 This story contains the long-awaited return of the Cybermen, who had not appeared in Doctor Who since the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen" seven years before.
This story though is mainly remembered for featuring the first death of a companion since the early days of the show, as Adric is killed in the destruction of the space-freighter.
This story was a replacement for another story, "The Enemy Within" by well-regarded science-fiction author Christopher Priest. This storyline was commissioned by script editor Christopher H. Bidmead in December 1980 before he left the show. However, "The Enemy Within" had to be withdrawn from the schedule and replaced with a new story which became "Earthshock".
Even "The Enemy Within" had Adric destined to die. Producer John Nathan-Turner decided to write Adric out of the show as he now viewed the character as being unsuccessful. It was felt though that Adric did not lend himself to a traditional departure scenario, and so it was instead decided that he should be killed off. Not only would this accrue a lot of publicity for the show as no regular character had left the programme in that manner since the short-lived companions Katarina and Sara Kingdom, in the 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan", but John Nathan-Turner also thought that it would imbue the show with a greater sense of danger and excitement, while making the surviving characters much less invulnerable than had previously been the case.
Even though this story sees the death of Adric, Matthew Waterhouse would reprise his role twice: a brief cameo in the following story "Time-Flight" and an appearance during the Fifth Doctor’s regeneration in the 1984 story "The Caves of Androzani".
Even though Antony Root was credited as the Script Editor, Eric Saward carried out the majority of this role. Antony Root’s three-month tenure on Doctor Who had come to an end, and he had been replaced by another trainee Eric Saward. Under BBC regulations, this meant that Eric Saward was now forbidden from writing new Doctor Who stories, but he and John Nathan-Turner nonetheless agreed that he would provide the replacement for "The Enemy Within". This was made possible by the expiry of Eric Saward’s initial three-month contract. Consequently, permission was sought for Eric Saward to write the replacement story just before a new long-term contract came into effect. Antony Root however, agreed to perform minor work on this story so that he could be credited as the Script Editor thus avoiding any complaints surrounding Eric Saward being seen to script-edit his own story.
This was the last Doctor Who story to be script-edited by Antony Root. He went on to script edit The Chinese Detective before leaving the BBC. He subsequently became a producer, earning credits on programmes such as Cold Comfort Farm, The Grand, and the American remake of Touching Evil, as well as the 1991 film Edward II. Antony Root also served as Head of Drama at Thames Television.
It has been revealed that John Nathan-Turner was eager to bring back the Cybermen, a popular monster which had featured in Doctor Who only once since 1968 (this being the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen"). John Nathan-Turner wanted to bring back an old enemy, but he resisted using the Daleks. The success of bring back the Cybermen convinced John Nathan-Turner to continue to mine the show’s past continuity for ideas and old enemies.
Seven Cybermen costumes were constructed for this story, along with one Cyber Leader (who was distinguished by having black tubes on the side of the mask).
Costume designer Dinah Collin was assigned the task of bringing the Cybermen into the Eighties, and worked on the project with Richard Gregory of effects firm Imagineering. The rubber diving suits, which had previously been the basis of the Cyberman, were outfit abandon. Opting instead to use the more high-tech look of army G-suits. It was also decided the jaws of the updated Cybermen were left clear so that the actors’ mouths could be seen as it was felt that this would reinforce the notion that the Cybermen had once been human. In a similar vein, Dinah Collin and Richard Gregory considered leaving the Cybermen’s hands bare - as had been the case in their first appearance, in the 1966 First Doctor story "The Tenth Planet" - and then seamlessly integrating the flesh with the Cyberman’s ‘metallic’ arm. However, it was ultimately decided that this effect would be too complex to achieve. Dinah Collin also wanted to do away with the ‘handlebars’ on the sides of the Cyberman helmets, but this was vetoed by John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward, who felt that they were an essential part of the Cyberman image.
The Cybermen make their shock reappearance at the end of the first episode. Producer John Nathan-Turner went to great lengths to mask their return to the show. Hence the use of a non-typical title. John Nathan-Turner was also keen to keep Adric’s fate a secret. In addition no advance publicity was given and John Nathan-Turner even had the studio observation galleries closed for the duration of recording.
The cast listing in the Radio Times - the BBC’s listings magazine – for the second episode had the Cyber Leader as simply ‘Leader’ and the Cyber Lieutenant as simply ‘Lieutenant’ to try to ensure that the Cybermen’s appearance in this story remained a total surprise to viewers.
John Nathan-Turner even turned down an offer from the Radio Times to feature the Cybermen on their cover. This was despite the fact that Doctor Who had not appeared on a Radio Times cover since 1973. Ultimately the Radio Times would only give one cover to Doctor Who during John Nathan-Turner’s tenure. This was for the 1983 Twentieth anniversary special "The Five Doctors".
The director assigned to "Earthshock" was Peter Grimwade, who had just completed "Kinda". Peter Grimwade, Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner were all keen that this story should try, as much as possible, to capture the fast-paced feel of a feature film. As a result, Peter Grimwade's final camera scripts were extremely lengthy, with part four alone running to eighty-nine scenes: far more than was normal for Doctor Who at that time.
The only location work, which featured at the start of the story, was carried out at Sprinwell Lock Quarry, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. This did not involve any of the regular cast.
It is revealed that The Doctor is ectopic (his heart - and perhaps other organs - are in the wrong place).
The Doctor reveals that he doesn’t know what killed the dinosaurs, and always wanted to find out (see the 1970 Third Doctor story "Doctor Who and the Silurians").
In this story it is revealed that the Cybermen are aware of the TARDIS (and that a single person can pilot one - unlike the three person craft in the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Attack of the Cybermen"), regeneration, and, significantly, that Time Lords are arrogant but forbidden to interfere. They know of The Doctor’s fondness for Earth. The statement ‘We meet again’ implies that the Cyber Leader is always the same program in different bodies.
The Cybermen carry hand held weapons and use a thermal lance. They don’t need air, and are invulnerable to blasters unless they are concentrated on them. Their own weapons however can kill them. They have bombs that can devastate a planet with one blast, and deep space probes that can detect the TARDIS while it travels. Their androids fire beams from their palms that dissolve tissue.
Despite being a race devoid of any emotions the Cybermen display human emotions including betrayal, vengeance and cruelty.
This is the first story to feature David Banks as the Cyber Leader. David Banks would reprise his role in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors", the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Attack of the Cybermen" and the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "Silver Nemesis". David Banks would later play The Doctor in the 1989 stage play "Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure". He would also later write a book about the history of the Cybermen. David Banks’s rendition of ‘Excellent!’ to indicate approval became a catchphrase associated with the Cybermen.
This story includes clips from some previous Cybermen stories used as evidence of the Cybermen’s previous encounters with The Doctor. A similar sequence in the 1981 Fourth Doctor story "Logopolis", broadcast the previous year, had been well received. One clip for each Doctor, who had previously encountered the Cybermen, was chosen. These being: the second episode of the 1966 First Doctor story "The Tenth Planet", the sixth episode of the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Wheel in Space" (including dialogue from the Cyber Leader referring to the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Tomb of the Cybermen") and the third episode of the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen". All the clips were presented in monochrome to preserve continuity, as the first two extracts were originally recorded in black and white. This meant that the clip used from "Revenge of the Cybermen" had to be converted to black & white. No clip of the Third Doctor was used as this incarnation of The Doctor had not met the Cybermen at the time of this story’s creation (though they had been briefly glimpsed in two stories from his era).
This story also contains references to previous stories: The Doctor advises Adric to read Black Orchid, a copy of which he obtained at the end of the previous adventure, of the same name. Their argument shortly afterwards makes a number of references to E-Space, the planets Alzarius and Terradon ("Full Circle"), the Monitor and the CVE ("Logopolis"), and Romana staying in E-Space ("Warriors' Gate").
The 1976 Fourth Doctor story "The Hand of Fear" introduced the concept of the TARDIS being in a state of temporal grace, meaning that no weapons could be used inside it. In this story, however, this function appears not to work as The Doctor, Nyssa and the Cyber Leader are all able to fire weapons inside the Console Room. Nyssa briefly mentions this in the 1983 story "Arc of Infinity" but in this later story The Doctor simply attempts to shrug it off without providing an explanation.
The multiple rows of marching Cybermen in the second episode were actually a single row duplicated and placed side by side using photographic editing.
One of the Android costumes would later be repainted silver and used as the costume for the Raston Warrior Robot in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors".
The Cyberscope prop was built using parts the modelmaker had scavenged from the Nostromo set constructed for the 1979 feature film Alien. Similarly, the digital readouts on the device flash up a random series of numbers which were also seen on the monitors of the Nostromo set.
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: In the first episode, a trooper turns around and clearly must see the shadow of one of the androids, but he moves on anyway; When The Doctor is discussing the androids. Nyssa and Tegan are nowhere to be seen - yet from the android’s view point they are right beside The Doctor; In the second episode, the Cyber Leader misses a button on his console, but a beep can still be heard; When Ringway is running down a corridor, supposedly in a tearing hurry, he visibly pulls up just before going out of shot; Just before Tegan and the soldiers find the bodies in episode three, a white baton mysteriously appears behind them; When the Cyberman breaks through the softened bridge door, the damage to the door and the Cyberman’s arm change size and position between shots; When they climb the stairs a woman can be seen reading the script in the top right corner; In the fourth episode, as they approach the TARDIS, the female of the remaining troopers is grabbed and doesn’t make it inside. Except when they do get inside, it’s a man that’s missing. The woman then vanishes again, once more replaced by the man, in the next exterior scene; Near the end of this story when The Doctor grinds Adric’s gold-star badge into the Cyber Leader’s chest from behind. Through the Cyber Leader's face plate, a silver box (which is part of the radio microphrone used inside the Cybermen costumes so the modulation of the actor's voices could occur in real time) can be seen pressing against David Banks’ face. Also, when the Cyber Leader explodes, the wire attached to the small microphone can be clearly seen.; Why cause a power failure on the space-freighter which threatens to prevent it from getting to Earth (which is where they want to go)? Also in this episode the continents of 65 million years ago look strangely familiar.
The Doctor is seen grinding Adric’s gold edged star badge, he received for mathematical excellence, into the Cyber Leader’s chest. The Cybermen’s weakness to gold was first demonstrated in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen".
At the very end of this story the end credits were changed, from the regular credits, with Adric’s gold star shown broken in pieces while the credits roll in silence. This idea was borrowed from a broadcast of the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. This would mark the only occasion in the history of Doctor Who in which an episode would not end with the traditional theme tune.
This story was repeated on BBC One as two 50 minute compilation episodes in 1982 as part of "Doctor Who and the Monsters".
This story was released on DVD in August 2003, as part of the Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Celebration releases, representing the Peter Davison years. This release also included an option to view the story with alternate CGI special effects.
The alien computer the Cybermen used, the fate of the space-freighter and Adric are explored further in the Big Finish Productions audio story "The Boy That Time Forgot".
The Big Finish Productions audio story, "The Land of the Dead" (also featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa), provides another possible (fictional) explanation for extinction of the dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago.
Unknown to The Doctor future companion Captain Jack Harkness, for reasons unknown, is on Earth at the time of the space-freighter explosion. Though Captain Jack Harkness would believe the destruction of the dinosaurs was caused by a meteor hitting Earth (see the 2008 Torchwood story "Fragments").
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The Firsts:
The first appearance of the Cybermen for 7 years - since the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen".
The first death of a companion (Adric) since the 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan".
The first, and only, occasion in which a Doctor Who story does not end with the traditional theme tune.
David Banks' first involvement in the show as the Cyber Leader.
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(Position = 17 out of 159)
(Position = 19 out of 200)
