Earthshock by: Ian Marter

 

Earthshock was written by Ian Marter, based on the story of the same name by Eric Saward.  It was the 78^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Earthshock is one of Peter Davison’s all time classic stories at least in the eyes of the fandom.  It’s famous for two things, bringing the Cybermen back after seven years away in their last appearance in Revenge of the Cybermen, and killing the companion Adric.  These distinctions make it regarded highly although writer Eric Saward is one of those writers whose scripts are generally saved not because of a great plot, but generally good performances.  Earthshock is the second script he wrote for Doctor Who after The Visitation and while on television it is an improvement the process of having someone else turn it into a novel means that there is a chance for improvement.  Ian Marter, who played Harry Sullivan on television and novelized several stories in the 1970s and early 1980s, was chosen to adapt this one and his style is perfect for the story it is attempting to tell.  Marter as a writer is always very direct and that works in making the horror the serial on television was lacking in a script that should have been played for more horror brought to the forefront.

 

The Cybermen here are terrifying, drawing on ideas from The Tomb of the Cybermen and the 1960s stories keeping the Cybermen as cyborgs while on television these designs were very much robotic.  There are descriptions of fluids as the Cybermen die that are generally chilling and the climax itself being told from Adric and Tegan’s point of view on the freighter and in the TARDIS respectively makes the tension rise to the point where Adric dies, genuinely not knowing he was right.  On television the viewer never really gets how close Adric is getting to solve the problem, but Marter makes it explicit that he is close and will genuinely not know.  It also includes some closing lines reflecting on Adric’s death meaning that the ending is near perfect.  Now Marter doesn’t make it work perfectly as the middle of the story still drags, with a lot of the Cybermen being in the shadows doesn’t really work for the story itself and there is something missing without a lot of the performances.  Though the bookends are improved and perfect.

 

Overall, Earthshock is perhaps only as good as its television counterpart, although only in the way of improving some things while others are let down by the transition to the prose medium.   It is a breezy ten chapters and reads very nicely since Ian Marter is a more focused storyteller than Saward, but it’s not perfect and still an adaptation of an overrated story.  8/10.