Today one of my best friends is getting married. Congratulations Jason and Elizabeth! I got you guys a dead companion!
Hold on, let's back up.
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| A Cyberman is frozen inside a door. (Earthshock Part Three) ©BBC |
It turns out that most of the problems I have with
Earthshock have to do with part four. Part three continues to excite and interest, as we see the Cybermen on the move onboard the freighter, while the Doctor and Adric try to convince Captain Briggs that they're not responsible for the deaths of the crewmembers. And there's also a subplot involving Lieutenant Scott and his troopers, accompanied by Tegan, working their way through the ship, trying to find the bridge while dodging Cybermen. It coheres rather well -- although you can see why Beryl Reid takes flak for her performance; there are definitely times when she seems unsure of the dialogue she's being asked to deliver. But I still think she does a nice job.
The Doctor's confrontation with the Cyberleader is also interesting; there's this curious moment where the Cyberleader says, "So, we meet again, Doctor," despite the fact that, as far as we've seen, no Cyberman has survived an encounter with the Doctor. And we get that great cliffhanger, as a huge number of Cybermen begin marching through the freighter, all in sync.
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| "Now I'll never know if I was right." (Earthshock Part Four) ©BBC |
Part four, as I mentioned, is where the problems really set in. Things start happening for no obvious reason, and it's rather frustrating. Why, for instance, is the second wave of Cybermen activated? It looks like it's a fault, but there's also the question of why they weren't activated at the same time as the first wave; is the Cyberleader really okay with letting a large number of his troops be killed unnecessarily? And how exactly does hooking an alien computer up to the freighter cause it to travel back in time? If time had been spent coming up with some sort of explanation for these events, this could have been something special, but as it is it's just aggravating instead.
One thing that works better than it should is Adric's death. Adric has, unfortunately, become superfluous to the needs of the TARDIS crew, and so his time had come to leave the show. But what a way to leave! Obviously one of the companions had to die, to show that traveling with the Doctor doesn't necessarily mean you're safe. Matthew Waterhouse reportedly wasn't very happy with his character's fate. But it's certainly a memorable way to leave, and the ending is quite affecting.
There are a lot of things to like about
Earthshock. The first three episodes are quite good, with good acting and some really great direction from Peter Grimwade, and some outstanding design work in both sets and costumes. If the entire script was of the same caliber it would be great, but the plot holes make this an ultimately frustrating experience. I really want to love it, but I just can't quite do it.