The Third Doctor's first meeting with the Silurians - which almost sparked war between homo reptilia & homo sapiens over the right to call Earth home- in retrospect left a rather big question unanswered. What happened in the aftermath of Wenley Moor? Author Gary Russell, a noted fan of the lizards also known as Eocenes and indeed the man who gave The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood writer Chris Chibnall the idea to introduce the homo reptilia tag in the first place, attempted to answer the question with Scales Of Injustice.
As you might expect there are repeated references to that first time, but there are additions. Arguably the most fascinating of which comes in the form of the Sea Devils, whom the Doctor has not yet encountered at this point in his personal time-line. But as it turns out his musing on a possible link between the two species in The Sea Devils is proven correct, as the colony he comes across here is populated with the hybrid offspring of unions between them, frowned upon by the laws of both it would seem.
The children of these unions are born with defects, and experimentation upon kidnapped teenager Marc Marshall shows them that the apes they so detest could actually hold the key to their continued survival. Remember Icthar, Scrivus & Tarpok from Warriors Of The Deep?...
...As in their meeting with the Fifth Doctor, they serve as the Silurian Triad, the ruling trio of Eocenes- explaining how the chap in the cricket gear knows them of old.
"A long time ago. I let them down then, it seems I'll do so again."The dandy one more interested in cars than cricket will also get a first look at the Myrka as well as learn more of the various sub-groups of the Silurian species with subtle differences in appearance- some of which he'll later see for himself in subsequent incarnations. Consider the noticeable evolution of sorts from The Silurians...
Warriors Of The Deep...
and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood...
Which we'll come to in considering those a little later on!
But as we're going behind the Eocenes, so to speak, for The Scales of Injustice, what better source to study than the author's own notes?
"British UNIT is, being uniquely British, under-funded. Despite two alien invasions, the Government and specifically the Ministry of Defence clearly don't take such threats seriously and as a result, the Brigadier's permanent team is sorely under-staffed.So we can now begin to see that things haven't got much better for the Brigadier and his UNIT troops following events at Wenley Moor. Let us dig deeper underground! And what do we find?
Essentially we have:
One Brigadier (Lethbridge-Stewart)
One Captain (Turner/Munro/Hawkins/Yates)
Two Sergeants
Three Corporals
A handful of troops (twelve maximum)
There are also support staff: radio technicians, radar operators, drivers, administrators.
To top that up, the Brigadier can call on his regular army liaison (Major-General Rutlidge/Major-General Scobie) to call up extra troops. UNIT troops wear UNIT badges on their arms. Presumably a tour of duty in UNIT is likely when you join the army in much the same way as a tour of Northern Ireland is/was likely. The official secrets act must be signed before and after being seconded to UNIT."
"A 'lost' colony of Silurians and Sea Devils who have interbred- and been cast out of their society as a result -complete with children. Most of these are the equivalent of our teenagers -complete with teenage angst, identity problems, social delinquency etc. What we will see through the Doctor's and Liz's eyes is how much better the Silurian children are treated than our own.Murky business indeed.
The Silurian children will have a genetic weakness that Liz will eventually return to Cambridge to try and solve.The whole story- especially the denouement for obvious reasons- will have a very X-Files feel. The original Silurian incident has been hushed up even more than most UNIT conflicts.
If the general public were to discover that an entire civilisation existed prior to humanity- what would the reaction be? Panic? Threat? How many archaeologists would suddenly become employed by various governments?We open with a Silurian stalking someone and kidnapping them. A child. It is returned after some ransom demands two days later, apparently unharmed- the motive of the kidnapping undetermined.
The child is the son of a politician- a junior minister for the Health Department, in particular the pharmaceutical division. The kidnappers are the genetically challenged offspring of the Silurian/Sea Devils.
These hybrids have been told by their elders that their lives will be short due to the genes they carry. Unknown to those elders, a group of the older hybrids are determined to find a solution and in an attempt to force the ministry's hand, have inserted some of their genes into the minister's son."
"The group we focus on chose to cross-fertilise with each other. Fine, except that some of the Elders here are Silurian, some Sea Devil and such inter-breeding is considered unethical. As a result, they were made castaways. When 'the Darkness' came, they were forgotten; no prepared shelters, no alarm clock to awaken them. The scientists amongst them managed to create crude hibernation chambers- the youngest and virile were allowed to survive.In short, an ideal counterpoint to the on-screen alliance between the two species....
Many of the females were pregnant. As a result the few that survived the hibernation and subsequent continental shifts, nuclear testing etc. are bewildered to find mammals ruling and no way of contacting mainstream shelters. The young that have been born are satisfied with this. They consider themselves 'the Abandoned' and have a dinosaur-sized chip on their shoulders.
These hybrid children look like a cross between Silurians and Sea Devils but lack certain skills. On reaching puberty, homo reptilia strengthen dormant ESP powers. The hybrids have none. Those with the lethal 'third eye' tend to take charge, a splinter group within a splinter group.The Elders have all but died off.
Four or five still live, including the colony's leader, a scientist called Chukk B'do. Of the hybrids, we will concentrate on the aggressive male leader, Baal N'to and his sister Sula N'tu (as with Slavic names, the male and female have vowel differences to designate sex). Baal is something of a scientist and is secretly trying to find a way to reverse their genetic twists.
Chukk wants them to embrace their individuality, to accept short but unique lives. Baal resents this and decides to use human DNA to try and strengthen his own: the mammals may be repulsive, but they have survived so many diseases etc. that there has to be something in their genes that keeps them strong."
No comments:
Post a Comment