Earthshock. The one where Adric dies. The one where Cybermen come back after several years in the depths of space keeping out of The Doctor’s way. The one with Beryl Reid as a very unlikely ships captain. This is remembered for just about everything except the fact that it’s actually quite a cracking story and one of the first bits of popular TV to mention the now accepted reason why the dinosaurs died out. It was only about the late 1970s that the asteroid theory began to gain hold as scientific fact. Doctor Who introduced the idea to people who would never read a scientific paper, as well as showing them that it wasn’t an asteroid but a spaceship packed with explosives. 10/10
Extras Commentary by Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and
Sarah Sutton. Put Peter and Janet anywhere together and they dominate.
Their two personalities just gel fantastically. The other two get
carried along by them. Add to that the fact that Peter does his research
before coming to do a commentary and can tell the listener all the
technical stuff that usually needs a director or technical commentary
and this is a triumph. 10/10 Putting the ‘Shock’ in Earthshock. In hindsight it comes as a surprise to discover that both Adric’s death and the return of the cybermen WERE a secret until transmission! Imagine getting away with that NOW! This and other issues such as the decision to play the credits silent after Adric’s death are discussed in this documentary. 10/10 CGI effects – optional version of the episodes with new CGI effects. 9/10 Location film sequence. The filmed sequence of the military team searching for the geologists in full, with scenes cut in the final transmitted version. Slightly dull since it doesn’t involve The Doctor or any of his companions and doesn’t seem much like Doctor Who. 9/10 Did you See? 1982 edition of a TV review programme which looks back
at Doctor Who. What it shows most of all is the difference between
then and now as far as such programmes go. The boring and decidedly
snide voice of the presenter doing the continuity between snippets
of old Doctor Who episodes would have modern viewers with other channels
to watch turning over. Nostalgia value only. 7/10 Music only option – always nice to have. This was the second complete soundtrack written by the late Malcolm Clarke of the Radiophonic workshop. 10/10 40th Anniversary Celebration – An extended version of the theme tune with scenes from forty years of Doctor Who. Can you name all the episodes and everyone in them? Great except the tune seems a bit distorted to me. 9/10 Episode 5. An animated short showing Adric surviving the crash only to be eaten by a dinosaur. Not for Adric fans! 9/10 Production Subtitles are another interesting way to 10/10 Photo Gallery 10/10 Digitally Remastered sound and picture quality – something we take for granted on these DVDs. There is an extra on the Aztecs DVD that shows before and after versions of remastered pictures and documentaries on the Invasion and Curse of Fenric DVDs which go into the remastering of sound, all of which should make us appreciate the quality of these Classic Who DVDS. 10/10
10 out of 10
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