Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, but in recent years rewatchings of old episodes have been few and far between. But lately I decided to spend both some of my 50th birthday spending money and my Christmas spending money on some of these adventures, and enjoy them with one or two of my nerdier daughters.
(Daily Doctor Who #83)
Earthshock
Starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.
Companions: Matthew Waterhouse as Adric, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.
Written by Eric Saward. Directed by Peter Grimwade
Format: 4 episodes, each about 25 minutes long
Originally Aired: March 1982 (Episodes 19-22 of Season 19)
Earthshock was, in some ways, the climax of Season 19, even if it wasn’t the conclusion. An action-packed drama with some big surprises and a tragic ending, it’s a story that certainly sticks in the memory, regardless of what one actually thinks of it.
Spoilers Ahead!
There are times when I’ve thought of Earthshock as one of Doctor Who‘s most compelling segments. And there are times when I’ve felt like it was a narratively-clunky mess. Rewatching it recently, for the first time in many years, and I find that both opinions are still vying for attention.
On the positive side, there is a lot to like…a lot that is tremendously “cool”, for lack of a better word. Of course, now we all know the Cybermen are involved, but the way they are kept off-screen until the end of Episode One makes the story’s first cliffhanger one of the series’ best reveals.
The mixture of all the space marines with the series’ typical horror trappings vaguely anticipates the vibe of the movie Aliens (on a much reduced budget, obviously), and gives us a number of fun scenes. Tegan even gets a bit of a “Ripley moment” where, dressed in a jump suit, she runs into the action, grabs and gun and blows a Cyberman away. The story is excellently paced, and rarely does the drama or action let up (except for maybe some needless hand-wringing with Nyssa in the TARDIS as she and the other stand around uselessly).
And of course, one has to acknowledge the climax, with the death of Adric. On the whole, Adric gets lots of moments of good characterization throughout the whole drama, and while I havent’t always been the biggest an of Matthew Waterhouse, he holds his own here. His death is well-staged, and all the more tragic for how utterly needless it seems to be. Indeed, my personal head-canon has it that Adric’s last efforts with the bomb altered the outcome of the situation, so that instead of the earth being destroyed, just the dinosaurs were wiped out. You’re a hero, Adric! The silent credits over the broken badge were a fitting way to close out the story.
On the other hand, there are a lot of elements of the story that are not so strong. For example, there is no reason the Cybermen would deploy androids to guard their bomb, rather than actual members of their own army, except that the producers wanted to keep their presence a secret from the audience. This big international summit that is apparently motivating the whole story is entirely off-camera, and never really feels like a real thing. And the Cybermen themselves are extremely emotional, even as they claim to not have any feelings.
Also, the story’s secondary characters feel largely like they are merely taking up space because there has to be something else going on beyond the Doctor and the Cybermen. I’ve read something years ago about how Eric Saward would apparently fill his story with characters who would be around to serve their story purpose, but once that was complete he would kill them off. This leads to some pretty unsatisfying story arcs, which is especially evident here in a couple of cases. Professor Kyle, for example, is not an interesting character, and once the story moves past the tunnels, she serves no story purpose but to loan Tegan her jumpsuit. Her death is then neither meaningful nor dramatic, and it would have made far more sense for her to have stayed on earth.
Even more disappointing is Ringway. He actually has a potentially interesting personality with his seeming depression and his issues with his captain. But having him revealed as a traitor just throws that all away. To make matters worse, the Cybermen just kill him off in a moment of false suspense (“Oh no! They are going to kill the Doctor! Oh, no they’re not…”) before he can actually go any further in the story, and we have to worry about pesky things like “motivation” or “consistency”. Really, he’s one of the worst and most wasted of all of Doctor Who‘s abundant “collaborator-trope” characters.
But, if you can look past these imperfections, the serial is a fun ride, and is a lot of fun to watch. I enjoyed watching it with my daughters, who didn’t know anything about the Cybermen or how it was all going to play out. Certainly, it was never boring, which is a huge plus.
Blue Towel Productions 