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Adric
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Adric |
| Occupation: | |
| Relationships: | |
| Fandom: | Doctor Who |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Adric is a companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors in Doctor Who. He was the third companion to die in the show, after a gap of sixteen years. He's somewhat infamous in the fandom for being a little annoying, despite a heroic death.
Canon
Fandom
Reactions to Adric's Death
I remember vividly when it first aired. I remember the shock and the silence of the end credits. And every time I re-watch that story I feel sick at the ending. It was unusual at the time for a recurring character to be killed in any show.[1]
It's very difficult to pull off a surprise like that these days, everyone is so online. The rug pulls we get these days instead are a little silly though, lots of high stakes but few consequences.I'm not otherwise the biggest Earthshock fan but Adric's fate is beautifully understated, I wouldn't change it. Spare me the full orchestration, strings and brass parping over everything, silent credits are perfect.
What's less so is how the series just continues as though nothing happened. If ever a story needed a bit more of character follow up, it was this one.[1]
Adric: His life sucked and then he died thinking he'd failed to save the world and that his Space Dad didn't love him.[2]
No, it makes perfect narrative sense for Adric's character. For Classic Who, this is astounding character progression.Adric always felt a need to prove himself better than others, to be "right". At the beginning of his journey with the Doctor, it was to make himself feel superior to those around him. Here – finally – it was to help others instead. His need to be right is still there, as is his overwhelming arrogance and belief in his own abilities, but for once his heart is in the right place.
However, his character deficiencies are what get him killed in the end – he can't solve the problem in time and has no escape route. His final line, "Now I'll never know if I was right" is possibly the most Adric line ever, and it's so heartbreaking.
And you can't imagine the effect that the death followed by those silent credits had on me as a ten-year-old boy. My jaw dropped to the floor: no one actually died on Doctor Who![4]
Resources & External Links
- Adric (Doctor Who) - Ao3 tag
- Adric - Fanfiction.net filter
- earthshocked - LiveJournal community
- Adric's Angels - forum
References
- ^ a b Comments on Adric's fate is horrifying posted to r/gallifrey, March 13, 2024
- ^ "Companions That Suffered More Than Jesus, Dec 18, 2024 Tumblr post by cringecompanionapologist". Archived from the original on 2025-03-23.
- ^ "April 8, 2023 Tumblr post by problematic-rayndrop". Archived from the original on 2025-03-23.
- ^ Comment on Adric's death, posted to r/gallifrey, Jan 31, 2022