Serial: BBB  Episode Nos. 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, and 264.  Title: Doctor Who and the Silurians

An experimental nuclear research station set into underground caves is beset by mysterious power losses and behavior disturbances among the staff.  UNIT and the Doctor investigate, and their search leads deeper into the caves, where creatures from Earth's ancient past have been revived from hibernation to find their Earth ruled by "ape primitives."  Can a peace be broached between the creatures and the humans, or will a war for the control of the planet be inevitable?

This story sees the debut of the Silurians.

starring Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who, Caroline John as Liz Shaw, and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Written by Malcolm Hulke, Produced by Barry Letts, Directed by Timothy Combe.

Originally transmitted from 31 January 1970 to 14 March 1970 on BBC1.

DVD FEATURES:

On both discs:

- Graphical menus, episode selection, scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.

- Commentary track by actors Caroline John (Liz Shaw), Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier), Peter Miles (Dr. Laurence),

and Geoffrey Palmer (Masters), script editor Terrance Dicks, producer Barry Letts, and director Timothy Combe.

The panelists are rotated in and out of the sound booth throughout the serial.

- Isolated Music option. Selecting this will play all the episodes with only the incidental music playing.

- Information Text option. Turning this on will play the episodes with production notes pop-up trivia subtitles appearing throughout.

- A trailer for the new series Series 3 box set, which is skippable with your remote.

On Disc 1:

- Episodes 1-4 of this 7-episode story.

- “What Lies Beneath” A new 35-minute featurette about the current events in the world at the time of the story’s production

and how they influenced the writing of the story. Features interviews with Barry Letts, Timothy Combe, Terrance Dicks,

Caroline John, Peter Miles, Nicholas Courtney, retired MP Roy Hattersly, and new series writer Paul Cornell.

Narrated by Geoffrey Palmer.

On Disc 2:

- Episodes 5-7 of this 7-episode story.

- “Going Underground” A new 19-minute featurette about the making of the story featuring interviews with Barry Letts,

Timothy Combe, Peter Miles, Nicholas Courtney, Caroline John, and production designer Barry Newbery.

- “Now and Then” A new 10-minute featurette about the locations used in this story as they appeared then and as they appear today.

Narrated by Geoffrey Palmer.

- “Musical Scales” A new 14-minute featurette about the incidental music style used in this story and others of this era.

Interview subjects are musician/sound restoration guru Mark Ayres, musician Malcolm Clarke, producer Barry Letts,

And directors Michael Briant and Christopher Barry.

- “Color Silurian Overlay” A new 5-minute featurette that spotlights the extensive restoration that was necessary on this story.

***The BBC retained no complete color videotapes of this story, but the restoration team was able to combine the color signals

from a Betamax copy recorded off-air in Chicago in the 1970s with the high resolution black-and-white film prints the BBC did

still retain to produce the color-restored version that was made for broadcast and VHS release in 1993. The team re-did the

entire process again for the DVD release with today’s technology and have produced even more stunning results.

As good as the restoration has been, however, it is a bit limited in a few places in episodes 4 and 5 of the story where the color

signal on the Betamax tape was ropey due to poor antenna reception. (Episodes 1 and 7, on the other hand, look almost like

the day they were shot. The others are somewhere in-between.)

- Photo Gallery. A 6-minute collection of still photos taken during production of the story.

- Coming Soon Trailer. A 1-minute trailer for the forthcoming DVD of The Time Meddler starring William Hartnell.

- Radio Times Listings. A PDF file of the Radio Times television listings for the broadcast of this story in the UK, viewable if

you place this DVD in the DVD drive of a PC or Mac.

- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the blank area below to see what it is and how to find it.

Use “episode selection” or “scene selection” to watch episode 7 all the way through the closing credits and you will then see a special

1-minute trailer for the story which followed this one in the broadcast order, The Ambassadors of Death.

And if you have the commentary switched on, you’ll hear that continue on through this trailer as well. This egg does not appear if

you were watching having pressed “Play All.”