The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'Without Cybermen we cannot survive. They are our saviours…'

Every since their introduction in The Tenth Planet back in 1966 the Cybermen have always been one of Doctor Who's most popular 'monsters', second only to the Daleks. But unlike their Skaro counterparts, the origins of the Cybermen have never really been explored. Until now…

For his second Doctor Who audio script, following up last year's sublime Loups-Garoux, Marc Platt takes the Fifth Doctor - this time paired with Nyssa - to Mondas where they discover that the Cybermen have just begun. Platt's pedigree within the three main Doctor Who mediums is second to none, and it's soon evident that Spare Parts is yet another mighty triumph delivering a dark, chilling, thoughtful drama which showcases the much overlooked parallel aspect between Mondas and its twin world of Earth.

Platt instantly evokes the sense that this is a world similar in many ways to Earth through a very evocative opening scene with an old style news broadcast (very reminiscent in fact of the opening to Storm Warning) showing a crewman venturing up to the barren surface of Mondas from the subterranean city the people have retreated to in order to survive. Even more effective is the manner in which Platt presents the Doctor and Nyssa's initial exploration of the city with a constant awareness of Earth similarities tinged with a tangible sense of an undercurrent of impending doom pervading the rarefied atmosphere. But easily the most successful method of emphasising the similarities between the worlds is through the presentation of the Hartley family, whose domesticity and ordinariness is conveyed in such a manner that it really brings home to the listener the magnitude of the effect the stories events have on the common man, in a way that few Doctor Who stories have really done before.

Spare Parts is essentially a tragedy which answers why the Cybermen possess the overriding priority to survive as it was the reason for their creation on Mondas. Without the augmentation there was no way the people of Mondas could survive but by removing their organic elements and replacing them with cybernetic ones, they save themselves but loose their humanity in the process. Much of this information can already be garnered from the television stories but Platt brings the impact of this home by showing the Mondasians as they were, making the contrast between them and what lies for them in the future making the effect much more alarming.

For a writer the calibre of Marc Platt, expectations are often high but he matches - and surpasses - them with apparent ease as his wonderful script demonstrates his inherent skill to constantly confound and amaze. While the listener knows the Doctor's suspicions about where he and Nyssa have landed are correct, following the clues which lead him and Nyssa to realise the true nature of the frozen world is very enjoyable and because of the subtle build up, it really emphasises the similarity of Mondas to its twin world but contrasts it equally because of the major differences. Platt fills the script with many, many intriguing concepts of his own which adds flesh and colour to the world he's writing within. This multitude of ideas helps to ensure that the story moves at a cracking pace and with more than a few surprises thrown in for good measure, it becomes very easy to loose yourself in the drama totally. One twist in particularly is of such magnitude, that it casts a completely new light on the Cybermen and reveals a previously unknown connection between them and the Doctor.

In performing Platt's last audio script, Peter Davison gave one of his best ever performances as the Doctor and in Spare Parts he again pushes his performance through another level to give another exceptional display. Davison is often considered to be a very mellow, placid Doctor, and while he is his mild-mannered self here Davison also demonstrates how adept he is at conveying fiery emotion and anger, in particular with Nyssa when he realises she has brought a Cybermat into the TARDIS. A dramatic twist regarding the nature of the Cybermen towards the story's climax also gives him plenty of weighty material to work with as he is forced to ponder its ramifications, and he does it superbly.

Sarah Sutton's Nyssa is well served by Platt's script as she is determined to attempt to try and give the people of Mondas hope and prevent the Cybermen's inevitable future against the Doctor's wishes. Given that Adric died as a direct result of the Cybermen's actions, it was inevitable that this would influence Nyssa should she ever come against them again, but rather than make this the crux of Nyssa's reasoning behind her actions, Platt ensures that it's a significant contributing factor on her without really superseding her need to act humanely.

Sally Knyvette, of Blake's 7 fame, plays Doctorman Allan, the creator of the Cybermen but she is not the Cybermen's version of Davros by any means. Knyvette successfully conveys Allan's sense of frustration and dismay as the means she created for her people's survival grow dangerously out of her control threatening everything she has worked for, culminating in a wonderful scene where she is told to take pride in her creation, while she still has the capacity for that emotion.

The three actors who portray the Hartley family are all very impressive and succeed because they communicate a believability in their characters, which infuses them with a sense of ordinariness that adds to their realness. Paul Copley and Kathryn Guck convey the closeness of their father/daughter relationship perfectly which in turn leads to a harrowing - while genuinely moving - scene after one of them has been processed. Jim Hartley plays the son of the Hartley's, Frank, and while he initially comes across as a very detached individual his journey through the story works well as he is reconciled with his family. Derren Nesbitt is the most important player from the rest of the cast, and although his performance here is not as striking as in his previous Doctor Who appearance (Marco Polo in 1964) he conveys Thomas Dodd's untrustworthiness perfectly and seems to revel in his characters occupation providing a more conventional alternative to the augmentation the Cybermen offer.

The effects used for the Cybermen themselves are akin to those used in their debut story, The Tenth Planet, and thanks to the combination of Nicholas Briggs' vocal talent and the sound design, they sound very authentic. As Briggs' appears to be performing all of the Cybervoices in this story, occasionally when there are more than one of them present at once, it becomes difficult to determine which is which as the variations between them are sometimes too subtle. But given the nature of the Cybermen themselves, this perhaps does not matter as much as it would do had it been another race.

Russell Stone provides the score for Spare Parts, and while initially it seems quite anonymous, the sense of foreboding grows as the story develops with the final result being quite appropriate for the tone of the story helping to create the right mood. Gareth Jenkins' sound design seems rather flat at first during the Doctor and Nyssa's first scene with no real sense of where they are being conveyed but it becomes obvious that this is intentional to mirror the rarefied atmosphere of the city, but generally it's fine, enhancing the story well. That said the effect applied to the voice of the Central Committee is sometimes a little too severe making it difficult to make out exactly what they are saying, but it is a minor complaint.

With Spare Parts, Marc Platt reinforces his reputation as one of the best writers of Doctor Who ever, no matter the medium, providing an astounding script that the cast and crew realise masterfully. Inevitably with this type of story, anyone vaguely familiar with the history of the Cybermen will have an inkling of how this one has to conclude, but by providing a sting in the tail, Marc Platt ensures that it remains memorable and startling. In turn both chilling and moving, Spare Parts is a fascinating multi-layered look at the origins of the early Cybermen that warrants listening to time and time again. Outstanding.