Doctor Who characters index
Incarnations of the Doctor
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | War | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 & 15
The TARDIS
Companions and Supporting Cast
Classic Series Companions (K9, Romana) | Revival Series Companions (Rose Tyler, Captain Jack Harkness, The Ponds, River Song, Clara Oswald) | Other Supporting Cast (The Paternoster Gang) | UNIT Staff
Villains
Immortals and Eldritch Abominations | The Master (John Simm's Master, Missy, Expanded Universe Masters)
Aliens and Monsters
Daleks (Davros) | Cybermen | Robots | The Silence | Silurians | Sontarans | Time Lords | Weeping Angels | Slitheen
Incarnations of the Doctor
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | War | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 & 15
The TARDIS
Companions and Supporting Cast
Classic Series Companions (K9, Romana) | Revival Series Companions (Rose Tyler, Captain Jack Harkness, The Ponds, River Song, Clara Oswald) | Other Supporting Cast (The Paternoster Gang) | UNIT Staff
Villains
Immortals and Eldritch Abominations | The Master (John Simm's Master, Missy, Expanded Universe Masters)
Aliens and Monsters
Daleks (Davros) | Cybermen | Robots | The Silence | Silurians | Sontarans | Time Lords | Weeping Angels | Slitheen
Homo reptilia, aka Siluriansnote (Third, Fifth, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Doctors)
Silurians voiced by: Peter Halliday (1970)
Silurians played by: Norman Comer, Stuart Blake and Vincent Brimble (1984), Neve McIntoshnote (2010–2014) and Richard Hope (2010–12),note Stephen Moore (2010)
Sea Devils played by: Pat Gorman and Peter Forbes-Robinson (1971), Christopher Farries (1984), Craige Els and several other actors (2022)
Silurians played by: Norman Comer, Stuart Blake and Vincent Brimble (1984), Neve McIntoshnote (2010–2014) and Richard Hope (2010–12),note Stephen Moore (2010)
Sea Devils played by: Pat Gorman and Peter Forbes-Robinson (1971), Christopher Farries (1984), Craige Els and several other actors (2022)
"This land is ours. We lived here long before the apes."
— Alaya
A species of highly intelligent creatures that evolved during the age of dinosaurs, the Silurians were distantly related to their aquatic relatives, the Sea Devils. Both species went into hibernation upon thinking that the moon was about to collide with the earth. It didn't; the disaster never happened, but their disappearance cleared the way for humans to take over as the dominant sentient lifeform. Eons later, they awake, and fight the upstarts (read: us) for control of Earth. It never ends well. The 21st century series gave the Silurians a very heavy redesign, with only two eyes, a more generally humanoid appearance (their battle armour has a mask that looks closer to the original face), and a multipurpose, venomous tongue. This is explained that the Silurians (unlike other species) showed an important intraspecific variation (vast differentiation between breeds), such as the number of eyes, the formation of their pupils or the colour of their skin with a wide range of subspecies (one of which is Sea Devils).
- Ascended Extra: Only appeared a few times in the classic series, and were fairly innocuous antagonists. The Moffat Era brought them back with a major redesign and expanded characterization, and since then they started appearing a little more frequently.
- The Ark: One of their many survival plans built was a space-faring version, containing a few thousand Silurians and a zoo's worth of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, a space pirate boarded the vessel and flushed them all out the airlock.
- Attack Animal: The Silurians of Wenley Moor used a dinosaur like creature. In "Warriors of the Deep", they used a Myrka (a genetically modified animal made by the Silurians from a pantomime horse an unknown deep-sea creature).
- Beneath the Earth: They have lain dormant there for millions of years, and possess very advanced technology.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Some express the desire to reclaim Earth and exterminate humanity with the justification that they came first and that humans are encroaching on "their" world. The Doctor politely points out that it doesn't work that way.
- The Bus Came Back: The Silurians reappeared after a long absence in series 5. The Sea Devils had to wait a bit longer, not making their return until 2022.
- The Cameo: In "The Pandorica Opens" they are members of the Alliance, and watch as the Doctor is dragged to the Pandorica.
- Continuity Snarl: Even by Doctor Who's standards, working out their timeline and exactly when they ruled the Earth is an exercise unto madness.
- Some stories have them claiming they went underground when the Moon first showed up (so four billion years-ish). The Silurian period was from 443 million years ago to 419 million years ago. Meanwhile, the Doctor has claimed they should really be called Eoceans (anywhere from 56 to 39 million years ago), and their occasional stories about having to drive off early homonids raiding their crops would back that up at least... but other stories claimed they were contemporaneous with dinosaurs (so anywhere from 223 million to 65 million years ago).
- Evil Sounds Raspy: The Sea Devils have much raspier voices than their land kin, and even more so on their reappearance in 2022.
- Extra Eyes: The Silurians have a third eye, which glows when they exercise psychic powers (in their first appearance) or when they talk (in their second). It has, however, utterly vanished from the newest incarnation of the species appearing in "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" and "A Good Man Goes to War", who are handwaved as being a different branch of the same species, somewhat analogous to the difference between Humans and Neanderthals.
- Everything's Better with Samurai: An elite task force of Sea Devils called Elite Group One was dressed in secure, samurai-style armour.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Perhaps as a subtle nod to the above, Madame Vastra wields one of these as her weapon.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: Silurians in "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and "Warriors of the Deep". Averted in "The Sea Devils" due to a concern about "naked Sea Devils running around on telly at teatime".
- Fantastic Racism:
- The average Silurian doesn't really have a high opinion of us "apes", and don't want to share the planet with us. For some of them, this applies to mammals in general. Even Madame Vastra has her moments.
- Sea Devils aren't any more fond of "land crawlers" than their kin.
- Insistent Terminology: They refer to Gene Lines rather than families, and some other touches.
- Last of Their Kind: Every named Silurian in the episodes they show up in will make this claim. It was more understandable in the original series (and subsequent expanded universe tales), where it was literally a few dozen at best who survived. When a captive Silurian tries to claim this on the Doctor in "The Hungry Earth", he shuts her down pretty quickly. Likely, since the species seems to have had a variety of branches and different survival plans, they're simply wrong.
- Living Dinosaurs: They are sentient dinosaurs who evolved on Earth geological periods before humans did.
- Lizard Folk: They are an ancient race of reptilian humanoids that predate humans.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Since their reappearance in 2010, the female Silurians have been portrayed as more aggressive than the males. Much like real-life lizards, then.
- Multipurpose Tongue: Useful both for defending oneself and... um…
- Non-Indicative Name: They're supposedly from the time of the dinosaurs, which is several hundred million years after the Silurian period. The Doctor at one point notes that the name is a misnomer, and they should be called the Eocenes. The Eocene era is a good 10 million years after the dinosaurs.note
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Well... the modern ones have them, anyhow.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood:
- The Sea Devils in their first appearance, who were duped into attacking humanity by the Master. The Doctor nearly managed to talk them out of it, until an idiotic civil servant ruined everything.
- Their portrayal in the revival series is this, as their "kidnapping" attempts were merely examinations in trying to find out more about the humans, except for the General Ripper and her equally vicious sister, who do just want to kill all humans.
- Overly-Long Tongue: Which are capable of stunning an opponent upon contact.
- Proud Warrior Race:
- The Warrior Caste Silurians.
- Sea Devils may also fit this trope.
- The more recent versions of the Silurians avoid this trope. Yes, they have a military, but it's not the driving aspect of their culture, and they have a phenomenal grasp of science.
- Psychic Powers: Silurians who have the third eyes have shown the capability of harming organic beings, killing them or leaving them unconscious. Alternatively, they could revive a human (or Time Lord) that they had rendered unconscious with the third eye. Energies emanating from it allowed them to burn through walls and create tunnels. These Silurians also employed their third eye in less destructive tasks, such as activating their technology, opening passageways or creating force-fields to trap prisoners.
- Rage Helm: The warrior caste Silurian faceplates are organic in appearance, and could easily be mistaken as a real (albeit scarier) face.
- Red Scare: "Warriors of the Deep" is largely ham-fisted, with Cold War metaphors up the wazoo. The Silurians were also a metaphor for the Soviets at the time, according to Word of God. The Sea Devils may have been this as well, but it doesn't seem as likely.
- Talking Lightbulb:
- Like the Daleks, the original designs' third eye is a flashing light bulb to indicate which Silurian is talking.
- The Sea Devils in 2023 get necklaces that glow as they speak psychically.
- Taxonomic Term Confusion: The poor Reptiles can't catch a break. They were originally called "Silurian", a period in which reptiles hadn't yet evolved. Malcolm Hulke's attempt to fix this with "Eocene" in "The Sea Devils" was, unfortunately, still wrong. The new series then did it again with Homo reptilia. (The Homo genus is mammalian, and they're simian-looking reptiles, not reptilian-looking mammals.) Some other stories use Reptilia sapiens, which while not perfect (reptilia is a class, not a genus) is at least on the right lines. In the New Adventures, it's revealed that in the distant future they're referred to as "Earth Reptiles" or "Indigenous Terrans", which if not as poetic are at least accurate. (Though in-story the latter is also accused of being "overly politically-correct"!)
- Ultraterrestrials: The first native sentient species on Earth, millions of years before humanity.
- Underground City: Have made a very impressive one where they remain in hibernation.
- Underwater Base: Sea Devils had thousands of underwater colonies dotted across the globe, each filled with millions of their kind. These bases were carved out of rocks and were generally covered in algae and seaweed. The colonies could be awoken en masse through the use of a sonic signal.
- Vocal Evolution: Forty years of development in budgeting means on their return the Sea Devils have much deeper voices, while still being pretty sibilant.
Individual Silurians
Alaya
Alaya
- Played by: Neve McIntosh (2010)
- Cool Mask: Wears a mask which resembles the original look of the Silurians while on the field.
- Last of Her Kind: Claims to be this when she first meets the Doctor. The Doctor sees through her lie.
- Thanatos Gambit: Goads Ambrose into killing her so her death will give the Silurians the Pretext for War they need to attack humanity.
Commander Restac
Commander Restac
- Played by: Neve McIntosh (2010)
- Arc Villain: The main antagonist of the "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" two-parter.
- Distaff Counterpart: Comes off as one to General Staal, another warmongering antagonist who was the Arc Villain of a two-parter.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While she doesn't show it, she does care about her gene chain sister, Alaya.
- Faceless Goons: Her soldiers all wear masks.
- Fantastic Racism: Views humans as "stinking apes" and wants to wipe them off the face off the planet.
- General Ripper: To protect her people from the perceived threat of humanity, she's willing to make war on the surface and even start a coup against her government and kill one of her own kind if they don't go along with it.
- Last Breath Bullet: Even while dying of poison gas, she's able to muster up the strength to shoot at the Doctor.
- Red Is Violent: Clad in red and the most war-hungry of her Silurian colony.
Malohkeh
Malohkeh
- Played by: Richard Hope (2010)
- Intrigued by Humanity: Has spent his time studying Humanity and how they managed to evolve over millions of years, developing a fascination with them that he was willing to awaken Eldane from hibernation in order to prevent Restac from starting a war with the surface.
- Mad Scientist: Zig-zagged. He enjoys Playing with Syringes and isn't above experimenting on humans, but he's also reasonably sympathetic to their plight.
Eldane
Eldane
- Played by: Stephen Moore (2010)
- Light Is Good: Clad in white and the Big Good among the Silurians.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Upon being awoken he immediately tries to negotiate peace with humanity and a way for them to coexist peacefully. When Restac's warmongering renders that solution unlikely, he agrees to force his people back into hibernation so they can try again some time in the future.
Vastra
See her entry under Doctor Who – The Paternoster Gang.
Individual Sea Devils
Chief Sea Devil
Chief Sea Devil
- Played by: Peter Forbes-Robinson (1972)
- Green and Mean: Green unlike the rest of his species, although the "mean" part is zig-zagged as he turns out to be more of an Anti-Villain.
- King Mook: Leader of the Sea Devils.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Betrays the Master once he believes the hibernation activation machine has been completed.
