PS Creativity > Reviews > The Classic Series > Earthshock

The Doctor -the traveller in time and space- is now in his fifth incarnation and is accompanied by his three young companions, Tegan, an Australian Earth woman, Nyssa, the only survivor of the planet Traken, and Adric- a teenage boy from the E-Space universe.

In this adventure the Tardis takes the Doctor to Earth, a few centuries in the future where the Doctor comes face to face with the Cybermen- a race of heartless and virtually indestructible cyborgs from the planet Mondas who have been the Doctor's sworn enemies throughout all of his regenerations, and nothing has changed that as the Cybermen have elaborate plans to destroy the planet Earth. It is a conflict that will be fought through space and time, bringing many innocents to their deaths before the Cybermen are done.

The Cybermen were the second most popular villains of Doctor Who, and they mainly had their heyday in the 1960's in the classic black & white episodes "The Tenth Planet", "The Invasion" and "Tomb of the Cybermen"- the latter of which is regarded as the crème de la crème of Doctor Who. "Earthshock" in 1982, was the first appearance of the Cybermen in Doctor Who after a seven year absence. Of all the post-60's cybermen stories, "Earthshock" was generally considered to be the only coloured Cybermen episode (at least of the old series) to really match up to those golden oldies.

This is a story that pulls you in from the opening shot. We see a team of soldiers armed with lazer gear and potholeing equipment descending into a treacherous cave system in search of the ruthless killer androids that slaughtered a team of potholers. Immediately the atmosphere is set in and the story feels solid and gritty and likely to get very hands on and intense. From this opening scene letting you know good things are about to happen, it doesn't let up. Once we get into the bowels of the cave, the soldiers are attacked by the androids with alarming speed and elusiveness, and the first episode becomes quite scary in a way that the show hadn't been since "Horror of Fang Rock" in 1977, and wouldn't be again until "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" in 1988.

In part two the horror aspect gives way to all out action- and its exciting and it's also decidedly brutal in a way that the show hadn't been since 1977, and it really chews the grit well. The Cybermen finally make themselves known as the ones behind the killer androids. In years to come, the Cybermen would become demeaned and reduced to canon fodder, getting a major creaming in stories such as "Attack of the Cybermen" and "Silver Nemesis" (both stories that have a feckless quality to them that suggest no-one was taking the series at all seriously anymore), but here they really are virtually indestructible, just like in the old 1960's stories, and the directing is up close and makes the Cybermen seem robust and imposing as a silver army dwarfing humanity. The Cybermen's plans are elaborate but in their own way methodical and intelligently considered, but other than that they simply represent a heartless, all conquering threat to humanity that must be destroyed.

Of course now the New Series has revamped the Cybermen in sparkling fashion courtesy of brilliant directing by Graeme Harper, and the New Series Cybermen episodes have really tapped into the full potential of the Cybermen and actually succeeded at being closer to the original Cybermen stories in their technophobia, their notion of the Cybermen being an allegory for communism and their portrayal of the Cybermen as tragic villains that were never able to understand morality or the simple emotions that we take for granted.

In that regard Earthshock is left looking rather shallow as it basically amounts to an action adventure between gung ho humans and two-dimensional all conquering killer cyborgs, and yet somehow I wouldn't ask for anything more than that, as its actually one of Doctor Who's best forays into straightforward action adventure, alongside "Spearhead from Space" and "The Seeds of Doom". The difference being that this story has somehow become seen as the finest of its era.

I suppose it is important that I talk about this particular era of Doctor Who. This was the next to last story of Peter Davison's first season in the role of the Doctor, having taken over from Tom Baker. Tom Baker's tenure had given us seven (mostly) glorious years, where I felt the show really was at its height (and not just because Tom Baker was in it), having spent the years prior in a formative period of experimenting with formula and finding its feet and pushing its ambitions, as well as the envelope of comfortable viewing, losing and then regaining its edge, and I think by the Tom Baker period it had finally matured and carved a nice niche for itself. Of course all good things must come to an end, and I feel that after Tom Baker left the show in 1981, it was downhill from there.

The 1980's period of Doctor Who was the show going through its post modern phase. Initially in the early 80's the show went through a renaissance of originality, hard science and new wave ideas, which allowed for progressive and intelligent stories such as The Leisure Hive, Logopolis, Kinda and Black Orchid. However this is the story that in some way killed off that trend and drifted Doctor Who towards nostalgia and self-indulgence instead- making the show into fan pleaser material of ultraviolent rematches with old foes- here it's the Cybermen, and in years to come it would be the Silurians, Sea Devils, Daleks, Davros, and even the occasional Yeti- it should be remembered that the Tom Baker era had featured very few rematches with old foes, and indeed had instead focused on creating many new enemies for the Doctor to go against.

For me, although "Earthshock" was the trend setter for the indulgent stories, I find it to hold up brilliantly as a piece of entertainment. Somehow what would become the predictable and cynical trademarks of Eric Saward's writing feel distinctly fresh and involving here. Indeed I think that this is one story from the old series, alongside "The Seeds of Doom" and "City of Death" that I think a non-fan could really enjoy and deserves a repeat run on TV today- it's got a fine sense of tension and keeps up a good pace, and its special effects aren't that dated. What is most important about this story is that there is no clutter to it, the action and jeopardy keeps the story in motion and focused in a way that isn't the case with a lot of the other stories of the era.

The 80's saw the show go through a rather stilted post modern period of finding its feet again, and in doing so, exhibiting some of the worst elements of post modern TV- of being continuity anal, re-treading old ground, being over-preachy, and full of unappealing soapish moments, and even in violent stories like "Resurrection of the Daleks" and "Warriors of the Deep", it had featured the worst characteristic of Doctor Who, in that it spent its four episodes length merely subjecting us to a ridiculously high and frequent body-count in order to hammer us on the head with some heavy handed moral point about violence being bad that we'd already gotten by episode one- that is what I mean by its over-preachy nature.

I rather liked Peter Davison's take on the Doctor in some ways. His Doctor basically was the new age sensitive man. The 80's was a time when the new age sensitive man was coming into vogue in various books, adverts and of course singers like Howard Jones and Terence Trent Darby, even though films of the era tended to lean more on the dinosaur portrayal of masculinity, possibly as a backlash. He was a Doctor with that tragic blend of decency and naivety, who really wanted the universe to be a nice, safe and happy place with good and understanding people, and was clearly deeply upset that it wasn't a nice universe at all. He was strangely enough, the Doctor I probably found the most relateable, and until Christopher Eccleston arrived on the scene, Peter Davison really was the last really great and heartfelt performance of the role. Colin Baker was brash but surface deep most of the time, Sylvester McCoy wasn't really the best actor, and Paul McGann's one performance in the TV Movie was drowned out by the yucky loudness of the whole affair (to be fair, most of these actors have been admirable in the Big Finish audio adventures).

Having said all that, Peter Davison's Doctor could be such a sanctimonious and idiotic prig at times, often appealing for a peaceful resolve at the worst times and chastising humans for their use of violence against enemies in a way that made him seem stupid and incompetent at actually defeating enemies, and certainly in a potentially tense cold-war story like "Warriors of the Deep", his soapbox moments seemed more ridiculous and out of touch than ever- his moral outrage alienating rather than galvanising us and it really worked against the jeopardy of the story quite badly, it made the story squeamish when it should have been hands on. In many ways it indicated that the show was becoming more about developing the Doctor's character, his failings and his relationship with his companions, bit by bit rather than doing plot-central stories.

Probably what makes "Earthshock" and "The Caves of Androzani" the more popular Peter Davison stories is the fact that they afford the Fifth Doctor no chance to get on his soapbox because they are stories in which survival is all that matters and morality doesn't come into play. This story pits the Doctor up against one of his old enemies, and allows him to be far shrewder and more confrontational with them. It was a story that allowed his Doctor to be heroic, even violently so, and yet not compromise his role as the new age sensitive man.

This sensitive characteristic of the Fifth Doctor was largely emphasised by his relationship with his companions and the fact that he was so considerate and accommodating to such an obnoxious bunch. Nyssa was always a quiet girl so it was uncommon for her to get on anyone’s nerves, but both Tegan and Adric had a tencency to whine a lot, particularly in this season, and they were often selfish and b*tchy and seemed to take petty delight in picking at least one argument per episode. Adric has gone down in fandom as Doctor Who's most detestable companion, alongside Mel, and I'd say that this was down to a mixture of Matthew Waterhouse's performance and the scripts that were written for him. Of course his teenage credentials don't help either as he is inevitably perceived as the Wesley Crusher of Doctor Who. This was Adric's last story and Tegan would mellow somewhat in later stories, and both characters do come across as slightly more endearing than usual, mainly because the action momentum puts them to better use (although Tegan's shocking ignorance of prehistoric history when they come across dinosaur bones in the caves does stick in my craw as dumb characterisation). After all these characters were never more endearing than in a story like this where they show a degree of courage and daring that is truly inspiring. In-fact when we see Adric applying his wits to the various problems he does communicate a poignancy about how he is becoming independent and is outgrowing the Doctor, as reflected by the frustrated argument between the two at the beginning of the story- the poignancy also comes from seeing that this is a Doctor who is clearly emotionally affected by this parting of ways with Adric, suggesting he'd even come to think of Adric as something of a surrogate son.

The Doctor himself is well characterised at the backdrop of such a cynical world. The troopers are the most cynical, treating the Doctor and his crew, and even the survivors of the slaughtered expedition with calloused suspicion. This in itself emphasises the Fifth Doctor's nice persona. He is roughly manhandled and threatened by the leading soldier when first accosted and suspected of the killings, but not long after the Doctor has invited him into the Tardis as an ally out of a mutual desire to protect the Earth. Suffice it to say that any previous Doctor would have not been so quick to forgive such maltreatment. The Doctor offers his hand of help and in doing so emphasises the lack of trust that characterises these people, as does his focus on determining the motives behind the killings, and thereby learning to know the culprit whilst the others simply put the killings down to malice and allow paranoia to rule their awareness.

The episode is one that means serious business and is largely humourless, but I respect that integrity to its style as it reflects how the show was still focused and still had a momentum to it- aspects that would disappear from the show as its writers became bored and desperate to invoke audience interest without consistency. The main aspects of humour come from the moment when the Cybermen first identify the Doctor, as they happen upon his Tardis the Cyberleader declares "I KNOW that Object!" which is a personal favourite moment of the story, and then as an encore the Cyberleader shows footage of the previous Cybermen episodes, tending to capture the previous Doctors at his most flippant in his confrontations with the Cybermen. The Doctor's relationship with Adric is not without its charming moments of a shared laugh. There is also the adorably sarky presence of Beryl Reid as the captain of a space freighter that the Cybermen have plans to hijack and turn into a missile.

But otherwise this is pretty serious stuff where the steaks are very much high. One particular boobytrap is encountered and when someone mentions that cracking its code would take forever, Adric simply steps forward and declares "Then we should begin at once", which to me really sums up the wonderful urgency and challenge of wits of this story. If I've called the Fifth Doctor an incompetent hero above, then I'll say he doesn't exhibit any incompetence here at all- quite the opposite. He is up to speed and fast in calculations and decisive action, perhaps moreso here than in any other time in his life. The Doctor is forced to combat one life or death dilemma after another, locations change, and devices of death are rendered obsolete in quick succession and yet the situation retains a strong sense of gravity. It is a gritty and continuous fight with the four part story propelled relentlessly by action and tension, but it doesn't escape the occasional dark and brutal note that emphasises that even at his most capable, the Doctor cannot save everyone, and this certainly is a Doctor who really wants to save everyone he can.

Despite how I labelled this a 'shallow' story above, there is one scene that emphasises the basic theme of all Cybermen stories, which is about the fear of losing your individuality, your soul and personality to either the dictatorship of the Cybermen or indeed to being forced to become a Cyberman. The Cybermen usually represent our technophobia, our fears of mechanisation and artificially intelligent higher technologies, and human-machine hybrids, which is perhaps why it is so common that such stories are set in futuristic periods at the backdrop of the technologically advanced society. This is somewhat the case here as we land on undermanned spaceships and an air of desertion, loneliness and vulnerability is strongly conveyed as the Doctor wanders about alone.

But in this story the Cybermen represent more our own ugly pre-occupation with breeding a male populace that despises and represses anything emotional. This was particularly true of society during the decades that Doctor Who was shown, particularly in the 80's- a period where TV and Cinema couldn't have been any more heavily masculinised and cavalier. At the same time I'd say that not much has changed since then and as males, we still have a major phobia of emotions. For me then it is refreshing to hear the Doctor argue with the Cyberman Commander about who is the better species.

Cyberman: I see the Timelord has emotional feelings

Doctor: Of sorts

Cyberman: A great weakness in ones so powerful

Doctor: Emotions have their uses

Cyberman: They restrict and curtail the intellect and logic of the mind.

Doctor: They also enhance life! When was the last time you enjoyed sniffing a flower, watching a sunset, eating a well prepared meal?

Cybermen: These things are irrelevant!

Doctor: For some people, small beautiful events are what life is all about!

The great thing about this scene is that it is eloquent without being too far removed from the colloquial or the common, so it is not at all pretentious. For me this was one of the great scenes in Doctor Who about appreciating life, which has become a major theme in the New Series. Now of course 'emotions are seen as a weakness in manhood' is an old and well known cliche and doesn't get delved into any deeper than that, but it is still a great feeling to be championed by the Doctor as he points out just what this masculine obsession with apathy and emotional disconnection ultimately leads to- becoming something very ugly and inhuman, perpetually self-preserving and hostile, adopting the most violent or controlling extremes of behaviour as your only form of self expression, and being unreachable- beyond anyone else's empathy or respect. Themes that are dealt in brilliantly in the latest Big Finish produced Doctor Who audios.

And that's what we see here- even the Doctor- the savage universe's shining beacon of peace and understanding- has no pity for these creatures as he destroys them in the most cavalier of ways- there's no soul to deserve his pity, no hope for redemption or reason in a rigid and perpetually arrogant machine. Actually tell a lie, the Doctor does come across as Doctorish even when he does behave violently towards the Cybermen. There is a wonderfully intense battle between the Doctor and a Cyberman who holds him under guard, and the Doctor destroys the Cyberman with great difficulty. The story really treats the Cybermen as a force to be reckoned with- as a virtually indestructible threat, or at least very hard to kill. Cybermen can only be killed by the most sudden and concentrated violence and laser firepower into their chest plate, and given the strength of a Cyberman, you'll have one hell of a struggle on your hands. But in any case, Peter Davison plays the moment beautifully with an almost medical pragmatism of putting down a savage beast- it's almost a compassionate killing, trying to make it as quick and painless as possible. After all he is the Doctor.

The story does end on a less than satisfactory note with certain plot points hanging in the air to be resolved by spoken word in the following on story "Time Flight", and even then it is done by spoken word in a very crassly written scene- basically "Time Flight" is an awful story and the point where I believe Doctor Who had really jumped the shark. But other than that the story is very much a success- it's generally well acted and the directing is amongst the finest of the series. It's a story that very much makes me sit up in awe of how good the Peter Davison era could have been, and should have been more often. To me it is a golden story and has held up remarkably well over time. I love it! The BBC should want to give it a repeat run soon.

Originally posted by transvamp on July 18th 2006 at 4:48pm.

click here to return to The Classic Series reviews