Earthshock (1982) Review

"*sigh* ... Good times."

The big shock about Earthshock is that it's actually kind of rubbish.

WRITTEN BY

Eric Saward, who previously charmed with The Visitation and now takes on the role of script editor.

PLOT

The Cybermen want to invade Earth. Again. The means to do so are a bit convoluted, but they involve androids, bizarrely constructed bombs, a freighter with the ability to travel through time(if its only slightly augmented with Cyber-technology) and a bunch of Earth dignitaries coming together(which, as The Return Of Doctor Mysterio reveals, is a fairly timeless concept).

The resulting conflict leads to the unfortunate demise of one of the Doctor's companions, for the second and last time in the series thus far(companions with "wiggle room" do not count).

ANALYSIS

First of all, the positives: Peter Grimwade does a stellar job directing the story, and really giving it some energy and pace. The Cyber-march in particular is a memorable sequence, worthy of their appereances in the 60s. Another perfectly filmed scene was Adric's death. I could feel the tension ramping up with every passing second, especially since we were brilliantly told ahead that the spaceship HAD to crash. It was one of those "slow-motion car crash" moments that you just can't look away from, even though you know the outcome.

Malcolm Clarke returned to do the music for the first time since those dreadful electronic beeps in the Silurian stories. He completely redeems himself, however. The music here is atmospheric and creepy, and he even wrote one of my favourite scores in all of Doctor Who: "March of the Cybermen". Hey, whilst everyone are talking about bringing back old villains in New Who, could we have some old music back?

The rest, however, is rather drab and boring. It's one of those infernal runarounds without any interesting character development or story twists or anything. Earthshock exists mostly to shout "Look, the Cybermen are back!!" without actually doing anything new with them. It's a classic example of style over substance.

CHARACTERS

Let's talk about the guest stars this time first. James Warwick does a rather splendid job as military leader Lieutenant Scott and though we know little about him, Warwick exudes competence and confidence in the role. The Third Doctor would've loved having him around.

Some military people, blah-blah-blah(none of them noteworthy).

And then Beryl Reid happens. Oh boy, does she happen. I'm not familiar with Reid as an actress prior to this, but good grief, has there ever been a more miscast role? It's like a prelude to the infamous Eastenders crossover. Look, I'm all for variety and everything, but you just can't have any actor play any role.

June Bland does noticeably better and is somewhat believable, but at the same time, she too feels like she's from a completely different(and far more grounded) show.

Let's talk about the Cybermen: this redesign has become somewhat iconic as its the first time the Cybermen really had a fixed look for a while. People seem to like the transparent chin plate(through which you can see the biological mouth move), but personally, I found it distracting and I'm glad this idea gets abandoned in future stories.

David Banks is awesome. He is perhaps as badly cast to be a cyborg as Beryl Reid is to be a starship captain, but at the same time, he is simply so charismatic that you don't want him to go away at all. Judging from the interviews, he might've made an excellent Master(and certainly more fitting for Davison, because of his youth). Overall, the Cybermen are reinvented as simply another alien race rather than the frighteningly careless beings devoid of emotion, but at least they're a very good ordinary alien race.

Peter Davison gives a solid performance, though I question his boisterous entrance onto the spacecraft, where he tracked the Cyber-bomb signals. In some ways, he still seems like a slightly confused actor trying to find his way, but in some ways, that also makes him more likable! He's the first "underdog Doctor" trying to make his way in the big world and it's really endearing to watch.

What's not endearing is his continued clashes with the TARDIS crew. The strop at the beginning of the story was reminiscent of the early Hartnell stories, but if that was the case, I wish they'd just address how the regeneration has robbed him of his confidence and had him actively worry about that. Same thing with Peter Capaldi in Series 8 - if you're going to fundamentally change the persona of the Doctor, you need to have it addressed and brought to the forefront for it to be satisfying. We NEED to see that the man we know is still in there if you want us to continue.

Nyssa, for whatever reason, spends most of the story hiding in the TARDIS with the Earth military(who are actually kind of pointless in the second half of the story, now that I think about it... why have them tag along?) and constantly telling them not to go out, even after the Doctor's been gone for hours. Which is a pretty big U-turn from all the usual "What if the Doctor's in trouble?" dialogue that the companions always say to justify going into danger.

Tegan is surprisingly at her best in this story(that vacation in 1920s England must've worked wonders for her). For once, she's the glue holding the TARDIS crew together, seems genuinely interested in what the Doctor has to say and even manages to take down some Cybermen!! Bravo!

Adric... poor, poor Adric. Well, I'd like to start off by saying that I don't think he's the worst companion ever. Apart from select moments in a few stories, I didn't even hate him. He was awkward, yes, but also earnest and unique amongst the Doctor's friends and at his best, I genuinely liked him. He was particularly good next to Tom Baker, one of the few times that the Doctor's developed a father-son relationship with anyone.
Why they decided to have him act all snooty at times, I've no idea and that's sort of what spoils his legacy, but not too much. As I already mentioned in my Four To Doomsday review, Adric was an isolated child from another universe and likely found it difficult to cope with the Doctor's life. We should've seen more of that, yes, but I think Matthew Waterhouse gave it his all and that's really what matters in the end.

NOTES

*It's so refreshing to have the military act like natural officers, as opposed to modern stories like the Zygon two-parter. The only reply to an order is "sir", not some silly remark or immediate nervous breakdown.

*The lovable, old "Shouldn't we tell the others?" "Nah." cliche comes to play at the very beginning between soldiers and might be the very cause of everything that went wrong in this story.

*It's interesting how such a large chunk of this season takes place on Earth. It's the third time in a row now, and with the length of the classic stories, you really notice.

*I am completely on the Doctor's side as far as the argument with Adric is concerned. If the
Doctor doesn't want to risk taking his ship into E-space again, he shouldn't have to. Especially since Adric was a stowaway to begin with!!

*"Why should they(the androids) care if we attack the hatch?" a dimwit asks. Um, because the only reason they're there is to defend it against intrusion, maybe??

*Would advanced Cyber-androids really break down when having to choose between duty and survival?

*A VERY out-of-character moment: the Cyber-Lieutenant actively argues against his leader's orders! You can't blame David Banks for this...

*When did the Cybermen find out about the Time Lords? I mean, Gallifrey was introduced after their 60s appereances and as far as I can recall, none of that was ever mentioned in Revenge Of The Cybermen.

*I get that it's the future and anything's possible, but I find it hard to believe just how disinterested the Captain is in her crew being slowly killed off. She doesn't even care about the supposed murderers in front of them, freely letting them sit around on her bridge!!

*The Cybermen now have a concept of punishment, and are actively trying to hurt the Doctor for what he's done... okay? Even the Doctor points out that the Cyber-Leader is unusually "flippant" for a Cyberman.

*I get that this was also done in the 60s, but the Cybermen wrapped in plastic look ridiculous.

*Eric Saward seems to have borrowed from the concurrently Star Trek: The Next Generation and elaborated that the freighter travels at warp speed(directly contradicting the Pertwee era, where the hyperdrive was used in the humans' future), powered by an antimatter engine.

*This MUST be asked: is it really possible for some Cyberman machinery to alter the warp engine to such a degree that the freighter can travel back in time? I know time travel has been done as such in Star Trek, but it seemed very random here.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

Oh God... so many references! So many references!!!

1) The Doctor tries to pressure Adric into reading the book he received from the Cranleighs, "Black Orchid". A completely pointless reference to the previous story.

2) Adric demands that the Doctor return him to E-space, where he was found in Full Circle and specifically to Terradon, not to Alzarius(how bloody obscure and detailed is that?? Even I couldn't remember what Terradon was and I saw Full Circle only a few months ago!) Anyway, I like that they harken back to E-space, but seriously... bringing the exact location of Adric's people into this was just insane.

3) Adric argues that it's not impossible to find a new CVE to travel through, since the Monitor on Logopolis confirmed they're not random. Again, whilst all of this continuity does make sense in context, they're expecting the audience to remember way too much. Anybody who missed season 18 would be completely lost here.

4) Adric plans to track down Romana and K-9 after getting home. This is like if the Eleventh Doctor STILL talked about Rose. It's touching that Romana and K-9 haven't been forgotten, but I can't approve of this.

5) After a heated argument, Adric spitefully says that since his regeneration(which Adric witnessed in Logopolis), the Doctor's become decidedly immature. It's at times like these that I REALLY wish Tom Baker was around to smack some sense into these people... and yeah, pointless reference to regeneration is pointless.

6) The Cybermen, after analysing the Doctor, re-affirm that he has two hearts(a nice reminder), that he is a Time Lord, and that Time Lords are forbidden to interfere in history, which was established way back in The War Games. For some reason, I get a thrill whenever they mention this law. I love The War Games and everything it brought to the show.

7) In probably the most continuity-heavy moment of the series thus far, little snippets of the First, Second and Fourth Doctors appear on the Cyber-scanner as recordings taken during those stories. After such a long gap between appereances, I think it's nice that they brought the audience up to date on the Doctor's long history with the Cybermen.

8) This is later elaborated on as both the Cyber-Leader and the Doctor himself talk about how he froze them in ice tombs of Telos, how Mondas was destroyed and how the Doctor prevented the Cybermen from destroying the planet of gold, Voga(which happened in Tomb Of The Cybermen, The Tenth Planet and Revenge Of The Cybermen respectively). It's nice hearing about the previous stories almost as if they were legends, but these were not necessary references, apart from the last one, as they needed to set up using the gold in Adric's badge to stop the Cyber-Leader.

BEST QUOTE

"Now I'll never know if I was right." - Adric's final words.

CONCLUSION

It's not a great story or something I'll want to revisit any time soon, but it is a thrill, in a way.