I saw Earthshock when it was first aired aged 13 and it was the second Cyberstory, I saw and I loved this Cyberstory and it was my alltime favourite Cyberstory until ten years later when the lost Cyberstory Tomb of the Cybermen came back and was released on vhs . Tomb of the Cybermen became my alltime favourite Cyberstory then Earthshock became my second favourite Cyberstory, and also once I had seen earlier Cyberstories from the 60s I realised how much Earthshhock had reused and recycled from earlier Cyberstories . This Cyberstory when it killed off Adric was a callback to the demise of the male crewmember in Blakes 7 called Olag Gan who died in the 2nd series episode Pressure Point and also there were elements, from the sci-fi film Alien and mention of warp drive from Star Trek . The reveal of the Cybermen was so awesome in tens of billions of ways and also, the flashback scenes in part two of Earthshock, were awesome too and the look of horror on the Doctors face when he sees the Cybermen on the screen marching through the hold of the ship  was priceless and he looked as white as a sheep when he realised the enemy was the Cybermen.

Fantastic review, thank you. I remember sitting there with my sister staring at the screen as the credits silently rolled and going IS HE DEAD THEN??? because it seemed unreal. The cybermen had been fantastic, we'd loved the crew of the spaceship, all of them were great, the only one we were not keen on was the woman scientist who seemed to moan too much. The visuals from coming out of the pods, and marching cybermen were astounding.

I only realised on my last viewing the Ridley Scott ALIEN influences - even down to all the crew talk of bonuses etc.

It's Eric Saward's masterpiece in my opinion.  Yeah - I heard about the whole problems with having the script editor write for TV drama series back in the 1970s and 1980s, as I read an interview with former Dr. Who and Blake's 7 writer(and script editor) Chris Boucher, where he said that you were only allowed to write 2 stories a season(I think after 1979 or something) because of the writers' guild.  

I would also add that I think it's one of the highlights of JNT's era.  There were some good creative decisions made here - Adric and the Doctor's relationship being strained, the shots of caves to add to the tension, the redesign of the cybermen, Malcolm Clarke's haunting score, excellent performances from David Banks and Peter Davison, great direction from Peter Grimwade and then obviously the shocking death of Adric.

Agree video I was big fan of this episode.I didn't see in the u.KI was here in the U.S, but I did get to see it when it was broadcast in the US and loved it, love to redesign to decide men and that they used them air flight from your air force.I thought that was really cool.And david banks is a great addition , and I hope one meeting him one day and asking for his autograph

Enjoyed your vid,  nice work and well put together - and lots of juicy info.  I can also say, as a 13 year old kid, I had no idea of the involvement of the Cyberdoo-dah's or, the adios of Adric (and if I remember, I gave a noise like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert when the Cybermen appeared at the end of episode one. Event TV; you can't beat it)

I should imagine Matthew Waterhouse was a fan of Blakes 7 as well as a fan of Dr Who, and also the look of the Cybermen in the 80s Cyberstories is well awesome and they like their 60s counterparts are billions of times better than the Cybermen in the modern era of Dr Who,

Watch some of the reactions (Sesskasays, Gallifreygals) from reviewers who had no clue of the shocks within the episode.

I think jaws must've dropped nation wide on the "Destroy them, destroy them at once" line - I know mine did! 😮

I used to hide behind the sofa watching regional news on itv. Can you do a video about it?

The story needed more exterior establishing shots of the spaceship the cybermen were on. Instead you just get lots of interior scenes. It fails the basic requirement of letting the audience know WHERE the different characters are. As a result the story is just lots of scenes taking place in a studio. There's no sense of scale, no sense of where people are in relation to each other.

Excellent video essay on my favorite Doctor Who story! Thank you!

I didn't realize the Cybermen were used as Dalek replacements. I knew about Mechanoids and Yeti, but they were kinda lame as attempted Dalek replacements go.

I will say that I thought Beryl was fantastic. Her character is reminiscent of the captain of the sandcrawler in Robots of Death - all business until he realizes what he's really up against. For Beryl's character, that moment comes in mid-sentence as she answers how many cargo pods are on the ship. Up until that moment, she thought they were carrying tons and tons of cargo and had a small stowaway problem. I say Beryl pulled that off perfectly.

As for the Earthshock effect on later stories ... I feel Resurrection of the Daleks did very well. Even if it tried to cram in a bit too much plot, I like how it mixed things up with more interesting "traitor" characters and Indian characters on the station.

Attack of the Cybermen? I dunno ... more of a mixed bag for me.

Warriors of the Deep? I actually really love it all around, although I know that's not a common opinion. Warriors of the Deep actually has a few blink-and-you-miss-it Indian characters. Unnamed, but they are there until they're killed by the Myrka. It's a bit of a glimpse before the much more substantial roles in Resurrection of the Daleks, but I give them points for making it feel more consistent.

Whenever I see clips from Earthshock I can only think of this.......https://youtu.be/M4BX3u-tiAE?si=jfGqgGxS8uFoGUKu

Yes, the return of the Cyberment and Adric's death were surprises. However, a word of advice - do a little bit more research - Eric Saward's name was pronounced Say-ward, the planet Traken is pronounced Trarken, and March 1982 was not chilly - it was mild and sunny all the way through, like Spring should be. Perhaps trivial points points, but those of us who were around at the time tend to find it annoying after a while (particularly when you kpet saying Sar-ward instead of Say-ward).

Here’s a proposal make the 14th of October, Battle of Hastings Day, a public holiday!  At least ordinary people would something out of the result.  It would also breakup that terrible stretch from the Summer Bank Holiday to Christmas.

I think the shows is actually just called 'Doctor Who'.

Beryl Reid was 100% miscast!