Earthshock

] [cite web
url= http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/6b.html
title= Earthshock
publisher = A Brief History of Time Travel
last = Sullivan
first = Shannon
date = 2007-08-07
accessdate = 2008-08-30]

*The working title for this story was "Sentinel".
*This was the first Cyberman story since "Revenge of the Cybermen" (1975), as producer John Nathan-Turner wanted to bring back an old enemy, but resisted using the Daleks. Before the title was changed to "Earthshock", Nathan-Turner was adamant about keeping the return of the Cybermen a secret. He instructed Eric Saward not to have any reference to the Cybermen in the story's title. Nathan-Turner even had the studio observation galleries closed for the duration of recording and turned down an offer from "Radio Times" to provide advance publicity of the Cybermen on their cover (ultimately "Radio Times" would only give one cover to "Doctor Who" during Nathan-Turner's tenure, for the 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors"). The success of this convinced Nathan-Turner to continue to mine the series' past continuity for ideas and old enemies.
*After the success of using archive footage for the flashback sequence in "Logopolis" (1981), Producer John Nathan-Turner consulted with series continuity adviser Ian Levine and asked him to prepare another such montage for this story. Levine selected one clip from all of previous Doctors, save for Jon Pertwee who never had a Cyberman story (though they had been briefly glimpsed in two serials from his era). Levine's selections included: the First Doctor serial "The Tenth Planet" (1966), the Second Doctor serial "The Wheel in Space" (1968) (with narration referring to "The Tomb of the Cybermen", at that time not extant in the archives) and the Fourth Doctor serial "Revenge Of The Cybermen" (1975). All the clips were presented in monochrome to preserve continuity, as the first two extracts were originally recorded in black and white.
*Although credited as script editor, Antony Root in fact did little or no work on "Earthshock". He was credited to avoid Saward, who had by this time replaced him in the job, being credited as such on his own work, which contravened BBC regulations.
*The exterior sequences seen in the first episode were shot on Thursday 29 October 1981 at Springwell Lock Quarry, near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.
*The Cyberscope prop was built using parts the modelmaker had scavanged from the Nostromo set constructed for the movie "Alien". Similarly, the digital readouts on the device flash up a random series of numbers which were also seen on the monitors of the Nostromo set.

Outside references

*The sudden extinction of the dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. A similar massive reduction in Earth's biodiversity took place 251 million years ago; this is the Permian-Triassic extinction event. One of the Big Finish Productions audio plays, "The Land of the Dead" (also featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa), provides a possible (fictional) explanation for that event as well. As with all the spin-off media, the canonicity of the audio plays is unclear.

In print

Doctorwhobook
title=Earthshock
series=Target novelisations
number=78
featuring=


writer=Ian Marter
publisher=Target Books
coverartist=
isbn=0 426 19377 6
set_between=
pages=
date=18 August 1983
preceding=Four to Doomsday
following=Terminus|A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Marter (who played Harry Sullivan during the Fourth Doctor era), was published by Target Books in May 1983.

Broadcast, VHS and DVD releases

* The story coming in 17th in the 1997 "Doctor Who Magazine" annual best serial survey.
*This story was released on VHS in the UK in September 1992.
*A DVD release followed on 18 August 2003 as part of the "Doctor Who" 40th Anniversary Celebration releases, representing the Peter Davison years. This included a commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse, plus a retrospective documentary by Ed Stradling entitled "Putting the Shock into Earthshock" which included interviews with many of the cast and crew including Davison, Waterhouse, Sutton, David Banks, Eric Saward, Peter Grimwade (archive footage) plus fans of the show (including future "Doctor Who" writer Steven Moffat, and writer/actor Mark Gatiss). Also included was the Claymation spoof "Earthshock, part Five" where Adric survives the freighter crashing to Earth, but is promptly eaten by a dinosaur. The DVD release also included an option to view the serial with alternate CGI special effects. On 2 July 2007, this DVD was re-released with new outer packaging.

References

External links

*BBCCDW|id=earthshock|title=Earthshock
*Brief | id=6b | title=Earthshock
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_6b | title=Earthshock

Reviews

*OG review | id=6b | title=Earthshock
*DWRG | id=eart | title=Earthshock
* [http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/6B.php The Whoniverse's review on "Earthshock"]

Target novelisation

* [http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1983/earthsho/83earths.htm On Target — "Earthshock"]