Doctor Who’s New Showrunner: Who is Chris Chibnall?
By Sam Callahan
Doctor Who, Season 5 Two-Parter, Episodes 8 and 9 – “The Hungry Earth” / “Cold Blood”:
My main issues upon first-watch: I never understood the point of seeing Future Amy and Future Rory on the hill, other than to pull a red herring on us to misdirect us, mislead us so we don’t think Rory could actually be erased from existence at the end of this two-parter.
(“But he can’t die! We saw him in the future at the beginning of the episode!”)
Why would Future Amy and Future Rory go back to that hill just to wave at themselves? This always boggled me.
Upon a couple re-watches, I want to give points for the Sherlock references and inclusion of a kid with a learning disability being badass.
“Dyslexia never stopped Picasso or Da Vinci, and it’s not stopping you!”
Also, I award MAJOR POINTS for one of my favorite lines in the entire new series. The Doctor goes off on bio-programmable soil and Tony Mack (Robert Pugh) reacts:
"TONY MACK: You’re not making any sense, man! DOCTOR: Excuse me, I”m making perfect sense. You’re just not keeping up."
Sizzle and BURN, baby, burn.
Another beautiful lesson in this episode is about humanity and the mistakes we make out of love and fear — mistakes that could derail compromise, peace, and coexistence.
This episode demonstrates the best of us in both the human scientist, Nasreen Chaudhry (Meera Syal), and the Silurian scientist, Malohkeh (Richard Hope), and it shows the worst of us in Ambrose (Nia Roberts) and the sister Silurian soldiers, Alaya and Restac (Neve McIntosh).
Chibnall illustrates how one specific species shouldn’t hold the burden of all their errors, nor should we celebrate a species while ignoring their sins.
For the sake of saving her son who — unbeknownst to her — wasn’t actually in danger, Ambrose attacks Restac’s sister, accidentally killing her and consequently, the only opportunity to demonstrate good faith between the humans and the Silurians.
"DOCTOR (to Ambrose): In the future, you tell people there was a chance, but you were so much less than the best of humanity. RESTAC: And you want us to trust these apes, Doctor? DOCTOR: One woman. One woman. She was scared for her family; she’s not typical. RESTAC: I think she is. DOCTOR: One person let us down, but there is a whole race of dazzling, peaceful human beings up there. An alliance could work!"
Of course, it doesn’t. The humans and the Silurians were not ready for peace, allowing their personal fears to interrupt the prospect of compromise.
Honestly, watching the Doctor talk to the mother so calmly after she single-handedly ruined the humans’ chance at coexistence gives me patience every time I find myself in the same space after a huge lapse in judgment, either my own or someone else’s.