Late Silurian
- You may be looking for Early Silurian or Middle Silurian.
Late Silurians were a Silurian subspecies identified by historians who had been allowed access to the "Monster Vaults" of the databanks in the Doctor's TARDIS. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) One such Silurian, Vastra, was identified on sight as a warrior by some Early Silurians, whom she recognised as being of the "scholar caste". (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"]) They were known to UNIT as the Cymtaff subspecies. (PROSE: Prehistoric Incursions [+]Loading...["Prehistoric Incursions (feature)"])
Biology[[edit] | [edit source]]
The late Silurians retained the green, scaly skin and crests of the earlier subspecies, but were distinguished in their voices and facial features broadly resembled humans, which historians attributed to parallel evolution. Having evolved to hunt apes, the Silurians had completely lost their third eyes by this point, but were the only subspecies to have noses to scent their prey. Further, they were equipped with extremely long, elastic tongues, like chameleons, which could deliver a highly venomous sting. Like the other subspecies, Silurians of the same gene-chain were virtually identical save for skin markings. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"])
The eye colours of most late Silurians matched human norms, (TV: The Hungry Earth [+]Loading...["The Hungry Earth (TV story)"]/Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"] etc.) though Jastrok's eyes were yellow in colour. Some Silurians such as Jastrok regret having lost their third eye. (AUDIO: Call to Arms [+]Loading...["Call to Arms (audio story)"]) The Dacha was one Silurian who possessed a third eye despite otherwise appearing as a late Silurian. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"])
Raldoma Syndrome was a virus which was carried by Horlak's tribe, who were themselves immune to it, which was deadly to 99% of Silurians, including Vastra's caste. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"])
These Silurians' Hunters wore masks resembling (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Loading...["The Mazes of Time (video game)"]) the real faces of a group of Silurians seen on prehistoric Earth, who, in an ultimately-aborted timeline, were converted into Cyber-Silurians. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)"])
Culture[[edit] | [edit source]]
Late Silurian warriors, also known as hunters, (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Loading...["The Mazes of Time (video game)"]) continued to wear ceremonial hunting masks, and their dish of choice were apes, or their human descendants. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"])
Whilst historians observed that different triads or tribes of Silurians retreated into hibernation in anticipation of various disasters over millennia, contributing to the evolution of distinct Silurian subspecies, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) one account indicated that Silurian subspecies co-existed in a caste system. Vastra, a warrior, recognised her "brothers" in the scholar caste, whilst their leader, Horlak, acknowledged her as a "sister". (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ruling the Earth[[edit] | [edit source]]
Faced with a "destructive impact", one group of Late Silurians decided to leave Earth in order to escape . Boarding the Silurian Ark, a spaceship carrying Silurians and several species of dinosaur, (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) on 4 June 100,000,000 BC, (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary) they placed themselves in suspended animation, with the ship programmed to bring them back to Earth long after the effects of the upcoming disaster had dissipated. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
Va'stra (PROSE: The Red-Eyed League) of the Eastern Lands (GAME: Lost in Time) grew up 65 million years before the 19th century, (AUDIO: The Cars That Ate London!, The Ghosts of Greenwich) in the Cretaceous period. (AUDIO: Symmetry of Death) She belonged to the Eastern Council and the Sisters of the Bladed Soul. (AUDIO: Pater Noster)
At this point, her fellow Silurians captured dinosaurs and kept them as pets. (COMIC: Lost in Time) Vastra's people were also blighted by what she remembered as their "greatest plague" and "most virulent enemy", the repulsive red leech, a tiny parasite which infected the Silurians' drinking water; once in their systems, it secreted a fatal poison. (TV: The Crimson Horror [+]Loading...["The Crimson Horror (TV story)"]) When the Earth faced disaster, on numerous occasions, (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"]) almost all clans went into hibernation underground, including Late Silurian communities. (TV: The Hungry Earth, A Good Man Goes to War, COMIC: The Lost Dimension, AUDIO: Pater Noster) Historians counted infestations of the red leech as one of these disasters. (PROSE: The Monster Vault [+]Loading...["The Monster Vault (novel)"])
It was circa 65,000,000 BC that an extinction event wiped out the dinosaurs. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs [+]Loading...["Invasion of the Dinosaurs (TV story)"]) Warrior-class Sea Devils were also roaming the Earth at this time, having used dinosaurs as prey, and survived by plunging their aquatic colonies into a state of hibernation. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death [+]Loading...["Clara Oswald and the School of Death (comic story)"]) Vastra believed that the Myrka had gone extinct during this time until finding otherwise in 1886. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension [+]Loading...["The Lost Dimension (comic story)"])
Awakenings[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 102, a number of Silurian Hunters were part of the Alliance that imprisoned the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"])
In the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart [+]Loading...["Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart (TV story)"]) some Silurian Hunters seemingly awoke and battled Norman cavalry. This battle was depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. (GRAPHIC: Knights [+]Loading...["Knights (illustration)"])
In 1892, the Silurians led by their leader Vekkis found a piece of the Eternity Clock to reclaim Earth. They planned to use the power of the Clock to pump toxin to wipe out the human race. The Eleventh Doctor and River Song destroyed the toxin and took the Eternity Clock. (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Loading...["The Eternity Clock (video game)"])
In the 2010s, a masked Silurian was a resident of the hidden trap street in London which housed lost aliens on Earth under the protection of Mayor Me. As with the rest of the inhabitants it appeared cloaked in human form through use of the lurkworms. (TV: Face the Raven [+]Loading...["Face the Raven (TV story)"])
In 2020, a Silurian city in Wales was awoken by a mining trial led by Nasreen Chaudhry and Tony Mack. (TV: The Hungry Earth [+]Loading...["The Hungry Earth (TV story)"]) The giant drill had attacked the Silurians' oxygen pockets. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"]) The Silurians took corpses from a graveyard for study, as well as Mo Northover and later Amy Pond as living subjects. Eventually they contained the village in a force field and captured Elliot Northover. Alaya came to the surface and was captured. While the Eleventh Doctor and Nasreen travelled to the Silurian city to negotiate her return for Mo, Elliot and Amy, Alaya was guarded by Tony, Rory Williams and Ambrose Northover. (TV: The Hungry Earth [+]Loading...["The Hungry Earth (TV story)"]) The Eleventh Doctor and Nasreen were captured, while Amy and Mo escaped.
After an abortive rescue attempt, the Doctor was able to convince the Silurian leader, Eldane, to negotiate with Amy and Nasreen for the future of both their races. Back on the surface, Ambrose tried to help her family and threatened Alaya, accidentally killing her just as the group were summoned to the city. She also set the drill to start burrowing again in fifteen minutes. Alaya's death, and Ambrose's threat to the city, was received badly, especially by Alaya's sister, Restac, who tried to kill all the humans in retribution. Eldane managed to lead the Doctor and his friends to a laboratory. He released a deadly gas into the city, forcing Restac's troops to return to their hibernation. The Doctor stopped the drilling by destroying the drill with an energy pulse, which also sealed off the city in a cave-in. The timer was set for a thousand years to permit a second chance at negotiation. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"])
In 2367, Solomon sent a distress signal to the Silurian Ark. Realising that there were valuable dinosaurs on board, he and his robots slaughtered the Silurian crew. Unable to pilot the ship to his destination as it required two pilots with the same gene-chain, the Ark headed back to Earth where it was detected by the ISA. The Doctor formed a gang to investigate the ship after learning of the situation and to save the ship from being shot down by the ISA. As the ship came under threat of destruction, it was piloted to safety by Brian and Rory Williams who had the same gene-chain as they were father and son while the missiles were tricked into destroying Solomon's ship instead. In the aftermath, the dinosaurs were taken from the Ark and transported to a new home on Siluria by the Doctor and Brian. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship [+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)"])
During the 29th century, when solar flares were threatening to engulf the Earth, the Silurians built a spacecraft, surreptitiously attaching it to the bottom of the humans' own. After takeoff, an attack by the New Dalek Paradigm caused the Silurian ship to break away from the humans. (GAME: Evacuation Earth [+]Loading...["Evacuation Earth (video game)"])
One thousand years after the encounter at Cwmtaff, Eldane's clan were scheduled to reawaken and unite with humanity and their Earth Reptile cousins. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"])
Around the 52nd century, a group of Silurian Hunters were called upon by the Eleventh Doctor to help him in the Battle of Demon's Run to rescue Amy Pond. Many of these Silurians were killed by the Headless Monks. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"])
Undated events[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Silurian called Wanda trapped humans in the monkey enclosure in the zoo. (COMIC: Untitled [+]Loading...["Untitled (10DY3 4 comic story)"])
The Late Silurians joined Rassilon's Alliance of Races in the Great Inferno, the war with the Hyperions. (COMIC: Terrorformer [+]Loading...["Terrorformer (comic story)"]) After the Hyperions were defeated, the Alliance then went on to purge the universe of other threats to universal harmony, one of those threats being Count D'if of the Cybock Imperium. (COMIC: Gangland [+]Loading...["Gangland (comic story)"])
Alternate timelines[[edit] | [edit source]]
In a world where all of history occurred at once, Silurians lived alongside humans. Malohkeh served as physician to the Holy Roman Emperor, Winston Churchill. (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- J. K. Woodward, who worked on the Star Trek crossover Assimilation², released a piece depicting a late Silurian assimilated by the Borg.
- 100 Scariest Monsters, as well as including the late Silurians in its entry on Silurians, gives them their own entry as "Homo Reptilia". The term "homo reptilia" was first used on-screen to refer to the Silurians in The Hungry Earth [+]Loading...["The Hungry Earth"] but was originally used in Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters (novelisation)"], the novelisation of Doctor Who and the Silurians [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"].
