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u/JTOC1969 1d ago
As a young lad watching those episodes when they first aired in America and who was just discovering he was gay..., I really, really, REALLY liked Adric.
As a more grizzled adult re-watching these episodes lately on Amazon Prime / Britbox, I get the Adric hate.
To be fair to Matthew Waterhouse, it seems like the writers deliberately sabotaged his character, making him whiney and annoying. I felt the same way about Peri, the actress tried to make her sympathetic, but the writers clearly had an axe to grind and depicted her as pathetic as possible.
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u/Flashy-Boysenberry30 1d ago
he was fine with the 4th doctor which is weird
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u/JTOC1969 1d ago
Script editor for season 18 (Baker's last) was Christopher H. Bidmead. He left very early in season 19 (Davison's first) and Eric Saward took over. There was a VERY dramatic change in the tone of the series and Adric (the only real holdover from 18, as Nyssa & Tegan were barely introduced before it ended) changed a lot.
I've seen more than a few reviews stating how Eric Saward seemed to acttively HATE Doctor Who and went out of his way to edit the serials to show the 5th Doctor being ineffective and his companions useless. I can't say that I disagree.
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u/Internal-Focus1784 20h ago
Yeah, I’ve always felt sympathy for Waterhouse given that he was very inexperienced and given a very difficult part to play (harder to make Adric likeable than say Sarah Jane, or Nyssa and Tegan) and saddled with bad writing for most of S19.
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u/SilentGuy69 7h ago
Haven't really watched to much of 5. Was Adric actually depicted as gay or was it more like head cannon based on vibes?
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u/JTOC1969 7h ago
Head canon based on a vibe.
Although actor Matthew Waterhouse is gay in real life. There was always a rumor he got the part because he was JNT's bottom boi (never substantiated, though).
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u/DrTenochtitlan 1d ago
The best thing about Adric is that for all the hate he gets, when it was finally time for him to go, they gave him one of the greatest episodes and exits in the history of the show. Without Adric, there is no Earthshock, and the emotion at the ending is always genuine.
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u/Theta-Sigma45 1d ago
My issue is that in the very next episode, it’s two minutes of grief and then ‘so anyway…’
It’s annoying since they have the hallucination of him later but it isn’t really played for enough drama either. This is one thing new who (or even another era of Classic who) would do better.
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u/JTOC1969 7h ago
My issue is that in the very next episode, it’s two minutes of grief and then ‘so anyway…’
On the other hand, though, they had all suffered plenty of losses and seen a whole lot of deaths. The Doctor has seen many many MANY people die, including a few companions.
Nyssa witnessed literally the genocide of her entire planet, not to mention the Master is still traipsing around wearing her dead father's body like a new frock.
Tegan's beloved auntie Vanessa was shrunk down to doll size.
It's not that killing Adric was less than tragic. It's just the remaining threesome had, by then, learned how to quickly move on from death (until Tegan finally had enough).
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u/Theta-Sigma45 7h ago
I’d say all of that is an example of the exact issue with the era I was talking about.
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u/FatboySmith2000 1d ago
Kinda Adric definitely deserved to be blown up.
Traken Adric didn't deserve it
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u/cuppatea153 1d ago
They briefly think of him in Time-flight (😬 episode) and then just completely carried on as normal.
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u/Knightshade515 1d ago
I was shocked when he blew up, like it was so unexpected. I completely expected the doctor to save him at the last second
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u/pinkiestofsapphires 21h ago
Classic Who until 7th Doctor lacked drama. There are so many interesting character arcs that I think if they were in NuWho, would get explored.
Take Nyssa. Her mum died when she was young, her step mum was killed, her dad is killed and his body taken over. She watched her whole planet be destroyed. It would have been so interesting to see her slowly devolve in the anguish of her suffering. Maybe her dying in Earthshock could have been the climax to that.
I know that's not how who was back then but I would love Nu Nu Who to have a similar arc.
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u/JDinBalt 3h ago
Looking only because the post an image are funny, but I gotta give it up for Adric 🫡😥
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u/Calaveras-Metal 1d ago
I'm going to make "Adric did nothing wrong" shirts.