Is Earthshock Doctor Who's First Legit Blockbuster?

When the show brought back the Cybermen in the '80s, they turned up the volume on everything.

Plot Summary

The Cybermen succeed in devastating Earth.

Notable for:

• Death of Adric! (spoiler) — Doctor Who’s most dramatic companion death until Clara Oswald in Face the Raven (which referenced Adric’s death with the Doctor’s line, “Remember 82” when counting steps). His death is “dealt with” at the beginning of Time-Flight and referenced many times in the show and audios/books/comics/other media, most recently in The Giggle.

• Return of the Cybermen, which had not featured as a monster since Revenge of the Cybermen seven years earlier (1975), though a clip cameo was in Logopolis.

• Designer Richard Gregory took on a complete redesign of the Cybermen, loosely based on The Invasion Cybermen. It features:

  • Flight-suit look

  • Sleeker chest units

  • Handheld weapons

  • Black handlebars for the Cyber Leader - the first time it’s done this way (the Leader had a totally black helmet in Revenge) and was repeated in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday for the new series

• First appearance of David Banks as Cyber Leader. Banks would play the part for 3 more stories. Banks was in the Doctor Who stage play, The Ultimate Adventure, but did not play the Cyber Leader (although a Cyber Leader is featured).

• Written by Eric Saward, who had taken over as script editor from Anthony Root. Root is credited as script editor on screen.

• Episode 4 had silent closing credits, with Adric’s broken star as the background.

• Working title was Sentinel.

Pete commentary:

A classic:

• Earthshock is considered a classic by many fans, and it’s easy to see why: They clearly knew they had a classic on their hands, and dialed up the action, drama, and budget to the max. Saward said they set out to make a movie, and they basically pulled it off.

• Just looking at the sheer number of Cybermen costumes they had, it’s clear JNT knew this was the story to blow a boatload of money on. Everyone is giving their A-game: Davison, Janet Fielding, and Matthew Waterhouse all deliver on this one. With Nyssa confined to the TARDIS once again, there’s not as much for her to do, though she’s great when softening up Adric after his row with the Doctor in episode 1.

• You can smell the money being burned in this one right away. Sure, it begins in a quarry, but the sheer number of extras in the troopers lets you know something’s elevated here. The set of the freighter is really impressive, and WOW did they have a lot of Cybermen. When they take the bridge it’s almost the opposite of clown car as one Cyberman after another comes through the blown-up bulkhead.

• Then there’s the FX, which were great for the time, even if ridiculously cheap by today’s standards. The beams from the troopers look like ribbons, and they don’t improve them a whole hell of a lot on the improved FX track on the Blu-ray, which is awesome. The Cyber weapons aren’t improved at all, which I’m not at all complaining about — the “blue ring” effect still works, and nicely differentiates their guns. The biggest change is the end, showing a completely different view of the freighter crashing into Earth.

• The music is five stars! Kudos to Malcolm Clarke. What is it about the Cybermen that lends them to really great, memorable scores for their episodse? The march, the silver metallic hues, the action-filled nature of the episode — it’s led to some incredible soundtracks: The Moonbase, the Cyber March here, and the Cybermen them in NuWho.

• The freighter set is pretty great. The lighting is on point — lots of shadows for the Cybermen to walk through and kind of “almost” see them when they’re on the march. Then they come into clear view — a brilliant reveal for the Doctor.

• Davison really sells the moment, too. Direction is a bit much — the music, the ultra close-up on Davison’s face — but it really works. This was already a serious episode, and now it’s on a whole other level.

Return of the Cybermen:

• The reveal of the Cybermen at the end of episode 1 is one of the best-ever moments in the show, kept under legendary secrecy by John Nathan-Turner. He supposedly turned down a Radio Times cover to preserve the secret. And it works! I couldn’t tell you the date I first saw the reveal of the Cybermen in Earthshock, but it was probably the moment that sealed my fate as a lifelong Doctor Who fan. I’d seen the Cybermen before (I think I’d even seen The Five Doctors years earlier), but the last time was Revenge. This being PBS, that meant it was probably several months before this. And boom, there they are. Banks’ shouting “Destroy them at once!” is such a nice, simple monster line, too, and he delivers it with great authority. Just a legendary moment. And it still works! Grace loved it and exclaimed, “That was interesting!” as soon as the credits rolled.

• Director Peter Grimwade made an… uh, excellent choice in shooting the Cybermen from below to make them more towering and menacing.

• There are some (intentionally?) amusing moments with the Cybermen here and there. The bit where the Cyber Leader and Lieutenant are discussing whether or not the second android has visual monitoring and the Leader says, “Then activate,” with an exasperated tone gave me Spaceballs vibes.

• Plus those 2 Cyber guards on the freighter being all gossipy? What the hell was that? Even Grace laughed.

• I remember feeling all the flashbacks to earlier Cybermen episodes were incredible at the time. Now this kind of thing is super-common, of course, but back then, when even videotape was new, seeing clips from old episodes? Just an incredible feeling. These Cybermen reviewing Revenge, which is in their future, doesn’t make sense, but you can headcanon that pretty easily.

• The Cybermen getting trapped in the bulkhead is a really cool effect that you don’t see coming. Plus it’s a nice little mislead: it keeps the Cybermen out for about 30 seconds.

• I would argue this is the one time the Cybermen’s pretty ridiculous weakness to gold is actually used well. It’s not strangely ignored like it is in Revenge, and it’s not turned into a stupid video game like it is in Silver Nemesis. It’s there to help them believably turn the tables on the Cyber Leader in ep 4. A bit of a deus ex machina, perhaps, but considering it was set up seven years previous, I’ll give them a pass.

Guest cast:

• The guest cast is mostly passable. James Warwick as Scott gives just enough depth to his character to add to the situational realism, and Alec Sabin as Ringway understood the assignment: an “earnest” exterior that masks a seething anger. You believe his motivation enough in the moment, but it honestly makes no sense — you’re betraying the Earth to the Cybermen because your boss was mean to you? I know they mention money, but that’s never developed.

• Beryl Reid, however, feels miscast. That said, she seems to have thought about the character a bit. Her performance is memorable, and her boredom/irritability works — you definitely get the sense she’s just trying to get by and make some money on this route that she’s flown a billion times.

• Professor Kyle has a strange habit of recommending everyone and everything be “positive.” Is she from California or something? Decent performance, but not that memorable — you do feel a little bad that she dies in ep 4, seemingly trying to make up for her earlier cowardice (not going out with Tegan and the troopers).

• The guest star who steals the show, however, is David Banks as the Cyber Leader. There is no Cyberman performance more notable in the classic series. Saward’s script gives the Cyber Leader more than a hint of emotion, and Banks ran with that ball as far as he could, and perhaps beyond. It’s honestly masterful. The script, the direction, the performance all direct you to sit up and pay attention to the Cyber Leader’s every word.

• And the script delivers. The exchanges between the Doctor and the Cyber Leader are some of Davison’s best work on Doctor Who:

  • The exchange about emotion — “small, beautiful events are what life is all about” — leading directly to the Cyber Leader coldly ordering Tegan’s death: “Such a reaction is not a disadvantage?”

  • The bit where the Doctor mocks the Leader for not understanding emotion, and he retorts that fondness is “a word like any other. And so is destruction.”

  • I don’t know why, but I really like Davison’s comeback: “You never change. Always the perfect guests.”

  • All the stuff in the TARDIS where the Doctor is powerless.

• All this begs the question, of course, why is the Cyber Leader so emotional? He (it?) expresses satisfaction (“Excellent”), annoyance (at many of the Doctor’s lines, e.g. “you lie, Doctor”), glee (“So, we meet again, Doctor”), vengeance (“He must suffer for our past defeats”), and cruelty (all the crap at the end).

• It’s a stretch, but you could make the case that these Cybermen have achieved something along the lines of what happened when Hartigan became the CyberKing in The Next Doctor: combining the Cybermen’s logic with ambition and purpose. They do seem interested in learning about emotions.

• The Banks-Davison dynamic is what makes episode 4 a masterpiece. The Cyber Leader dominating, threatening, and gloating over the Doctor is brilliant — this is truly a villain you love to hate. Davison takes it all seriously, and it’s wonderful watching him try to assert rhetorical dominance with lines like, “I’m surprised your emotionless brain understands the word,” with the Cyber Leader always ready with a retort.

Plotting:

• There are a ton of either plot holes or things unexplained. This has been observed many times before, but most aren’t that hard to headcanon away. What confirms that Earthshock is good is that you WANT to headcanon them away, because the story is so engaging:

  • Why do the Cybermen leave so many soldiers dormant? HEADCANON: Not enough power to revive them all.

  • Why doesn’t the Doctor take Scott with him? HEADCANON: Arrogance, plus Tegan’s like “A show of force might ruin everything” is in line with the Doctor’s philosophy: go in with soldiers, and there’s bound to be fighting.

  • Where do the Cybermen evacuate to? HEADCANON: They mention the “main fleet” — presumably they set course for where that is.

  • How did the Cybermen get on the freighter in the first place? HEADCANON: This story is obviously the end point of a master plan. It’s fair to presume Ringway is not the only one bribed and bamboozled to execute the plan. In other words, there’s probably a whole other “plot” involving relaying the army to some legit buyer/shipper who the Cybermen bribe to get on the freighter.

  • BIGGEST PROBLEM: Captain doesn’t stop the ship AFTER the Cybermen are revealed. This one is really hard to explain away. Yes, she is determined to get her bonus, but once the Cybermen are just outside the bridge, I don’t see any reason to believe they’re going to die if they don’t do something. They still have control of the ship. Just STOP! HEADCANON: The Cybermen jammed communications and navigation control so even if they tried, they wouldn’t be able to. Best I can do 🤷🏻‍♂️

• Gotta say, the radar thingie that the troopers are using looks pretty low-res for 26th century tech. The guy (Walters?) does say it’s “ancient,” I guess.

• The androids are clearly an invention to satisfy the need to keep the Cybermen under wraps until the episode’s end. It’s never explained why their weapons technology is seemingly much superior to even the Cyberguns, capable of disintegrating humans. If you squint, you can justify it by the whole thing about the Earth security equipment being able to pick up biological/mammalian lifeforms — presumably the Cybermen include aspects of that with partially human bodies.

• Speaking of, it’s interesting that they chose to show chins moving behind the faceplate. This was deliberate, a design choice meant to evoke the “hand” moment in The Tenth Planet — a way to subtly emphasize and remind that the Cybermen are part human. But it honestly seems a little weird and distracting. It almost seems like a mistake, but it’s so front and center, you can tell it isn’t. They got rid of it in future ’80s Cybermen episodes while keeping the overall design.

• The Discontinuity Guide accuses the script of having things happen simply for plot expediency, and though I think that’s harsh, the whole “the Cyber Lieutenant left the re-activation switch on accidentally” thing is pretty stupid.

Death of Adric:

• The death of Adric is clearly foreshadowed throughout, but because Doctor Who simply didn’t do that (it hadn’t killed a companion since the Hartnell years, and it was not any of the memorable ones) I remember not seeing it coming until the very end. Even if you didn’t like Adric, you were upset by it.

• Matthew Waterhouse is so clearly anticipating the keyboard in front of him to blow up it isn’t funny.

• Ironically for Adric, Earthshock is one of Tegan’s best episodes, balancing her impulsiveness with her effectiveness quite well. She joins the troopers, jumps on the Cyber Leader at the end, gets her best-ever line (“I’m just a mouth on legs”) and believably flies off the handle at the end in the TARDIS.

Other:

• Nice to see Adric’s room — so much TARDIS interior fun in the Davison era.

• The video feed from the android is pretty silly: everyone, including the Doctor, is in full view. Why not just kill them instantly. It works in the moment, but on second watch you’re like, what the hell, bro?

• “I’m hungry” is the “most Adric thing Adric has ever said,” according to Grace.

• All the bullying of Ringway on the freighter is super contrived. Why are you sassing up the guy who actually seems competent? Even Berger gets in on it a bit.

• The Doctor chooses violence at the end. He really had no choice, but grabbing the Cyber Leader’s gun and blasting away at him… wowza.

• One poorly thought-out detail we really didn’t need: Earth’s continents look the same as modern day, as opposed to what they would have looked like 65 million years ago. Notably, they do correct this (somewhat) in the Blu-ray, putting Africa right next to South America (though Africa still looks pretty modern).

What did Pete’s family think?

• Grace liked Earthshock, but she had a visceral reaction to Adric’s death. She didn’t know that was the end of this story, but she suspected as things went on (she’s seen Time-Flight so knows Adric dies at some point). When Adric says, “I’ll see you soon,” in ep 4, she said “That’s the most ‘I won’t see you soon’ see you soon ever.”

• When the credits rolled she kept saying “No, no, no, no!” and smacking me on the arm. Adric is her favorite character from this TARDIS team.

• She also observed that when someone makes an observation about technology it was always advanced or primitive — never “mid.”

Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete

1. Why did the Randomizer take us here? The thing that’s never observed about Earthshock is that it postulates two mutually exclusive theories about how time travel works. Either:

   1. The freighter goes back in time and changes history as we know it.

   2. The freighter goes back in time and becomes a part of history.

   
   Which is it? The Doctor doesn’t even seem to know, first believing the Cybermen will destroy Earth before humans even evolve. Then he realizes the freighter is the catastrophe that destroys the dinosaurs. The series is wildly inconsistent about this, so it’s often unclear. Coming right after Father’s Day, you can see why the Randomizer wanted to get things straight.

2. What if the evil plot had succeeded? The Cybermen ditch their dumb “I want my guards to observe your reactions” subtask (they’re always trying to do too much) and instead don’t allow anyone on the bridge, kill the captain and Berger (and maybe Adric too), then make for the Doctor’s TARDIS. Scott finds the bridge abandoned, has no clue what any of the equipment does, so beelines back to the TARDIS, only to watch it dematerialize. The freighter hits the Earth in the 26th Century, destroys it, and the Cyber Fleet takes over the galaxy. The Cyber Leader commandeers the TARDIS back to Telos (or wherever), they torture his companions to get the Doctor to reveal the secrets of time travel, then plot to invade Gallifrey. Do we get the Cyber Masters 38 years early?

3. Where's the Clara splinter? There are so many plot holes to cover up, it’s hard to know where to start. But I like to think a version of Clara was converted into the Cyber Lieutenant, which is why he didn’t put the safety on when leaving Cyber Control. That lets that last Cyberman come in and kill Adric, because she knows this is a formative moment the Doctor needs.

4. Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Personally, Earthshock feels like it should be a Fixed Point in Time. It was so meaningful in cementing me as a Doctor Who fan that I don’t know if I can give it an unbiased rating. But I don’t think that’s even the goal. Loving an episode in spite of its flaws is part of Doctor Who — the relevant questions now are, does it hold up, and does the story succeed on its own terms?
   
   I believe the answer to both questions is yes. My daughter gave me reassurance that the reveals and suspense still work to an uninitiated viewer. But further, although parts of the story fall apart upon repeat viewing, there is no question that Earthshock meets the moment of the early ’80s — the Doctor Who version of a sci-fi action blockbuster. Every story done in this style has plot holes and mistakes, but the point is the ride — was it memorable and enjoyable? When you finish, do you wish you could do it all again? For Earthshock, I can’t shout “yes” enough. Viscount Banger, all the way.

---

Chris commentary:

• Just this once, Adric … someone dies.

• The execution is undoubtedly brilliant, and as far ahead of its time as it could get on a budget. Pacing is tight. It feels right. The script, however – having read the Target novelization and the transcript – it's a mess. Other than the Doctor's tiny speech, and one or two other memorable lines that land well, it's confusing and humorless. And I worry that all the contemporary love for Earthshock told JNT and the production team that this was what they needed to do going forward – not humor and accessibility, fan service and action.

• I watched this at the time it was broadcast, and I do remember it having an impact on me (sorry, Adric). I may even have watched it again when it was repeated in August 82. Not enough of an impact for me to note it in my diary at the time (though to be fair, here's all I wrote for Logopolis: "On Doctor Who, Doctor Who regenerated." The first named story in my own personal 500 year diary was Warriors of the Deep.)

• That said, this was in many ways analogous to ESB for DW. The Han Solo-style cyberman in carbonite … Adric as the "I am your father" reveal ("I am your asteroid"?)

• I get that Adric is a maths whiz, and it's neat that his end ties into that, but I gotta wonder how many kids my age were put off maths because he just simply plucks the correct answer out of thin air. How did he do that?

• The asteroid impact theory was fairly recent at the time – because of all the iridium found at that layer around the same time. The first major cross-discipline meeting presenting papers on the theory was in 1981. Kudos, Eric S!

• Lovely to see so many women in the future, even dear old Beryl, who seems to be doing her best Thatcher. But she's just too nice, not cut from the same cloth.

• What is the expedition about, at the beginning? Why should we care about it? Maybe mention it?

• Indeed, how many of the human cast do we actually care about?

• Ouch, ectopic = two hearts? Ouch ouch ouch. "Unusual form" … but everyone associates it with pregnancy.

• The Cyber Leader is really into talking about time for some reason! "Destroy them at once / they must be stopped immediately / we must act quickly / they are too late / how much longer before activation (I mean, get a watch?) / the time draws near …"

• And "eeeeexcellent" … it's impossible to hear that now without thinking of Mr. Burns.

• What kind of bomb? Why caves??? Novelization helps: they're trying to blow up the tectonic plates at weak points. But the signal gets through to CAVES?

• The freighter's captain was questioned for 7 hours – why wouldn't security care about THREE MISSING CREWMEMBERS? This doesn't even need to be in the script … is it just a setup for the "murderers" cliffhanger?

• And is the ship playing by the book or not? "We execute murderers" but some don't? Wouldn't there be general regulations?

• "So melodramatic …" ok but is the script criticizing itself now? And what's wrong with saying apprehended, exactly? Still, I love Beryl saying "come off it" when she gets captured by Ringway and "just composed a nasty epitaph" when he's alive

• So if it doesn't matter when Earth blows up, why not just activate the bomb?

• And why was the freighter chosen to activate it from?

• Why are the androids so valuable? What even are they?

• "Destroy the conference and you destroy the unity" … or you create a whole bunch of martyrs and inspire galactic-level rage, Pearl Harbor x 1000? They didn't think this through …

• "I shall join a secondary force to complete my attack. / "are they all so dedicated?" How is that dedication, that he's got a backup crew? And how is "flippant" the opposite of "dedicated"?

• "Emotional feelings" … another clunky phrasing.

• How is fear "the ultimate in emotional response"? And are Cybermen connoisseurs of emotion now?

• How does the Leader know it only takes one person to fly the TARDIS?

• The ending is dramatic, but when you think about it, utterly confusing. Did Tegan send the freighter back in time?

• Time for that final verse from The Last Chance Saloon (which I began when we did The Gunfighters, and didn't even remember the final bit is music-free so this could work perfectly!: So it's farewell to Adric / as he tumbles to the Earth / far away from E-space and the world of his birth / he could have danced with Nyssa but the end came up too soon / now he's eating all the buffet at the Last Chance Saloon

Four Questions to Doomsday - Chris

1. Why did the Randomizer take us here? Father's Day connection: someone has to die for humanity to survive. It really wants to test all our fixed points in time …

2. What if the evil plot had succeeded? Then they destroy the conference and the galaxy binds together to eradicate the Cybermen once and for all?

3. Where's the Clara splinter? Time Lady Clara was helping Tegan in 4 to Doomsday … maybe she does know what she's doing … taking Adric out was necessary to stop the Doctor ever going back into E-space!

4. Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? It was definitely a banger at the time, no question, and definitely a banger for execution. But there are many, many problems, and I think ignoring them is part of what doomed DW to its own asteroid impact years later. I'm too close to this story to feel like I can criticize it in the rating, but I do want to leave a space to acknowledge that criticism. It's a fixed banger in time!