Earthshock Part Three

The one where the Cybermen massacre the freighter's crew...

Bernard Lloyd-Jones's set design for the freighter bridge is really impressive. It's big and chunky, with plenty of space for the characters to move around in, and the dressing of the control panels is satisfyingly busy and realistic. Lots of switches, buttons and dials for the actors to play with. It looks lived in, worked in, used.

Captain Briggs continues to have a chip on her shoulder when it comes to Ringway, and perhaps men in particular. She really does not like Ringway, mocking the way he says "apprehended" instead of "caught" (a bit much coming from Eric Saward, the prince of purple prose), and later on she's very reluctant to take anything the Doctor or Adric say seriously. She will listen to her female first officer though.

Despite being played by somebody not naturally disposed to science-fiction thrillers, Briggs is an interesting character. Apart from her possible misandry, she's also quite a selfish woman, more bothered about her bonus and avoiding having to pay fines than she is human life. Her professional reputation comes first, which is another reason why she seems to dislike Ringway, who admits he'd rather his colleagues Vance and Carson were still alive than being sure of a financial bonus. Strange that he should value human life so highly when he later turns out to be in league with the Cybermen, but perhaps that misguided naivety is his downfall.

These new Cybermen continue to display remarkably human traits, such as when the Cyberleader insists the Doctor's life is spared so that he can suffer for all of their past defeats. This smacks of revenge, something the Cybermen have dabbled in before, but really shouldn't if they're supposed to be emotionless monsters. We then learn that he has his own "personal guard", a rather self-aggrandising thing to have, especially as you'd expect one Cyberman to feel as invincible or powerful as any other. Why have several other Cybermen to "protect" him?

However, when the personal guard are awoken from their hibernation capsules, director Peter Grimwade really cranks up the horror imagery by shooting the waking Cybermen up close, in semi-darkness, wrapped in plastic like silver Laura Palmers. They sway and pull at their plastic coverings like groggy zombies, and much later in the episode, when the Cyber army awakes en masse, we see several dazed Cybermen lurching about the hold, flailing their arms and trailing plastic sheeting in their wake. It's the stuff of nightmares!

When Briggs and Berger notice the severe power loss emanating from Hold 4 caused by the revival of the personal guard, the Cyberleader knows the game is up. It's time to "take the bridge", and all eight Cybermen march toward the freighter's control deck. The weird thing is that the people on the bridge - Briggs, Berger, Ringway, the Doctor and Adric - don't really know that anybody's coming. A huge assumption is made that the power loss will lead to who or whatever is hiding down there attempting to take over. But they have no idea it's the Cybermen, or even anything particularly aggressive. For all they know it could just be one bloke, so when Briggs orders that Ringway and his men (and women) secure the high walkway to stop whatever's coming taking the bridge, it feels like something of a leap.

Of course, we know the truth, and we know that Briggs is right to take such precautions because the Cybermen mean business. They march inexorably toward the walkway, massacring the freighter's crew, who have about as good an aim as Stevie Wonder on a see-saw. The crew's silly stick-of-rock laser beams may be laughable, but the Cybermen's laser pulses impress much more. There's no need to align the video effect between two points, just to place the pulsing green effect where it needs to be. It helps make the Cybermen even more invincible. Grimwade employs some wonderful camera shots to show the Cybermen pushing unstoppably past and over the dead bodies of the freighter crew, with close-ups on their marching moonboots to accentuate the fact these creatures are unremitting.

Grimwade does an excellent job, but it's at times like this that I wish Douglas Camfield was still directing Doctor Who. His eye for military situations like this would have made the Cyber attack even more effective.

What of Tegan and Nyssa? Well, being the feisty "mouth on legs" she admits to being, Tegan insists on going with Scott and his troops to rescue the Doctor, and there's a wonderful moment where she shames wimpy geologist Professor Kyle by asking if she's going. When Kyle admits not, Tegan demands she gives her her overalls so that she can join Scott's expedition. Attagirl!

At first Tegan cuts an awkward figure among the armed troopers, her bouffant 80s hairdo bobbing up and down as she jogs along, but then when she runs ahead, grabs a Cyberman's gun and fires it into the monster's chest to finish it off, it's a punch-the-air moment. Tegan shows she is a proper, feisty, no-nonsense companion willing to get her hands dirty to help the cause, but I suppose moments like this all add up to the moment she decides to leave the TARDIS in Resurrection of the Daleks, when she admits to having witnessed too much death and misery. It all began with the death of her Aunt Vanessa in her very first story, and moments such as this contribute to her final decision.

And then there's Nyssa. She stays behind in the TARDIS because there's really nothing for her to do except be her usual bland self. If she had her way everybody would be with her in the TARDIS, keen as she is to do nothing. "My instinct is to wait," she tells Scott. "Things don't feel right." Will they ever feel right for you, Nyssa? Compared to Tegan's willingness to get involved (and let's not forget Adric's too), Nyssa is such a wet lettuce. Worst of all, she stays behind in the TARDIS with Professor Kyle, the one character with even less to do in Earthshock than she has. "Is there nothing positive we can do?" wails Kyle. No, it seems not.

I love the look on the Doctor's face when he sees that it's the Cybermen they're up against. He's devastated, as if he truly never expected to see the metal monsters ever again. It's been seven years, so he'd be forgiven for thinking so.

There's a valiant scramble to stop the Cybermen taking the bridge, and Grimwade re-enacts the wonderful shot in George Lucas's Star Wars when the blast door drops swiftly upon the advancing Darth Vader. The Cybermen get shut out as the bulkhead shields seal, but not for long, because the Cyberleader breaks out the thermal lance and attempts to melt their way through the door!

This leads to the wonderfully iconic effect of a Cyberman being trapped halfway through the door, becoming a part of its material structure, like a wall frieze. It's a genius combination of writing, direction and design.

Sadly, the Cybermen are not kept off the bridge for long, and after blowing their way through another entrance, they flood onto the control deck one by one, with the domineering Cyberleader entering last, with all the pomp of Michael Jackson in concert. He towers over the Doctor, staring him out like an old enemy: "We meet again!" After ordering traitorous Ringway to be executed, the Cyberleader gives the command to break out his Cyber army - all 15,000 of them!

David Banks gives good Cyberleader. You can tell he's really thought about the performance, how the character would stand and move, walk and talk. He gives the Cyberleader enormous screen presence, both in size (Banks was 6ft 3in) and, if it's not too strange a word to use, charisma. The Cyberleader is unexpectedly cool, the sort of baddie kids probably wanted to be in the playground. Banks was perfect casting, giving the Cyberleader much-needed gravitas and dominance after the disappointing hands-on-hips posture of Christopher Robbie in Revenge of the Cybermen.

With the Cyber army breaking out, they have free passage on Briggs' freighter to an unsuspecting Earth, which they will then vengefully destroy. Plan A (the bomb) didn't work, so it's a good job the Cyberleader had this contingency plan all along. Great cliffhanger; cannot wait for part 4!

First broadcast: March 15th, 1982

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Cyberman trapped in the door is so cool.
The Bad: Useless Nyssa and wet Kyle staying behind in the TARDIS to do nothing, not even worry.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

Earthshock is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Earthshock-Peter-Davison/dp/B00009PBTQ