"Doctor Who"
Earthshock: Part 2 (1982)

Director:

Peter Grimwade

Writer:

Eric Saward (writer)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

9 March 1982 (Season 19, Episode 20)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Doctor, his companions and the troopers are under attack by two androids that seem to be defending a hatch in the cave wall...

Plot Keywords:

Second Part | Australian | Famous Opening Theme | Space Hero | Man With No Name

Cast

Peter Davison	...	The Doctor
Beryl Reid	...	Briggs
James Warwick	...	Scott
Clare Clifford	...	Kyle
Janet Fielding	...	Tegan
Sarah Sutton	...	Nyssa
Matthew Waterhouse	...	Adric
June Bland	...	Berger
Alec Sabin	...	Ringway
David Banks	...	Cyber Leader
Mark Hardy	...	Cyber Lieutenant
Mark Fletcher	...	First Crew Member
Christopher Whittingham	...	Second Crew Member

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG

Trivia:

The regular cast and Eric Saward thought Beryl Reid was miscast.

Goofs:

Plot holes: The Cybermen archive contains information about Cybermen's encounter with the Fourth Doctor. The episode “Revenge Of The Cybermen” takes place in their future. It's placement suggests that “Revenge Of The Cybermen” took place before “Earthshock”, which is the year 2526. According to the Doctor in “The Ark In Space”, when he first steps out onto the station, the Nerva Beacon is 29th or 30th century technology. Viewers have speculated that the “Revenge Of The Cybermen” clip is possible because the Cybermen had travelled back in time to prevent the Cyber Wars - which would also explain their more advanced design. There is nothing in the episode itself, however, to support this notion.

Quotes:

[regarding the inside of the TARDIS]
Scott: It's bigger than you think.

Movie Connections:

Features "Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space: Episode 6 (#5.40)" (1968)

Great story... so far...

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Doctor Who: Earthshock: Part 2 starts as the Doctor (Peter Dvaison), Lieutenant Scott (James Warwick) & his men manage to destroy the two androids & open the metal hatch they were guarding, unfortunately inside there is a bomb capable of destroying Earth which is activated by remote which the Doctor manages to disarm. Using equipment on the TARDIS the Doctor is able to trace where the remote signal to active the bomb was sent from, a cargo freighter in deep space heading towards Earth. The Doctor & companions arrive on board the huge space freighter with the hope to discover who planted the bomb & why...

Episode 20 from season 19 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1982, directed by Peter Grimwade I have to say Earthshock is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories & Peter Davison's best. The script by Eric Saward has shifted from the tense claustrophobic horror of Part 1 to a more mystery orientated sci-fi adventure as the Doctor has to discover who planted the bomb & why & finds himself aboard a huge intergalactic space freighter. It's no less entertaining than Part 1 & the shift in styles & tone is quite good actually & helps maintain ones interest. At least Earthshock is pretty serious in tone & it doesn't have much humour in it which comes as a nice change. Compared to the Part 1 not that much actually happens & this one feels like scene setting that could explode into life at any moment. This one perhaps features a little padding but I didn't mind & still throughly enjoyed it.

Shifting from the plastic caves to a space freighter this episode still has good production values with decent spaceship sets & some OK model work. The Cybermen still look great but when I think about it they haven't done anything at all over the first two episodes other than stand at a computer terminal thing & talk to each other, hopefully they'll have more to do in the last two episodes. There are a couple of pretty bad goofs in this episode, near the end a few minutes before the cliffhanger there is a close-up of a computer terminal & the Cyber leader is supposed to push a button to active a communication device so he can speak to someone but he clearly misses it yet there is still an electronic 'beep' sound like he did & he starts his sentence 'Report'. To be honest that sort of tells you the sort of tight schedule the makers were on when they couldn't even remount a simple three second shot of a Cyberman pressing a button! Also very near the end when the Doctor & Adric find the two dead bodies if you look at the guy lying on the floor on the right with his head & upper chest in view you can clearly see his chest moving up & down, now correct me if I'm wrong but I always thought dead bodies don't breathe!

Earthshock: Part 2 is a great episode in a great story, I liked it & I found the two goofs more funny than distracting, in fact I find bad special effects more distracting but that's just me. A must for fans, buy the DVD now!