|
|
| PLANET
SF HOME | DOCTOR
WHO HOME | BIG FINISH AUDIOS
| 8TH DOCTOR NOVELS | EPISODES
| MISC REVIEWS |
||
|
|
The newly renamed BBC Audio's CD releases of missing or incomplete Doctor Who stories continues with two stories featuring the series' second most popular monsters, the Cybermen. They first appeared in William Hartnell's final regular story, The Tenth Planet, which is narrated by Anneke Wills who played Polly in seasons 3 and 4. Set in 1986, the story sees the Cybermen's home planet of Mondas returning to the solar system, and its orbit brings it close to its former twin, Earth. Obviously the first appearance of the Cybermen and the first regeneration scene means that The Tenth Planet has an important place in Who history. Fortunately, it's a pretty good story, and in many ways provides the template for the "isolated base under siege" setting used for many Second Doctor stories. As with many of these stories, the base's crew are multi-national, although only Robert Beatty's General Cutler really stands out from the crowd. Even he seems more concerned with the plight of his son than the impending invasion, although this can be seen as a contrast with the unemotional Cybermen. The Cybermen make an impressive debut. Even without the visuals, where they tower above the humans, they have that unnerving sing-song voice that is completely different from the more electronic ones used in later stories. As well as their first 60s story, this tin also contains their final one. And, coincidentally, The Invasion is also a prototype for subsequent stories. A sequel of sorts to The Web of Fear, it's effectively a dry run for the UNIT stories of the 1970s. As with several other sixties Cybermen stories, the silver giants are kept in the background for the first part of the story. This allows International Electromatics' managing director Tobias Vaughn to take centre-stage and, as he did with his role as Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan, Kevin Stoney creates a very memorable villain. Of course, being on audio we lose one of the classic Who moments of all-time - the Cybermen descending the steps outside of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the quality of the story shines through anyway. (And, to be fair, we're also spared the sight of the Doctor clutching his arse as he skips towards the IE compound in episode 8.) Both stories have short interviews with the narrators, both conducted by Mark Ayres. They're nothing stunning, more a pair of reasonably interesting chats tagged on after the final episodes. As with last year's Daleks set, two television stories have been augmented by a bonus disc. This time around it's a reissue of The Origins of the Cybermen, read by 1980s Cyberleader David Banks. It's a somewhat strange inclusion unless the BBC are planning to reissue the rest of this spin-off from the 1980s Cybermen book (and I'd be very surprised if they made that decision). It's also not that good. References to various "documents" don't work on audio, while Banks adopts some strange voices while quoting dialogue from stories such as The Tenth Planet. There are also some cheapo synth noises that sound like they're played by a five-year-old. The tins are apparently a limited edition of 8000, although I'd be surprised if the normal CDs sold that many, so it's unlikely you'll make much of a killing on eBay. As previously stated, the two television stories are largely complete in the BBC archives and will almost certainly be released on DVD one day. However, the audio is better than on the video releases and with online retailers discounting it to as low as £17.99, it's good value. Although whether you'll actually bother with the Origins disc is another matter. back to the top |
CYBERMEN
|
