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AdricMatthew Waterhouse |
A Review by Ryu Kirtz 28/7/98
No, it isn't a joke or pretense at post-modernism ("Nightmare of Eden is my favorite story-- isn't it brilliant?") but Adric is my all-time favorite male companion, not that has been a lot of competition.
But then again, as Adric was set to be, that is, an unpretty multi-valenced person with the kind of flaws and virtues that nontelevised people have. That is, you and me. But Adric is even more rare yet. My theory is that the reason fandom rejected Adric so solidly was that he was too real, that he reminded fans of the nerds they were afraid that they were.
Some people are defensive like that. Understandably, but that does not make it untrue.
More ironic yet Matthew Waterhouse was the first regular cast member in the series, to be, literally, a card-carrying fan. He had a letter printed in Doctor Who Weekly, when it was a weekly, even, before he was even cast in the role. In interviews he voices extremely accurate criticisms of the series, pointing out that Logopolis trivializes by its very nature the destruction of two-thirds of all of creation.
What a fanboy statement. After all, it is all just a bit of fun, isn't it?
But then the tendency of Doctor Who is reductive towards such events and the characters who take part in them.While most companions lost their humanity, he maintained his to the end.
The first Adric story I saw was not Full Circle but Earthshock. (My grandmother, who was seventy-two and a Who fan since the sixties, thought Adric was cute -- I couldn't make that up now could I?) When I saw Full Circle and subsequent stories in the states it was gifted with foreknowledge.
Bratty, pretentious and often unthinking: Adric was all these things. But then he was only about fifteen, the same age I was when I first saw Earthshock, and not having the benefit of a public school education. I still probably couldn't watch that scene in Four To Doomsday where Tegan pushes him aside without flinching. I empathasize with him.
Bad acting? I just don't agree. There is the spot of that here and there but as a matter of course? No.
As Matthew Waterhouse himself has said, Adric was not a typical case where a nice TV actor played a typical nice TV character. Instead, himself.
Probably I am outnumbered. Oh well. We all are in the end.
Flawed Character Indeed by Dennis McDermott 3/8/97
Ryu Kurtz contributed a perceptive review and raised many valid points. I think, however, she misses the reason why Adric has been rejected by most fandom.
First of all, Doctor Who is not a serious program. It is escapism. If you want to catch some seriously flawed characters in action, I suggest you watch a performance of Shakespeare (nearly any play will do). The fact is, while we want to identify with the characters on the screen, we also want them to be better than us. We want them to do things we probably would be too frightened to do. In short, we want them to advance the story. Too often, Adric was simply a body, in the way.
In which stories did Adric appear in which he could have been written out of and not have been missed? In every one except Full Circle (the first, and where he probably should have stayed), Castrovalva (where he was brilliantly used by the Master), and Earthshock (in which he was written out). In some ways, he was a victim of the number of people in the TARDIS; mostly, however, he was irrelevant. How many times can you say that about Tegan? Sarah Jane? Ace? Jamie? Or lesser male companions such as Harry Sullivan, Turlough, or Sergeant Benton?
While the stories didn't help Adric very much, neither did Matthew Waterhouse's acting. It is incumbent upon an actor to connect with his audience. Compare Adric to Sergeant Benton. If Adric was Mr. Average Teenager, Benton was Mr. Average Man. If anything, Benton was far less of a character than Adric was. Yet Benton connected with the Whovian audience far more readily than Adric ever did, in spite the fact that John Levene was no more an actor than Matthew Waterhouse was. The difference: as dull as Benton was, he could be counted on to do the right thing. That's what I expect Doctor Who characters to do. Adric you want to slap on the side of the head, curse him out for being so thunderheadedly stupid, and take away his badge of mathematical excellence.
I Come Not to Praise Adric, but to Bury Him by Emily Moniz 21/3/97
This is one companion I absolutely despise. Not because he was "too real" as someone put it. It's because he's so blame annoying! First of all, he insists on being right about everything. This is absolutely impossible. Not even the Doctor is right all the time. Then, he has to know what exactly is going on. I always associate that with a scene from Earthshock. The Doctor is frantically trying to keep the Cybermen at bay. Adric comes up to him and asks him, "Just explain what you're going to do." The Doctor glances at him in desperation. "We are under attack, Adric." Adric still insists, "Tell me quickly." That is sheer stupidity. (But I blame that on the writers. Most of Adric's problems lay in his scripts, not in the character himself.) Third, Adric also strikes me as a male chauvanist. I would surprised Tegan didn't haul off and hit him once or twice behind the TARDIS doors when the Doctor wasn't paying attention. And fourth, he is always eating, or looking for something to eat when he's not badgering the Doctor, Tegan or Nyssa.
Perhaps it was Davison's Doctor he didn't work well with. I haven't seen too much of him with Tom Baker, so I can't say about that partnership. Don't get me wrong. I wanted to like Adric. I always want to like characters when I see them on television. But when Adric started talking in Castrovalva, when I first started watching, I hated him. He was always bragging about his mathmatical genius. I'd like to ram that little blue metal of his right down his throat.
Somehow, after saying that, I feel much better now....
Adric: A Companion of Two Doctors by Paul X 21/6/98
Adric, a much maligned companion, suffers from schizophrenic character development due to his travels w/ multiple Doctors. W/the 4th, Matthew Waterhouse's performances ranged from acceptable to brilliant. While journeying w/the 5th Doctor, the character degenerated & became barely watchable. The reason for this lies more w/writers, producers, & directors than the actor. Ultimately though, Adric is judged more by his bad moments than his good.
Before the regeneration, Adric was a folly to the infallible Doctor-Romana-K-9 team. The character was introduced with a certain fresh eagerness & unpredictability seen clearly in The E-Space Trilogy & The Return of the Master Trilogy. In these stories, the actor gives solid performances throughout w/ great moments such as confronting the outlers @ their hideout in the opening scenes of Full Circle, scenes w/ K-9 in the void in Warrior's Gate, the Tardis sequences in The Keeper of Traken, & the apocryphal scenes w/ Nyssa in the Tardis in Logopolis. These are the character's best moments. The character was designed to complement th all-knowing 4th Doctor & failed miserably when paired w/ the vulnerable 5th Doctor.
Castrovalva was the turning point for Adric. The program was shifting in a new direction & Adric seemed out of place. Although, Matthew Waterhouse's performance in Castrovalva was acceptable; a more appropriate ending would be to have the Doctor return him to E-space through the recently opened CVE. After Castrovalva Adric was an extra body, often used as comic relief, to relay information to the audience, develop multiple plot lines, or episode padding. Examples included Adric pigging out in The Black Orchid, playing a puppet to monarch in The Four to Doomsday, asking the Doctor stupid questions in Earthshock, & being captured & escaping on several occasions in The Visitation. Here are the cringe-worthy scenes that drive fans to despise the character.
It would be to easy to blame Matthew Waterhouse for Adric's misgivings, but just as the character perished a victim, so ultimately was the actor who portrayed him. Matthew Waterhouse suffered through flip-flopping script editors Eric Saward & Antony Root. After Castrovalva, the character would vary from mathematical genius to adolescent buffoon. Earthshock is representative of this dichotomy; one minute snapping at the Doctor the next acting heroically in the caves, one minute asking stupid questions when the Cybermen attempt to board the bridge the next attempting to crack the codes to save Earth.
The end product is a flawed character & performance. Killing off Adric does not erase the terrible sequences he appeared in during Davison's tenure. The haste in which he was dispersed is symbolic of the character treatment after Castrovalva: inconsistent, awkward, & regretful. I think conceptually Adric was a successful experiment curtailed by program changes. I look favorably upon Adric because of earlier performances. If Baker had done another season things might have been different. Still, I find no fault w/ Matthew Waterhouse & pity him for the disdain fans reap upon him as an inexperienced actor fallen to circumstances beyond control.
Simplify, Simplify by Adrian Loder 4/8/00
When I first began watching Doctor Who, I had not yet reached the age of six. The Peter Davison episodes were being run by our local PBS television station only a few years after they had originally been broadcast in the U.K. As a result, my earliest memories of Dr. Who involve the 5th Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, a little bit of Turlough and...Adric. Commenting on the first four would be better suited to separate reviews, as the purpose of my commentary here is to reflect on Adric, who has long been my favorite Doctor Who companion.
From many people's statements, both in this fan review page and in other places, Adric would seem to be one of the most disliked companions to have ever accompanied Doctor Who, and I, for my part, have a hard time discerning why. Certainly, a good deal of childhood nostalgia colors my perceptions of Adric, but since I began re-watching Doctor Who over five years ago, I have yet to find much of a problem with Adric. Adric is curious, highly intelligent, ever-probing -- qualities which in excess can be a burden to deal with or view -- but for me, these are some of the things which I value most highly in people. Adric never seemed content to just be as he was; he wanted to know more, wanted to understand, as in the opening episdoe of Logopolis.
Perhaps some of the resentment towards Adric comes from the sense that he is aware of his intelligence, or is flaunting it by always asking the Doctor for explanations, as if to say "I know how bright I am, and you're going to know it, too." Compared to Nyssa, also highly intelligent but also more emotional (re: her father, destruction of Traken) and less volatile, I can see, perhaps, how Adric could be grating. The wheels in Nyssa's head usually turned invisibly, or at least more quietly, while Adric always seemed to be thinking out loud.
I have no such problem with that sort of behavior, however, which leads me to the heart of my reflection; that is, that perhaps the series, and its characters, are taken a bit too seriously, sometimes. Personally, I have never made any in-depth analyses of episdoes attempting to identify what sort of role the characters play, whether they are true characters or simply plot devices. Quite honestly, I prefer it that way, as I enjoy the show far more. Sometimes I think that if you go into something like Doctor Who with a fully-loaded brain, more of the series and its actors will be unappealing than appealing. Some people like Adric, some people don't. Doctor Who is not William Shakespeare; I'm not sure how much dissection and logical analysis it can take before the whole thing falls apart.
I have always regarded Doctor Who as more than the children's
show it started as, and the preceding paragraph should not be taken as to
say that there is no depth in Doctor Who, no room for maneuvering
beyond simple like/dislike statements, but sometimes things go a little
too far. Since Doctor Who was conceived as a children's show, I
will place my trust with my childhood fondness for Adric. That, perhaps,
is the truest measure of the show which I could ever have.
Supplement, 28/7/05:
My review of Adric initially chides for overanalyzing and harks back to my childhood as a defense for Adric, but I find as I look on it now that it is a bit of a copout. Watching Adric in the Davison years all over again, I find myself beginning to challenge some of the things people take for granted as being part of Adric's personality. This, and Matthew Waterhouse's performances, are generally the two reasons given for hating Adric. Here's why they're both nonsense:
A Review by Victoria Fox 16/10/00
Adric is one of my favorite companions of all time on Doctor Who. Out of all the companions who ever sacrificed themselves for the Doctor, Adric was certaintly the noblest. Not being from Earth, he really had no love for the planet but realized that it was up to him to save it. Not only was Matthew Waterhouse one of the youngest and most refreshing companions, he was one of the most inquisitive companions. Many reviews have complained about Adric's thirst for knowledge but I loved it. Adric had a wonderful relationship with Davison's Doctor. Companions are supposed to travel with the Doctor and help the audience identify with the situation. Instead of a totally accepting or scream-when-you-see-a-monster kind of companion, Adric vocalized the questions the audience had in their minds. How does such and such work? And why is the Doctor going to such and such planet?
I also very much enjoyed the dynamics between Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan. Most of the time, Tegan seemed to merely tolerate Adric's naivety, which helped her character develop into that kind of relationship she would later have with Turlough. And I always felt that Adric had a crush on Nyssa, which was adorable (especially in Black Orchid). When Adric died, I was crushed. Earthshock was certaintly a big story, but when it all came down to the Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan seeing the ship Adric was on blow up, I was as crushed as Nyssa. As she had to bury her head in Tegan's shoulder, I had to hold my head in my hands. It was one of the best companion exits in the history of Doctor Who. Long live Adric!
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 20/2/04
Ok, we know he's possibly the most irritating companion in Doctor Who, played by one of the lesser talents, but he`s still a potentially interesting character. The biggest problem with Adric is Matthew Waterhouse, his acting range consists of three facial expressions and little else of merit. Similarly, the writers don`t seem to know what to do with him, as he is often sidelined or captured. Initially Adric does seem to be blessed with potential and he does work better with Tom Baker`s Doctor than Peter Davison`s (maybe it's an age thing?). Orphaned and an outsider because of his mathematical prowess, he looks to the Doctor as a mentor in his fourth incarnation. In his fifth, bickering and frustration appear to be the name of the game.
GREATEST MOMENT: It has to be Earthshock, simply because sacrificing himself is the best thing Adric could`ve done.
Monkey face... by Joe Ford 23/6/04
It seems petty for me to start a review that puts Adric in the spotlight to point out that not only is he one of the least popular companions the Doctor travelled around with but he has the crappiest name of them all (I would even prefer to be labelled Dodo than Adric) and just saying it aloud brings back hundreds of cringe-inducing scenes to the front of my memory. I realise it is supposed to be an alien name... but Adric? It's nerdy, crass and totally uncool. If you joined a new school and spotted that lone, spotty, ugly kid who sits in the corner and obsesses over Star Trek - his name would be Adric (erm, or Joe but he didn't have spots!). Go on... roll the name around your mouth a few times... Adric... Adric... purge all the filth from your life and feel it coming together and expelling in that loathsome name.
Strangely enough Adric is not the least effective companion to travel with the Doctor. This may give you a clue to the average of decent companions there were. Hmm, Susan, Katarina, Dodo, Tegan, New Ace, Sam Jones, C'rizz, I would rather hang out with Adric than any of these people. He may be a flawed character played by an inexperienced actor but he still shines brighter that this dull bunch. There were moments, just moments, diamond in the rough moments (like the Nyssa bits in Arc of Infinity) where Adric manages to break free of his geek mould and make you proud to be watching him rather than wanting to ram a pair of garden shears down his throat and display him as a piece of new age art. These moments coupled with his ingenious exit from the show help to score him a scraping pass, only just.
As far as the character is concerned I could almost agree with Matthew Waterhouse, the writers just did not know where they were going with the guy. Strangely enough his debut season saw him at his best, showing some individuality and intelligence. When he stows away on board the TARDIS it is almost like a little family, you've got the broody Dad, the bossy Mother, the irritable kid and the pet. But in a trade that seems entirely unfair, the Doctor loses his missus and dog and end up stuck with the brat. Shockingly even this manages to work and the Adric of Keeper of Traken and Logopolis is quite a likable chap, bouncing off the dominating fourth Doctor extremely well. Surely it cannot be a coincidence that the character degenerated when Eric Saward came aboard? All of a sudden Adric is no longer the newbie and is patronising to those who are, even the new Doctor who seems unable to stick up for himself. He selfishly thinks of himself before others, threatens to betray the Doctor left, right and centre and starts making stupid mistakes (getting into the TSS). In the space of one story, Castrovalva to Four to Doomsday, Adric becomes the spoilt brat we all imagined he could be. In season nineteen instead of being the mature old timer he should have been, easing Tegan and Nyssa into TARDIS life, he switches loyalties in every story, sulks and moans and generally rubs people up the wrong way. If they were trying to emulate a family atmosphere in this season they succeeded perfectly, except this is a family even more dysfunctional than my own sorry bunch.
At times it is as though the writers are trying to concentrate on his negative characteristics. Let's see a few examples: Adric and Tegan's spat in the last episode of Kinda where he is deliberately trying to get a reaction out of her, insulting an Australian is never a bright idea and his cheap pot shots deserve a response. Adric's whinings at the beginning of Earthshock come entirely out the blue, moaning that nobody likes him in the way that only brats do and end up causing the very thing they are complaining about. He stands in the console while the Doctor and co go off exploring and spits smug insults at them while they cannot hear them. The writers could have some fun with an immature character, you know a real Bart Simpson style charmer but Adric rarely seems anything but petty and his sulky tone and weedy appearance seem to confound these efforts.
Why did they stick him in those horrid yellow pyjamas? He wore the same clothes in every story even when he would stick out like a sore thumb... if there was ever an outfit you would not want to people to notice it was that smelly tunic. And for Christ sake what is up with that desperately sad pudding bowl haircut? Yes I know everyone's mum makes them suffer the same insult attracting hairstyle (or was it just me?) but the second you have any sort of choice (and let's face it he must pass the odd barber in his travels) you shave it all off and go for the hard man look (or was that just me too?). We get it, Adric is a complete DORK, he stays in his room doing maths sums when the rest of us would be masturbating but for mercy's sake do you have to point it out with such... subtleness with his appearance?
The Adric/Tegan relationship represents the nadir of companion hatred. Rarely have two opposites been forced to bunk and rather than mining the comedy gold in the situation (there was an opportunity for some hysterical misunderstandings between the two of them, what with one being an alien) they decided to play their differences with a straight face and the two of them rubbed up against one another like sandpaper. Which lead to moments of glorious drama like their row in Four to Doomsday with Tegan so sick of his inherent brattiness she actually beats him up! When Adric is thankfully splattered across the face of the Earth Tegan is balling her eyes out on Nyssa's shoulder... erm why? She hated the bastard as much the rest of us! She never kept a secret either! The severe lack of chemistry between them leaves their domestic scenes flat and lifeless and you have to wonder why they keep bringing up their friction without any satisfactory pay off.
I want to take this moment to say some nice things about Adric because so far I have made it appear it would be more enjoyable to share travels with an amalgamation of Jim Davidson and Adolf Hitler (urgh...). Go watch Keeper of Traken, those early TARDIS scenes between the mighty Tom and Waterhouse, there is real chemistry there. Waterhouse is wise enough to behave in the presence of Baker and his underplaying works a treat. "And as for your handwriting...", "My handwriting? What about my handwriting!" the fourth Doctor knows how to keep this brat in check! Similarly they rock in Logopolis, Adric a silent observer to the Doctor's preview of his death. They really feel like father and son, like Adric is learning something from the Doctor and appreciating it. I have to admit I rather like him in Castrovalva too, tricking the Master and helping to guide them from the maze that town becomes. He's rather fun in Black Orchid where he flirts a bit with Nyssa, the only real time you could imagine something kinky happening between them (but she would have to prise off the pyjamas... eek!). When Adric behaves sensibly and maturely he can be a lot of fun. Shame it never happened too often.
JNT has gone on record saying he hired Matthew Waterhouse because he had an interesting face. Stomach churning would be my opinion but each to their own. He also mentioned that all the others were terrible actors in comparison. They must have been bloody AWFUL if this was the best they could come up with. Waterhouse looks extremely awkward on screen, directors mentioning he couldn't even work with his markers and often ruined shots. When he is not talking Waterhouse kind of freezes or pretends he is doing something, either way he looks like he never looks relaxed or convincing. He says much of his dialogue in a stained voice that makes you want to thump him, and pouts like the youngest kid in the family who never gets his own way. Waterhouse takes the deficiencies in the script and magnifies them.
But as with all these things irritating Adric is far more memorable than he deserves to be because of his dramatic and exciting exit. Such emphasis is placed on his death, the entire story seems to be built around that one landmark moment that sees the monkey faced Alzarian go out in a blaze of glory. Where is the justice? Ask fans how popular companions Leela and Sarah left and they shrug their shoulders but ask them about Adric and their eyes light up instantly. The irony, that everybody is trying to save him, including him when we all know he has to die to allow history to continue uninterrupted, builds a tension rare in the series. The death itself is superbly directed, Adric for five brilliant seconds becoming the most memorable companions of all. Shame these striking moments happen to be his last... or rather thank whichever deity you believe in.
Adric was a loser, plain and simple but he is something of a legend for being present over so many transitory stories and having such a climatic exit. Until Jar Jar Binks graced the big screen he was easily the most annoying character ever...
Adric the Alzarian. Everyone has a pop. by Steve Cassidy 1/4/05
Never has a companion been so maligned. I cannot think of a single companion, with the possible exception of the JNT madness that was Melanie Bush, that the knives have been out for as much as Adric. For as many years as I can remember the Alzarian tyke has been drawing venom from fandom. And I'll hold my hand up, I've spat out words of malice occasionally when he appeared on screen. Was he the wrong companion at the wrong time? Does the entire blame lay at the hands of Matthew Waterhouse's acting ability? Did the scriptwriters have absolutely no idea what to do with him? Did his character decline begin when the mighty Tom Baker left?
Well, there was definitely a need for a male companion in the TARDIS. When they work, they work extremely well. Jamie McCrimmon is often cited as one of the best companions ever, Steven had the flash of a hero about him and Ian Chesterson, well, Mr Capable enters outer space and outer space is soon put in its place. But there had never been a male teenager in the TARDIS, never a young lad that the other young lads watching could relate too. This was a character aimed squarely at the demographic who watch the show. A fourteen year old boy who stows away and comes along for the ride. He loses his family in Full Circle (or what's left of it) and joins another one aboard the TARDIS. However, it soon becomes the family he didn't sign up for and he doesn't fit in. He becomes surplus to requirements and has to leave in a very final way.
However the character was envisaged like no other. He was meant to be a street-urchin, a scamp who could provide comic relief with the Doctor. But instead he evolved into an exceptionally sensitive brainiac, a boy mathematician whose disposition teetered on obnoxiousness. He wouldn't be able to get up to derring-do like the other tearaways, he was a misfit from the very beginning. He would rather have his head in a book of algebra then go "crabbing for apples". And I use that old fashioned term because in many ways Adric was a very old fashioned character. There was nothing 'hip' about him - he was almost Enid Blyton in his portrayal. An earnest old man with a plum in his mouth who has a child's body. And he was just catching the last of the waves for that kind of character. Anyone who remembers children's TV in the seventies may remember the countless BBC dramas with kids who brayed with accents that would make the Queen look common.
But the character is linked to Matthew Waterhouse's portrayal - which often swings between adequate and woeful. There are flashes of good stuff in his two years stint ie I like his spunk when captured by the Master in Castrovalva and anyone who who doesn't feel sympathetic to his final moments in Earthshock must be made of stone. But in between there were some pretty duff bits. His "there you are.." when he pilots the TARDIS to the manor house in The Visitation is embarassing. And his spats with the problematic Tegan during Four to Doomsday are surely the nadir of all companion scenes or are at least on a par with Melanie Bush schweeming....
But watching these scenes there was something I noticed about Adric. There is an inner steel within him. A lesser person would have shut up around Tegan and not fought back when she starts her diatribes. But he gives as good as he gets, bettering her once or twice with "You could have got a better job..." when she brings up her lack of qualfications. Tegan and Adric were possibly the worse people in the world to be put together in close confinement. The teenage Adric absolutely adored the Fourth Doctor, K-9, second Romana combination and then within a few weeks he finds himself with a Doctor who has less time and patience then before and he is now way down the pecking order. He now has to share his space with an older sister and an evil stepmother replica. Life suddenly turns for the worse and not knowing what to do he starts to metaphorically lash out.
So he does what any other teenager would do - he sulks and pouts. But there is something else here. Something which didn't occur to me until I found out about Matthew Waterhouse's private life. Something which gave me a new take on Adric and made him appeal in a more sympathetic manner to me.
Was Adric a gay teenager?
There is the usual teenage angst but also something else here. Despite his squabbles with the Fifth Doctor he adores his company, Tegan and Nyssa are almost dismissed as "only girls". Adric is a boy's boy - he worships the Doctor, the closest relationship he had in the world was with his brother. He comes alive in male company as with Hindle in Kinda or even Monarch in Four to Doomsday. And he is obviously troubled. The petulance and sulks many put down as teenage angst, but what if they were inner turmoil? What if he knew he was different and was fighting it? Adric was a natural outsider. His mathematical excellence made him different from the other children on Alzarius and there may have been other reasons too. But the symptoms I describe fit ALL male teenagers of his age. This is all massive speculation, but it has made me look less harshly at the boy.
And then there is his early death. He goes out in a blaze of glory - one companion in season 19 had to go and it was him. To be frank two companions really needed to go - not just him. Tegan should have been left behind in Time-Flight - Nyssa could have happily carried on with the Fifth Doctor in a sort of Romana 3 way until the arrival of Turlough in season 20. But Ian Levene was knocking on JNT's door complaining that Adric had to go - fan opinion had turned against the teenager. And finally we get a really good leaving story. Season 19 is far from being my favourite but Earthshock stands out as a orchid amongst the weeds. The stories either side were soft flowery things - Earthshock is as hard as nails mainly due to the fact that it is a good old base under siege story amongst the day-glo colours of the JNT era.The shock of this story compared with what came before and after was like being doused with cold water.
What is the legacy of Adric? Well, to be honest it is not good. It's almost fashionable to damn the character and Matthew Waterhouse's performance. But occasionally that damning is justified as Mr Waterhouse was just starting out in the acting world. He has more than made up for it since with a career and life in North America - but he just seems unable to escape Adric. Maybe people are too hard on the actor and character and to me it is the first real example of JNT's woeful decisions and it occured in his much-praised season 18.
Matthew Waterhouse was a massive Who fan and for his tenure to be held up to ridicule so much must hurt. The man laughs along with the comments on the Earthshock DVD but it isn't the most auspicious start to an acting career. To be continually reminded of what you were doing at eighteen cannot be very enjoyable. So come on folks, let's give Adric a break. Unfortunately for the actor concerned Adric still remains an outsider.
Shame really...
A Review by Charles Mento 18/1/06
Well then. I've written about and others have written about Adric for so long now... I mean I am amazed that he has 9 reviews, more than any other companion on the TV show or in the novels within the character review page. That is amazing. Thumbing through recent fanfic on the great Teaspoon and an Open Mind fanfic area, one can see stories that treat Adric with respect and even put him in danger and in important parts of the story, rather than the dismal and appaling stuff that used to go around on the newsgroups (some such nonsense about Nyssa trying to kill Adric, Adric dying over and over again, and other stories that treated him as if the Doctor hated him). There are even, dare I bring it up, Slash stories with Adric. Stories with Adric seem to be diverse, but I won't go into all of them. I have a timeline that mentions every one I've ever found; I'll have to dig that up. They fall into a few major categories: These include stories that take place between the actual episodes as he traveled with the Doctor (four and five) and stories that take place between the actual gaps in stories (or not as the case may be). Not all of these stories are available online. I seem to recall a full zine called Adric's War, about Adric falling to Earth and getting involved with UNIT and some kids there. There were also two stories with the Tom Baker Doctor and Adric meeting and helping a kindly girl who turned out to be the Master's atoning daughter. Another, I believe in a newsletter, contained Adric's ghost meeting the afterlife Doctor, who looked like the Tom Baker Doctor. Other stories detail his survival (or the ramifications of his non-survival). I prefer the survival factor. I think it sad that he died and stayed dead.
I think Gary Russell is foolish for bringing back and "saving" Melanie but staying clear of Adric, especially now that Matthew Waterhouse is returning to the fold of Doctor Who outings and conventions and signings and such. I did submit a story about a returned Adric, a sort of Peter Pan-like character, saved and changed by aliens to rescue suicidal teens on Earth and other sad people in an 8th Doctor story that has him and the Doctor stopping a gun massacre at a high school. I submitted to the Audio line but who knows what happened? I also wrote a story called Paper Cuts, a 4th Doctor-Adric tale of parasites/symbiotes that latch onto paper and make it multiply. I wrote it in response to the various paperwork that invades our lives from college on ward. But I veer off topic. We have 4th Doctor stories, 5th Doctor stories, Adric survives stories, Adric ghost stories, Adric illusion stories (the worst kind as the hint that Adric is alive but they turn out to say he's not), older Adric stories, alien Adric stories, and probably others I've not yet found. Adric survived in the Fasa role playing guide books, especially in the Master one(s).
I wanted to go on about the merits of Adric but it has been done before by me and others, probably better by others. I just don't get some of the more popular companions. I mean they scream and the acting is appalling especially when it comes to... well, why go on about it. Compared to Ace, Jamie, even Sarah Jane, Susan, Barbara, especially the appalling Victoria and the cringeworthy Zoe, Adric is so much more, storywise. Here is a companion who is curious, who doesn't always fall down (but admittedly he does), does not scream all the time (again, he does once in a awhile maybe?), and who has a natural curiousity about the universes he's in. He's not always trying to leave like Tegan, nor is he this cliche mystery like Turlough. He's also not the Doctor's cipher like Nyssa is. He is not always arguing with the Doctor such as Peri was. He's not annoying on the ears like Mel. Clearly Leela has an edge on him in that she can take care of herself and Adric's knife-throwing skills clearly came from the fact that State of Decay was really a Leela story first. They could have made more of the fact that Adric was an alien and has alien powers, more like a Marshchild than anything else or given him knife skills like Leela but in a fight he's really not up to past male companions such as Ian, Steven, Jamie and Ben. But I think I like that fact too. It made him different. It also made him far too much like the Doctor (especially Doctor Five). That's probably one of the many reasons Davison wanted Adric to go: Adric's far too complicated for a show that Doctor Who was in the 1980s but again, it is why he stands out.
He whines, he says things that put down females, and he's against the Doctor on occasion. Yeah, he does all of those things. But why? In Four To Doomsday, he's hurt the Doctor pays more attention to Nyssa and Tegan and takes Tegan along instead of him. This may have something to do with why he sides with Monarch, the old guy is paying attention to him. However if one watches, Adric is still intensely loyal to the Doctor and in the end it is Adric who helps save the day while Nyssa is captured or sick or something and Tegan has ineffectually stolen the TARDIS. I doubt Adric really believed any of what he said about women and girls but who knows? His culture was not the most enlightened, one should recall and he was intensely jealous. All human emotions and justified in a character, rather than the old Sarah Jane one of gawking and making quips (see the silly things she says in Pyramids of Mars, even the Doctor is annoyed at her). Adric helped Monarch but in the end he helps the Doctor. As for the vampires, he was just faking that he was on their side. And the Master breaks through his defenses and uses him in Castrovalva against Adric's wishes. But again, it is Adric who saves the day in that story as well as in others such as Keeper of Traken. Someone can mention the scripts treating him badly. I think it was more the continuity editor as well as the makers of the show. Eric Saward is as much to blame as JNT for the Adric downfall. JNT should have stuck by his creation of Adric but since other issues come into play I don't want to go into any of that.
I detest stories such as the audio one with the Cyberman's creation that claim Adric cannot be saved or that he is dead and leave it at that. It just makes it all so sad and makes the Doctor guilty of favoritism. He, as his 8th self, is able to save Grace and Chang Lee, so he should be able to save Adric. And if Rose is able to bring Jack back to life, the Doctor should be able to sacrifice himself to save Adric in a similar fashion... if he could. All of this can be debated endlessly and I haven't the time now.
Adric is a companion who lives on even if he is not in the tons of novels and audios that Nyssa, Sarah, Leela, and even Romana (underused in many cases and in a bad way in the cases that make her a first class villain -- in the novels, I believe). In a way I am glad he is not, it would cheapen him. In at least one novel he is in, he is treated well... Cold Fusion, the one with the 7th Doctor and the 5th Doctor. He's never been in a 4th Doctor novel, even if he's been in a 4th Doctor short story for Marvel's comic magazine and in quite a few of the Short Trips stories, where he's treated decently. Divided Loyalties, the Gary Russell story with the Toymaker, treats Adric horribly, even saying that he has BO. Give me a break.
Adric may not be everyone's cup of tea but as a character that can move a story along and make one care about a faulted deeply troubled character who can rise above his own shortcomings, he has few equals in the Doctor Who universe.
"The Artless Dodger" by Thomas Cookson 9/1/20
I once believed JNT had introduced Adric with the snide intent to push Romana out the show, to assert his anti-Williams era backlash. However, Lalla has since said she'd already decided to leave before Season 18 began.
Potentially, Adric could've reinvigorated the show's popularity. Harry Potter's success demonstrates how young boy protagonists enjoy more popularity with children. Someone boys identify with and girls want to follow. Tellingly, Adric still retains a significant female fanbase.
If Tom and Romana seemed too infallible and self-assured, then Adric's vulnerability was refreshing. After caught looting and accidentally pushing an elder into the swamp, Adric tries desperately to save him, but cannot. It compels our empathy for Adric, looking lost, guilty and helpless.
The E-Space Trilogy represented a brilliant starting point for viewers experiencing the show through Adric's eyes, in dynamic, atmospheric escapades akin to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Introducing new mythologies, whilst reaffirming the show's mission statement against tyranny (whether Vampiric or fascistic). Romana even questions their right to remove Adric from E-Space, reinforcing the show's championing of individualism.
In The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis we see Adric working remarkably well as Tom's young apprentice. Perhaps JNT expected this dynamic to continue, unaware Tom was about to leave. When that happened, JNT implemented several panic decisions to cushion Davison's new Doctor with new companions and reviving the old familiar Master rivalry, unfortunately beginning the show's regression into insular fanservice.
Adric struggled within this crowded TARDIS. His interplay with Nyssa suggested the charming potential for romance, but Tegan was a constant, overbearing gooseberry. Perhaps Adric wasn't generating enough appeal, so JNT added more Earth-based companions and female eye-candy to overcompensate. Nonetheless there's something poignant about Tom's Doctor dying among virtual strangers who've become his new circle of friends.
Matthew Waterhouse described thinking of Adric as similar to the Doctor. A frustrated intellectual who's also a wilful, immature outcast. Tragically we only occasionally saw that kindred connection in Traken, Logopolis, Earthshock. Unfortunately, elsewhere Adric comes across more as an obnoxious, chary fanboy.
Castrovalva promises a fresh start, with Adric being our most familiar pair of eyes, trying to understand this new Doctor and help him relearn himself. However, Four to Doomsday sends Adric off the rails. He turns invidiously chauvinistic. Having been saved from the Master by his friends, Adric inexplicably returns the favour by snidely taking Monarch's side against the Doctor (grimly preluding the era's fetish for power-worship). After comforting Nyssa when she watched Traken vanish forever, he's suddenly now proving to her what an insensitive selfish cad he can be.
When Jamie played Jack the Lad to Zoe, he was genuinely trying to charm and amuse her. Likewise, Harry's patronising faux pas towards Sarah were intended to be affable rather than contentious. Adric's behaviour comes off petty and mean-spirited. Force-feeding us a cynical, philistine idea of a ten-year-old's maladjusted worldview.
Jackie Chan frequently played chauvinistic man-children in his 1980's films. Usually making an ass of himself for comic effect. But we understood his chauvinism stemmed from the same patriarchal culture which taught him fighting skills, instinct and integrity. Adric possesses no such talents. His youth is merely a cynical excuse to write him as obnoxiously irrational. Not because he's following a hunch or recognizable human trait, but just being unpleasantly obstinate without purpose.
Steve Cassidy highlighted that on paper there's something admirable about how when confronted with Tegan's shrill cry-bullying, Adric stands up to her and meets fire with fire. Sadly, Adric's inept sexist retorts make you not so much punch the air as die a little inside.
In Kinda, Adric spitefully blames Tegan for falling asleep and becoming possessed (seemingly voicing Saward's contempt toward this flowery story about Tegan's 'stupid dream'), gloating over her weak-mindedness. It's beyond anything we at Adric's age would've ever imagined saying to someone that vulnerable. Gloating over her emotional distress makes him not just a sexist spod but a vindictive sadist. When Davros in Journey's End delights in memories of torturing Sarah in Genesis, we're supposed to hate him. Here there's a horrid sense Saward's relishing Adric's point-scoring.
Adric's defenders argue that teenage boys can often be awkward, argumentative, egocentric and self-righteous. But previous companions credited young viewers with having more decency and respect, appealing to the best in us.
If Adric represents our past youthful follies, it isn't in South Park's cathartic way whereby we laugh and come to terms with our worst selves. That point in our lives when we were too cocky and selfish for our own good. Adric's cynical portrayal only stagnates any catharsis or storytelling, making the viewing a chore.
We've gone from Romana's sparkling, flexible durability to Adric's pent-up insufferableness. He provokes less curiosity of what he'll do next and more questions of when he'll sodding leave. Eventually we got our wishes in Earthshock, which packed enough televisual impact to almost single-handedly make Season 19 a keeper.
Elizabeth Sandifer condemned Earthshock and its fans, rather piously, for enjoying its fanservice and worryingly uncritical military-chic that coincided with the Falklands War. Almost eerily mirroring Thatcher's populist campaign of invoking reactionary jingoism to restore the fading popularity of an old brand and thrash the opposition.
It's true that Earthshock explicitly shows our heroes prevailing by seeking superior firepower rather than knowledge. And Saward will produce worse pro-military moments (in A Fix With Sontarans, Jenkins' 'special' destiny lies in soldiering).
Elizabeth's invoking of the Falklands' chillingly jingoism certainly strikes chords with me encountering frighteningly belligerent American patriots online during 2003's Iraq war. Their arrogant, cultish, macho zealotry, and zero patience for anyone questioning their president.
Blackadder Goes Forth's finale was among BBC television's most poignant anti-war statements, done with limited stagecraft resources. Almost invoking the spirit of Malcolm Hulke. There's the sense that scene should've belonged to our show.
I understand why Elizabeth finds Earthshock's existence disappointing (despite it being the Eccleston era's progenitor). Nonetheless, I love Earthshock.
Season 19's shambolic artifice suddenly produces among the most vivid, hyper-real stories of the 1980's. The extraneous companions suddenly feel brought together by fate to save Earth from one of the most real, urgent threats it's ever faced. Like Logopolis, we suspend our disbelief, and believe our world hangs in the balance. There are many reasons it shouldn't work, but cohesively it works brilliantly as a delicious concoction. After enduring Season 19's plasticity, here the characters suddenly come urgently alive, making Adric's death much more hard-hitting.
Only a sobering comparison with City of Death prevents me quite calling it life-affirming. It's not quite a tragedy, because it's not centrally been Adric's story, nor taken him on a complete journey. Perhaps that's the point. He died before he'd yet matured, doing something very recklessly adolescent.
Kinda and The Visitation had defined Davison's Doctor as existing spiritually enshelled within a naive comfort zone. Believing his foes just needed to discover their own personal nirvana. Now his comfort zone's invaded, his response is desperately ruthless. Fighting the mechanistically relentless Cybermen the only way he can, with lethal force. Blasting the Cyberleader's chest with such ferocity. Once he's started pumping him with lasers, he must finish it. His final killing shot's almost a mercy one.
All to regain TARDIS control and save Adric. But sadly in vain. I see nothing 'glorified' about it. The more real the danger, the more unpleasant the implications of what's necessary to survive. Maybe that's why I find Warriors of the Deed indigestible. Going from the real horror of witnessing Davison having to destroy Cybermen with harrowing ruthlessness, to him hypocritically condemning humans stuck in the same position. Earthshock seemed to be Davison's baptism of fire. Changing him. Determining that it'll never happen again. But Saward wasn't interested in Davison's personal growth.
Ironically, Adric's disliked tenure coincides with what could be called a loose Grimwade era (Full Circle-Logopolis-Earthshock), where not since Inferno had the show felt so real, visceral and urgent. Grimwade was perhaps the best 80's producer we never had. Perhaps Adric's proneness to human error and clumsiness was even somehow able to fit that near-authenticity. It's almost fitting that Time-Flight's narrative trainwreck, pantomime hall of illusions follows.
Perhaps Adric's death justified the show's continuation. Had Classic Who ended on Time-Flight, it'd be a fairly neat ending. But Adric's death would've counted for nothing. Raising the stakes and uncertainty so dramatically. But with only one poor serial after to relish that.
Adric's death made nothing seem certain anymore. Anything could happen, raising the dramatic stakes and tension hereon. In hindsight, it seems because Earthshock did this, many drab, poorly written, predictable episodes afterwards seemingly didn't have to even try, and largely didn't.
I'm tempted to argue Adric's death and jolting impact actually invalidates Elizabeth's charge, representing the horror of young grunts cut down in their prime. But ultimately Adric's death was nowhere near as uncomfortable or masochistic to watch as him being a chauvinistic creep to Tegan when alive. Castrovalva could've been followed with stories that got us on Adric's side from the start and pondering lost chances his premature death represented.
But after suffering a critical mass of Adric's stunted sexist nature and uselessness, we're just not left feeling his absence or lost potential. There are too many things about Adric we won't miss. Now he's gone, things can only get better. He transparently dies because the show needed rid of him.
It's a rather cynical "good for the ratings" death, spearheading a sordid fannish tendency to treat companion deaths like a competition. It certainly wasn't shocking for being well-written, but because our expectations of the show's dramatic power had diminished under Williams.
There's no reason Adric's death should be a more shocking upset to the status quo, than Gharman's in Genesis, or Scarman's in Pyramids of Mars, who were far more virtuous, likeable, sympathetic. They weren't companions, but they possessed the same moral aspirations that made them kin with the Doctor. If they could die, no one's safe.
Yet after Earthshock, the show became utterly safe. In Warriors, our leads are ridiculously immune to being shot dead. Rubbing it in, the invincible Davison condemns the humans for lacking the same faith to blindly, suicidally accepting that his being captured alive 'proves' Silurians can be merciful.
Claims that Adric's death upped the stakes overlook how Davison repeatedly lets Adric's sacrifice be in vain, whether his shocking neglect of Nyssa amidst Terminus' unending hell or his enabling criminal negligence during Warriors' massacre.
"Now I'll never know if I was right" strikes the right poignant note of existential horror. But Adric's arrested character was never designed to sustain existential impact. Time-Flight offers only the most tokenist, insincere grieving scene.
Had Sarah or Leela been killed off under Hinchcliffe, the show probably wouldn't dwell on it. However, Tom Baker could've probably conveyed a consistent, wounded grief with a haunted look, suggesting his continuing heroism's his way of distracting himself from that pain.
Unfortunately, the demands for our three leads to seem similarly affected, Fielding and Sutton aren't up to that calibre. Beyond the shock, Tegan has no reason to mourn his death so hysterically. She never liked him. It doesn't convince when she does, nor when they crassly change the subject out of blatant compassion fatigue.
Elizabeth Sandifer rather cruelly/accurately highlighted that Tegan mourned Adric longer than audiences did. But that's like Warriors' apologists claiming the massacred humans Davison refused to save weren't worth sympathy anyway. The last thing our heroes should've been doing is mirroring viewers' assumed apathy.
Indeed, nothing killed the show faster.
Ratings Boost by Lalla Watson-Fowler 2/10/22
Does anyone around here watch EastEnders?
For those that don't, let me explain. The episode aired on 18th September 2020 was supposed to be a landmark event. The night of Chantelle Atkins' death.
Most of you aware of EastEnders will probably go, "Who?" and I don't blame you. Chantelle wasn't an important character or a particularly memorable one. But it's what her death is meant to represent that is memorable. Chantelle was killed off after a 14-month domestic violence storyline at the hands of her husband, Gray. It's a horrible end for her, as she (spoilers) is shoved onto the dishwasher and impaled on a knife, then left to die in the kitchen whilst her children sleep upstairs, and her husband goes to establish himself an alibi for her death.
Why do I bring this up? Well, alone, Chantelle's final episode is easily one of the most powerful and impactful scenes of EastEnders. Watch the scene. It's genuinely frightening how sinister the atmosphere is, and you can feel Chantelle's terror and desperation as she tries to escape. However, the light dims when you consider the material surrounding it.
The domestic violence story, for months, felt like it was running on empty. The writers lost interest, and Gray was no longer the complex villain he felt like a few months ago. Meanwhile, other couples were slapping and shoving each other, not to mention Phil Mitchell physically throwing his pregnant wife onto the street, and no one even batting an eyelid. It was as if there was no particular point that anyone was trying to make with Chantelle's abuse. The police barely investigated Chantelle's death, her family was offscreen for most of the aftermath, and her husband went on a murderous rampage through the rest of Walford. Chantelle's death meant nothing because Gray got away with it, and nobody changed or was significantly impacted by it.
Doctor Who did something similar in 1982.
Adric's death is the Doctor Who equivalent of Chantelle's death. Because standalone, his death is the most iconic moment of the 80s. It's shocking when you realise that one of the Doctor's companions has died. Usually, when characters died, it was nameless soldiers and guest characters. Suddenly the universe felt more dangerous, especially a year after the invincible Fourth Doctor's demise.
But set Adric's death in context. Whilst the scene itself was genuinely brilliant and felt like a 'moment' in Doctor Who history, the aftermath can only be described as flat-out laziness, as the TARDIS crew grieve insincerely for their lost companion for a few minutes, and then the whole ordeal is forgotten.
Adric's death never actually means anything. The magic reset button is pressed at the end of every episode, and the Doctor is more interested in the cricket scores than his companion's grisly demise.
JNT clearly wanted maximum impact. That's obvious by how he covered it up until the broadcast, right down to writing Adric into Time-Flight so that Matthew Waterhouse's name wouldn't be missing from the credits in the Radio Times.
But that begs the question of why Adric was made into such an unlikeable twit in Season 19. Why make someone hated when you want them to have an emotional, dramatic death?
I will say it now: I like Adric as a character. Conceptually, a troublesome teenage boy to whom the Doctor is a surrogate father is a good idea, especially after several years of Romana, essentially a female Doctor --- having a companion that the Doctor needed to look out for changed the dynamics, since Romana was usually capable of looking after herself.
Adric was a decent companion when brought in during Season 18. Yes, he did stupid things, and yes, he was reckless, but who isn't as a teenager? And other companions are just as guilty of this; look at Zoe playing into the hands of the Krotons. Sarah Jane joined a medieval heist. Adric's characterisation is awkwardly blunt in reminding the audience how naive and idiotic teenagers can be.
But in Season 19, the wheels fell off. Adric as a character was essentially trashed because of somebody's ridiculous obsession with each episode starting on an argument. Matthew Waterhouse's point that the first Davison TARDIS crew were four people who were together through circumstance, not because they liked each other, is valid, but there must be something there. Who wants to watch four people who hate each other travelling together? And the writing did no favours; they set him up as an antagonist. It's bizarre watching a character who had nothing but respect and liking for Nyssa last season when he met her, now referring to her in disdain as "only a girl".
There is a sense of the characters growing closer in Season 19, but only if you watch it in production order. The disjointed filming schedule meant that the actors naturally changed their performances over time, but then the stories were broadcast out of order. The companions come across quite well in Castrovalva since it was the fourth one filmed, and the actors knew their characters and each other better. But then we continue onto Four to Doomsday, the first one filmed, and nobody emerges looking good.
Adric was stubbornly underdeveloped as a character; there was no journey or depth to him. A lot could be done with Adric: he wasn't a child, but wasn't an adult; he was in the wrong universe, feeling grief and guilt over Varsh's death. He could have sympathised with Nyssa a lot. But since everyone apparently knew by The Visitation's filming that Adric was going, no effort was put in. Nyssa and Tegan became friends, whilst Adric became more isolated.
Eric Saward retrospectively imposed a character arc on Adric in Earthshock by making out that some of the more painful moments of Season 19 meant something; this smacks of a writer who has realised he's sitting on a potentially interesting character who is being killed off. Adric had buckets more potential than the writers acknowledged. He swung from Point A to Point B on a whim because it was never established why he was behaving the way he was.
There were just too many companions. Before anyone starts about it working in the 60s, in the 60s, Doctor Who was more like a soap opera; it ran pretty much all year. They had about 40 episodes in total, enough to give everyone something to do and develop the characters. The 80s had half that run time, so couldn't achieve the same. It didn't help that the attempts to crowbar the companions into the narrative showed on screen. Nyssa was pretty much shoved in a cupboard for half the season. There was a reason Adric had to be killed off --- and it wasn't because he wasn't a likeable character. It was because they needed to get rid of one of the damn companions, and Peter Davison refused to allow it to be Nyssa.
It's fashionable to blame Matthew Waterhouse's acting for Adric's failings, but there's only so much an actor can do with bad scripts. Peter Davison managed to rise above the writing sometimes, but even he couldn't save much of his era. And Waterhouse could have been on par with Peter Capaldi, but it wouldn't have counted for much because the blunt truth was that no one was interested in Adric. Hence, he changed from an immature teenager to a sulky brat practically overnight. It should also be noted that Waterhouse was the youngest and most inexperienced actor on the TARDIS team, and yet he was arguably given the most challenging part to play.
I could buy the character change if there were a reason explored, but JNT's era isn't bothered with the characters' emotional needs; it sees them as soulless vessels to drive the plot, regardless of what sense it makes. If it were, they would have kept Adric around for the next meeting with the Master when they knew Anthony Ainley was returning in the finale. Hell, they would have given Nyssa more to do with the Master.
But instead, Adric is killed off in a moment that is supposed to change the game for good and show that life in the TARDIS isn't safe or cosy as audiences thought. It's the ultimate rejection of the 'Mr and Mrs Who' dynamic of the Fourth Doctor and Romana.
But look at the disinterest in Adric's story before Earthshock, and the non-existent aftermath, coupled with the reset button, which means the characters learn nothing from their adventures. The Fifth Doctor doesn't change remotely, let alone fundamentally, from the shock of his companion's death, reducing Adric's death to a cheap stunt.
Just as with Chantelle's death, Adric's death doesn't make any significant impact beyond making the show look grown-up and important for a ratings boost. Past that, Adric's death only aids the agenda of a hostile universe where everyone is expendable, which later goes into overdrive with the heartless massacres of Season 21.
But since the Doctor doesn't go to greater lengths to ensure his companions survive their adventures, he looks useless. It damages Earthshock's impact because it diminishes the idea that Adric died because the Doctor was up against a truly formidable foe that rendered him powerless. Instead, it suggests that Adric would have died regardless of who they were against because the Doctor was too incompetent to have saved him.
Mind you, given the twisted morality of the Doctor in Warriors of the Deep, maybe Adric wasn't worth saving anyway because he refused to give up, instead of allowing himself to be murdered by the poor widdle persecuted Cybermen, who were only doing all this because humans wanted to destroy them first.
And the lack of aftermath to Adric's death makes a once-again-retrospectively-imposed character arc for the Fifth Doctor laughable. His sacrifice for Peri is noble, but the writer seems to be implying that his failure to save Adric in Season 19 and his determination to save Peri in Season 21, even at the cost of his own life, are meant to be character development.
But since the Doctor forgets Adric 10 minutes into Time-Flight, and never conveys a sense that he is more concerned about his companions, this is anything but. The Mara repossesses Tegan. Nyssa is dragged around like a rat whilst suffering from Lazar's disease. The Doctor abandons his companions in the Death Zone, surrounded by Cybermen. There's an insistence on resetting the scoreboard at the end of every story, leaving a promise of future rematches hanging, but this invalidates the events of the story just watched because the apparent defeat will be undone soon anyway.
The idea that anyone could have a character arc in this kind of writing is laughable because character arcs, by their very nature, build on what's come previously to grow the character. The Fifth Doctor is disallowed from ever being allowed to grow as a character in case it scuppers the chance for a villain to return.
Time-Flight is a unique story in that it makes redundant not just Earthshock's events but also Castrovalva and Logopolis. The Master's apparent destruction at the end of Castrovalva seemed cathartic after the personal losses to the companions (the Fourth Doctor (Adric), Tremas (Nyssa) and Auntie Vanessa (Tegan)), plus the mass genocide of a whole section of the universe. Yet he survived, making the massive losses sustained in the Master's Return Trilogy, plus the death of Adric, seem meaningless.
Perhaps that was the point Saward was trying to make by making the violence and death in Earthshock feel like it counted for nothing because the Cybermen were only defeated by sheer luck. The Fifth Doctor's story is one of a pacifist whose methods didn't work in a brutal universe, and having every life lost in Earthshock seem pointless because the Doctor never had anything good up his sleeve to defeat the Cybermen other than a last-minute lucky coincidence that happened to work out for him, is an incredibly brutal direction for Doctor Who.
Maybe Saward was reflecting on the high body count Doctor Who has, as many guest characters and countless unnamed extras are always killed. That the Doctor needs to keep a better eye on who's dying.
But the death of Adric, a character meant to be important, is brushed off too easily to make this theory convincing. Especially since Time-Flight dukes out another round in the Doctor/Master feud, and he defeats the Master in such a lacklustre way that the audience is left with the impression that if the Master escapes this time, the Doctor deserves all the trouble he gets when he next meets him. He's almost unconcerned that the Master may escape when the shock of Earthshock should make him more ruthless.
Perhaps Adric's demise should have come at the hands of the Master. There's something sadistic about bringing the Master back immediately after Adric's death since Adric was tortured and almost killed by the Master in Castrovalva. Like Chantelle and Gray, the abuser lived on to abuse other people for his own ends, without punishment or retribution. His escaping unharmed from Castrovalva disregards what it meant for him to be destroyed there.
But the Master killing a companion is too much of an emotional rabbit hole for the writers to go down, who wanted a return to the cosy gentleman's rivalry of Pertwee/Delgado, even though this doesn't sit well with the genocidal universe-ending mass murderer that the Master becomes in Logopolis.
Maybe Adric shouldn't have been killed off at all. But his death is a genuine gut punch, even when you know it's coming. But not for the characters; they forget him quickly, his name is mentioned once in Season 20, and then he's the Fifth Doctor's last word, as though trying to make out that Adric's death was meaningful all along. The producers of EastEnders reduced Chantelle to the least important player in her own domestic violence storyline, then pulled her back over the line a year later when most people had forgotten her, making her the epicentre of the reveal of her abuser Gray's antics.
But Adric's death wasn't important, no matter how much they pretended it was. He was wasted when he was there and forgotten when he wasn't.