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With Big Finish's "season 28" (and the freebie NEVERLAND) out of the way, Peter Davison returns as the Fifth Doctor, alongside Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. As the cover shows, SPARE PARTS features the Cybermen, but not the EARTHSHOCK variety that the Doctor and Nyssa will have met recently, but a much earlier incarnation. Unlike the Daleks, the Cybermen have never had an "origin" story, although both David Banks and Gerry Davies have put forward their own ideas. However, now we have a version that can be regarded as canonical (as least by most fans). Marc Platt was a good choice for this story - a writer who knows his WHO but who won't simply serve up a load of fannish continuity. I didn't really like GHOST LIGHT, but LOUPS-GAROUX, Platt's previous audio was highly enjoyable, and after reading his comments that there's no "CyberDavros" in SPARE PARTS, my hopes were high. Fortunately, there were not misplaced. The realities of living on a planet that's moving away from the Sun are well thought out, with a declining population eeking out an underground existence with dwindling resources. The Doctor and Nyssa spend much of the story apart. The Doctor spends a lot of time with spiv Thomas Dodd (Derren Nesbitt), while Nyssa is teamed with the Hartley family, especially their daughter Yvonne. On television, we saw the Cybermen after they've lost their humanity, sacrificing body parts for cybernetic augmentation. Here, Platt shows us the tragic lives that the Mondasians lived as they were forced to turn to this in order to survive. Using characters such as the Hartleys makes the whole concept truly horrific, and this is probably the most chilling Cyber story so far. Continuity with THE TENTH PLANET is maintained with the use of the Cybermen's original sing-song voice. Personally, I've always thought this was much better than the more-straightforward electronic voices we got from THE MOONBASE onwards, so it's good to hear them again. On the downside, it must be said that the voice of the Cyberplanner thing is occasionally a little difficult to understand. Both Davison and Sutton are on fine form here, and there are some good guest performances, notably from Derren Nesbitt, Sally Knyvette as Doctorman Allan and Kathryn Guck as the tragic Yvonne. Added to the strong plot and excellent as usual Big Finish production, this is a definite winner. BACK TO THE TOP |
SPARE
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