Doctor Who and the Silurians

When UNIT begins its investigation into strange happenings at a secret atomic research center on Wenley Moor in Derbyshire, the Brigadier sends for the Doctor and Liz. With mysterious leakages in the power supplied by the nuclear generator, the stability of the reactor itself is under threat. A major atomic explosion is imminent. The Doctor suspects internal sabotage. Until an attack by a prehistoric monster while he is visiting the nearby caves leads him towards a more sinister conclusion. What is lurking there in the shadowy depths? Who or what is controlling the monster? And to what end?

The Doctor must move quickly to arrest a devastating power, active once more after millions of years in hibernation . . .

Originally transmitted in color from January 31st - March 14th, 1970, this seven part adventure starring Jon Pertwee was lost in its original form. Only a black and white version and an edited color American NTSC standard version remained, until now when technology worthy of the Doctor himself has reconciled the two, synchronizing them into one full color version.

• "Doctor Who and the Silurians" is the only story to incorporate the words "Doctor Who" in with the title of the story.

• This adventure introduces a popular villain to Doctor Who, the Silurians, a race of reptiles once in charge of the Earth millions of years ago.  Unfortunately, the name Silurian is assigned to a much earlier age than the reptiles/dinosaurs and so, although cool sounding, is technically inaccurate.  Doctor Who and the Triassicans?   Jurassicons?  Cretaceousians?  Nah...

• Blake's 7 fans look closely for Paul Darrow (Avon in Blake's 7) to play one of the Brigadier's endless supply of Captain Expendables.

• The original color master tapes of this story were wiped in the mid to late 1980's.  When the junking was halted and an inventory done, it was discovered that this story did still exist in a 16mm black and white film recording (used for overseas sales).  As luck would have it, a fan with an early videotape machine recorded these episodes in color when they originally aired in the U.S.  Similar color recordings of junked Pertwee episodes exist for "The Ambassadors of Death," "Terror of  the Autons" and "The Daemons" but sadly not for "The Mind of Evil" or episode 3 of "Planet of the Daleks" or episode 1 of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs."

• The Silurians, although a popular enemy, wouldn't return to Doctor Who until 14 years later in the Peter Davison story "Warriors of the Deep."

• The Doctor Who Restoration Team did extensive work on this video release by taking existing black and white footage and incorporating it with 1970's off air recordings to restore it to a high quality color version.