Earthshock (TV story)

Synopsis
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Plot
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Cast
The Doctor - Peter Davison

Adric - Matthew Waterhouse

Tegan - Janet Fielding

Nyssa - Sarah Sutton

Crew
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Story Notes

 * This is one of the few serials in which the ending credits have been changed from the regular credits. Adric's gold star is shown broken in pieces while the credits roll in silence.

Ratings
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Myths
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Location Filming
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Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * The Cybermen use emotional words like "Excellent". Positive emotion is supposedly absent in Cybermen.


 * The Cyberleader says "I know that object" speaking about the TARDIS, which infers that the Cyberleader has encountered the Doctor and the TARDIS previously. This means that either the order of the Cybermen television stories being aired and what order the Cybermen actually experience them in is different, that the Cybermen are time travellers and this is the same Cyberleader from other stories in a different body, or that there have been other, unseen encounters with incarnations of the Doctor other than the Fifth. (He might indicate, simply, that he knows the object, though, not that he has personally seen it.)


 * The Cybermen view a scene that may not occur for hundreds of years. (See below.)


 * How exactly do the Cybermen make the freighter travel backwards in time? And why did they draw attention to the Cyberbomb on Earth by having androids kill anyone who approach it?


 * Why didn't the Doctor take some troopers with him to talk to the Captain rather than trying to convince her with a pretty suspicious-sounding story?


 * The troopers seem not to recognize Cybermen when they see them, confusing them for robots. That seems strange, given that Earth considers the Cybermen a known and serious threat.

Continuity

 * The Doctor uses Adric's gold star to asphyxiate the Cyberleader. This was first demonstrated as a weakness in Revenge of the Cybermen.


 * The Cybermen watch' several scenes from previous Cybermen stories The Tenth Planet, The Wheel in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen. (This last arguably creates a continuity error as, in The Ark in Space, the Fourth Doctor seemed to indicate that Nerva Beacon "was put together" sometime after the 31st century, six centuries after Earthshock''. A number of explanations could exist for this apparent contradiction, though.)

DVD, Video and Other Releases
DVD Releases

Released as Doctor Who: Earthshock.


 * Region 2 August 18th 2003
 * PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1153


 * Region 4 October 1st 2003
 * Region 1 September 7th 2004
 * NTSC - Warner Video E2022

Contents:
 * Putting the Shock into Earthshock Documentary - Charts the development and creation of the story, and the unique effect it had on viewers.
 * CGI Effects
 * Location Film Sequences
 * Did You See? - A 1982 edition of the BBC Two review programme.
 * Music-only Option
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Subtitles
 * Easter Egg
 * Commentary: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse

Video Releases

Target Novelisations
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