Earthshock

121[1] – Earthshock
Doctor Who serial
The Cybermen discover that an old foe is interfering with their plans
Cast
Doctor Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)
Companions Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)
Others James Warwick — Scott Clare Clifford — Kyle Steve Morley — Walters Suzi Arden — Snyder Ann Holloway — Mitchell Anne Clements, Mark Straker — Troopers Beryl Reid — Briggs June Bland — Berger Alec Sabin — Ringway Mark Fletcher, Christopher Whittingham — Crewmembers David Banks — Cyber Leader Mark Hardy — Cyber Lieutenant
Production
Directed by	Peter Grimwade
Written by	Eric Saward
Script editor	Antony Root Eric Saward (uncredited)
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Malcolm Clarke
Production code	6B
Series	Season 19
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	8–16 March 1982
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Black Orchid Time-Flight

Earthshock is the sixth serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1982. This serial marks the final regular appearance of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric and his climactic death, with the final episode featuring unique silent credits in memory of the character. It is also the first to feature the Cybermen since Revenge of the Cybermen, in 1975.

The serial is mainly set on Earth and a deep space freighter in 2526. In the serial, the Cybermen plot to wipe out Earth, where a conference of multiple planets are planning to form a military pact to defeat the Cybermen in a war.

Plot

As the TARDIS materialises in Earth's future, Adric argues with the Fifth Doctor about the lack of attention and respect he receives compared to Nyssa or Tegan. They explore a series of caves and are caught by soldiers led by Lieutenant Scott; Professor Kyle, accompanying Scott, accuses the four of killing the rest of her archaeological team. The Doctor convinces them to help, and Kyle leads them to the bodies of her team, near where they find an odd metal hatch. The group is attacked by androids, killing some of Scott's men, but the Doctor defeats them. He suspects the androids were guarding the hatch, and eventually opens it to reveal a powerful bomb that could destroy the planet. The Doctor and Adric defuse the bomb and trace its signal back to a freighter that is entering the Solar System. Scott and Kyle join the Doctor as they return to the TARDIS and travel to the freighter. The Doctor instructs the others to wait in the TARDIS while he and Adric explore the ship, and find a similar number of corpses in the cargo holds, before they are caught by the ship's security and taken to Captain Briggs, where they try to explain their situation.

Throughout this, the Doctor and the humans are unaware that they are being monitored by the Cybermen, who seek to destroy the Earth. With the bomb defused on Earth, and the Doctor now interfering here, the Cyberleader decides it is time to take command of the freighter. They leave the sealed containers they stowed away in, and began to march to the bridge. The ship's crew, along with help from Nyssa, Tegan, Scott, and Kyle, attempt to barricade their progress, but the Cybermen overpower them, killing Kyle and capturing Tegan, and soon the Cybermen control the bridge. Using Tegan to keep the Doctor in check, the Cybermen install a device that locks the controls of the freighter after setting it on warp-speed collision course with Earth, expecting the anti-matter engines will be powerful enough to destroy the Earth. The Cybermen then order the Doctor to take them to his TARDIS to escape, leaving behind Adric, Briggs, and other crewmen. Adric is able to pass the Doctor his gold Badge for Mathematical Excellence before they depart, knowing the Cybermen are allergic to gold.

Scott and his men are able to overpower the minimal guard left on the bridge, and Adric immediately starts working to try to undo the control lock. His first attempt causes the ship to jump back in time about 65 million years; the Doctor, monitoring this on the TARDIS, observes that is about the same time of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Adric's second attempt brings the ship out of warp; though still on course to strike Earth, the impact would not be as devastating. Briggs, Scott, and the remaining crew use the opportunity to leave in escape pods. They try to convince Adric to come, but at the last moment he returns, having another insight on defeating the lock. Scott relays their status to the TARDIS, and the Cyberleader orders the Cybermen to kill the TARDIS crew, but the Doctor smashes Adric's badge on the Cyberleader's chestplate, momentarily stunning it and allowing them to disable the Cybermen.

The Doctor finds the TARDIS' controls have been damaged, making it impossible to rescue Adric. On the bridge, Adric nears undoing the lock when a weakened Cyberman fires on him, missing him and striking the keyboard, preventing Adric from making any further attempts. The TARDIS crew watches helplessly as the freighter collides with Earth in a massive explosion.

Production

This serial featured newly designed Cybermen, on display here at a 50th Anniversary event

The working title for this story was Sentinel. Although credited as script editor, Antony Root in fact did little or no work on Earthshock. He was credited to avoid Saward, who had by this time replaced him in the job, being credited as such on his own work, which contravened BBC regulations.

This was the first Cyberman story since Revenge of the Cybermen (1975), as producer John Nathan-Turner wanted to bring back an old enemy, but resisted using the Daleks. Before the title was changed to Earthshock, Nathan-Turner was adamant about keeping the return of the Cybermen a secret. He instructed Eric Saward not to have any reference to the Cybermen in the story's title. Nathan-Turner even had the studio observation galleries closed for the duration of recording and turned down an offer from Radio Times to provide advance publicity of the Cybermen on their cover.^[2] The success of this convinced Nathan-Turner to continue to mine the series' past continuity for ideas and old enemies.

After the success of using archive footage for the flashback sequence in Logopolis (1981), Producer John Nathan-Turner consulted with series continuity adviser Ian Levine and asked him to prepare another such montage for this story. Levine selected one clip from all of previous Doctors, save for Jon Pertwee who never had a Cyberman story (though they had been briefly glimpsed in two serials from his era). Levine's selected clips were: the First Doctor from episode 2 of The Tenth Planet (1966), the Second Doctor from episode 6 of The Wheel in Space (1968) (with dialogue from the Earthshock Cyber-leader referring to The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), at that time missing from the BBC archives) and the Fourth Doctor from part 3 of Revenge Of The Cybermen (1975). All the clips were presented in monochrome to preserve continuity, as the first two extracts were originally recorded in black and white.

The exterior sequences seen in the first episode were shot on Thursday 29 October 1981 at Springwell Lock Quarry, near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The Cyberscope prop was built using parts the modelmaker (Martin Bower) had scavenged from the Nostromo set constructed for the movie Alien. Similarly, the digital readouts on the device flash up a random series of numbers, which were also seen on the monitors of the Nostromo set.

Broadcast and reception

The story was repeated on BBC One (Not BBC Wales) as two 50min compilation episodes in 1982 on 9 August 1982 & 16 August 1982 at 7.20pm as part of "Doctor Who and the Monsters", achieving viewing figures of 4.9 and 5.2 million respectively.^[5] The story came 17th in the 1997 Doctor Who Magazine annual best serial survey.

Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote of the serial in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), "Exciting and engaging early on, but a writer is not supposed to get so caught up in the excitement that things happen for no better reason than plot expediency. What we have is great... for a first draft."^[6] In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker described Earthshock as "the story as a whole stands up very well and is highly entertaining". They felt that small plot holes were not that noticeable. Howe and Walker called the first episode "a masterpiece of suspense and terror" and praised the surprise return of the Cybermen, whom they said were "more effective" than those in Revenge of the Cybermen^[7] In 2012, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times praised the tension and thrills, writing "Saward’s script and Grimwade’s direction work in unison, delivering pace, momentum, atmosphere and the eponymous shock." He praised the new look of the Cybermen, guest star Beryl Reid, and the way the story "pulls off the previously unimaginable feat of making us care about Adric". He acknowledged that critics had pointed out "plot holes and logic leaps", but said he was willing to "gloss over them".^[8] The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn was positive towards how the serial characterised Adric which set him up for his demise. Bahn praised the first episode for being "nicely tense and mysterious", but noted that it was separate from the rest of the story which led to too many characters in the last three episodes. He also criticised the Cybermen, feeling that they did not hark back to their eerie emotionless roots and that when they got involved "the plot starts to bog down in its implausibilities".^[9] SFX named Adric's death the twenty-ninth best "tearjerker" in science fiction and fantasy, calling it a "tragedy" that managed to make the audience care about him.^[10] The magazine also listed the scene as the third best companion departure, calling it "a beautifully constructed death scene" despite the fact that the character was "loathed by fandom".^[11]

Commercial releases

In print

Earthshock

Author	Ian Marter
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	78
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	18 August 1983
ISBN	0-426-19377-6

The Target novelisation of this serial, was published by WH Allen in 1983.^[12] A second edition was published in 1992.^[12] It was written by Ian Marter. An unabridged audio reading of the novelisation, read by Peter Davison, was released by AudioGo on 1 February 2012.^[13]

Home media

UK DVD front cover

Earthshock was released on VHS in the UK in 1992.^[12] A DVD was released on 18 August 2003^[14] as part of the Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Celebration releases, representing the Peter Davison years. The DVD included a commentary with Davison, Fielding, Sutton & Waterhouse, and a documentary, Putting the Shock into Earthshock which included interviews with Davison, Saward, David Banks, as well as various fan commentators including future Doctor Who writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and then Shadow Transport Secretary Tim Collins.^[15] The Region 1 release followed on 7 September 2004.^[16] On 2 July 2007, this DVD was re-released with new outer packaging.^[17]

In 2013 it was released on DVD again as part of the "Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 5-8" box set, alongside Vengeance on Varos, Remembrance of the Daleks and the TV Movie. Alongside a documentary on the Fifth Doctor, the disc features the serial put together as a single feature in widescreen format with an introduction from current show runner Steven Moffat, as well as its original version.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Fifth Doctor

• Earthshock at BBC Online
• Earthshock at Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Earthshock at the Doctor Who Reference Guide