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| Excuse me but do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Curt Connors? |
Last time, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory found themselves at a Welsh mining operation in the far off year of 2020 that was becoming the target of a bunch of Silurians. Faced with a nigh-impossible situation, with humans captured by the Silurians and Silurians captured by the humans, the Doctor finds that it is not remotely a small tribe of them... not remotely a small tribe at all...
After a bit of narration from a character we have yet to be introduced to (as well as the opening stinger) about the alliance between the Humans and the Silurians 1000 years before and the terrible losses the Doctor suffered, The Doctor and Nasreen get captured almost immediately by a Silurian hit squad who bring them in after hitting them with crazy purple knockout gas.
This causes Amy's dissection to be put on hold as the Silurian scientist is called to catalog a new lifeform they've discovered - the Doctor. Amy... somehow manages to get a hold of the control device for the restraints and releases herself and Mo when the scientist leaves. The pair end up finding Eliot, with some sort of bio-mechanical wiring attached to him as he's left in some kind of display and is apparently completely catatonic. Amy encourages Mo to keep up hope - if he's wired up, he's still alive.
On the surface, Ambrose has decided to be the asshole for the episode, berating Rory for lying about being a policeman (he didn't, you assumed) and Rory shows a nigh-infinite compassion and understanding, but also encourages her to keep to the Doctor's plan and help keep Alaya safe.
Back in the Silurian City, Malohkeh - the scientist from before - converses with the Silurian military leader Restac (Neve McIntosh), Alaya's twin sister and he preps the Doctor for decontamination - which the Doctor very, very strongly objects to.
On the surface, Tony attempts to appeal to Alaya concerning the wound he received from her venom... and she sadistically rebuffs his requests for help simply because she wants to watch him die - the first "ape" death of the coming war.
The Doctor convinces Malohkeh to stop the decontamination before it kills him. The Doctor, as he does, begins to fast talk and negotiate his way through the situation. He makes some progress before Restac stonewalls him.
Amy and Mo, meanwhile, come across some Silurians in suspended animation, taking their not at all silly-looking weapons. They also find a large force of Silurians that are likewise in suspended animation - a full on invasion force meant to travel up to the surface.
Up on the surface, Tony's injury is revealed to Ambrose. She takes it well... and by well, I mean has pretty much the last thing she needs to complete her impetus for giving into her more violent impulses that we saw in The Hungry Earth.
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| They're watching Rory do a backflip. You can't see it, but it's there! |
Ambrose confronts Alaya with a taser. When Alaya not only doesn't give her the cure, but eggs her on... Ambrose kills her in a rage. Rory attempts to save Alaya, but having no real knowledge of Silurian anatomy, there's nothing he can do.
Back to the Silurian City, Amy and Mo attempt to pop in to save the others and end up getting taken back into custody. Restac declares it a military tribunal. Using their technology, Restac is able to contact the surface and Rory ends up having to speak on behalf of humanity. Everyone's overjoyed to see the Doctor and company alive... until Restac wants to see Alaya.
All seems lost... and then in comes Malohkeh with the leader of the Silurians - Eldane, the narrator from the beginning of the episode. He has Restac stand down and it seems all is hunky dory. The Silurians are going to send transport discs to the surface. However... they can't bring a live Alaya for obvious reasons.
In the meeting room in the City, the Doctor explains the difference between fixed points and pivot points. This is not a fixed point, so there is some potential for there to be some real good to be done here... by Amy and Nasreen, who the Doctor appoints as impromptu ambassadors.
The Doctor and Mo go with Malohkeh to get Eliot out of suspended animation and it's a very heartwarming moment overall. The Doctor apologizes to Eliot for having taken his eye off of him, and I can't help but remember a certain companion of the Doctor's who he lost after taking his eye off of him before...
...one that never knew if he was right...
Eldane does a long narration over time lapse of some of their debating and discussion. Eventually, Eldane makes it clear that they can indeed help each other out in trying to hammer out a peace agreement between their races.
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| "Alright, you primitive screwheads! Listen up! This... is my boomstick!" |
Malohkeh comes across Restac releasing several Silurian soldiers. She shoots him down before he can alert anyone else as to her plans.
Rory, Tony, and Ambrose come in, bringing Alaya's body. Ambrose owns up to it, but it's clear that neither Mo nor Eliot are pleased with her action. To say nothing of the Doctor, who cuts right to the quick of her and shuts her down. Restac marches into the meeting room with her death squadron and... well, shit goes down the second she finds her sister's body. The Doctor attempts to try to diffuse the situation, but Ambrose and Tony have set the drill on the surface to start drilling again - which will result in the Silurians' air pockets being destroyed.
The Silurians open fire - the Doctor taking out many of their weapons with the sonic - and the humans and Time Lord make a break for it. Trapped in a room with Eldane, now, the Doctor tries to figure out some kind of plan to destroy the drill and thus end the threat to the city. However, that still leaves Restac and her blood-thirsty Silurians alive to terrorize humanity, which Eldane gives a plan of using toxic gas to cow them back into hibernation to take care of that. The city will then shut down for 1000 years.
The Doctor charges the humans with a directive - 1000 years to get the Earth in order for the Silurians to return, to make sure there is a peaceful existence between the two races. Eliot takes to the mission with gusto, much to the Doctor's joy.
Tony elects to stay in the Silurian city, the plan to decontaminate him not being quick enough for them to enact it before the shut down. He says his goodbyes to his wife and grandson. Nasreen elects to stay with Tony, having fallen in love with him as previously established. She's got what she was finally digging for all this time.
Amy comes back to get the Doctor and the whole group is making a mad dash to the TARDIS while Restac's soldiers go back to hibernation. Getting to the TARDIS, the non-companions are let in and the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are witness to yet another Crack in Time, just like the one on Amy's bedroom wall and the one in the Byzantium. The Doctor laments not knowing, and decides to put a handkerchief-covered hand in there, pulling... something out. He doesn't get erased from time, at least not yet.
Restac emerges, dying and attempts to shoot the Doctor. Instead, Rory jumps in and takes the shot... and insists that he can't die here, he saw the future him and future Amy on the hill... he tells Amy that she's beautiful and he's sorry and... he's gone. Amy begs the Doctor to help him, but there's nothing he can do and - more to the point - the energy from the Crack is spreading. The Doctor pulls a hysterical, screaming Amy away from Rory and into the TARDIS, even sonic-ing the door shut so she can't get out.
For some reason, the Doctor puts it on the monitor for Amy to watch as he sets the TARDIS into flight.
He encourages Amy to try to keep him in her mind. She is a time traveler, yes, but this is something from her own history being changed. We get a flashback of a few moments for Amy and Rory as she struggles to keep him in her mind... and then, the TARDIS landing knocks them both to the floor. Amy... has forgotten, and the Doctor notes the engagement ring in the box has fallen to the floor.
The Doctor, Amy, Mo, Ambrose, and Eliot leave the TARDIS just in time to see the drill explode. A bit later, the Doctor encourages Ambrose to make sure that Eliot is the best of humanity in the way she couldn't be... which is ending on a more hopeful note than the Doctor usually leaves people in the new series.
As the Doctor and Amy prepare to leave, Amy waves to her future self... and for a moment, is almost sure that she saw someone else standing next to her.
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| "...and the greater losses, still to come..." |
Eldrane does a bit of wrap around narration - speaking of the losses the Doctor suffered, and the losses that were still to come. This over the Doctor pulling that handkerchief out of his pocket and revealing what he pulled from the Crack in time. It's a piece of the shrapnel from the explosion - a piece of the TARDIS.
So, here's something I don't get to say about him often - Chris Chibnall stuck the landing. I mean it, Cold Blood actually manages to be a mostly satisfying conclusion of the Silurian two-parter. It's rare, as we've seen from several reviews before now, for a Doctor Who two-parter in the classic show to stick the landing as far as quality. This one, surprisingly, did it.
The addition of Eldane as a more balanced influence with the Silurians shows another facet to their civilization other than the bloodthirsty Restac or the ultimately ineffectual Malohkeh - a diplomat and a wiseman. It is a pity that his diplomacy ultimately did not work in the there and now, but perhaps by 3020, they'll have it all worked out as the Doctor hopes. Eldane's monologue at the end seems to signify this, so the episode isn't entirely left on a bitter note and gives us some hope for the future - which is honestly more than you can ask for in a story like this (see also Doctor Who and the Silurians).
What is a bit of a bitter note is Rory... who is dead. Don't worry, he'll be back. What is of note, though, is Karen Gillan giving an absolutely soul-crushing agony of a performance as the man she loves is literally wiped out of existence and from her mind. Matt Smith also does well with the Doctor trying to console Amy and encourage her to remember Rory... and you can see the moment his hearts break when he realizes that she doesn't anymore.
All in all, Cold Blood is a good story, well-told. There's obviously the bits of the Season Arc involved, but they really only enhance something that is already a very good time.
Next time, the Doctor and Amy arrive in 1890 France after seeing a Vincent Van Gogh painting with a... vaguely haunting image within it. Next time, it's Vincent and the Doctor!
Be there!
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