Reviews Torchwood: Lease of Life Review by Tony J Fyler

 

Tony’s coming down with a mould. 

A writer’s world will frequently make its way into their work. When Robert Holmes had what he decided was an unreasonable tax demand, for instance, he gave Doctor Who the immortal story of The Sunmakers.

There’s a sense in which you have to assume that Aaron Lamont, writer of Lease Of Life, had quite the experience of student accommodation.

In a 3-bedroom house near to the centre of Cardiff live Ellie (Rosalie Craig), Seren (Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo), and Nye (Angus Yellowlees).

They…have a mould problem.

Fortunately, Cardiff Council’s leading mould specialist, Dr Owen Harper, is on hand to investigate.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That sound in your head is the story stretching out in front of you.

Mould is of course a famous and well-used wordless ‘villain’ in science fiction and horror. Like fog, it’s natural, spreading – and you can’t reason with it. It just eats.

It eats a lot in Lease of Life.

It seems hardly spoilerific to say that the mould in Seren’s house is not from round here. In fact, Owen’s seen it before, but usually, Torchwood gets on the case a lot faster than it does this time.

So from almost the word go in this story, Owen’s on a race against time. Time, and a mould from outer space.

Just as a heads-up, when you listen to Lease Of Life…maybe make sure you do it in the daytime.

 

Like most similar stories, the progression here is through stages of decay, and the stakes elevate as the story goes along. When it starts, it’s just mould. A patch of mould.

Sure, who cares, right? Spot a student house without mould, you’re on to a good thing.

But more or less from the moment Owen arrives, the mould shows its true…well, not colours, obviously, but its true potential, certainly. Ellie, Seren and Nye are not students, but they could well be – they’re each in a kind of stasis when Owen arrives. Seren in particular is putting up with the grimness of the house so she can save up the money to go travelling and see the world. Ellie doesn’t especially like either of our housemates, and Nye is out a lot, and playing loud music to isolate himself from the reality of the house and his housemates when he’s in.

It’s the very definition of dysfunction, and the mould, for all it’s an alien life-form intent on eating everything with which it comes into contact, is also a handy metaphor for the toxic isolation of modern life, where conversation and potential friendship is eaten alive by self-revolution and our own concerns.

If Ellie, Nye, Seren and Owen work together, there’s a chance they can get rid of the mould.

So… that’s simple, then.

Except before you know what’s happening, Ellie’s gone out on a run, potentially spreading mould spores over a 6km radius, the kitchen floor’s collapsed and a meeting with the landlord does nothing to resolve the situation.

When Owen finds the source of the mould, it becomes appallingly apparent that Dr Owen Harper, one of Torchwood’s finest, is way out of his league against a houseful of unthinking infection.

In fact, the worse the situation becomes, the less likely a solution seems to be.

It would spoil the building of the drama to tell you exactly what happens, but perhaps it’s fair to say that in stories where Owen Harper takes centre stage, things are rarely less than grim, and there’s usually a body-count.

Mould versus humans. Just saying. You’re going to need more than a damp cloth.

When a solution is eventually found, it’s very much last-ditch, do-this-or-destroy-the-world in its nature, and it demands at least one sacrifice to implement. The escalation takes a patch of mould into a full-on horror story, and as in most horror stories, the odds of everyone getting out alive are slim.

In Torchwood horror stories of course, the odds of anyone getting out alive are pretty slim. This is no exception, but what it delivers is a solidly human fear, developing beyond the scope in which we usually experience it. It also gives you a reasonable allegory of isolation and how it leads to disaster, some engaging characterisation, and a story in which Owen is able to shine.

Lease Of Life will have you checking your ceilings, looking behind your bookcases and scrubbing extra hard. Kill the mould. Kill it all…

Just sayin’…

 

 

Beyond The Hub Enola Holmes by DJ Forrest

 

It makes a change to see a much light hearted and entertaining story about the little sister of the Holmes brothers, that is rarely heard of, given that, for much of the series of Sherlock Holmes, it took some time to realise that he even had a big brother, let alone a kooky sister who they barely even spoke about. 

Enola which when read backwards spells Alone, is a child brought up by her Mother, and barely saw her brothers. Naturally, the age difference between her and her brothers is massive and you could expect to see Mycroft despairing at the laughter and gaiety of a young girl, more of a tomboy in nature, causing chaos and mayhem around the old family estate. 

In the New series of Sherlock, we learnt about Mycroft, his big brother, and a little of the sister, who was locked away for her own good, and who was plotting on getting rid of Sherlock once and for all, or so I was led to believe. 

In the Netflix film, Enola is 16, lives with her eccentric mother in the country at the family estate, with a housekeeper and a series of women who frequent the house, who have in some way taught Enola how to protect herself in times of great need. 

Enola played by Millie Bobby Brown of the Stranger Things series, who is also one of the producers of the film, engages you with her character throughout, talking to the camera as if she’s really talking to you, explaining the facts of the situation. 

Enola learnt to read ALL the books in the library at a young age. Learnt how to use weapons, and how to play a mean game of tennis – indoors, and uncovered great secrets about her mother, (that had been kept hidden from her, throughout her childhood) when she woke up one morning to find that her Mother had vanished. 

Mother, played by Helena Bonham Carter, without giving too much away of the plot, is planning on something hugely explosive, and requires hush hush talks in study rooms, away from prying eyes and 16 year old girls. Of course, Enola, unaware of what is afoot, begins to learn something about secrets and how to look for them after speaking with her brother Sherlock under the shade of the old tree on their property. She goes in search of clues in her Mother’s study and uncovers quite a few things which take her to London, on board a train, which brings her more trouble than either of the Holmes’ brothers could muster between them. 

And that’s where it gets interesting; not that it wasn’t interesting before, but for a Woody, I grew extremely excited by the lead baddie in this story, who appears more than once in the film. Not a blink and you’ve missed him, although I did have to rewatch the trailer a second time and freeze frame it to be absolutely sure of my facts before screaming: IT’S OWEN!!! 

Yes folks, Burn Gorman plays another convincing baddie, and plays him well. He suits the bad boy role and Linthorn is indeed a nasty piece of work. I can’t really tell you too much about his employer, but his role in the piece is to eliminate the young Tewkesbury played by Louis Partridge, for reasons that are later explained in the film. 

I have to admit that I quite enjoyed watching the actor who played Lestrade, because unlike his character in the present day Sherlock, this character was much more entertaining and had a touch of Inspector Clouseau about him.

It has a great cast who suit the roles perfectly. Henry Cavill plays Sherlock and Sam Claflin plays Mycroft, along with Ellie Haddington playing Miss Gregory, and Frances De La Tour as the Dowager. 

Everything about this film is uplifting and exciting and fresh and with a flavour of the great British countryside, which for me is enjoyable. The steam train scenes were wonderfully put together and tight as the corridors are between carriages, the angles of the filming for the scenes when young Tewkesbury is hanging off the door has you on the edge of your seat as to whether he’ll make it back onboard the train before it reaches the bridge.

I loved every inch of this film and I can’t rate it highly enough. You have to watch it. It’s one of those Saturday afternoon, or rainy day films. A pick me up film. A tonic. A laugh. An edge of the seat bit of excitement. Oh and did I mention – it’s got BURN ruddy GORMAN in it?

 

 

Reviews Iceberg by Tony J Fyler

Tony’s getting chilly.

Owen Harper has had a troubled life. The acerbic medic of Torchwood in Cardiff Bay might – and arguably should – be forgiven his seemingly cold, shallow, hostile nature when you look at what has happened to him. His life and happiness having been originally bound up in a love and a career, he’s an object lesson in playing society’s game… until the game plays far too harshly with him, his love is taken from him, and his skills remain, his open-heartedness replaced with a burning need to understand, to make sense of the senseless, and to do some sort of good in an ultimately meaningless cosmos.

Writers in the audio world have not for the most part been kind to Own Harper.

They’ve been good to him, yes, giving him some meaty scripts, having him tackle a suburban charnel house, a mass murderer’s burial grounds, and the career-minded enthusiasm of Ianto Jones. But kind, no. Owen’s generally had a godawful time in his audio career at Big Finish. See also the suburban charnel house, the mass murderer’s killing grounds and…you get the picture.

In Grace Knight’s Iceberg, there is at least initially less blatant horror in store for Owen, but still there’s challenging territory for the man who can’t allow himself to look backwards because it hurts too much.

A phone call at 1 in the morning. The voice of an old friend.

An old friend who Owen, under the guise of having too much new demanding stuff to do after the death of his fiancée Katie and the new job he mysteriously took up, had gently ghosted, unable to deal with human connections to his old life that left him raw.

But it’s 1 in the morning. He answers before he can think.

And it’s Amira.

Amira, the friend of both Katie and that younger, more hopeful Owen. A voice from the past.

More to the point, when he answers her call, she has a mystery for him. A doctor herself, she has a patient who’s in at least most of a coma. The patient, Lucy, wakes for brief periods, has a totally lucid conversation with the ghost of her dead sister, who she insists is standing in the room, and then goes back to dreamland.

But something’s all sorts of wrong with her chemistry levels. And Amira, despite having a legitimate concern for her patient and a keenness to haul Owen over the friendliest of coals for his abandonment of her and everyone in the wake of Katie’s death, has moments when she blanks on basic medical procedure.

The more we learn of Lucy’s predicament, the more we understand why this is a Torchwood story. Lucy (played by Lowri Walton) is a young woman already haunted by the memory of her dead sister before that sister comes to pay her visits in the hospital. Amira (played by Maya Saroya strongly enough to stand up to Burn Gorman’s Owen) has secrets of her own, which Owen must unravel if anything about this night call to an otherwise eerily silent hospital is to make sense. And not to put too fine a point on it, he’d better hurry.

Iceberg is an intriguing mixture of things. On the one hand, it gives us more and meatier detail of Owen’s pre-Torchwood past, his life, his love, the way he reacted when Katie died, and, thanks to one blistering outburst, played to the nail by Burn Gorman, the workings of his mind when he forced himself to become the character we first met in TV Torchwood, Series 1. On the other, it’s an example of the ticking-clock mysteries at which audio Torchwood excels – separating one team member from all the rest, dropping them into a seemingly devastating, inescapable conundrum with a countdown of which they may or may not be aware, and challenging them to prove their Torchwood worthiness, their ability to think through the facts, accept a wider universe than the Earth, work the problem and earn their right to survive.

Burn Gorman when he first arrived on our screens in Torchwood might have had what seemed like an easy character to play – the brash, the shallow, the self-revolving but misanthropic doctor with the sharp wit and the impeccable medical skills. But well within his time on-screen he was able to bring out deeper levels to the character. In audio, Owen’s resourcefulness, his compassion for patients and people and aliens alike has been matured into a guiding principle that has survived some of the worst things imaginable in both an ordinary human life and the life of an alien investigator. More than just Owen’s skills have survived from his past life, the life in which he loved Katie and had his future to look forward to. The reasons he got up in the morning to use those skills are still intact too, the need to make people better. Iceberg shows us that very clearly, shows us his take on the Hippocratic Oath, shows us a lot of classic Owen spikiness, and ultimately shows us the steel in his spine which has let Owen survive.

The point about Owen Harper as a character is that he’s determined to survive. Life threw some of the worst imaginable luck at him, made him grieve for the person he loved and who made him better. But Owen after that… will. Not. Break. Will never break, will never become a victim of the grief that could split him apart. He’ll do everything he can for everyone who needs him, and he’ll make the hard decisions of life and death when he needs to, as he needs to here, with the practised, practical application of a doctor. Even when he should by all rights be dead, Owen won’t, and doesn’t, give up. Even when he sees what’s beyond the point of death, and knows it’s nothing, and that everyone he’s ever loved and lost has gone to equal nothing, Owen Harper will survive.

Will he survive Iceberg though? When something alien, something creepy, and something from his past combine in one exhausted 1AM, will Owen have the strength he needs to survive? When the dead seem to walk and the familiar comes unstuck and the hospital is silent in the middle of the night, Will Owen Harper be able to find the truth to explain the evidence in front of him, even when it seems absurd?

As a ticking-clock mystery, Iceberg works well. As a study in the character of Owen Harper, it works even better. The writing’s pin-sharp, for all the situation it creates is impressively mysterious for most of the run-time. The performances from the three cast members are joyously jagged, Owen reacting to the intrusion from his past and the problem in front of him instinctively but never easily. As a whole, if you’ve not heard Iceberg, you’ve missed out on a rich, cold, sharp, sweet, sour and bang to rights slice of Owen Harper’s life. Don’t do that to yourself. Give Iceberg a listen now.

Articles Defenders of the Earth by Tony J Fyler

Tony Fyler remembers heroes.

November is the month when Britain remembers all those who have died in war.

We never forget at Project: Torchwood that our favourite show is just that – just a show. But it’s a show that has the power to move, to teach, to inspire and to put us in touch with the best and worst in all of humankind.

It can remind us of people who are ordinary, who sign up for something that by its very nature makes them extraordinary, that puts their lives in danger, that shows them people and places and wonders they never dreamed to see, and gives them nightmares they would never wish to remember. It can remind us of people who make the choice to put their skills and their service at the disposal of something bigger than themselves for the cause of hope, and in Series 2, Torchwood showed us that it could prove to us that sometimes, even the best of people die.

Dr Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) is not who we first think he is. When we first meet him he is sarcastic, abrasive, womanising, seeming to care little for the consequences of his actions, but always ready to click into place, his medical expertise and his strong devotion to its ethical use overriding his many character flaws. We may not like Owen from the very beginning, but we certainly respect him in action.

Over the course of two series though, Owen’s more complex nature reveals itself. In Ghost Machine, his empathy and sense of justice power him on with a kind of fury to seek justice for one of life’s many, many victims, proving that he really does have a heart beneath his Hippocratic Oath. He has a sensitivity to those whom life has treated unfairly. In Out of Time, we go beneath the sharp sarcasm and the casual sex, when Owen forms a genuine bond of something that could eventually be love with female pilot Diane Holmes. This isn’t the Owen we know, he doesn’t let himself be vulnerable to his own emotions. His connection with Diane, especially in the light of her eventual decision not to stay with him, and his subsequent plan to re-open the Rift to be with her, shows us why, and makes some sense of the surface he has shown us. Owen feels things deeply when he dares to let himself feel at all, and we’re left wondering what it was that first taught him the pain of that and led him to shun deeper connections.

Owen is by nature the most vocal of the Torchwood team, the one least likely to toe Jack’s line just because he’s the leader. Every member of the team is in some way vital, but Owen, really is the most vital of them all: he’s the person every team must have – the potential Judas, the alternative, the opposite view of the world from the leader’s. Why is that so essential? Because otherwise, the view of the team is the view of one person with an agenda. You need an Owen to question you when you’re about to drive over a cliff.

There’s never a particularly good explanation of why, having been shot dead, Owen doesn’t die in the traditional sense. All we know is that he goes through an extraordinary journey, the very anitithesis of Captain Jack – the man who dies and won’t lie down, rather than the man who cannot die. Between them, they form the tension, the duality of Torchwood, the potential to find a way around or through every challenge and every obstacle, even including death. And in Fragments, we finally find the answer to Owen – his relationship with a woman with ridiculously early onset Alzheimer’s, his inability to help her, Jack’s high-handed interference, and Owen’s determination not to let Jack have his way.

When Owen dies the second time, the Torchwood team is never the same again – it’s a tighter, faster thing, maybe, but it forces Gwen to step more into his shoes, taking Jack to task when his long life and high-handed decisions go against her heart and her instincts. Owen has made an impact not only on the world and on those that Torchwood has helped or saved, but on those who got the closest to him.

Toshiko Sato is Owen’s polar opposite, the quintessential ‘good girl,’ only finding herself in Torchwood because she tried to save her mother in an impossible situation, and her genius for abstract thinking allowed her to fill in gaps in the failed design of a piece of technology she was forced to build from stolen plans.

Throughout the first two series of Torchwood, prior to our learning Tosh’s origins and how she gained her place on the team, her hallmarks are loyalty and reliability, a genius with systems and for making things do the things they should do – she’s responsible for making things work and delivering Torchwood the data it needs to investigate all the things that come its way. From the very first episode, it’s Tosh who gains access to databases she’s not supposed to be able to access to get information  to speed the investigation of the alien along (in particular the police database), and throughout much of her time, she harbours a quiet passion for Owen. Like most of the Torchwood team, she’s a fairly open-minded citizen of the universe, but she’s not about to be taken for a ride, as she proves in Greeks Bearing Gifts. And while, in To The Last Man, she finds a chance for happiness with World War I soldier Tommy, ultimately, she does the responsible thing, respecting if not liking his decision to return to 1918, where he will be killed for his shellshock.

Tosh, played by Naoko Mori, is the quintessential workmate – the thoughtful one, the one who you can always rely on to do her job, and who, most of the time, will be there to help with any personal crises too: watch her in Something Borrowed for a comical slant on her character. She wants to have no enemies in the world, but her time in Torchwood teaches her to stand up for herself rather more than she did when she was recruited. Her journey through the universe of space and time as it washes up on the shores of the Cardiff Rift makes her a better, broader human being. When she dies, her death wrings tears from us, because while Owen’s character was easy to dislike but worth getting to know, Toshiko leaves a big gap in both the team’s effectiveness and its heart.

Torchwood is just a show. But from Day One it was filled with people we know – Gwen the group mum with the heart of a lion and the mouth (when needed) of a wrestler. Ianto the local lad made good but driven by love. Toshiko the genius-next-door, always ready with a friendly shoulder and yet devastatingly good at her job. Owen, the prickly womaniser who feels too much. Even Jack, the reformed con-man trying to make something good out of evil, in a gesture of every-day tribute to the man who taught him how to live a better life. They each represent the kind of person who puts themselves between the world and danger, and so in a sense, it’s only right that we should lose them. They represent the sacrifice and the loss of people without number throughout time, and people every day as we sleep.

And in remembering Owen, and Tosh, and ultimately Ianto Jones as well, we remember them all, this November and every day.

Profiles Dr. Owen Harper 'King of the Weevils'

Occupation: Torchwood Three Medical Officer

Born: 14^th February 1981

Species: Human

Status: Deceased

Played by: Burn Gorman

Dr Owen Harper had a terrible childhood until he left home at 16. Although his mother was meant to love him, she didn’t like him very much at all. Given this information it’s interesting to see that Owen’s love life was in as much turmoil as that of his motherly affections. Not wishing to commit to Megan (Another Life), while he was in medical school, he was prepared to settle down with Katie, a nurse at the hospital that he worked at, only to discover that she was suffering with what appeared to be early onset Alzheimer’s.

     After an operation to remove the ‘tumour’ it was discovered that there was an alien parasite feeding off her brain, and once uncovered, expelled a toxic gas killing all theatre staff and Katie.

Captain Jack Harkness had been investigating this case and avoiding all knowledge of Torchwood when he met Owen, drugged the young man, and doctored the CCTV.

As you would expect, Owen was enraged to discover that what he had seen was disbelieved by staff and security.

At the cemetery he met the man from the hospital and stormed across the cemetery to confront him, it was only after this, that he found out more about Torchwood, and the life it could offer him, and there were such things as aliens.

     After this, Owen’s relationships were short lived and often one night stand’s. Using alien tech to woo the ladies into bed, it was to continue until he fell for aviator Diane Holmes, a woman from another time, who briefly showed him what love really was. Although he had had a brief affair with Gwen Cooper, it was Diane that broke his heart when she left to find a way back to 1953.

     Broken hearted Owen needed to find something that would ease the pain and entering into a men’s fighting den, that used Weevil’s as fight partners, seemed the ideal solution. Standing in the cage minutes before Torchwood arrived to close the place down, he allowed a Weevil to maul him, as at this point, he had all but given up.

     During a routine investigation, this time into the P.H.A.R.M. Owen Harper was fatally wounded by Professor Aaron Copley whose business was being shut down by Torchwood Three. The shooting rocked the team. However, Captain Jack Harkness wasn’t prepared to let him go without everyone having their final goodbye’s with him, so locating the second Resurrection Gauntlet, Jack brought Owen back from the dead…except along the way, he brought a demon known as ‘Duroc’ back too.

     Through Owen, Duroc needed 12 souls in order to rule the Earth for an eternity. Owen had been studying the behaviour patterns of the Weevils prior to Duroc’s arrival, so when Jack and Owen ran from the creatures to the topmost point of a car park, expecting to be mauled, Jack was a little startled to say the least, when the Weevils crouched down and swayed from side to side, murmuring in a low voice. Owen at this point had become Duroc, with eyes as dark as coals speaking in an ancient tongue.

Back at the Hub, Toshiko had run the phrase through their alien computer software to discover that Duroc or Death was now amongst them. It was at this point, Owen wanted the team to embalm him, to send Duroc back into the ether and him along with it.

     It was harder saying goodbye a second time, but it was clear to see that the one person deeply affected by the initial loss of Owen had been Toshiko.

After Duroc was sent back whence it came, Owen struggled with his own immortality. It wasn’t that he would live forever, but that he would be dead forever.  It also meant that any physical injury would never heal. He had no breath. His face never warranted a shaver. He couldn’t eat or drink as the come back was horrendous. Sex was now a complete no-no. But yet despite all of these faults, one person was determined not to let it cloud her. 

     Toshiko Sato, had always loved Owen, and sometime before Turnmill, when Owen had accepted that life was one endless road of living one day to the next with no sex drive, settled for second best. Not in a bad way. Toshiko had always loved him, despite his behaviour and manner towards her.

She had always been there for him, even after countless relationships with other women, even covering for him as a medical officer while he was unreachable.

     They agreed to go out on a date together, but sadly, after Captain John Hart’s return (Exit Wounds), saw key buildings destroyed in and around Cardiff, this never happened. Ianto Jones was unable to reach the nuclear power station at Turnmill as all exits were blocked by Weevils. Owen was the only one who could get there in time, but exiting was another story.

As Toshiko worked to stop the meltdown, she was mortally wounded by Gray, losing vital minutes in which to instruct Owen how to seal it off at Turnmill. The security doors slid shut, trapping him inside the building. This time there would be no resurrection. 

     On this day, Dr Owen Harper, died for good!

        

News Happy Birthday Mickie Newton & Dr. Owen Harper

Happy Birthday Mickie & Dr Owen Harper

Did you know on this day in 1970, episode 3 of Doctor Who and the Silurians was broadcast?  It was Season 7.  It starred Jon Pertwee as the Doctor with Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney as his regular companions.  It also featured Paul Darrow (Blake 7) as Hawkins and Geoffrey Palmer as Masters.  It was written by Malcolm Hulke and directed by Timothy Combe.

This was the first time we saw Bessie, the Edwardian car that Jon Pertwee drove around in when he wasn’t using the Tardis.  

The story tells of the Silurians causing trouble at an underground atomic research station when it keeps losing power and causes many of the staff to have mental breakdowns. There is a higher order at work in the caves.

In 1976 Episode 3 of The Seeds of Doom was broadcast.  It was Season 13 and Tom Baker was the Doctor with Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter his companions.  This episode also featured John Challis (Boycie) as Scorby.  The writer was Robert Banks Stewart and Director was Douglas Camfield.

A flesh eating Krynoid pod has been stolen by a mad man hell bent on wiping out all animal kind.

In 1981 Episode 3 of The Keeper of Traken broadcast.  It was Season 18 and Tom Baker was the Doctor this time with Matthew Waterhouse as his companion with Sarah Sutton playing Nyssa.  The episode also featured Graham Cole (The Bill) as Melkur and Anthony Ainley as Tremas/The Master. Writer was Johnny Byrne and Director was John Black.

The Master still in his hideous form as seen in The Deadly Assassin features again in this story.  The Doctor arrives back on N-Space with Adric to an area known as Traken Union.  It’s a quiet and peaceful place until Melkur arrives to take power and become the new Keeper.

Your birthday is even more special in that today is also St Valentine’s Day. 

Someone else who celebrates their birthday today and who means a lot to us at Torchwood, is Dr. Owen Harper, although there’s a little discrepancy as to what year  he was born (either 1980/1981) we all remember when he left us in 2009.  We all miss him greatly.  Owen Harper was loved by women all over and had a string of sexual partners from Megan Tegg to fiancée Katie, to pick ups in bars, to Suzie, Gwen, Diane and finally Toshiko who although they hadn’t been on a date, Tosh had loved him from that very first kiss under the mistletoe and was there for him right at the very end.

Another birthday boy is Simon Pegg 44 today.  Simon appeared in Doctor Who as The Editor on Satellite 5 in the year 200,000, on Floor 500 in the episode The Long Game.

The Editor worked for the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe.  It was a massive gelatinous sentient creature similar to that of a giant slug that clung to the ceiling of the Floor 500.  It communicated through a series of screams and growls.  It had a mass of savage teeth and had to be kept in minus degrees temperature to survive.  The Editor controlled the newsfeed that was sent to the Earth below, manipulating the news giving the humans only what he deemed important, controlling everything that was sent and hunting out information against anyone likely to overthrow him and Max.

Others celebrating their birthday today are Zach Galligan 50, who played Billy Peltzer in the Gremlins films, and Freddie Highmore, 22 who as a child actor has appeared in many films including The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was the voice of the Pantalaimon in The Golden Compass, and is now currently playing Norman Bates in the TV series Bates Motel.

Picture source and referencing

Doctor Who Episode Guide Pocket Essential by Mark Campbell

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Monsters-Collection-Silurians/dp/B00CEB72HM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1392369902&sr=8-3&keywords=Doctor+Who+and+the+Silurians

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Seeds-Doom-Philip-Hinchcliffe/dp/0426116585/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1392370055&sr=8-2&keywords=Doctor+Who+The+seeds+of+doom

http://www.amazon.co.uk/DOCTOR-WHO-AND-Keeper-Traken/dp/B000O50S1C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1392370112&sr=8-4&keywords=Doctor+Who+The+keeper+of+traken