Earthshock (1982)

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 Visitation (1982)

The Visitation is perhaps of one of my favourite stories from Davison’s first series as the Doctor. After some different types of stories it was a return to basics for the show with a good old fashioned story. This story was written by Eric Saward who would be the show’s Script Editor from 1982 until midway through the 1986 series. It’s nice after a few stories of the Master, spaceships and spiritual stuff to get back to a pseudo-historical adventure where the Doctor is trying to get Tegan back to Heathrow but misses by about 300 years.

The story takes place at the exact time that the Terileptil’s have landed on earth. It’s quite a simple one where there are some aliens and they are trying to attack humans. The story manages to move at a good pace but for the second story running, Sarah Sutton is forced to stay in the TARDIS. True, its not as long or as silent as in ‘Kinda’ but I do feel that because she’s the smartest and the most normal out of the three companions that she has to spend a fairly big portion of the story putting some device together so that she can destroy the android.

The story benefits from some fine characters and actors playing them. For instance Michael Robbins who is sublime as Richard Mace. His lively and comical performance is one of two top outings in this story. He comes across as a likeable and more importantly believeable character who is initially reluctant to accept what the Doctor says. Another aspect which is good is the realisation of the Terileptil leader (as played by Michael Melia), it’s one of the most impressive monster designs since possibly the Cybermen and shows how far we’ve come since the bubble wrap wirrn in ‘The Ark in Space’.

After such a strong performance in ‘Kinda’ it was obvious that the writing wouldn’t allow Janet Fielding to repeat her performance in this story. That said she did do well but did ham it up when she was possed. Matthew Waterhouse was his usual self which isnt saying much but didn’t really contribute anything to the story. Davison’s performance is quite good and he has some good scenes especially with Mace.

It’s a sad but important story in the history of Doctor Who as after 14 years, the Sonic Screwdriver is written out. This was because JNT thought that the screwdriver was an easy way of getting the Doctor out of a situation. Well that argument works for K9 but I’m not so sure that it’s the case with the screwdriver. If it were that much of a burden then they could have just not used it. It’s almost as if JNT or the script editors didn’t trust the writers NOT to use it. It’s a sad moment but one that didn’t need to happen.

The end of episode four is perhaps a little bit cheeky. It seems to be a thing in Doctor Who to associate famous moments in history to the Doctor. The reason why the Marie Celeste was empty was linked to the Daleks in the 1965 adventure ‘The Chase’, now the 1666 Great Fire of London has been linked to the Doctor and the Terileptils. I question whether doing such a thing achieves anything relating to the story.

The Visitation is a sound story that has some fun moments and moves along at a solid pace. The crowded TARDIS issue is becoming just that and this does affect the story slightly but there is enough here to enjoy the Visitation for what it is and the Davison era is continuing in a solid way.