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Earthshock Format Reviewed: DVD Review Earthshock marks the return to the series of the Cybermen, and it can be seen as somewhat of a resurgence of this popular foe for the Doctor. Their last appearance was in the early Tom Baker story Revenge of the Cybermen, and were really reduced to being a small troop described by Tom as 'a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers skulking about the universe in an ancient spaceship'. Here, they have been rejuvinated and appear in some numbers in the hold of the spaceship. A cave system on Earth is being explored when people start to go missing. A team go to investigate and find the disintegrated bodies of their compatriots. More of them die too, and they discover the TARDIS crew and accuse them of the murders. Andriods then attack teh group, having been left to protect a metal panel in the wall. The androids are defeated, the Doctor tracks the source of a signal they were transmitting and follows it with some surviving members of the Earth team. They find a freight liner in deep space, being used as a relay point. Crew of the space ship are also going missing, and the Doctor is again found and accused of murder. Later, Cybermen emerge from the hold and take control of the spaceship. They lock it off onto a collision course with Earth and force the Doctor to take the Cyber leader and a couple of his troops in the TARDIS to watch the spaceship impact the Earth. Still on board are the crew and Adric, who was forced to remain behind. They soon kill the remaining cyberman on board and find that there are three complex logic problems to solve to free the spaceship. Adric gets to work on them, and manages two, freeing up several functions and meaning the ship is travelling back in time. THe crew use the escape pod but Adric remains on board, certain he can solve the remaining logic problem. He believes he has, but a virtually dead Cyberman shoots the console just before he can enter the code, and the ship impacts with the Earth. The Doctor then deals with the Cybermen in the TARDIS and they ponder the death of Adric. To a certain degree, this story is pseudo historical due to the references to the wiping out of the dinosaurs. I always enjoy references like this, as it makes it appear more authentic if the events in the show fit with established history. The production team have also taken the decision to kill off a companion, which is a very rare thing indeed. For this the closing credits of the last episode do not feature any music, just a picture of Adric's badge, broken up by the Doctor, on a black back cloth with the credits scrolling over the top. This is quite a chilling and sobering image, and provides a counterpoint to the violence that was seen during the story. In this era, the regular cast again features a multitude. Peter Davison is really starting to look the part as the Doctor, but in my opinion there are too many companions. In this story, Matthew Waterhouse as Adric comes to the fore, with Janet Fielding as Tegan barely featuring, and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa only playing a small cameo really. Waterhouse perhaps puts in his best performance as Adric, but to be fair this isn't living up to much! Of the guest cast, Beryl Reid as Captain Briggs looks really out of her depth. She delivers her lines without evel looking like she has a clue what she is saying. June Bland fares better as Berger, but Alec Sabin as Ringway doesn't really inspire confidence in his character. The rest of the cast put in some good performances. The main factor that goes in favour of this story is that it really does grab the attention of the viewer early and doesn't let it go until after the closing titles. In any piece of entertainment, this is really the most important factor. Sure, there are factors that go against established continuity such as the fact that no guns should be able to be fired in the TARDIS, but the Cyber guns don't appear to be similarly affected. The main thing though is still the fact that the story is a great romp and enjoyable from beginning to end. Overall, Earthshock is a good story that reintroduces a great adversary back into Doctor Who. The Ctbermen have undergone a very good redisign, and are probably at their best look throughout the classic series here. There are some weaknesses, namely that established continuity goes out the window to a certain degree, and some weak guest cast performances let down the show somewhat, but the over-riding impression of Earthshock will be the great entertainment throughout. Rating:  |