The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Mel arrive on Earth in the future. And the two major power blocs are on course for war. Is this the chance for the Silurians to claim back their planet?

This felt much more of an early Seventh Doctor story in Sylvester’s delivery. I had expected the Doctor to have more gravitas than the comedic feel to his early adventures.

As for the plot… well it took a lot of time to really work out that there was one. For the first couple of episodes it didn’t feel that there was actually a narrative. There’s an encounter with a dinosaur, robot helpers/killers and the idea of Silurians. I say idea because it took a while for them to really enter the proceedings.

There were parts that didn’t seem to quite reconcile with the current TARDIS team, or came a little out of nowhere. Some of it felt like it been done by numbers, ingredients lifted from other stories and cobbled together without real thought into the point of it.

I did lose track of what was was going on by the end, but it didn’t seem to matter as there was little point or artistic value in any of it.

Its an enjoyable tale. I have heard audios that have been pretty dreadful and never want to go back to. This isn’t bad but just doesn’t really do anything despite having the opportunity to.

Sendo o meu primeiro contato com os Silurians na BIG FINISH e um grande fã do segundo arco do 3° Doutor “Doctor Who And The Silurians” de longe essa era a história que estava mais ansioso para ouvir nessa leva de áudios do retorno da Mel, mas infelizmente não correspondeu as minhas expectativas. O destino da TARDIS é o ano de 2085 em uma vasta floresta bem ambienta pelos efeitos sonoros, depois de exploram o local e conhecerem os personagens secundários incluindo dois Robôs do modelo “Karla”, Mel descobre o plano dos Silurians – Sabemos que lotes de mísseis estão prontos para serem lançados, assim somos inseridos em um plot de Guerra Fria. É uma ideia já muito batida tendo as criaturas inseridas da forma mais clichê possível – É aquele enredo repetido que já conhecemos e vimos inúmeras vezes que segue os mesmo passos de sempre: os aliens vilões (no caso os Silurians) são uma ameaça, acontece uma correria para evitar isso e no fim são derrotados. E o pior disso tudo é que antes de sermos apresentadas a problemática central do enredo, temos que passar pelo um longo e cansativo passeio enfadonho e monótono em suas duas primeiras partes. Nesse meio temos uma cena bem esquisita, onde o Doutor se irrita ao ver um dos personagens atacando e matando um dinossauro, ele toma as dores do bicho dizendo que cada vida importa - Mas em seguida ignora totalmente a morte de um dos personagens secundários o Gorrister...Tipo...?????

I very much wanted to enjoy this Main Range, sadly, I do think it deserves its reputation as one of the lower-rated among the whole set of 200+ stories.  The issue with The Silurian Candidate isn't so much that it is offensively bad, it is that it is a story with a unique opportunity to do something cool and instead it is a boring, dry, and easily skipped affair.

The idea of the Silurians involved in a more political story, perhaps with a brainwashed or disguised politician running for some sort of high office like in The Manchurian Candidate, I think this could have been one of the better Silurian stories.  Between that premise and the early use of content like pet dinosaurs left me extremely excited for the story to unfold.  Yet as it does it gets so flat.  The Silurians are boring characters, with the Triad politics really feeling like old hat after so many Silurian stories have already explored that dynamic.  Meanwhile I found the human characters and their motivation very weak.  That scientist that wants to force both sides into suspended animation so they can focus more on space travel just felt so lame in execution and premise. Then there's the Silurian's candidate himself, who also felt completely wasted.  It's a cool idea but the story makes no attempt to get us invested in the political intrigue around him and the Silurians.  It's a real shame.

It feels like Mel and Ace, originally a welcome addition to a story like this since they are fun characters, well, they feel completely wasted.  It's fun to see them in pretty much any adventure together, and that definitely helps keep this from being a total slog of a listen, especially in the first part, but it doesn't salvage this audio's many flaws.

The issue with Silurian episodes is, ever since the original, every single story has been a copycat and therefore deeply disinteresting. And this episode is much the same. SIlurians want the Earth. So do humans. They want a war over it. The Doctor stops them.

This story started okay but just gets more and more dull and repetitive as it goes on to the point where I was bored out of my mind by the end.