"Doctor Who"
Earthshock: Part 1 (1982)

Director:

Peter Grimwade

Writer:

Eric Saward (writer)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

8 March 1982 (Season 19, Episode 19)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Arriving in an underground cave system on Earth in the 26th century, the Doctor, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa...

Plot Keywords:

Australian | Space Hero | Scientist Hero | Extraterrestrial | Extraterrestrial Hero

Cast

Peter Davison	...	The Doctor
James Warwick	...	Scott
Clare Clifford	...	Kyle
Janet Fielding	...	Tegan
Sarah Sutton	...	Nyssa
Matthew Waterhouse	...	Adric
Steve Morley	...	Walters
Suzi Arden	...	Snyder
Ann Holloway	...	Mitchell
Anne Clements	...	First Trooper
Mark Straker	...	Second Trooper
David Banks	...	Cyber Leader
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Bache	...	Cyberman (uncredited)
Graham Cole	...	Cyberman (uncredited)
Barney Lawrence	...	Android (uncredited)
Caroline Mary Simmons	...	Android (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Grimwade

Writing credits
Eric Saward		(writer)

Produced by
John Nathan-Turner	....	producer

Cinematography by
Keith Hopper

Film Editing by
Mike Houghton
Rod Waldron		(video tape)

Production Design by
Bernard Lloyd-Jones

Costume Design by
Dinah Collin

Makeup Department
Joan Stribling	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Geoffrey Manton	....	production manager

Sound Department
John Gatland	....	sound
Alan Machin	....	studio sound
Dick Mills	....	special sound

Visual Effects by
Steve Bowman	....	visual effects designer
Dave Chapman	....	video effects
Sid Sutton	....	title sequence
Martin Bower	....	model maker (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Keith Hopper	....	film camera
Alec Wheal	....	senior camera operator
Fred Wright	....	studio lighting

Editorial Department
James Gould	....	vision mixer

Music Department
Malcolm Clarke	....	composer: incidental music
Ron Grainer	....	composer: original theme music (uncredited)
Peter Howell	....	music arranger: title music (uncredited)

Other crew
Jane Ashford	....	production assistant
Alan Jeffery	....	technical manager
Nicholas Laughland	....	assistant floor manager
Antony Root	....	script editor
Angela Smith	....	production associate
Eric Saward	....	script editor (uncredited)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG

Trivia:

Winner of the Doctor Who magazine best Story in their Season Poll.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the troopers are in the caves, the two dark figures in background walk past (to the right) and one of the troopers stops and turns around. As he does this the shadow of a crewmember can be briefly seen on the left wall. This is not the dark figure's shadow because they have already walked past.

Quotes:

[regarding Adric wanting to go home]
The Doctor: You do not have the monitor skill Adric! And even if you did, I am not taking you back into E-Space!
Adric: Then I'll find someone who will take me!
The Doctor: E-Space is another universe! There isn't a taxi service that goes back and forth!

Possibly Peter Davison's best story, it's certainly right up there.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Doctor Who: Earthshock: Part 1 starts on Earth in the future during the year 2526 where a team of paleontologists & geologists have been attacked & killed in some caves, an army unit lead by Lieutenant Scott (James Warwick) along with the sole remaining scientist Kyle (Clare Clifford) is sent in to investigate but are picked off one-by-one by an unknown force. Meanwhile the Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), Tegan (Janet Fielding) & Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) arrive in the cave system in the TARDIS. After an argument Adric stays behind in the TARDIS as the Doctor, Nyssa & Tegan explore their cavernous surroundings outside but run into Scott & his men who blame them for the unexplained killings...

Episode 19 from season 19 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1982 this was Davison's sixth story as the Doctor from his first season, directed by Peter Grimwade I personally think Earthshock is Peter Davison's best story. The script so far by Eric Saward is a nice claustrophobic horror with a group of people being killed off one at a time by some unseen menace, in fact the whole heavily armed soldiers walking into an isolated & enclosed location & being picked off reminds heavily of Aliens (1986) even though Earthshock was made a full four years prior. I do like my Doctor Who stories when they try to be scary & actually have the balls to try & be horrific, there's plenty of dark cavernous corridors & the remains of melted soldiers to satisfy on both counts & there's the great ending which suddenly reveal the return of the Cybermen who are probably my personal favourite Doctor Who monster. At 25 minutes it moves along at a nice pace, the story is good if a bit familiar & it's a much better written & thought-out episode than usual for this period of the show's history.

The first thing to say is that the cave sets look a little fake, they aren't too bad but they are the one production aspect of Earthshock so far which lets it down. I also have to mention the new look Cybermen, they look great although I would maybe have liked a more electronic robotic sounding voice. In fact the Cybermen had not featured in Doctor Who since season 12 & the mighty fine Tom Baker story Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) but both writer Saward & the Doctor himself Davison were fans of the of the silver cyborgs which probably helped convince the production team they were ready for a long overdue come back. There weren't many special effects in Earthshock, the pink laser beams that the soldiers fire from their weapons actually look alright although the DVD (another brilliant special edition DVD by the way) gives you the option to replace these, as well as other various effects, with brand spanking new CGI beams which obviously look a lot better but as I said they aren't too bad to begin with.

Earthshock: Part 1 is just a great Doctor Who episode, it's got surprises, some nice tension, atmosphere, eeriness & the reappearance of the newly designed Cybermen in a great cliffhanger ending. Surely this is Peter Davison's best story, surely...