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WATCH ALONG | CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO | 19x22 | Earthshock: Part 4
🕑 Added 2024-01-05 07:51:18 +0000 UTCREMINDER: Instead of going back to season eight, we're jumping ahead to the first story in season 25 next. That will be the final story we skip to in preparation for an upcoming NuWho special.
Episode 25.01 has been edited and will be posted shortly.
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A Few Notes:
- Please no spoilers beyond this episode unless you see that later episodes have already been released. In that case, no spoilers beyond those episodes.
- This reaction is in a watch-along format. This means you'll need your own copy of the episode to watch alongside my reaction. This is in an effort to avoid copyright infringement.
- If you're based in the UK (or using a UK streaming site), here are instructions for how to get your copy to sync with mine.
- The show footage will play for the first 30 seconds with both video and audio. After that, the show footage will be silenced, and the video will be blurred for the remainder of the episode. There is also a count-up timer that begins once the episode has started. These things will hopefully make it easier for you to keep your copy of the episode synced with mine.
- This episode was viewed on BritBox via Amazon Prime.
- If you want to know what’s coming up, check out the schedule here.
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*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners.
Comments
Jamie Dodds
Gee, thanks Adric in dying, you killed off the dinosaurs ! :( can’t imagine how shocking this episode was when it first aired
Tobly
Cybermen are allergic to gold in all the classic stories that why the doctor crushed the gold star onto the cyber leaders chest unit
Azmat Mahmood
Earthshock is a great, action packed story. It’s directed with a lot of flair and dynamism by Peter Grimwade, who injects a lot of pace and momentum into the story with the fast cuts and unique camerawork. I really enjoy the way the first episode slowly builds up the mystery and increases the tension throughout until we get the shock reveal of the Cybermen at the end. It’s a highly effective pay off, especially because it’s been a long time (I won't say how long exactly because that would be a spoiler) since their last appearance and it sets the stage brilliantly for the rest of story, which is quite a brutal affair. Eric Saward wrote this story and this is also the first story to fall under his tenure as script editor and he immediately establishes the new direction he’ll take the show in. Dark, gritty and uncompromisingly harsh. The universe is a merciless and chaotic place under Saward and it’s quite interesting to thrust the mild mannered and gentlemanly fifth Doctor into this. I also really like the new, sleek design for the Cybermen and think they look great walking down the dimly lit corridors on the spaceship. Their shiny bodysuits illuminate and pierce through the dark lighting, they’re very striking. I also think the way we can see the silver painted jaws of the actors moving underneath the masks incredibly unnerving. It’s a constant reminder that these Cybermen used to be people and that those metal suits are carrying around rotting human corpses. I also love the twist ending with the reveal that the spaceship was the object that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, a clever resolution to the TARDIS team coming across dinosaur fossils in the cave at the start of the story. Adric dying is also a shocking and tragic end for his character and gives this story a lot of emotional weight. This is just a great story and definitely one of the highlights of the fifth Doctor’s era.
