The Hungry Earth is not a particularly notable episode. To be fair, it's not really meant to be, instead being a source of build-up for the storm that is to come ahead with Cold Blood. But that's oddly what ends up making the whole thing rather interesting.
The Hungry Earth doesn't feel like it could have been done in the Russell T Davies era. It's just a little bit too slow paced, a little bit too light on action. Instead of spending time getting into the story, we have an episode where the Doctor is allowed to explore his surroundings, both in terms of character and plot. We're allowed to meet the characters at the drilling site, as well as get to grips with the mystery at the heart of the episode and figure out why it's happening. It feels refreshing, as if Chris Chibnall decided to take advantage of the increased running time of the two part story that he had to really allow the story to breathe, and feel more real.
And, as I say, it feels unique to Series 5 as an episode. Series 5, whilst covering such things as bringing back the magic present within the original concept of Doctor Who, also feels like a soft reboot for the series, as if Moffat decided to start from scratch with respect to this era of the series, trying out new forms of storytelling in order to create something different. And what that means is that we're allowed to try having stories with slower pace, which even though it doesn't quite translate to an exciting episode, still feels new and different. And that ability to feel new and different is part of the reason why I love Series 5 so much.
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