Doctor Who: Series 19, Episodes 19-22 – “Earthshock” (1982)

*End-of-serial spoilers.*

This one is iconic, understandably so. I’ll be getting into all that, after I take a look at the story overall.

The Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan come to Earth in the future, where they come across an archeological team that’s suffered a devastating attack. Naturally, our heroes are blamed for this, as they always are when the TARDIS drops them off near a murder scene. But there are larger matters at play than the humans realize—out of the sight, the Doctor’s old nemeses the Cybermen are hatching a plot.

Because the Cybermen are so frontloaded in classic Who, I tend to think they’re more prominent throughout the series than they really are. After being introduced in One’s final serial, they’re all over the Two era. But then they skip the Three years entirely, and after that, each classic Doctor has just one Cyberman story. At the time that “Earthshock” aired, it had been like seven years since we’d seen the Cybermen as a major baddie, which is nice. With the big villains like this, I think it helps to take breaks from them. Much like the Daleks, there can be diminishing returns with the Cybermen, so spacing out their stories like that keeps them from feeling too repetitive.

I enjoy this story. We get a classic “must defuse the bomb!” crisis, an out-of-control spaceship barreling through time, and callbacks to Cyberman lore from earlier episodes. But while the sci-fi stuff is entertaining, this serial is more noteworthy for its character moments, so let’s get into it.

I’ve talked about many a companion exit in various episode/serial reviews, but Adric’s last story is justifiably renowned. In the new Who era, where RTD preferred heartbreaking “to the pain” endings for his companions and Moffat killed every single one of his (but also not-killed?), it can be hard to remember that tragic companion endings used to be rare.

In the classic series, the farewells are frequently sad, with the departing companion wistfully looking on at the dematerializing TARDIS even when it was their choice to leave. But a companion dying, getting killed over the course of an adventure? Before Adric, the only companion deaths we got were Katarina and Sara Kingdom way back in the One era, and both of them were only in a small handful of episodes. It’s wrenching for the Doctor, as well as Nyssa and Tegan. Just in general, they’re horrified at Adric’s death, and it’s made even worse by the fact that they’re not there when it happens—they can only watch helplessly on the TARDIS scanner screen.

I’m no Adric fan, as I’ve said on numerous occasions, but I do really like his final scenes. And no, not in a “good riddance, he’s gone” way! In a very genuine way. Adric has a good death, and while it has elements of a traditional heroic sacrifice, that’s not quite how it plays out. Trapped on the freighter as it falls through time on a collision course with Earth, Adric is determined to solve the logic puzzles the Cybermen placed on the controls, retaking control of the ship so he can save himself/the others on board and prevent the crash. Yes, he is trying to save himself and others, though he doesn’t recognize the significance of the ship slipping back 65 million years—the crash will be part of Earth’s prehistoric record, not its destruction.

But when Adric refuses the chance to get away on an escape pod, it’s about more than just stopping the collision and (he thinks) saving Earth. A significant motivation is tied back to his analytical mind and his relentless need to solve puzzles. As he’s being pulled into the escape pod, he’s hit with an epiphany, and he slips past the closing door almost casually. He’s not thinking about the danger or the possibility that he’ll be killed. “Of course! That’s it!” he exclaims. He’s only thinking about besting the logic puzzle that’s been thwarting him. Likewise, when he’s on the verge of solving it and a Cyberman shoots the controls at the last moment, condemning him to die in the crash, Adric’s final words are, “Now I’ll never know if I was right.”

It's just such an Adric way to die, and that’s what I really like about it. It’s so rooted in who he is and how his mind works, and even if I don’t like his character that much, it’s very effective from a storytelling standpoint. So well done!