A story over 15 years in the making as outside of a brief cameo in Dalek, the Ninth Doctor managed to elude a clash with the Cybermen, that was until Volume 3 of The Ninth Doctor Adventures. Releasing appropriately on Doctor Who’s birthday, we finally got to experience the Ninth Doctor go up against his second greatest enemies, or enemy in this case as in a poetic mirroring of Series 1, the Doctor encounters a lone damaged Cyberman before facing an army of Cybermen in the two-part finale. Thankfully Monsters in Metropolis is far from just being the Cyberman version of Dalek.

The Doctor arrives in 1920s Berlin on the film set of one of the most important films of all time, Metropolis, the film that helped kick off the sci-fi genre. But he discovers that the Machine Man is not Brigitte Helm in an uncomfortable suit, but instead one of the most dangerous creatures the Doctor has ever fought.

While the parallels to Dalek on the surface may be screamingly obvious, writer John Dorney does a commendable job in making Monsters in Metropolis stand on its own merit while creating a Cyberman story with more depth than most Cybermen stories. The Cybermen stories I tend to gravitate towards are the ones that focus more on the human element. The fact that these soulless killing machines were once just like us and had their own unique identities only to give them up or had them forcibly removed in a desperate attempt to survive by any means necessary. How all their imagination and emotions have been replaced by the cold precision of machine logic and the drive to make all other humans like them. It is understandable why the show, both Modern and Classic, has refrained from this kind of story as the idea of these machine creatures taking people away and tearing them to pieces before stitching them back together with bits of metal and plastic and all their humanity removed isn’t exactly appropriate for the restrictions of appealing to a family audience. Big Finish have much more leeway for this as they’re not constrained by such limitations and what Monsters in Metropolis delivers is a Cyberman that while still a danger to everyone, has also in its damaged state has become more aware of who they used to be. Nicholas Briggs delivers one of his best performances as the Cybermen as he portrays a creature who used to be an ordinary human waking up to the metal nightmare they’ve become. This in turns brings out Eccleston’s best performance so far in Big Finish as he brings out the more compassionate side of his Doctor which all leads to a beautiful ending where the two sit down and watch Metropolis together with the Cyberman delivering a powerful speech. Full disclosure, I consider this the best Cyberman story Big Finish have done since Spare Parts! (at least up until Blood and Steel & The Quintessence)

This is a story that so easily could’ve coasted on doing the bare minimum, it’s the Ninth Doctor’s first encounter with the Cybermen, it’s already a guaranteed buy from the fans. But for John Dorney to go the extra mile in creating a more emotional story is something I have a ton of respect for. This is the kind of story Big Finish needs to do more of with the Ninth Doctor going forward, The Ninth Doctor Adventures have been a lot of fun for what they are, but Monsters in Metropolis is one the few that really takes advantage of the opportunity of creating new stories for the Ninth Doctor.