Earthshock is the sixth serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1982. This serial marks the final regular appearance of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric and his death, with the final episode featuring unique silent credits in loving memory of the character. It is also the first to feature the Cybermen since Revenge of the Cybermen in 1975.
The serial is mainly set on Earth and a deep-space freighter in 2526. In the serial, the Cybermen plot to wipe out Earth, where a conference of multiple planets is planning to form a military pact to defeat the Cybermen in a war.
Plot
As the TARDIS materialises in Earth's future, Adric argues with the Fifth Doctor about the lack of attention and respect he receives compared to Nyssa or Tegan. They explore a series of caves and are caught by soldiers led by Lieutenant Scott; Professor Kyle, accompanying Scott, accuses the four of killing the rest of her archaeological team. The Doctor convinces them to help, and Kyle leads them to the bodies of her team, near where they find an odd metal hatch. The group is attacked by androids, killing some of Scott's men, but the Doctor defeats them. He suspects the androids were guarding the hatch, and eventually opens it to reveal a powerful bomb that could destroy the planet. The Doctor and Adric defuse the bomb and trace its signal back to a freighter that is entering the Solar System. Scott and Kyle join the Doctor as they return to the TARDIS and travel to the freighter. The Doctor instructs the others to wait in the TARDIS while he and Adric explore the ship; they find a similar number of corpses in the cargo holds before they are caught by the ship's security and taken to Captain Briggs, where they try to explain their situation.
Throughout this, the Doctor and the humans are unaware that they are being monitored by the Cybermen, who seek to destroy the Earth. With the bomb defused on Earth and the Doctor now interfering here, the Cyber Leader decides it is time to take command of the freighter. They leave the sealed containers they stowed away in and march to the bridge. The ship's crew, along with help from Tegan, Scott, and Kyle, attempt to barricade their progress, but the Cybermen overpower them, killing Kyle and capturing Tegan, and soon the Cybermen control the bridge. Using Tegan to keep the Doctor in check, the Cybermen install a device that locks the controls of the freighter after setting it on warp-speed collision course with Earth, expecting the anti-matter engines will be powerful enough to destroy the Earth. The Cybermen then order the Doctor to take them to his TARDIS to escape, leaving behind Adric, Briggs, and other crewmen. Adric is able to pass the Doctor his gold Badge for Mathematical Excellence before they depart, knowing the Cybermen are allergic to gold.
Scott and his men overpower the minimal guard left on the bridge, and Adric starts working to try to undo the control lock. His first attempt causes the ship to jump back in time about 65 million years; the Doctor, monitoring this on the TARDIS, observes that is about the same time of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Adric's second attempt brings the ship out of warp; though still on course to strike Earth, the impact would not be as devastating. Briggs, Scott, and the remaining crew use the opportunity to leave in escape pods. They try to convince Adric to come, but at the last moment, he returns, having another insight on defeating the lock. Scott relays their status to the TARDIS, and the Cyber Leader orders the Cybermen to kill the TARDIS crew, but the Doctor grinds Adric's gold badge on the Cyber Leader's chestplate, suffocating it and allowing them to disable the Cybermen.
The Doctor finds the TARDIS' controls have been damaged, making it impossible to rescue Adric. On the bridge, Adric nears undoing the lock when a weakened Cyberman fires on him, missing him and striking the keyboard, preventing Adric from making any further attempts. The TARDIS crew watches helplessly as the freighter collides with Earth in a massive explosion, killing the dinosaurs and Adric in the process.
Production
thumb|left|upright|This serial featured newly designed Cybermen, on display here at a 50th Anniversary event
The working title for this story was Sentinel. 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.
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. 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 the 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.
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 (Martin Bower) had scavenged from the Nostromo set constructed for Ridley Scott's science fiction film Alien (1979). 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.
Earthshock was Peter Grimwade's last work as a director on Doctor Who. According to an interview with Eric Saward in 1986, Nathan-Turner subsequently fell out with Grimwade and refused to use him again, which was a source of tensions between Nathan-Turner and Saward. Although this was his last job on Doctor Who as director, he would write three serials for the Davison era; Time-Flight (which follows on from Earthshock), Mawdryn Undead and Planet of Fire.
Cast notes
Peter Davison has stated that Earthshock is one of his three favourite serials from his time on the programme.