Doctor Who-Cold Blood

                                Upon arriving in the underground city of the Silurians,the Doctor and Nasreen find themselves the pair are captured and sent to the same labratory as Mo,father of Elliot and Amy-both of whom had just escaped thanks to some clever slight of hand on Amy's hand. While the Doctor and Nasreen are subjected to experimentation by Silurian scientist Melohkeh Amy and Mo locate a large ground of Silurians in suspended animation located on transport discs that lead to holes to the surface. All of these events are overseen by Resdac,twin sister of the captured Alaya overseen the Silurian military operations and the re-awakening of their people over their mistaking the phase of the moon for a coming apocalypse a millennia earlier.  Convincing Melohkeh and Alaya that,through negotiations for the safe return of Alaya and Elliot can lead to peace,the Doctor engineers not only he ans Nasreen's release but also a chance to speak before the Silurian council. On the surface Tony Mack,poisoned by the sting of Alaya,has in addition to her sons capture deeply affected Ambrose. When taunted by Alaya in her contempt and distrust for humanity,a distraught Ambrose stuns her to death. This of course breaks the bargaining chip,especially when Nasreen and Amy have become successful in negotiating with Silurian leader Eldrane for humans and Silurians to share the Earth together. 

                       Ambrose,Tony and Rory are given the opportunity using the transport discs to enter the Silurian community in order to return Alaya. Knowing of what happened,the drill is set by Tony and Ambrose to activate with anymore attacks upon them. Upon the revelation of Alaya's death to her sister,Resdac launches an all out war on humanity with Silurian troops-killing Melohkeh in the process as he returned Elliot to his father after attempting to study is aging process. Once returning to the laboratory with the Doctor and the human party,Eldrane explains the only way to end this is for everyone to escape to the surface in the TARDIS and for the Silurians to return to hibernation for another millenia,while a decontamination process with effectual end Resdac's military coup. While at the last minute Nasreen and Tony Mack elect to join the hibernation,the doctor is faced with one last minute problem;the same rip in time following the Doctor and Amy everywhere reappears. When attempting to retrieve an artifact from it for investigation Rory is injured and absorbed by the light. A distraught Amy,fighting her own unsuccessful battle to remember him,returns to the surface with no memory of his existence. While Nasreen's drill was destroyed the possibility of a future Silurian/human alliance is opened-until the doctor discovers that the artifact he discovered from the time rip,a burnt piece of the TARDIS, actually spells out the possibility of a future for him that is less than satisfying.

               From beginning to end this is an emotionally gripping episode on many levels,filled with compelling characters one can both route for or against. Resdac and her cause represents the same schism between the scientific and military community among the Silurians that was pointed out in the third doctor stories featuring the characters. As dramatically illustrated by Ambrose's fear based reaction in murdering Alaya,the feelings of mutual mistrust were on some levels more than mutual. Nasreen and Melohkeh emerge as sympathetic characters. Both show a genuine interest in the peace and welfare of both Silurian and humans,even to the point of showing strong redemptive behavior for their own mistakes in the process. Eldrane feels the strain as the nearing peace is sabotaged by Alaya's murder. The feel of this political thriller is changed when Amy faces not only the loss of Rory to herself,but from existence entirely. In one gripping scene,the Doctor shows full and almost desperate compassion to encourage an Amy wild with grief not to put Rory out of her mind. In the end however,with his discovery of the TARDIS's possible future destruction that more is at stake than he even imagined.