Doctor Who - Earthshock (Episode 122)
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Actor: Janet Fielding, Mathew Waterhouse, Peter Davison, Sarah SuttonBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who - Earthshock (Episode 122)
DVD Review: Thus ends an era
Summary: 4 Stars
Many people will probably give this one five stars because it ends the Mathew Waterhouse era of Who, but I'm one of the few people on the planet(perhaps the galaxy) who liked Adric. This is an emotional ride from start to finsih and one of the Fifth Doctors finest hours. The ending still packs a punchDVD Review: Earthshock
Summary: 5 Stars
The Cybermen are excellent as always, and a Companion actually dies. The commentary track points out some of the weaker parts of the story such as the assassins in part 1 and the ship's Captain that might not have been as noticeable or memorable. The history of the Cybermen was great as I love seeing them. The silent credits are moving and I thought this episode might be new enough for my friend who cant deal with special effects on a shoestring budget, but unfortunately none of the Classic Who episodes are up to her modern 2007 standards. DVD Review: My Favorite Peter Davison Adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Davison is my favorite classic Doctor Who incarnation. Growing up I was introduced to the good Doctor through PBS' broadcasts of the old series. I think just about every American Who fan cut their teeth on Tom Baker's incarnation, and he was definitely a great Doctor, but Davison just won me over more. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I was getting older whenever I got a chance to watch Davison. I do not know. Well, on to this DVD.
"Earthshock" opens with the mysterious loss of members of an archaelogical dig team. Naturally the Doctor, along with Nyssa, Tegan, and Adric, pops in and determines to help the surviving team members. What they find are overly protective androids and a bomb strong enough to destroy Earth. Who put it there and how can they be stopped? Only the Doctor and his companions can find that out.
This is by far one of the best Peter Davison era Who serials. It features quick pacing, suspense, and two huge "shocks" for the viewer. The first shock is the revelation of who the mysterious villain is. The second one involves one of the Doctor's companions and how they foil the enemy's plans.
Not only is this one of the best Who serials, it's also one of the best DVDs. It's packed with all of the standard Who special features like "Who's who," a wonderful commentary, and a photo gallery, but what sets this disc apart is the fun "Did You See?" episode that covers the Doctor's greatest and most loved (or feared) monsters and the documentary "Putting The 'Shock' Into 'Earthshock'" that includes interviews with the actors, production team, and fans. Also of note is a hilarious easter egg from the JBC.
This serial has aged better than most of the Doctor's classic adventures. There are a few frames in the DVD transfer that reveal some wear but they don't interfere with the story.
With excellent pacing, a legendary villain, and an ending that will leave the unaware in disbelief, "Earthshock" ranks high in the company of the greatest "Doctor Who" adventures. I highly recommend it.
DVD Review: "When did you last have the pleasure of smelling a flower, watching a sunset, eating a well-prepared meal?"
Summary: 4 Stars
And for that matter, when did we last have the pleasure of viewing a Cybermen storyline on "Doctor Who"? Okay, only a few months ago thanks to the technological magic of DVDs, but for audiences watching the show back when it first aired we're talking the better part of a whole decade. The first of the four episodes is cleverly structured too so that their return must have come as quite a shock (appropriately enough) at the time, an effect somewhat lost now--yep, there's no mistaking that big looming Cyberface on the DVD cover. But shock value aside and accounting for a few glitches, "Earthshock" still holds its own as a fine "Doctor Who" story.
First things first, it's hard to go wrong with the Cybermen, ruthlessly cold cyborgs and quintessential "Doctor Who" villains who've traded in their individuality and emotional sensitivity for heightened physical prowess and sharp intellectual power (not that the transaction's always willing, since the Cybermen often propagate by assimilating others). Their standardized blank faces and level mechanized voices make for an eerie contrast with the Doctor's individuality and eccentricity as well as disturbingly questioning the effect of technological progress on our humanity (I say writing an online review on my computer after having watched this show on a DVD, but okay). Of course all of this helps account for why the Cybermen are compelling in general, but how about in this story in particular? Their updated look is excellent, remaining true to the classic design but newly emphasizing the fact that these are indeed cyborgs rather than merely robots. They are definitely more emotional than in past storylines, especially the Cyber Leader, and this seems gratingly odd throughout the story--granted that it's hard to get drama interacting with an IBM, and realistically speaking some trace of old human emotions like ambition and lust for power must be rattling around in there somewhere inspiring them to conquer, assimilate, and thereby establish Cyber empires. So their portrayal here is imaginably plausible if a tad unusual.
The plot itself is interesting, combining a disarmingly contemporary premise of an enemy attempting to disrupt peace negotiations and alliance formations through what amounts to a terrorist attack with an intriguingly peculiar take on what wiped out the dinosaurs--the latter bit linking the very beginning and very end of the story in a cleverly foreshadowing manner. The directing is tight, dynamic, and fast-paced for "Doctor Who" of this time, giving the tale an unusually tense sense of suspense and, well, shock (which is also indicative of how dramatic conventions were gradually evolving, since this kind of directing and editing seems more akin to that of the current "Doctor Who" series than it does to that of the show prior). And there are lots of neat little touches, number one of which surely must be the Cybermen reviewing their files on the Doctor, giving us precious glimpses of classic episodes in the process--all as the Cyber Leader comments with audible irritation in his voice that for a supposedly non-interfering Time Lord this one calling himself the Doctor does nothing BUT interfere. There are quite a few glitches, too, I'm afraid, one of the worst of which is that Earth millions of years ago is made to look exactly like Earth today, as if there were no such thing as continental drift--this would be a fairly venial sin if the producer hadn't beforehand made a point of his intention to upgrade the show's scientific caliber. Finally, wrapping all of this up (the good and the bad along with the ugly) is a shockingly unpredictable conclusion that serves to remind us that the threats the Doctor and his companions deal with in their fantastic travels are real and potentially deadly.
DVD Review: Action Packed - Simple plot with a Big Surprise
Summary: 4 Stars
A nice action packed story. When this one was first shown, the Producer made sure that the main adversary in the story was not leaked out to the public in advance. The less you know about this one before you view it the more entertaining it will be. Because I don't want to give away any of the surprises, its a bit difficult in writing a review about it. This story will have more effect if you have seen a few previous episodes that have the companion Adric (played by Matthew Waterhouse) in them.
I found it very enjoyable watching it for the first time after not having seen it for many years, I had forgotten the cliff hangers. While this story holds up well on 1st viewing, it isn't one that can be viewed repeatly since after you know the surprise ending, viewing it again becomes anti-climatic.
Description of Doctor Who - Earthshock (Episode 122)
The mysterious disappearance of an archaeological team is merely the prelude to a deadlier threat for the Doctor and his companions - the Cybermen want to destroy Earth and will use any means at their disposal. The Doctor's ingenuity is stretched to its very limits as he battles to defeat the Cyber army at any cost. But even he does not realize just how high that cost will be.DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Documentary
Featurette
Music Only Track
Other
Photo gallery
Production Notes
Doctor Who: Earthshock finds Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor nicely settling into the role, initially displaying some crotchety short temper which harks back to William Hartnell's incarnation of the Doctor, effectively setting up the most emotionally powerful finale in the show's 26-year run. In this, the penultimate adventure of Doctor Who's 19th season, a scientific expedition in a cave system on 25th-century Earth is wiped out. An army rescue unit led by Lieutenant Scott (James Warwick) and including the one woman, Professor Kyle (Claire Clifford) who survived the original massacre, goes in to recover the bodies. The scenario deliberately evokes Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), and uncannily foreshadows James Cameron's Aliens (1986), developing into a tense actioner on a space freighter bound for Earth carrying a very deadly cargo of Cybermen.
Tightly paced, refreshingly free of the camp humor that sometimes blighted the show in the 1980s, and with a notable guest turn from Beryl Reid as the ship's captain, Earthshock is one of the Doctor's finest adventures. Overlook a few gaping plot holes and by the end they simply won't matter; when the final credits roll in silence the effect is as powerful now as it was shocking to audiences back in 1981. If only Star Trek: The Next Generation had done the same to Wesley Crusher! --Gary S. Dalkin
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