Written by Eric Saward
Directed by Peter Grimwade

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series that has been around on and off since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Peter Davison.  This time around, he has three companions instead of the usual one.  This is not unprecedented in Doctor Who history; it just hadn’t been done in some time by this point in the series.  With him are Teagan, Nyssa, and Adric (portrayed by Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse, respectively). Teagan is a former airline stewardess from Australia. Nyssa is the last of the beings from her former planet, Traken. Adric has the potential to be the Wesley Crusher of the Doctor Who universe (only whinier) as he’s a youth from something known as the E-Space universe.

The story-arc opens with a security detail accompanying the only surviving member of a geological expedition.  They are looking for any of her co-workers who seem to have disappeared without a trace.  As they begin to explore the caves where they went missing, strange lights appear, and noises echo around them.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is in the TARDIS with Adric, Teagan, and Nyssa.  Adric is feeling quite homesick and like the odd man out.  He begins to whine about returning home, and surprisingly, the two women take his side.  The TARDIS materializes inside the same caves where the geologists went missing.  The Doctor, Teagan, and Nyssa begin exploring and soon come across dinosaur bones.

The way the story unfolds is terrific for the old serialized format. I could easily see the suspense as bits and pieces are revealed about what foe the Doctor is about to face. Unfortunately, most of that suspense is lost in the cover of the DVD, which reveals that the Cybermen are the aliens of the week this go-round. More and more of the security detail go missing as they search for those already missing, until the Cybermen finally reveal themselves.

In many ways, Earthshock is a return to the Doctor Who of old. Much the same way we saw television in the earlier part of this decade reflect a dissatisfaction with the direction our country was taking on the part of many actors and those in the industry, the same was true for Great Britain in the 1980s. The Thatcher government was loudly decried by the anti-establishment, especially in the music industry. That dissatisfaction came across more than once in Doctor Who, as well as the character seemed to be there to make a social statement about what was happening, ranging all the way from environmental concerns to allowing the government too much power and control.

Earthshock ditches all of that. It’s a classic alien-of-the-week story-arc of the series that is in many ways reminiscent of the early days of Tom Baker’s tenure as the Doctor. Peter Davison really sinks his teeth into the role here; rather than becoming the Doctor who lectures us on what’s good for the planet, he’s purely on the defensive, trying to outwit his old enemy.

The Cybermen are terrific here as well. They are cunning and seemingly invincible; eerily prescient to how the Cybermen would be depicted in the new series. The guest cast is good, taking on the roles as necessary and providing support. Some of the characters might seem a bit odd and eccentric, but it works to depict a universe much different than our own.

I always felt that Doctor Who worked best when it was the Doctor and one companion. Two really seemed to strain it and create an odd-man-out. Three… well, three is just a disaster. With the guest-cast that comes in, plus the Doctor, plus the three companions, there’s just not enough story to go around. Teagan was fleshed out the best throughout this tenure, giving Janet Fielding the most to do as a result. Sarah Sutton was just lost throughout the show with little to do.

The last few minutes of the story-arc give Matthew Waterhouse perhaps his finest moments as Adric. What happened likely shocked fans at the time (remember, this was an age before every detail of stories was spoiled on the internet at almost the same time they were filming), but it was also a fitting way to handle the situation. Adric was not the most endearing character, and much the same way Wesley Crusher needed to leave the Enterprise a few years later, it would be better for the TARDIS crew in the long run if his character departed.

There are some terrific moments that really paid homage to the history of the show, particularly when the Cybermen show the different Doctors through the years after they identify him. The show had nearly twenty years under its belt at this time and managed to pay tribute to all that had gone before without it being hokey.

The DVD contains plenty of extras, which have become the hallmark of the Doctor Who DVD releases. In particular, Episode 5 is an excellent claymation short.  DO NOT miss it if you’re a fan of the series. There’s commentary with all the main principals, which does seem a bit crowded at times, but it’s also a lot of fun to listen to.

Earthshock is definitely one of the best episodes of Doctor Who from the Peter Davison era. It gave Davison a chance to be the Doctor fans knew, rather than the one who was going to tell us how we were allowing our world to be screwed up. Although those stories might have been effective at times, it was nice to have a story-arc that was pure escapism from the real world. Earthshock was a fun episode to watch and root for the good guys versus the evil-doers, and sometimes a storyline that simple is more gratifying than anything else.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse
• Information Text
• Putting the Shock into Earthshock 
• 40th Anniversary Celebration
• Film Sequences
• Did You See?
• CGI Effects
• Photo Gallery
• Episode 5