Earthshock is easily one of the best Peter Davison stories but not for the reason that many would think. ‘Earthshock’ is the final story to feature Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. The loveable artful dodger (cant believe I wrote those words!) meets his demise and becomes only the second companion in the shows history (after Katarina in 1966) to die in the show. The story starts off without any of the regulars, in fact its about ten minutes before we see them and when they do its not the best start for them. Adric is portrayed as a whiny teenager who is sulking on his bed.
The story spends a large chunk of the first part of this story in the caves which are darkly lit. This is quite unusual as most stories of this period then to be very well lit and it adds to the drama when we cant see whats going on. The shock part of the story is that the Cybermen return to the show after a seven year absence. If you were watching this in 1982 then this would have been a shock but for me having known they would appear the shock isnt there. That’s not to say that there appearance at the end of episode one wasn’t well done.
When the story moves to the freighter it kind of loses something as we are introduced to three rather unlikely crew members including Beryl Reid. I think the casting of a big name is not a bad thing but they have to know what they are saying and be believeable in what they are doing and sadly Reid doesn’t pull this off. I say unlikely because I couldn’t see these three ever working together on a ship.
For the second story in a row, Nyssa is banished during the story to the TARDIS. She spends an awful long time in there and it’s a waste in my opinion because as the crowded TARDIS theory plays out again, the smartest companion has to be put to one side. It would have been more sensible to have Tegan in the TARDIS because she does very little when she’s out of it. The story really belongs to Adric as Matthew Waterhouse who steals the show at the very end where he tries to be the brave one and stop the ship from crashing into Earth. Peter Davison puts in what I think is his best performance of his run so far. There is a sense of his vulnerability which is evident during the row with Adric in Episode One and the moment after Adric’s death in Part Four.
The final few minutes of episode four are very sad and that’s due to the fact that even though Adric is about as popular to some as lepricy but Waterhouse and the other manage to make his final scene quite sad. This is despite the knowledge that on the commentary Fielding and Sutton were trying not to laugh. I personally don’t think that it was a good idea to have the credits rolling across a broken star with no music was a rubbish idea. If it were Sarah Jane or Jo Grant then maybe that would be ok but not when someone like Adric leaves. Even the Doctors don’t get this treatment so why should Adric.
Earthshock is a truly marvellous story that is one of those rare stories that comes from the 1980’s and is a true classic. I was never a great fan of Adric’s but I think that he did well in this story.
The story spends a large chunk of the first part of this story in the caves which are darkly lit. This is quite unusual as most stories of this period then to be very well lit and it adds to the drama when we cant see whats going on. The shock part of the story is that the Cybermen return to the show after a seven year absence. If you were watching this in 1982 then this would have been a shock but for me having known they would appear the shock isnt there. That’s not to say that there appearance at the end of episode one wasn’t well done.
When the story moves to the freighter it kind of loses something as we are introduced to three rather unlikely crew members including Beryl Reid. I think the casting of a big name is not a bad thing but they have to know what they are saying and be believeable in what they are doing and sadly Reid doesn’t pull this off. I say unlikely because I couldn’t see these three ever working together on a ship.
For the second story in a row, Nyssa is banished during the story to the TARDIS. She spends an awful long time in there and it’s a waste in my opinion because as the crowded TARDIS theory plays out again, the smartest companion has to be put to one side. It would have been more sensible to have Tegan in the TARDIS because she does very little when she’s out of it. The story really belongs to Adric as Matthew Waterhouse who steals the show at the very end where he tries to be the brave one and stop the ship from crashing into Earth. Peter Davison puts in what I think is his best performance of his run so far. There is a sense of his vulnerability which is evident during the row with Adric in Episode One and the moment after Adric’s death in Part Four.
The final few minutes of episode four are very sad and that’s due to the fact that even though Adric is about as popular to some as lepricy but Waterhouse and the other manage to make his final scene quite sad. This is despite the knowledge that on the commentary Fielding and Sutton were trying not to laugh. I personally don’t think that it was a good idea to have the credits rolling across a broken star with no music was a rubbish idea. If it were Sarah Jane or Jo Grant then maybe that would be ok but not when someone like Adric leaves. Even the Doctors don’t get this treatment so why should Adric.
Earthshock is a truly marvellous story that is one of those rare stories that comes from the 1980’s and is a true classic. I was never a great fan of Adric’s but I think that he did well in this story.
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