don’t repeat yourself in the same exact season, okay?

And as for the two-parter thingy? Well, I guess we’ll see in retrospect how well this episode works – but for now, I’m gonna call it and say you could have skipped this one, and picked up next episode just fine.

Random Notes:

• Not a fan of Amy Pond being a damsel in distress, which may have caused my mild dislike of this episode. Hopefully she’ll redeem herself in the next.
• Amy and Rory waving to themselves at the beginning of the episode... That’s almost definitely from the season finale, and not far in the future like the Doctor claims. Also, I’m betting he knows that. I’m really enjoying these little continuity clues stuck throughout the show, personally.
• Was that the worst ticking clock ever? In seven minutes, five people gathered cameras from an entire town, set up an intricate security system, and barricaded a church – with several minutes to spare.
• I understand The Doctor doesn’t use guns, but isn’t a sonic pulse that knocks creatures unconscious a weapon? What about a fire extinguisher and throwing a creature in the back of your truck? For that matter, what about handcuffing someone and interrogating them?
• Oh, BBC America. I understand you need to edit for time, but I’m assuming the old man was bit or scratched by a Silurian at some point, so he could get infected or whatever, and you just cut that shot out? Le sigh.