History Recap / DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock

* {{Flashback}}: The Cyberleader gives his lieutenant a brief history of their encounters with the Doctor. Clips from TheTenthPlanet, TheWheelInSpace and RevengeOfTheCybermen are shown, though the Cyberleader mentions the events depicted in TombOfTheCybermen rather than Wheel.

* [[Flashback]]: The Cyberleader gives his lieutenant a brief history of their encounters with the Doctor. Clips from TheTenthPlanet, TheWheelInSpace and RevengeOfTheCybermen are shown, though the Cyberleader mentions the events depicted in TombOfTheCybermen rather than Wheel.

* Flashback: The Cyberleader gives his lieutenant a brief history of their encounters with the Doctor. Clips from TheTenthPlanet, TheWheelInSpace and RevengeOfTheCybermen are shown, though the Cyberleader mentions the events depicted in TombOfTheCybermen rather than Wheel.

[[caption-width-right:345:[[{{Hamlet}} The rest... is silence.]]]]

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric are having a really childish argument. Apparently, Adric wants to go back home to E-Space, but the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous as E-Space is... E-Space. Maybe he's afraid of running into K9 again; Lord knows it'd stop many a Troper in their tracks. Either way, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on [[TheFuture 26th century]] Earth in a cave system and goes out for a little sulk. Nyssa and Tegan join him, pointing out dinosaur fossils in the walls as they go.[[hottip:*:As they discuss the fossil, we hear the first xylophone riff from the "Fossils" movement of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.]] The Doctor, who's read ahead in the script, mentions that he's always wanted to know how those dinosaurs died out.

The Cybermen, for their part, finally put two ''(a TARDIS)'' and two ''(a man dressed oddly who meddles in their affairs)'' and get four[[hottip:*:Well, technically they get Five]] ''(the Doctor)''. They start preparing for his inevitable meddling as well, but not before the Cyber-Leader decides to show the audience some footage of the First, Second and Fourth Doctors from some of their Cybermen-oriented adventures.

Meanwhile, the people stuck in the TARDIS decide to go see what happened to the Doctor and Adric, only to find a few Cybermen running around. Much hiding and stealth ensues[[hottip:*:Without much actual stealth or hiding, but such is TV]]. Back on the bridge, the Cybermen nearly break through by melting one of the doors... until the Doctor manages to re-solidify said door around a lone Cyberman in a pretty neat scene. Of course, the Cybermen just blow up the other door and take the bridge anyhow. Bragging, the Cyber-Leader activates all the remaining Cybermen on the ship, proudly announcing how he's won the day - but not before [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killing off the security chief]]. [[ForTheEvulz Because he could]].

Finally, the Cyber-Leader [[EvilGloating announces his plan]], which is so vast that it requires about 15,000 Cyber units. There is a massive meeting of governments that will unite all those peoples against the Cybermen. So the Cybermen have decided to break up the meeting, which makes sense. Turns out that little shoebox-sized bomb the Doctor deactivated in the caves was powerful enough to ''destroy everyone and everything on the planet's surface'', proving that the Cybermen firmly believe that ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill. The Doctor thwarted their attempt to detonate the bomb, but the Cyber-Leader has a contingency plan -- crash the freighter into Earth, and the explosion of its antimatter-fuelled reactor will have basically the same result. Evidently the freighter operators in this time period buy their reactors from the same place that [[StarTrek Starfleet]] does.

Fed up with the talking, Tegan jumps on the Cyber-Leader and fiercely attacks him by... hugging him from behind. The Doctor then shoves [[DeusExMachina Adric's mathematics badge]][[hottip:*:which is now conveniently made out of gold, the Cyberman's lone weakness]] all up in the Leader's face, suffocating it, but not before it shoots and damages the TARDIS console. And then the Doctor shoots him repeatedly in the chest anyway for good measure.[[hottip:*:Five can be a vindictive bastard sometimes.]] Adric, for his part, is nearly done [[strike:saving the day]] screwing up history when a lone, near-death Cyberman [[strike:prevents Adric from doing so]] heroically saves the day by blowing up the console. The Doctor [[strike:valiantly struggles to get the TARDIS into the ship to rescue Adric]] makes a few excuses as to why he can't save Adric, and we watch Adric's ship ram itself into the surface of the Earth, killing off all the Dinosaurs and making way for Man... with Adric along for the ride.

** Plus at least a third of the soldiers are female, instead of the usual token female guest star amongst an all-male battalion. Unfortunately the freighter captain, who's clearly meant to be a tough [[Film/{{Alien}} Sigourney Weaver type]], is grossly miscast.

** Having said that, it at least remained a fairly impractical way of disabling a Cyberman -- you still have to somehow directly insert the gold into their chest unit, and even then it takes a couple of minutes to kill its victim (which can be problematic when the Cyberman in question starts shooting wildly during its death throes).

* IdiotPlot: Well, not so much an 'idiot plot' as 'the Cybermen are idiots and Adric is being Adric again.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Each of The Doctor's companions was given a story where they could take a bigger role this season. This is Adric's. He gets to die!

* LetsSplitUpGang: Repeat after me, ''DoctorWho'' extras: NeverSplitTheParty. NeverSplitTheParty. NeverSplitTheParty.

A bunch of people who look like they bought surplus helmets from ''StarshipTroopers'' go into a cave system to find a bunch of palaeontologists who have gone missing. They're also followed by a pair of shadowy figures who look like people in costumes.

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric are having a really childish argument. Apparently, Adric wants to go back home to E-Space, but the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous as E-Space is... E-Space. Maybe he's afraid of running into K9 again; Lord knows it'd stop many a Troper in their tracks. Either way, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on 26th century Earth in a cave system and goes out for a little sulk. Nyssa and Tegan join him, pointing out dinosaur fossils in the walls as they go.[[hottip:*:As they discuss the fossil, we hear the first xylophone riff from the "Fossils" movement of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.]] The Doctor, who's read ahead in the script, mentions that he's always wanted to know how those dinosaurs died out.

Finally, the Cyber-Leader announces his plan, which is so vast that it requires about 15,000 Cyber units. There is a massive meeting of governments that will unite all those peoples against the Cybermen. So the Cybermen have decided to break up the meeting, which makes sense. Turns out that little shoebox-sized bomb the Doctor deactivated in the caves was powerful enough to ''destroy everyone and everything on the planet's surface'', proving that the Cybermen firmly believe that ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill. The Doctor thwarted their attempt to detonate the bomb, but the Cyber-Leader has a contingency plan -- crash the freighter into Earth, and the explosion of its antimatter-fuelled reactor will have basically the same result. Evidently the freighter operators in this time period buy their reactors from the same place that [[StarTrek Starfleet]] does.

Meanwhile, the people stuck in the TARDIS decide to go see what happened to the Doctor and Adric, only to find a few Cybermen running around. Much hiding and stealth ensues[[hottip:*:Without much actual stealth or hiding, but such is TV]]. Back on the bridge, the Cybermen nearly break through by melting one of the doors... until the Doctor manages to re-solidify said door around a lone Cyberman in a pretty neat scene. Of course, the Cybermen just blow up the other door and take the bridge anyhow. Bragging, the Cyber-Leader activates all the remaining Cybermen on the ship, proudly announcing how he's won the day - but not before killing off the security chief. Because he could.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: There's a lone Cyberman, who was ordered to scout out the TARDIS while the Cyber-Leader and a second Cyberman had their fun in the control room. And again, this Cyberman unit was never seen again. Presumably, he's still wandering the TARDIS corridors, waiting for more orders from the Cyber-Leader.

Finally, the Cyber-Leader announces his plan, which is so vast that it requires about 15,000 Cyber units. There is a massive meeting of governments that will unite all those peoples against the Cybermen. So the Cybermen have decided to break up the meeting, which makes sense. That their plan involves using the freighter to ''crash into the planet and set off a massive bomb'', killing all 15,000 Cybermen along with the governmental representatives? Not so much sense. One wonders just what the other 14,995 or so Cybermen were around for.

Fed up with the talking, Tegan jumps on the Cyber-Leader and fiercely attacks him by... hugging him from behind. The Doctor then shoves [[DeusExMachina Adric's mathematics badge]][[hottip:*:which is now conveniently made out of gold, the Cyberman's lone weakness]] all up in the Leader's face, suffocating it, but not before it shoots and damages the TARDIS console. And then the Doctor shoots him repeatedly in the chest anyway for good measure.[[hottip:*:Five can be a vindictive bastard sometimes.]] Adric, for his part, is nearly done [[strike:saving the day]] screwing up history when a lone, near-death Cyberman [[strike:prevents Adric from doing so]] heroically saves the day by blowing up the console. The Doctor [[strike:valiantly struggles to get the TARDIS into the ship to rescue Adric]] makes a few excuses as to why he can't save Adric, and we watch Adric's ship ram itself into the surface of the Earth, killing off all the Dinosaurs and making way for Man... with Adric along for the ride. The DVD remastered a few scenes with CGI to make this not suck, so now we see Adric's special ride in all its intended glory. Hell yeah.]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/math_badge_8760.jpg
[[caption-width:345:[[{{Hamlet}} The rest... is silence.]]]]

Otherwise known as "the serial in which TheScrappy [[AlasPoorScrappy dies]]."

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric are having a really childish argument. Apparently, Adric wants to go back home to E-Space [[hottip:*:And lo, the audience rejoiced.]], but the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous as E-Space is... E-Space. Maybe he's afraid of running into K9 again; Lord knows it'd stop many a Troper in their tracks. Either way, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on 26th century Earth in a cave system and goes out for a little sulk. Nyssa and Tegan join him, pointing out dinosaur fossils in the walls as they go.[[hottip:*:As they discuss the fossil, we hear the first xylophone riff from the "Fossils" movement of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.]] The Doctor, who's read ahead in the script, mentions that he's always wanted to know how those dinosaurs died out.

Back with the missing-palaeontologists plot: the troopers decide to [[LetsSplitUpGang split up into multiple groups]] and explore deeper into the cave system. They even pick up a few life signs - one of them with two heartbeats. The leader of this group naturally assumes that the owners of these strange life signs are responsible for the palaeontologists who went missing, but they don't have much time to act on this before they are, sadly, turned into sludge. The survivors, lead by a man named Scott, stumble across the Doctor and the TARDIS and immediately relate their problems... until, that is, they notice that the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa make great suspects. Before either group can make their case, however, those shadowy figures attack: Androids! Androids commanded elsewhere in a distant location by... Cybermen![[hottip:*:...you know, it's about damned time they show up again. Sure, the last time they showed up was at [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen}} the start of the Fourth Doctor's run]], so in terms of Actors they've not been gone long, but when TomBaker ran for a good 7 or 8 years...]]

The Doctor, satisfied with his deeds in the cave, ushers Adric, Nyssa and Tegan ''(as well as a few surviving humans from the cave)'' into the TARDIS. He decides to go trace the signal sent by the Cybermen to the Androids and the TARDIS materializes upon a freighter ship out in space that's suffered many random murders aboard during their travels to Earth [[hottip:*:...but NO ONE IN THE CREW EVER BOTHERS TO STOP THE SHIP OR START AN INVESTIGATION. EVER. GOD.]]. Almost immediately after stepping out of the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric stumble across two dead bodies.[[hottip:*:Really, the fact that dead bodies are just lying around everywhere says exactly how corspe-filled this story is.]] Of course, [[TheCorpseStopsHere as is dramatically required]], the living crew finds the Doctor and Adric standing over the bodies and blames them for the murders.

Regardless, Tegan is captured and dragged to the bridge while Scott and a few other humans run around blowing up Cybermen... but spending most of their time hiding from them. The Doctor makes a show of bravado until Tegan is threatened, and the Cyber-Leader claims that this is the weakness of organics. The Doctor claims otherwise, wondering when the Cybermen enjoyed the laughter of a child or sat down to have a nice meal together ''(Wait... what?)''[[hottip:*:This troper would pay serious money to see that, actually. Imagine Cyber-Martha-Stewart: "THIS NOURISHMENT MEETS OR EXCEEDS CYBERMEN EDIBILITY STANDARDS."]]. The Cyber-Leader also heads out to the TARDIS to make his escape with a few other Cybermen. At this time, Scott's Commandos break onto the Bridge and pretty much slaughter most of the Cybermen there. Unfortunately, the ship's hyperdrive is damaged, sending the freighter careening back in time, meaning that the Earth of the future may be safe but the Earth of the past ''(and thus, all future)'' is now in danger.

Fed up with the talking, Tegan jumps on the Cyber-Leader and fiercely attacks him by... hugging him from behind[[hottip:*:Ok, so she was supposed to have a golden pinkie ring on that would temporarily paralyze the Cyber-Leader, but it's pretty bad.]]. The Doctor then shoves [[DeusExMachina Adric's mathematics badge]][[hottip:*:which is now conveniently made out of gold, the Cyberman's lone weakness... aside from bullets, cold, lasers...]] all up in the Leader's face, suffocating it, but not before it shoots and damages the TARDIS console. And then the Doctor shoots him repeatedly in the chest anyway for good measure.[[hottip:*:Five can be a vindictive bastard sometimes.]] Adric, for his part, is nearly done [[strike:saving the day]] screwing up history when a lone, near-death Cyberman [[strike:prevents Adric from doing so]] heroically saves the day by blowing up the console. The Doctor [[strike:valiantly struggles to get the TARDIS into the ship to rescue Adric]] makes a few excuses as to why he can't save Adric, and we watch Adric's ship ram itself into the surface of the Earth, killing off all the Dinosaurs and making way for Man... with Adric along for the ride.[[hottip:*:...or, rather explode randomly in space, [[SpecialEffectFailure according to the effects of the serial]]. The DVD remastered a few scenes with CGI to make this not suck, so now we see Adric's special ride in all its intended glory. Hell yeah.]]

The massive cheer you just heard was [[AndTheFandomRejoiced the fandom rejoicing]].

* Main/ActionGirl: Against all expections, ''Nyssa'' is the one who guns down the Cyber Leader's second-in-command at the end of the story. Tegan tries and fails miserably at this trope, only managing to get lost in the freighter's hold and getting captured by the Cybermen.

* Main/ADayInTheLimelight: Each of The Doctor's companions was given a story where they could take a bigger role this season. This is Adric's. He gets to die!
* Main/AlasPoorScrappy: Adric
** For what it's worth Adric is actually fairly heroic in this episode, risking his life on more than one occasion, helping the Doctor defuse the Cyber-Bomb and trying to save Earth even at the cost of his life. However, it was far, far too late for him to be RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, and he's ''still'' pretty whiny at the start of the story.
* Main/BBCQuarry: One of the few serials of Doctor Who to feature a quarry ''that the Doctor and companions never visit.''
* Main/BrokenBase: There are people who like the 1980's Cybermen as much as there are people who hates them.
* Main/TheCorpseStopsHere: at the Doctor's and Adric's feet.
* Main/CreepyMonotone: Played straight (sort of), but ONLY by the regular Cybers. The Leader sounds, er... [[LargeHam very emotional]] at some bits.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Even today, this story's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXE85LamACk Cyber-March]]" theme is often the first music that comes to mind when you think of the Cybermen.
* Main/{{Flanderization}}: In the olden days, the Cybermen didn't have a specific weakness to gold. Their inner mechanisms were simply clogged by dust, and since gold doesn't corrode it was tougher for them to flush out of their systems. Any dust thick enough would've done the job--''lead'' dust would have worked just as well, and been cheaper too. But by the time this serial rolled around, ''gold itself'' acted on them pretty much like Kryptonite.
** To be fair, the Doctor had crushed Adric's gold badge and fed it into the Cyber Leader's chest unit in order to kill it (and even then it only really disorientated the Cyber Leader until the Doctor finished it off with its own gun). Greater {{Flanderization}} of the Cybermen's gold aversion [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis would come later]].
* Main/HamToHamCombat: Whenever the 1980s version of the [[LargeHam Cyber Leader]] is involved, expect wall-to-wall scene chewing from ''at least'' one other actor. Such as PeterDavison in this serial, who tries to out-ham his enemy with all he can muster.
* Main/IdiotPlot: Well, not so much an 'idiot plot' as 'the Cybermen are idiots and Adric is being Adric again.'
* Main/ItWasHisSled: The fact that the cybermen where the villains of the story was a twist they went great lengths to hide until the cliffhanger of the first episode (See TrailersAlwaysSpoil below). At the time it was highly unexpected since the cybermen had not [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen appeared]] in the series for seven years. Today it is widely known; a cyberman is even featured on the DVD cover.
* Main/KillEmAll: Oh, wow, does it ever fill that one.
* Main/LargeHam: The Cyber Leader, of all people. "My army awaits, DOCTORRR!"
** Throughout the episode, he displays anger, pride, irritation, even malicious smugness. It's even Lampshaded by the Doctor:

* Main/LetsSplitUpGang: Repeat after me, ''DoctorWho'' extras: NeverSplitTheParty. NeverSplitTheParty. NeverSplitTheParty.
* {{Narm}}: The Doctor criticises the Cyber-Leader's supposed lack of emotions:
--->''When was the last time you had the experience of feeling the sunlight, smelling a flower, '''eating a well-prepared meal'''?''
** The Cybermen in general in this story.
** There's also actually a scene showing two Cybermen ''having mundane conversations''[[hottip:*: We don't actually hear what they're saying though, but making various hand signs while talking sure doesn't help.]].
* Main/SilentCredits
* Main/SpecialEffectsFailure: The tatty looking model globe that the freighter crashes into, which also has the Earth's continents on completely the wrong configuration for the Cretaceous Peroid. The laser effects, while better than the usual "lightbulb glows, person falls down" guns seen on the show, aren't really very impressive either. Both of these were improved on the DVD release.
** Not really a Special Effect Failure, but the new design of the Cybermen is incredibly laughable, even for its time.
*** This is a distinct case of YourMileageMayVary, as the fanbase is pretty split on whether this Cyberman design is the best or worst in the series' history. Even so, everyone usually acknowledges that the transparent mouthpieces of the Cybermen costumes were a huge mistake; even the production team seemed to realise this, as most of the mouthpieces have suddenly been covered up with spraypaint in the latter episodes.
*** This one is also ''[[BeyondTheImpossible another]]'' case of YourMileageMayVary, since there are people who actually think the transparent mouthpieces are good move, reason being that it shows how they are not entirely robotic. [[BrokenBase Fanbase is quirky that way.]]
* Main/StupidSacrifice: Adric tries for a HeroicSacrifice, but it's pretty apparent that this isn't what happens in the show. Then again, [[TheScrappy it's Adric]].
** It's only really a stupid sacrifice if you know that they were 65 million years in the past, and the freighter was designed to wipe out the dinosaurs. Adric apparently didn't having any way of know exactly how far back they'd travelled, and from his point of view trying to stop the freighter would still have been the right course of action.
** So, it's still a StupidSacrifice, just only from the audience's perspective.
* Main/TearJerker: Yes, really.
** Hey. Regardless of your opinion of Adric, it's hard not to be at least a bit ''chilled'' by an episode where the last couple images and sounds before the credits which are silent, and ''rolled over Adric's broken mathematics badge'' are the two remaining companions hugging and crying and the Doctor looking stunned, [[HeroicBSOD possibly quite close to shutting down,]] [[NotSoStoic and like he's at least a bit tempted to join them.]]
** That rope-belt that Adric clutches during his last moments? It was a gift from his [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle dead brother]]. Oh ''Adric''.
* Main/TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Averted to truly heroic levels. The show's producer went to enormous lengths to keep the Cybermen's return secret, resulting in a famous OhCrap moment when Episode 2 aired.
** This is such a hard aversion that producer John Nathan-Turner actually avoided getting a cover shoot on the ''Radio Times''[[hottip:*:Think the UK version of the TV Guide magazine]] in order to keep the secret as secret as possible, also insisted the cast listings in the same magazine simply referred to the Cybermen with speaking parts as "Alien Leader", "Alien Lieutenant", etc.
* Main/VillainDecay: After this serial, nobody could take Cybermen seriously any more. Admittedly, this wasn't entirely ''Earthshock'''s fault, which was otherwise an entertaining story.
** [[YourMileageMayVary They were taken seriously before?]]
** [[NightmareFuel They weren't?]]
* Main/WeaksauceWeakness: The gold. See 'Flanderization.'
* Main/WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Ok, so the few remaining crew members jumped ship in escape pods, correct? The problem is, they did so ''after the ship arrived in 65 million B.C.'' This brings up a ''very'' odd problem, as the Doctor certainly didn't pick them up before attempting to save Adric, and it seems he didn't save them in the opening moments of [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS19E7Time-Flight}} Time-Flight]]. Does this mean that... the Doctor just left them to ''die?'' ''65 million years'' before ''any form of humans lived''? What a fucking '''bastard.'''
** Then, of course, there's a lone Cyberman, who was ordered to scout out the TARDIS while the Cyber-Leader and a second Cyberman had their fun in the control room. And again, this Cyberman unit was never seen again. Presumably, he's still wandering the TARDIS corridors, waiting for more orders from the Cyber-Leader[[hottip:*:...or just still looking over the TARDIS - it's supposedly near-infinite, even after losing that 25% in [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva}} Castrovalva]].]]
** Actually the Doctor did save the freighter crew between the events of "Earthshock" and "Time-Flight," but there's only a single throwaway line by Nyssa in the following story that indicates this to be the case.
* Main/WhamEpisode: Companion death has always been very rare. "Earthshock" intensified the effect by silently rolling the credits over a picture of Adric's badge, smashed beyond repair.
** While that's the biggest WHAM part of the episode it also has further value: Back when it first aired, the Cybermen being the villains was a well kept secret which also adds to the shock value. But both twists have suffered ItWasHisSled at this point.
* Main/YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Amusingly subverted. It appears that the Cybermen initially intend to honour their deal with Ringway, but when Scott's troopers arrive on the freighter and start shooting up the place, the Cyber-Leader wrongly assumes that these are extra crewmembers who Ringway was trying to hide the existence of, and kills him at the next opportunity.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Even today, this story's "Cyber-March" theme is often the first music that comes to mind when you think of the Cybermen.

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric are having a really childish argument. Apparently, Adric wants to go back home to E-Space [[hottip:*:And lo, the audience rejoyced.]], but the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous as E-Space is... E-Space. Maybe he's afraid of running into K9 again; Lord knows it'd stop many a Troper in their tracks. Either way, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on 26th century Earth in a cave system and goes out for a little sulk. Nyssa and Tegan join him, pointing out dinosaur fossils in the walls as they go.[[hottip:*:As they discuss the fossil, we hear the first xylophone riff from the "Fossils" movement of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.]] The Doctor, who's read ahead in the script, mentions that he's always wanted to know how those dinosaurs died out.

* Main/CreepyMonotone: Played straight(sort of), but ONLY by the regular Cybers. The Leader sounds, er... [[LargeHam very emotional]] at some bits.

** Not really a Special Effect Failure, but the new design of the Cybermen is incredibly laughable, even for it's time.

** While that's the biggest WHAM part of the episode it also has further value:Back when it first aired, the cybermen being the villans was a well kept secret which also adds to the shock value. But both twists have suffred ItWasHisSled at this point.

<<|Recap/DoctorWho|>>

** To be fair, the Doctor had crushed Adric's gold badge and fed it into the Cyber Leader's chest unit in order to kill it. Greater {{Flanderization}} of the Cybermen's gold aversion would come later.

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric are having a really childish argument. Apparently, Adric wants to go back home to E-Space [[hottip:*:And lo, the audience rejoyced.]], but the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous as E-Space is... E-Space. Maybe he's afraid of running into K9 again; Lord knows it'd stop many a Troper in their tracks. Either way, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on 26th century Earth in a cave system and goes out for a little sulk. Nyssa and Tegan join him, pointing out dinosaur fossils in the walls as they go.[[hottip:*:Just as they see the fossil, the soundtrack is the first xylophone riff from the "Fossils" movement of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.]] The Doctor, who's read ahead in the script, mentions that he's always wanted to know how those dinosaurs died out.

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Adric are having a really childish argument. Apparently, Adric wants to go back home to E-Space [[hottip:*:And lo, the audience rejoyced.]], but the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous as E-Space is... E-Space. Maybe he's afraid of running into K9 again; Lord knows it'd stop many a Troper in their tracks. Either way, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on 26th century Earth in a cave system and goes out for a little sulk. Nyssa and Tegan join him, pointing out dinosaur fossils in the walls as they go. The Doctor, who's read ahead in the script, mentions that he's always wanted to know how those dinosaurs died out.

** Hey. Regardless of your opinion of [[spoiler: Adric,]] it's hard not to be at least a bit ''chilled'' by an episode where the last couple images and sounds before the credits [[spoiler: which are silent, and ''rolled over Adric's broken mathematics badge'']] are the [[spoiler: two remaining]] companions hugging and crying and the Doctor looking stunned, [[HeroicBSOD possibly quite close to shutting down,]] [[NotSoStoic and like he's at least a bit tempted to join them.]]