skip to content

varos

episode guide

earthshock

story 122 : season 19 : serial 6B : 4 episodes

Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Director: Peter Grimwade
Writer: Eric Saward
Script Editor: Antony Root
Designer: Bernard Lloyd-Jones

cast information

Peter Davison (The Doctor); Matthew Waterhouse (Adric); Sarah Sutton (Nyssa); Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka); James Warwick (Lieutenant Scott); Clare Clifford (Professor Kyle); Beryl Reid (Captain Briggs); June Bland (Berger); Steve Morley (Walters); Suzi Arden (Snyder); Ann Holloway (Mitchell); Anne Clements (First Trooper); Mark Straker (Second Trooper); David Banks (Cyber Leader); Alec Sabin (Ringway); Mark Hardy (Cyber Lieutenant); Mark Fletcher (First Crew Member); Christopher Whittingham (Second Crew Member);

crew information

Nick Laughland (Assistant Floor Manager); Dinah Collin (Costumes); Keith Hopper (Film Cameraman); Mike Houghton (Film Editor); Malcolm Clarke (Incidental Music); Joan Stribling (Make-Up); Jane Ashford (Production Assistant); Angela Smith (Production Associate); Dick Mills (Special Sounds); Fred Wright (Studio Lighting); Alan Machin (Studio Sound); Peter Howell (Theme Arrangement); Ron Grainer (Title Music); Steve Bowman (Visual Effects);

episode information

  Title First UK Transmission Duration Ratings Archive Status
1 Part One 8 March 1982 at 18:55 24'22" 9.1mil PAL 2 inch colour videotape
2 Part Two 9 March 1982 at 19:05 24'23" 8.8mil PAL 2 inch colour videotape
3 Part Three 15 March 1982 at 18:55 24'24" 9.8mil PAL 2 inch colour videotape
4 Part Four 16 March 1982 at 19:05 24'28" 9.6mil PAL 2 inch colour videotape
  1. Part One
    » Always held by the FVTL
  2. Part Two
    » Always held by the FVTL
  3. Part Three
    » Always held by the FVTL
  4. Part Four
    » Always held by the FVTL

release information

In Print:
Novelised as: Doctor Who -- Earthshock
Written by: Ian Marter
Number 078 in the Target Doctor Who Library

Versions
1983 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in hardback
With cover artwork by: Photo
ISBN: 0 491 03181 5
18 August 1983 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in paperback
With cover artwork by: Photo
ISBN: 0 426 19377 6
16 April 1992 Published by Virgin Publishing Ltd, UK in paperback
With cover artwork by: Alister Pearson
ISBN: 0 426 19377 6

plot synopsis

An archaeological expedition into a cave region has been slaughtered one by one, with a pair of featureless androids stalking through the shadows. A military investigation starts to meet the same fate, until the TARDIS arrives and the Doctor finds that the robots are protecting a powerful bomb, which the Doctor defuses and traces the signals being sent to it from a vast space freighter. On board, he encounters the Cybermen, who turn the freighter into a bomb, intent on crashing it into the Earth, but Adric's tampering with the guidance systems sends the ship back in time where it is destroyed in the Earth's outer atmosphere, and it in turn wipes out the dinosaurs, as it has gone back to prehistoric times. Adric was on board, and to the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa's horror, they are unable to save him. .

links to other sites