Day 293 — October 20th 2021
Earthshock Parts Three and Four
Earthshock — Part Three
Sometimes I have to really think about what score I’m going to give an episode. The closing credits will scream into place and I’ll think ‘that was an X, or maybe even pushing a Y…’. A lot of the time I don’t actually make my mind up until I’ve finished writing my post about that episode, because by the time I’ve finished writing about it my thoughts have settles on one score or the other. And then there’s episodes like this one, which was an obvious 10/10 almost from the very start.
First things first; how gorgeous do the new Cybermen look? I’ll confess I was a bit worried yesterday. I’ve always loved the 1980s Cybermen. For a long time they were my favourite (they probably still are, truth be told), and they’re certainly the design I’d like to own a full scale replica of one day.
All that said, watching the episodes yesterday I found myself a bit disappointed. The designs looked fine, but they didn’t give me the rush of excitement I’d been anticipating over the last few days. The Cybermen were just sort of stood there, not doing a lot, and looking very plastic-y. I resigned myself to the idea that perhaps I’d gotten over this design a bit and that perhaps they weren’t as good as I remembered them being.
Thankfully that’s nonsense, because in this episode they’re brilliant. Shot looming from the shadows, ripping their way out of wrappings and bursting from the silos as the army awakes. They don’t look anything like plastic in this episode — they catch the light beautifully in the hold shots and I can totally buy them as metallic monsters. This design is absolutely back to being my favourite.
And they feel properly unstoppable when the episode comes to the end, don’t they? With the shots mirrored and duplicated, the screen split into three, it really does feel like there’s a whole army waking up on this ship. We’re told that there’s fifteen thousand of them hidden away in the hold, and I totally believe it. It’s not all down to clever editing and camera trickery, either — they seem to have actually made loads of Cybermen costumes for this one, so when they storm the bridge it looks like they really do just keep on coming through the broken door. This is probably the best depiction we’ve ever had of there being lots more monsters than we see on screen.
They’re so good that even little moments which should take me right out of the story actually add up to make this whole thing an even more enjoyable experience. In this case it’s the two Cybermen who lurk around in the hold casually having a chat with each other. That should be rubbish. I should be sat here saying that it completely undermines the tension and ruins the whole thing… but it doesn’t! Hah! It makes me proper laugh because it’s ridiculous in a way that only Doctor Who can quite get away with. I love it.
On the subject of slightly rubbish things which shouldn’t work but absolutely do, how great is Beryl Reid in this one? I mean she’s woefully miscast, completely out of her depth and doesn’t have even the feintest clue about how she’s supposed to say these lines, but somehow she’s fantastic and I think she’s my favourite guest star in ages. I also love that she’s able to cut through some of the bullshit elsewhere in the story;
Ringway: ‘I’ve apprehended two stowaways.’
Briggs: ‘Apprehended. Why can’t he say caught? So melodramatic.’
It’s especially fun coming in a story by Eric Saward because his writing can often be a bit… laborious. I wrote down lots of examples during The Visitation and there’s several more in this story, so it’s nice to see a character who can acknowledge all that and make light of it.
There’s some other great lines preferred throughout this one, including one of Tegan’s most iconic;
Tegan: ‘It’s vast. We’ll never find him.’
Scott: ‘You wanted to come.’
Tegan: ‘I know. I’m just a mouth on legs.’
Tegan gets a pretty good deal from this episode — it’s certainly the most effective she’s been so far, and it’s great to finally see her change out of her regular costume and into something different. She gets to be ballsy and proactive for a change, and the moment she breaks cover to snatch a Cyberman’s gun and shoot another is proper ‘punch the air’ stuff — I think I might have even cheered out loud. Janet Fielding reacts to actually having something to do, and she’s the best here she’s ever been. I’m getting flashes of the character I remember loving from last time around, so I’m hoping this is the start of her being a great companion rather than someone who just happens to be there.
I could bang on all day about how good this episode is; there’s loads of aspects I’ve not even touched on. There’s the fact that we get three moments in this episode which would make brilliant cliffhangers. One of the actual cliffhanger, as the army awakes. Then there’s Doctor Who realising who they’re up against — shot with a gorgeous close-up of Davison — and then the great moment when he comes face-to-face with the Cyberleader.
Cyberleader: ‘So, we meet again, Doctor.’
I could go on about how the direction is the strongest we’ve had for years, with some great camera moves, especially when Tegan and her band of soldiers are launching their attack. There’s the music which didn’t do a lot for me yesterday but fits the action perfectly here (clang, clang, clang)… oh you get the idea. This is one of the best episodes we’ve ever had. Pretty much perfect.
Earthshock — Part Four
Broadly speaking, I’m not a fan of killing off Doctor Who Companions. There’s a school of thought that it makes the series dangerous, and gives the series a sense of there being consequences for the actions the characters take, but I’m more of the opinion that it spoils things. I want to watch a fun series about friends knocking around time and space together, fighting against monsters. I don’t particularly want to worry about finality of our heroes’ actions.
That said, and in complete contrast, I think the death of Adric is brilliant, and a proper highlight not just for this season, but across all of Old Testament Who. It’s so well built up to as the episode goes on, with the sense of inevitability growing — as with the arrival of the Cybermen at the end of Part One, I knew this was coming the first time I watched Earthshock, but I suspect it was quite emotional to watch on broadcast, with Adric’s fate becoming ever more obvious.
When the moment arrives it’s just about as close to perfect as you could hope for. The split-second decision to jump back out of the escape pod. Desperately punching in the numbers. The lone Cyberman staggering towards the Bridge and taking the fateful shot at the control panel. And then, of course, that final line;
Adric: ‘Now I’ll never know if I was right.’
I think it’s the most genuinely emotional moment the series has given us in a very long time, and it’s a massive step up from the rather limp departures the last few companions have received. Adric hasn’t been my favourite companion of all time, and he certainly took a downward turn once Peter Davison came along, but it’s still so powerful to see him go out like this. I think the fact that this is so well judged is a great advert for not killing off companions very often — it works partly because it’s so rare.
Elsewhere, this episode continues many of the good things from the last one. There’s some great direction, the Cybermen look gorgeous and they’re brilliantly camp. There’s not a lot else for me to add, because I’ve already praised everything. I think my favourite part of the episode — aside from the shocking end — is Doctor Who getting to be a bit catty while mocking the Cyberleader;
Doctor Who: ‘If the freighter crashes into Earth with you on board, won’t
that make it rather difficult for you to carry out your task? I mean, you
would be very crumpled.’
Cyberleader: ‘I shall not be on board, Doctor.’
Doctor Who: ‘You don’t surprise me.’
We also get to add four more characters to the list of guests who’ve been inside the TARDIS — the Cyberleader and three Cybermen all make it into the Control Room in this episode. One of the Cybermen even gets to go and explore the rest of the ship for a few minutes. He makes it back, though, so I don’t think he can have gone very far into the corridors or he’d have gotten lost.
I’m going with a 9/10 for this final episode.
