Doctor Who-Earthshock (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Peter Davison,Janet Fielding,Sarah Sutton,Matthew Waterhouse Featurette-Putting the'Shock' into Earthshock Gallery-40th Anniversary Celebration montage Deleted Scenes-Film sequences Featurette-Did You See? - review programme Isolated Effects Track-CGI Effects Informational Subtitles Gallery-Photo Isolated Musical Score Short Film-Episode 5 Easter Egg
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	97:45 (Case: 156)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:50)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Peter Grimwade
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Peter Davison Matthew Waterhouse Sarah Sutton Janet Fielding David Banks
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Malcolm Clarke

    Doctor Who-Earthshock was originally aired in March of 1982. It is the sixth story featuring the fifth Doctor Peter Davidson. This is one of the more significant stories, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) as one of the Doctor's companions dies. I believe there has been only one other occasion when a companion has died. It was a highly guarded secret that this story marked the much-anticipated return of one of the Doctor's arch enemies, the Cybermen.

    I have seen Earthshock many times, including the original broadcast. Over the years it has slowly become one of my favourites. There are many reasons for this, including; A) It involves the Cybermen, one of my all-time favourite megalomaniacal aliens, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) B) One of the main characters dies. Thank goodness it was Adric and not Nyssia, C) I alway love the look on people's faces when they get into the TARDIS for the first time. The only drawback for me is that Nyssia is confined to the TARDIS for most of the story.

    No Dr Who story has ever looked so good. The restoration team have once again worked wonders. This makes for an even more pleasurable viewing experience. The overall presentation is near perfect and they will have to work extremely hard with future releases to top this effort.

    The Doctor and his companions Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssia (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding) have once again arrived on Earth. They have landed in an underground cave system that is in the process of being explored by a group of palaeontologists and geologists. A group of the explorers either disappears or is killed and troops are sent to investigate. When the Doctor and Co are discovered they become the chief suspects. Of course, this only lasts until all are attacked by mysterious killer androids. What are the androids doing down there? What are they protecting? Who is controlling them?

    All of these questions are quickly answered and the Doctor and friends soon discover they are once again up against the Cybermen. This time the Cybermen are out to derail a galaxy-wide peace process taking place on Earth. To achieve this, they plan to blow up the entire planet. Can the Doctor save the Earth and the Universe from destruction yet again?

    A good performance is put in by all, especially Peter Davidson as the Doctor. Even Matthew Waterhouse puts in a reasonable effort, even though he has been widely criticised for his lack of acting talent. However, the stand-out performance goes to David Banks as the Cyber leader. He attempted to add a little more depth to the character and pulls it off well.

Video

    The video transfer is excellent. Doctor Who has never looked so good.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 Full Frame.

    The video transfer is clear and sharp from beginning to end. There is only the occasional instance of grain which was particularly noticeable during some of the close-up facial shots in the caves and in the Tardis. All in all, this was much better than I had expected. The shadow detail is very good with all objects pertaining to the story clearly visible. Low level noise was well controlled with no noticeable occurrences.

    The colours appeared to be spot on. They were not too bright and overpowering, nor too understated and bland. There were no colour problems evident - colours were clear and constant throughout.

    There were no evident MPEG artefacts. There were only minor film-to-video artefacts to be seen - slight aliasing occurred at 75:03. Film artefacts were extremely well-controlled with only the very occasional fleck obvious throughout the entire presentation.

    There are three subtitle options on this presentation; English for the Hearing Impaired, English Audio Commentary and English Information. I sampled all of them and found them to be accurate and fairly well in time with the on-screen action.

    This is a dual layered disc with the layer change occurring at 48:50. The change is between episodes and is invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is acceptable and performs well.

    There are three audio tracks available on this DVD. They include English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Mono, English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) and Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). I listened to all the tracks and especially liked the isolated music score option, a worthwhile inclusion.

    The dialogue was clear and easily understood throughout the entire feature. The speech of the Cybermen seems to have evolved yet again and has become more mechanical-sounding, although more emotion and variation in tone can be heard in their voices when compared to previous stories.

    Audio sync was not a problem with this disc.

    The music score was written by Malcolm Clarke and is one of the best I have heard on any Doctor Who story. It was worthy of the isolated musical audio track it received on the disc. The isolated track also gives the listener more chance to fully appreciate the extent of the impact music can have on a storyline, without the added distraction of the dialogue.

    Since only a two channel track is included on the disc, the surround speakers and the subwoofer remain uncharacteristically silent.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The menu system is done in exactly the same style as the previous Dr Who releases. The Tardis-like background is accompanied by a small audio and visual snippet from the story.

Audio Commentary-Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse

    A good commentary that has reunited all the major cast members from 20 years ago. It is at times informative as well as being quite funny at the expense of Matthew Waterhouse and his acting ability, but he seems to take it fairly well.

Featurette-Putting the 'Shock' into Earthshock (32:28)

    A very good 'making of' documentary which features Peter Davidson, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse who provide there insights into the filming of the story. Sadly, Janet Fielding is absent from the documentary. It also features some dedicated (some would say obsessed) Dr Who fans who also give their opinions of this particular story and the effect it had on them as children.

Gallery-40th Anniversary Celebration montage (3:01)

    This is an entertaining collection of scenes from the entire Dr Who collection set to a stylised version of the opening credits music. It illustrates exactly what the Doctor and his companions have gone through to ensure the safety of the universe.

Deleted Scenes-Film sequences (8:48)

    These are scenes that were cut from the opening sequence of the first episode.

Featurette-Did You See? - review programme (10:17)

    This is a BBC TV program that depicts most of the monsters that have appeared on Dr Who over the years. By the end I found it a little boring, as it takes itself a little too seriously.

CGI Effects

    This special feature alters the originally aired feature and inserts up-to-date computer graphics into a few selected scenes. The scenes include some of the laser gun fighting scenes and the final scene where the spaceship crashes.

Informational Subtitles

    This feature gives the viewer the opportunity to become a true Dr Who fanatic. It provides some very in-depth and trivial information.

Gallery-Photo

    This is a collection of 40 pictures featuring different cast members at various points in the story. There are also 2 pictures of the cast performing the commentary recording.

Isolated Musical Score

    This special feature offers the option to listen to the music score without the distraction of the actors' dialogue. Everyone should give at least some of it a listen, but there are long periods of silence.

Short Film-Episode 5 (1:40)

    This is a very short stop motion animation sequence that depicts (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Adric surviving the crash only to get eaten by a dinosaur. It is hardly worth the effort. I think the credit actually ran longer than the feature.

Easter Egg

    This is part of a comedy skit from a BBC TV show of the time.

    This appears to be an identical release to that available in Region 2. It has not yet been released in Region 1.

    Earthshock is one of the more memorable Doctor Who stories. Firstly, it involves the Cybermen, and secondly, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) one of the Doctor's companions dies. The video quality is very good and the audio transfer is more than adequate. The extras are very interesting, especially the documentary in which you get to see the cast as they are today, 21 year later.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall