The story was repeated on BBC One (not BBC Wales) as two 50-min compilation episodes in 1982 on 9 August 1982 & 16 August 1982 at 7.20pm as part of "Doctor Who and the Monsters", achieving viewing figures of 4.9 and 5.2 million respectively. The story came 17th in the 1997
Doctor Who Magazine annual best serial survey. Rob Hill ranked it at number two in "the top 10 Cybermen stories" for
Den of Geek in 2010, beaten only by
The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967). In 2018,
The Daily Telegraph ranked
Earthshock at number 22 in "the 56 greatest stories and episodes", arguing that "Peter Davison's first season was unremarkable until
Earthshock descended with a mighty thud". It continued, "Peter Grimwade's pacy direction keeps the action and tension levels high, and the Cybermen once again come across as a credible menace, backed by some appropriate marching music courtesy of Malcolm Clarke". The article concluded that it was "one of the most memorable stories of Eighties
Doctor Who".
Paul Cornell,
Martin Day, and
Keith Topping wrote of the serial in
The Discontinuity Guide (1995), "Exciting and engaging early on, but a writer is not supposed to get so caught up in the excitement that things happen for no better reason than plot expediency. What we have is great... for a first draft." In
The Television Companion (1998),
David J. Howe and
Stephen James Walker wrote, "the story as a whole stands up very well and is highly entertaining". They felt that "deficiencies" in the plotting were not that noticeable. Howe and Walker called the first episode "a masterpiece of suspense and terror", praised the surprise return of the Cybermen, which they said were "more effective" than those in
Revenge of the Cybermen (1975), and thought the way Adric was written out showed "the level of brilliance to which
Doctor Who could still ascend if the production team put their minds to it". In
Doctor Who: The Episode Guide, Mark Campbell awarded it eight out of ten, describing it as "a dynamically directed action story, much praised at the time; although the plot has huge holes and the dialogue is often lousy." In 2011,
The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn was positive towards how the serial characterised Adric, which set him up for his demise. Bahn praised the first episode for being "nicely tense and mysterious", but noted that it was separate from the rest of the story, which led to too many characters in the last three episodes. He also criticised the Cybermen, feeling that they did not hark back to their eerie emotionless roots and that when they got involved "the plot starts to bog down in its implausibilities". In 2012, Patrick Mulkern of
Radio Times awarded it five stars out of five, praising the tension and describing it as "the most thrilling tale in years". He wrote, "Saward's script and Grimwade's direction work in unison, delivering pace, momentum, atmosphere and the eponymous shock." He praised the new look of the Cybermen, guest star Beryl Reid, and the way the story "pulls off the previously unimaginable feat of making us care about Adric". He acknowledged that critics had pointed out "plot holes and logic leaps", but said he was willing to "gloss over them". In 2010,
SFX named Adric's death the twenty-ninth best "tearjerker" in science fiction and fantasy, calling it a "tragedy" that managed to make the audience care about him. In 2012, the magazine also listed the scene as the third best companion departure, calling it "a beautifully constructed death scene" despite the fact that the character was "loathed by
fandom". For Den of Geek in 2019, Andrew Blair wrote that
Earthshock was "atypical
Who with its short scenes, regular gunfights, and fast pace. Its success owed a lot to Peter Grimwade's direction, but also negatively influenced
Doctor Who for the next four years with misplaced attempts to bottle lightning twice." ==Commercial releases==