OK so here's my maiden post about on this blog about something, and I've chosen to do it on the Doctor Who story, Earthshock, during the Peter Davison era, which was in a way kind of landmark story of its own at that time in the programme as it saw the return of the dreaded Cybermen to our screens. So here is a lot more about that.
The story begins with the Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions, Tegan (Janet Fielding), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) who land the TARDIS on Earth far into the future, inside some caves. Meanwhile an expedition of military men, lead by Lieutenant Scott (James Warwick) explore the caves with Professor Kyle (Clare Clifford) an archeologist who's team went missing during a survey to find fossils. However as the team search, they are killed off one by one, by some strange androids, who appear to be protecting something. The Doctor is soon captured by Scott, but then they soon find the bodies of Kyle's team and a metal hatch in the wall, which Scott forces the Doctor to open. However before the Doctor can do so, they are attacked by the androids who are clearly guarding the hatch for their masters, which we soon find out are the Cybermen! The hatch in fact contains a bomb which the Cybermen activate a coundown to kill the others, but the Doctor with Adric's help successfully manages to deactivate the bomb. The Doctor then is able to trace the signal of the bomb back to its origin which is a big space freighter. The Doctor tells Scott and his crew to stay in the TARDIS while he investigates the freighter with Adric, but they are soon captured after the find two dead bodies onboard the ship. The Doctor and Adric are then taken to Captain Briggs (Beryl Reid of all people!) who demands what they are doing there as the Doctor explains about the bomb. However before they know it they find out the Cybermen are actually stowed away onboard the freighter, and they emerge from containers on the freighter to take control of the ship, lead by their Cyber leader (David Banks). So the Doctor must try and find a way to defeat the Cybermen who intend to wipe out Earth while several dignitaries visit Earth to discuss forming a pact to destroy the Cybermen.
Eartshock was widely regarded as one of Peter Davison's best stories, and its hard to argue with that as the story has plenty going for it and it was refreshing to see the return of the cybermen after a seven year absence. The cybermen themselves also had an impressive makeover from the rather flared looking outfits they had in Tom Baker's 1975 adventure, the Revenge of the Cybermen. Although one criticism that has been levelled at this story was how the cybermen were no longer emotionless, as in this story they are clearly more emotional in their responses, especially as the cyberleader is forever saying "Excellent!". David Banks, who does an "excellent" job as the cyber leader also fairly raised the point while the cybermen in the story weren't seen to be robotic or emotionless enough, it would undercut the drama of how they were presented if he did perform the dialogue in a very robotic monotone manner, which is fair enough as it would have been ridiculous! Of course in the new series, the Cybermen voices were done by Nicholas Briggs who had his voice electronically altered, and it sounded far more robotic than before, but it worked well.
Performance wise the story however I have to say is a mixed bag, some of them are better than others, the worse culprit has to be Clare Clifford as Professor Kyle, as she get's some awful dialogue, especially the scene where she is in the TARDIS and shes the Cybermen on the screen and she says "They're huge!". James Warwick also delivers his lines in a very cheesy macho manner, and the title of this post refers to one of his corniest deliveries when Tegan says she wants to go with him outside the TARDIS and he says "No, it could be rough!". There is also the baffling decision made by the producer of the time, John Nathan Turner, to cast Beryl Reid as the freighter ship's captain, which is in itself bizarre, as Reid is hardly the stuff of captains is she???! She also delivers her lines in a very half hearted manner, as she moans about how her crew don't do their job etc. Although June Bland is definitely one of the stronger of the supporting cast as she plays Captain Brigg's second officer, Berger. But it is David Banks who provides the best performance as the Cyber Leader, whom he plays with a sense of menace, perhaps a hint of too much emotion, but he is by far the best actor to have played the part of any cybermen.
However most of the regulars do a fine job here, with Peter Davison now well into his role as the Doctor, who continues to play the fifth doctor with a sense of authority and vulnerability, and his youthful exterior always betrays the doctor's real age. Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton are also both fine as Tegan and Nyssa, with Fielding getting one of the stories best lines "Don't listen to me, I'm just a mouth on legs!". However out of the regulars, Matthew Waterhouse as Adric was always the weak link in the chain, and it was apparently a decision made by the production staff to kill off his character, as we see in this story, which was the first death of a full time companion of the Doctor's. The story of course ends with Adric choosing to stay on the freighter to crack the code to prevent the ship from crashing into Earth, but in the end he fails and the ships crashes into Earth with him still onboard. And througout we see how awkward Matthew's performance is, as he clearly doesn't know what do with his hands, as he half puts his hands in his pockets, and there are fans who have derided him because of his performance, especially in the scene where he anxiously touches the keyboard on the freighter just before the cybermen looms through the door and shoots it. However his last scene definitely has a sense of dignity to it, and it is in itself one of the most memorable scenes from that time of the show.
Direction wise, Peter Grimwade does an excellent job here with the story and he expertly hides the cybermen from the viewers till the very end of the first episode, the use of dark and dank caves also works very well. The scene with the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa who stare on at the TARDIS screen in horror as the space freighter that Adric is on crashes into Earth, is really well done too and is actually quite a powerful moment as well in the story. The decision to roll the credits silently at the end to commemorate Adric's death is without a doubt the right one, although perhaps the inclusion of his broken badge as a still shot maybe would have been better substituted with a black screen, but well that's what they chose to go with, and it works well enough.
And another very noteworthy aspect of the story is the music score by Malcolm Clarke, which is excellent, as it is a very ambient mixture of suspense and doom. The music used in the cave scenes is great, as is the theme where the Cybermen smash out of the ship containers to storm the freighter, and the passage of music at the end just as Adric meets his maker is really suspenseful, followed by a poignant lull.
So so so, that's my critique on Earthshock, which was an excellent addition to the Peter Davison era of the show, and despite its flaws, it remains a strong story that is worth a watch.
So I will leave it there.
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