In Doctor Who: Earthshock, The Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan are embroiled in an attack on Earth in 2526. Bombs, deadly androids, and dinosaur bones!
Part 1
In 2526, members of a geological survey on Earth have have gone missing. A rescue mission has it’s members mysteriously disappearing as well. Meanwhile, Adric is feeling homesick, and wants to go home. But that would mean a dangerous travel back into E-Space. And, it turns out that silent but deadly androids are protecting a bomb buried beneath the Earth. The military wrongly accuse the Doctor and his companions of being behind the deaths. But then the androids attack all the humans. And at the end of the episode, the actual villains are revealed.
[regarding Adric wanting to go home]
The Doctor: You do not have the monitor skill Adric! And even if you did, I am not taking you back into E-Space!
Adric: Then I’ll find someone who will take me!
The Doctor: E-Space is another universe! There isn’t a taxi service that goes back and forth!
Part 2
Adric comes looking for the rest of the group. Not knowing that he’s walking straight into the androids. With Adric’s distraction, the androids are defeated. The Doctor’s curiosity leads him to open the androids’ hatch …. And he accidentally triggers the bomb within! Can they disarm it in time? With her crew slowly vanishing, Briggs assumes the Doctor to be the guilty party. The Doctor and crew make their way to the space freighter where the signal came from. Two murdered crewman are found …. And a crewman arrests The Doctor and Adric!
Cyber Lieutenant: A Time Lord. But they’re forbidden to interfere.
Cyber Leader: This one calls himself the Doctor, and does nothing else but interfere.
Part 3
On board the ship, the cantankerous Captain is unwilling to risk her bonus, no matter what. Even after the Doctor’s told her of the bomb on Earth. And that she’s unwittingly giving the aliens aboard her ship safe passage to Earth. The Cybermen are released from their silos. And they’re on the march! The attack crewmen on the freighter, without mercy. But the Doctor comes up with a clever plan to reinforce the door to the bridge. But not quite clever enough …
The Doctor: Those shields won’t hold them there for long.
Briggs: They’ll last until we’re back to Earth.
The Doctor: And then?
Briggs: There’s only a few of them: our security men will cope with them.
The Doctor: They’re an invasion force, Earth is where they want to go. There are considerably more than a few on board.
Adric: [looking at papers] How many of these silos are you carrying?
Briggs: Oh, fifteen thousand or…
[she stops, dawning that her entire cargo, each and every silo, in fact contains a Cyberman]
Briggs: [softly] No. It’s not possible!
Part 4
The Cybermen plan to destroy the Earth. And, given the Doctor’s previous successful attempts at stopping the Cybermen, they plan to let him live. Long enough to see the destruction of the Earth that he cares for, at least. The Doctor realizes the freighter is now a huge bomb. But it goes back in time, to the age of the dinosaurs. When “something” crashed into the Earth, killing the dinosaurs.At the end, with one passenger still aboard …. A sad death for a well-established, beloved character.
Adric: Now I’ll never know if I was right.
Cast of characters
- Peter Davison (Mawdryn Undead, All Creatures Great and Small) … The Doctor
- Beryl Reid (Yellowbeard) … Briggs
- Matthew Waterhouse (Doctor Who: Logopolis) … Adric
- James Warwick (Star Wars – The Phantom Menace) … Scott. The military man, initially looking for the missing geologists. He tags along on the TARDIS to the space freighter. And it’s a good thing he does!
- Clare Clifford … Kyle
- Janet Fielding (Resurrection of the Daleks) … Tegan
- Sarah Sutton (Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead) … Nyssa
- June Bland (Doctor Who: Battlefield) … Berger
- Alec Sabin … Ringway. The traitorous crewman. He’s in league with the Cybermen, who kill him for it.
- David Banks … Cyber Leader
- Mark Hardy … Cyber Lieutenant
Product Description of Earthshock
The mysterious disappearance of an archaeological team is merely the prelude to a deadlier threat for the Doctor and his companions – the Cybermen want to destroy Earth and will use any means at their disposal. The Doctor’s ingenuity is stretched to its very limits as he battles to defeat the Cyber army at any cost. But even he does not realize just how high that cost will be.
