Inspecting the Hole

The year is 2020 and in the small Welsh village of Cwmtaff a team, led by Doctor Nasreen Chaudhry, is carrying out the deepest drilling project in history, in order to investigate minerals that appeared locally, but otherwise have not been on the surface for over 20 million years. Inside the drilling complex Mo Northover, a night watchman, finds a strange hole in the ground inside the mine complex, and, upon investigating, is dragged beneath the surface.

The following morning the TARDIS materialises in the graveyard of the local church. On investigating their surroundings The Doctor and his two travelling companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams spot the drilling operation and some strange blue grass. While Rory is mistaken for a police investigator, and is asked to help solve the mystery of local graves that are being dug up without disturbing the ground, The Doctor and Amy break into the drilling complex. Inside they meet Doctor Chaudhry and her assistant Tony Mack. An earthquake then strikes and more holes appear in the ground. Tony finds himself in one of the holes and being dragged down into the earth. Amy and Doctor Chaudhry eventually manage to pull him free but in doing so Amy gets stuck in the hole instead. The Doctor figures out that the ground had been bio-programmed to attack whenever it perceives a threat, and insists that the drill be shut off. The drill is stopped but not until after Amy, despite The Doctor’s attempts to help her, is pulled completely underground.

The Doctor then discovers that the drill head has breached a network of catacombs 21km below the surface. Putting together the information from the available sensors, The Doctor figures out that three entities are heading for the surface, and will arrive in 12 minutes. The Doctor, Doctor Chaudhry, and Tony head to the town church for safety, where they meet up with Rory and local resident Ambrose and her son Elliot. The approaching attackers put an energy barricade around the town to prevent anyone escaping and to provide cover of darkness. They then arrive and attack the humans. Elliot, having returned to his house, is chased back to the church by a reptilian humanoid and disappears before those inside the church can save him. When they attempt to locate Elliot, Tony is struck by a venomous forked tongue belonging to a second reptilian. Despite not being able to save Elliot, The Doctor and Rory are able to capture one of the reptilians, whom The Doctor quickly recognises as an unknown 300-million-year-old branch of the Silurians.

Doctor Nasreen Chaudhry

The Silurian reveals herself to be Alaya, a warrior of a Silurian tribe that had hibernated beneath Cwmtaff for countless years before being disturbed by the drilling. The Doctor tries to negotiate peacefully, but Alaya insists that the Silurians will wipe all humanity off the surface of their planet. So that The Doctor can rescue Amy, and to broker peace between the Silurians and humanity, he uses his TARDIS to meet the Silurians in their underground encampment. He is accompanied by Doctor Chaudhry, leaving Rory and the remaining humans behind with the explicit instructions not to harm Alaya. On arriving below ground The Doctor is shocked to discover that rather than there being a small group of maybe a dozen reptilians, he instead finds an entire Silurian civilisation.

On entering the Silurian’s huge underground city The Doctor and Doctor Chaudhry find themselves surrounded by several armed Silurian troops who they learn have just been woken up from suspended animation. Meanwhile, a Silurian doctor, called Malokeh, is about to start to dissect Amy who has awakened to find herself and Mo in a laboratory. Luckily for her Malokeh is called away so as to examine The Doctor. Amy though has managed to obtain the device to release herself and Mo. Shortly after escaping from the laboratory they find Elliot in suspended animation, but still alive.

Amy

Back on the surface, Alaya refuses to help Tony when he asks her to cure him of the venomous sting on his shoulder. This eventually provokes Ambrose to use a taser on Alaya, but unfortunately this has more of an effect on the Silurian than it would on a human, and so she inadvertently kills Alaya, thus destroying humanity’s only bargaining chip to broker a peaceful co-existence with the Silurians.

On discovering that The Doctor is not human Malokeh stops the decontamination process being carried out on him much against the orders of Commander Restac. Which angers her. After being re-united with Amy, who with the help of Mo attempts to rescue The Doctor and Doctor Chaudhry, the four of them find themselves threatened with execution by Commander Restac. However, before anything happens, Commander Restac contacts the surface to demand the return of Alaya. When this request is refused Commander Restac threatens to kill her hostages one-by-one until Alaya is returned. Much to Rory’s dismay Amy is chosen to be the first to be executed. Suddenly contact with the Silurians is lost leaving Rory uncertain of the fate of Amy.

Unbeknown to those on the surface before the Silurians can fire, their leader, Eldane, arrives and orders otherwise. This gives The Doctor a chance to attempt a negotiation with the Silurians, making Amy and Doctor Chaudhry ambassadors for humanity. Meanwhile, Malokeh releases Elliot, returning him to his father. Malokeh then discovers that Commander Restac has awakened more of her warriors, but is killed by her before he can do anything.

Losing Amy

While Rory, Ambrose and Tony make their way to the Silurian city via the tunnels, negotiations about how the Silurians might be able to live alongside humans commence. They agree that the Silurian technology could be of benefit to the humans and that the Silurians could happily live in places, like the Australian Outback, the Sahara and the Nevada Plains, which are inhospitable for humans. As the meeting concludes, The Doctor enters and comments on how well things have gone. However, at this moment, Rory arrives with the dead body of Alaya. Realising that all their hard work has been undone in an instant The Doctor tries to avoid conflict, but Commander Restac storms off to awaken more Silurians warriors from suspended animation, and then gain revenge on humanity…

Eldane, The Doctor and the humans go to a control room to decide the best way to respond. It is then that Tony’s condition, that is mutating him into a Silurian, is revealed. Tony also reveals that he had, as a precaution, set the drill to activate on a 15 minute timer. Realising that this will destroy the city Eldane agrees to help The Doctor and decides to use a toxic gas, designed to protect the city as a last-minute defence. Everyone, except for the Silurians remaining in suspended animation, would be killed. To stop the drill, and also to prevent further drilling, The Doctor arranges for the drill to be destroyed by an energy surge. Realising that toxic gas is about to be released into the city the Silurian warriors return to their suspended animation cubicles. This allows The Doctor, Amy, Rory, Mo and Elliot to rush back to the TARDIS. However, Doctor Chaudhry and Tony decide to stay behind.

As they all enter the TARDIS, The Doctor sees a crack in the wall opposite the TARDIS. Its discovery distresses him as he does not understand what the cracks are, despite Prisoner Zero and the Angels knowing about them. In an attempt to solve this mystery he decides to reach into the crack and in doing so he retrieves a smoking piece of debris. But before he gets a chance to look at it properly a weakened Commander Restac arrives, and attempts to shoot The Doctor, but Rory takes the blast, and subsequently dies. The Doctor is then forced to drag a distraught Amy into the TARDIS as Rory is swallowed by the crack, thus erasing him from history. The Doctor tries to help Amy not to forget him. However, a bumpy landing ruins his attempts, and Amy forgets Rory as if he had never existed.

As they all leave the TARDIS they are in time to witness the drill destroyed by the Silurian energy surge. As the others go there own way and Amy enters the TARDIS, The Doctor takes a look at the piece of debris he retrieved from the crack. Dreading the possible implications he is shocked to discover that it is a scorched blue and white fragment of wood that very much looks as if it is part of the notice that is on the door of the TARDIS…