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121[1] – Earthshock
Doctor Who serial
The Cybermen discover that an old foe is foiling their plans
Cast
Doctor Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)
Companions Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)
Guest stars
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
Writer	Eric Saward
Director	Peter Grimwade
Script editor	Antony Root Eric Saward (uncredited)
Producer	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	6B
Series	Season 19
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	March 8–March 16, 1982
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Black Orchid Time-Flight
IMDb profile

Earthshock is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from March 8 to March 16, 1982. This serial also marks the final regular appearance of Matthew Waterhouse as the Doctor's companion Adric.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Continuity 4 Production 5 Outside references 6 In print 7 Broadcast, VHS and DVD releases 8 References 9 External links 9.1 Reviews 9.2 Target novelisation

[edit] Synopsis

The TARDIS drops the Fifth Doctor and his companions in the middle of an investigation into the murder of a team of scientists in a complex of caves. Deadly androids are patrolling the tunnels, but what are they protecting... and for whom are they working?

[edit] Plot

As the TARDIS arrives on Earth in its future, Adric argues with the Doctor about the lack of attention and respect he receives compared to Nyssa or Tegan, and wishes to return to his home planet Terradon, a feat the Doctor claims is impossible. As the group explores a series of caves, they are caught by Lieutenant Scott and his men who detected their arrival. Scott accuses the group of killing the rest of Professor Kyle's exploration team as they search the caves for fossils. The Doctor convinces Scott to let them help and points them to a debris of rock, where they find the bodies of Kyle's team, along with an odd metal hatch. As the Doctor examines the hatch, other men in Scott's force are killed by androids, undetectable by the humans' equipment. The Doctor is able to stop them, but the androids are able to send the Doctor's image back to their masters, the Cybermen, who recognize their foe. The Doctor is able to open the panel revealing a powerful bomb that could destroy the planet, and orders Nyssa and Tegan to return everyone to the TARDIS while he and Adric work at deactivating it.

The Doctor uses the signal sent to the androids and the bomb to trace it back to its source with the TARDIS, a freighter spaceship presently in Earth orbit awaiting to land after its cargo is inspected. The Doctor instructs everyone else to stay in the TARDIS while he and Adric explore it; the two are soon captured by the freighter's security forces when they happen upon the bodies of dead crew members, and are taken to meet Captain Briggs. Meanwhile, the Cybermen, hiding in one of the freighter's containers, decides it is time to take control of the ship, and begins an assault towards the bridge. Though the freighter crew, along with Tegan, Kyle, Scott, and his men, try to set up barricades, their defenses are foiled by Ringway, one of Briggs' helmsmen that has been working as a double agent for the Cybermen. Kyle is soon killed while Tegan is captured. The bridge is soon taken. The Cyber-leader reveals that the Doctor had foiled their initial plan—to wipe out much of the planet while several visiting dignitaries were present for a peace conference—but has a backup plan of crashing the freighter into the Earth, its anti-matter engines providing a similar devastating force. The Cybermen set the freighter on a high-speed collision course with Earth, and then affix a lock on the freigter's navigation controls to prevent the humans from tampering with it. The Cyber-leader, holding Tegan hostage, forces the Doctor to take them to the TARDIS to escape the doomed ship, leaving Adric, Briggs, and other crewmen behind under the guard of a few Cybermen; Adric hands the Doctor his Badge for Mathematical Excellence in case they will not see each other again.

Scott arrives to help Adric and Briggs defeat their guards, and Adric believes he will be able to decode the encryption to deactivate the lock. However, his attempt causes the freighter, the TARDIS still aboard, to jump in time, ending up approximately 65 million years ago. Aboard the TARDIS under the Cyber-leader's gunpoint, the Doctor reflects that this was the time that a large object had struck Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Adric is able to disengage another part of the lock, taking the freighter out of warp but still on course to strike Earth. Briggs, Scott, and the remaining crew use the opportunity to use the ship's escape pods, but Adric refuses to leave, intent on defeating the lock. When Scott tried to communicate to the TARDIS that they were able to escape but Adric is still aboard, the Cyber-leader attempts to kill the TARDIS crew. The Doctor smashes Adric's gold-plated Badge into the Cyber-Leader's chest, momentarily stunning it, and the rest of the crew wrest control from the remaining Cybermen. The Doctor tries to pilot the TARDIS back to the bridge to rescue Adric, but the controls have been damaged during the fight. Adric is close to finishing the last lock seal when a damaged Cyberman attempts to fire on him. The shot misses Adric but strikes the lock, making it impossible to finish the task. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan watch helplessly as the freighter smashes into Earth with a massive explosion.

The credits roll in silence, with a close up of Adric's badge, broken up on the floor.

[edit] Continuity

The Doctor advises Adric to read Black Orchid, a copy of which he obtained at the end of the previous adventure, of the same name. Their argument shortly afterwards makes a number of references to the previous season, including E-Space, the planets Alzarius and Terradon (Full Circle), the Monitor and the CVE (Logopolis), and Romana staying in E-Space (Warriors' Gate).

A small continuity problem arises because of the clip from Revenge, which takes place on the Nerva Beacon which was supposedly built in the 29th or 30th centuries (The Ark in Space). As Earthshock takes place in 2526, how the Cybermen have access to records from the future is puzzling, unless (as Lawrence Miles suggests in his reference work About Time 5) they, too, are time travellers. This also fits with the Cybermen using a stolen timeship in Attack of the Cybermen (1985) and explains why these Cybermen look more advanced than those in Revenge, as well as how the freighter, once modified by the Cybermen, could develop time travel capability. It may also explain how the Cybermen know of the Time Lords, regeneration and the capabilities of the TARDIS.

The Cyber Leader states his knowledge that it requires only one person to pilot a TARDIS. In "Journey's End" the Tenth Doctor states that a TARDIS is actually designed for six crew members, which explains why the Doctor never seems to be in full control.

The Hand of Fear introduced the concept of the TARDIS being in a state of temporal grace, meaning that no weapons could be used inside it. In this story, however, this function appears not to work as the Doctor, Nyssa and the Cyber Leader are all able to fire weapons inside the console room. Nyssa briefly mentions this in Arc of Infinity but the Doctor simply attempts to shrug it off without providing an explanation.

This was the last story to feature Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. Waterhouse would reprise his role twice: a brief cameo in the following serial Time-Flight (1982) and an appearance during the Fifth Doctor's regeneration in The Caves of Androzani (1984). Waterhouse has since moved to New England where he teaches theatre. However, Waterhouse still participates in Doctor Who conventions and records commentary tracks for DVD releases.

This was the first story to feature the death of a companion since the death of Katarina (and, arguably, Sara Kingdom) in The Daleks' Master Plan (1965).

This is the first story to feature David Banks as the Cyber Leader. Banks would reprise his role in The Five Doctors (1983), Attack of the Cybermen (1985) and Silver Nemesis (1988). Banks would later play the Doctor in the 1989 stage play Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure. He would also later write a book about the history of the Cybermen. Banks's rendition of "Excellent!" to indicate approval became a catchphrase associated with the Cybermen.

A brief and strange alternate version of the events at the end of this story are produced in the Big Finish audio story The Boy That Time Forgot.

[edit] Production

Serial details by episode

Episode	Broadcast date	Run time	Viewership (in millions)
"Part One"	9 March 1982 (1982-03-09)	24:22	9.1
"Part Two"	10 March 1982 (1982-03-10)	24:23	8.8
"Part Three"	16 March 1982 (1982-03-16)	24:24	9.8
"Part Four"	17 March 1982 (1982-03-17)	24.28"	9.6
[2][3][4]

• The working title for this story was Sentinel.
• 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 (ultimately Radio Times would only give one cover to Doctor Who during Nathan-Turner's tenure, for the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors). 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.

[edit] Outside references

• The sudden extinction of the dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. A similar massive reduction in Earth's biodiversity took place 251 million years ago; this is the Permian-Triassic extinction event. One of the Big Finish Productions audio plays, The Land of the Dead (also featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa), provides a possible (fictional) explanation for that event as well. As with all the spin-off media, the canonicity of the audio plays is unclear.

[edit] In print

Doctor Who book
Earthshock
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	78
Writer	Ian Marter
Publisher	Target Books
ISBN	0-426-19377-6
Release date	18 August 1983
Preceded by	Four to Doomsday
Followed by	Terminus

A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Marter (who played Harry Sullivan during the Fourth Doctor era), was published by Target Books in May 1983.

[edit] Broadcast, VHS and DVD releases

• The story was repeated on BBC One (Not BBC Wales) as 2 50min compilation episodes in 1982 on 09/08/82 & 16/08/82 at 7.20pm as part of "Doctor Who and the Monsters". The story came 17th in the 1997 Doctor Who Magazine annual best serial survey.
• This story was released on VHS in the UK in September 1992.
• A DVD release followed on 18 August 2003 as part of the Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Celebration releases, representing the Peter Davison years. This included a commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse, plus a retrospective documentary by Ed Stradling entitled Putting the Shock into Earthshock which included interviews with many of the cast and crew including Davison, Waterhouse, Sutton, David Banks, Eric Saward, Peter Grimwade (archive footage) plus fans of the show (including future Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, and writer/actor Mark Gatiss). Also included was the Claymation spoof "Earthshock, part Five" where Adric survives the freighter crashing to Earth, but is promptly eaten by a dinosaur. The DVD release also included an option to view the serial with alternate CGI special effects. On 2 July 2007, this DVD was re-released with new outer packaging.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Earthshock at bbc.co.uk
• Earthshock at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• Earthshock at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

[edit] Reviews

• Earthshock reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Earthshock reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

[edit] Target novelisation

• On Target — Earthshock

v • d • e Doctor Who season 19 serials Castrovalva • Four to Doomsday • Kinda • The Visitation • Black Orchid • Earthshock • Time-Flight

v • d • e Cybermen television stories First Doctor The Tenth Planet Second Doctor The Moonbase • The Tomb of the Cybermen • The Wheel in Space • The Invasion Fourth Doctor Revenge of the Cybermen Fifth Doctor Earthshock Sixth Doctor Attack of the Cybermen Seventh Doctor Silver Nemesis Tenth Doctor "Rise of the Cybermen" / "The Age of Steel" • "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday" • "The Next Doctor" Torchwood "Cyberwoman" Minor appearances The War Games • The Mind of Evil • Carnival of Monsters • Logopolis • Mawdryn Undead • The Five Doctors • Dimensions in Time • "Dalek" • "Human Nature"