"Father must see my new suit"

Heartbreak, horror and humour. This audio has it all, Marc Platt hits it out of the ball park with a suitably eerie story that tells the tale of one of the many origins of the Cybermen. Definitely one of the standout releases from the first 50 Main Range stories and probably the best 5th Doctor release from those 50, it weaves a chilling atmosphere and the suitably cold setting of Mondas only aides this. The reveal that the people going to the surface of Mondas from their subterranean dwellings is great and always sends shivers down my spine.

Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton give good performances and are backed up by strong performances from the supporting cast and the monster voices from Mr Briggs are as good as they always are.

Overall, a fantastic Cyberman story, proving that they lend themselves perfectly to body horror, backed up by excellent performances from the cast make this audio story a must listen for any fans of Who.

The Monthly Adventures #034 - “Spare Parts" by Marc Platt

Alright, let’s get this over with. Spare Parts is good, it’s really, really good. There is a reason it’s such an immensely popular audio play and that is due to the sheer writing capabilities of one Marc Platt, an author famous for his grand designs and vivid alien worlds that effectively create the Cybermen’s very own Genesis of the Daleks, moulding a bleak and oppressive tale of grim fates and a doomed world. But, is it perfect? Many would say so, besides The Chimes of Midnight, it fights for the spot as most popular Big Finish audio play and for many it is the quintessential Cyberman story. However, Spare Parts is no perfect story for me; despite its undeniable brilliance, there are just a couple things that bug me.

Mondas: the twin planet of Earth and a world on the brink of annihilation. Living in subterranean cities, the dregs of the population battle for survival, desperately trying to break free onto the poisoned surface. When the Doctor arrives, he can do nothing but watch as human kind turns to machine. But with Nyssa getting more and more involved in the plight of the Mondasians, maybe he won’t get to choose his role.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I don't think calling Marc Platt an inconsistent writer would be a controversial statement. Although he has created a couple fan favourite stories, most of his work falls under fire for being slow, or convoluted or just plain boring. But seemingly, his most consistent element is his world building; often praised for his bizarre and wild creations, Platt is undeniably a visionary author, with a lot of grand, expansive ideas that always seem to translate well to paper. Frankly, I can't think of many people who would've done Mondas this much justice. It is a bitter world, choked in dust, without sunlight, without joy - a subterranean 1950s London with cybernetic horses patrolling the streets and digging up the graveyards. It's a decidedly grim landscape that is expertly made real to us and is the primary reason this audio is so skilled at making you feel hopeless. This is a bleak story and it perfectly conveys a world at the brink of destruction. You can very easily buy into how the Cybermen slowly and insidiously took over, the central, cybernetic committee of Mondas expanding the bracket of who would be converted wider and wider until even those who could oppose it were stripped of their souls and individuality. And can I just say that Platt gets the Cybermen; they're a villain I love in concept but find to be rarely well realised, but  not here. This may very well be my favourite depiction of the Mondasian tinmen ever. And through our metal friends, Platt creates this lingering sense of doom and turns the whole story into a ticking time bomb of melancholy and imminent annihilation. What really helps the immersion are our cast, as every one of which is on top form. Leading the audio are Davison and Sutton returning as Five and Nyssa, who are at what is by far their most interesting outing so far - Platt truly giving them some much needed character. Nyssa is the tortured scientist desperately trying to save a fated world after losing her own and is the main sympathetic link here whilst Davison hands in a stellar performance, becoming increasingly desperate and conflicted as he fights his instinct to save a world he knows he cannot help. Playing alongside our main duo are a near perfect cast of incredible characters, chief among them the Hartley family, who take Nyssa in when she becomes separated from the Doctor. All three of them feel astoundingly real and make for the emotional crutch of the whole script, their fantastic performances allowing the trio to become alive as the plot progresses and allow the reader to be hurt immensely when they start to fall apart. Perhaps the most famous part of this whole script is when Yvonne, the compassionate and lively eldest child of the Hartleys, is partially converted, left human enough to regain her memories and stumble back to her home, where we watch in horror as her family attempts to comfort their daughter as she is slowly becoming more and more a machine. It's one of those moments where the lines just land in the most spectacularly horrifying way: "Father must see my new uniform.' 'Look how tall they've made you!'. Considering Yvonne was basically one of our main characters in the first half, this reveal hits like a truck and is the perfect example of the sheer brilliant misery that persists throughout the entire story.

And yet, for all its near perfections, there's just one too many things that disappoint me. Chief among them is how much this story circles. The middle parts are somewhat aimless and mostly consist of the Doctor getting chased at nauseam around the city, not to mention the plot has a couple contrivances that annoy me personally, like the Hartleys apparently being the one family on Mondas considering how often the Doctor and Nyssa coincidentally run into them. It's not egregious but can be quite tiring, especially when the ending seemingly forgets it's meant to be the Cybermen's origin. It ends like a completely normal Cybermen story, with the threat beaten and the day saved, before Platt hurriedly injects one last scene that shows the Cybermen magically survived and all is doomed. For being an origin story, it's strange you could remove one scene and turn it into any other Cyberman story, if a particularly good one. There's also the... odd plot beat of revealing that the template for every single Cyberman was the Doctor's physiology which, whilst not being the most damaging retcon the show has ever seen, is a decidedly pointless one that makes the Doctor, once again, seem too large a figure in history; he had to cause every single major historical event, no exceptions! And another thing that got on my nerves was the sound design, occasionally. Specifically when it comes to the Cybermen themselves - I adore the monotonous, slightly human sounds of the Mondasian Cybermen as much as the next guy but that, constantly, paired with the utterly incomprehensible Committee, is murder on the ears.

There are some stories that maybe don't deserve their reputation, whether that be in a positive or negative sense, but Spare Parts is not one of them. It is iconic for a reason and it's no surprise that it's been copied to hell and back in New Who and following expanded media. It's one of my favourite takes on the Cybermen ever and it's a bitterly beautiful listen that gets a little monotonous at points but sells itself as a near Shakespearean tragedy of metal men and desperate people doing desperate things. You won't see me calling it the greatest Doctor Who story ever but it very well may be the best Cyberman story we've ever gotten, and for very good reason.

9/10

Pros:

+ Mondas is sombrely and vividly realised

+ The Doctor and Nyssa are incredibly well characterised

+ The Hartleys make for great side characters and massively assist immersion

+ Yvonne's conversion is an utterly gut wrenching scene

+ Truly evokes a feeling of hopelessness in the face of Armageddon

+ One of the absolute best uses of the Cybermen

Cons:

- Cybermen voices get progressively more grating throughout the audio

- Story forgets that its meant to be an origin for the Cybermen

- The Doctor being the template for every Cyberman was a weird and unnecessary retcon

- The story begins to go in circles around the middle

🔟🔽 = MASTERPIECE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“GENESIS OF THE CYBERMEN!”

Spare Parts opens with one of the most atmospheric, tense, and dramatic first parts of any Big Finish story I’ve heard. It sets the scene and the rapidly deteriorating Mondasan society effectively; it introduces the local population, all fleshed out beautifully and performed with real heart, and it slowly reveals the emerging Cyberman threat and the genesis of the Doctor’s second biggest foe.

With the Mondasian inhabitants at the forefront, Spare Parts successfully blends strong character drama with a fascinating science fiction adventure. The very humane Cybermen are the most creepy part of the entire story. Their sing-song voices, as heard in their first appearance in The Tenth Planet, are spot-on and just as horrifying as before.

Marc Platt creates a properly engaging, emotionally grating, and vivid story, and the performances help it come to life. Even Davison and Sutton carry plenty of weight as the 5th Doctor and Nyssa, and this comes from someone who isn't a big fan of either character. Davison goes in with fierce emotional energy, and Sutton brings out all the best qualities of Nyssa; the two of them interact with the guest cast effortlessly.

Spare Parts forms an ominous and tragic atmosphere from the onset, slowly revealing more and more of the story that will eventually end up being the origin story of the Mondasian Cybermen. It's horrifying to hear about the experiments made on the humans on the planet; it's terrifying to hear how Cybermen are created and how they suffer under all those metal parts; how the necessity of survival drives the surviving humans on Mondas on the brink of disaster and finally tipping over. There are some truly harrowing and heartbreaking scenes in the final two parts, so emotional and horrifying that you will never forget them.

Platt nails the 5th Doctor and Nyssa and their distinct personalities dealing with the Cybermen post-Adric. He also nails the inherently creepy original Cybermen and writes deeply humane characters that the listener cares for. The tense and dark atmosphere translates incredibly well through Platt's dialogue, and the best parts are those that force the characters to express their emotions.

The plot is fairly simple, yet effectively deep and tragic. The script doesn't attempt to hide the fact that we are following the origins of the Cybermen but truly builds up to that pivotal, harrowing moment. There is a logical reason as to why the Cybermen are created, and the story expertly ties into their later (and earlier) appearance in the 1966 TV classic The Tenth Planet. It's also refreshing to hear a story that forces the Doctor to help despite knowing that there is nothing he can do. It's like an audio version of The Fires of Pompeii.

Origin stories for popular villains are always intriguing, and Spare Parts is no exception. It's the crumbling world of Mondas and the events leading to the rise of the Cybermen that keep this story immensely engaging and deeply emotional. And the listener will be engulfed by the harrowing story, despite knowing how it all will end.

At the time of release, Spare Parts was immensely original, thanks to the way it handles the Cybermen and gives them a human edge that is usually forgotten in their other appearances. We have received several alternate origin stories since, but nothing hits quite as hard as this one (including the 2006 two-parter, which was inspired by this adventure).

The sound design and music are among the finest in early Big Finish, and they help create and maintain the dramatic atmosphere that will stick with you long after you've finished listening.

People repeatedly highlight Spare Parts as one of the most emotional and hard-hitting Big Finish Doctor Who releases, and I can understand why. It's dark, it's tragic, and it's scary. It gives the Cybermen a backstory, which, to date, is the best one they've been given.

This was a very emotionally charged and bleak release to listen to during a global pandemic - a truly dystopian depiction of life. It take a little while to warm up but culminates is something really special. I’m not sure it needed the cliffhanger ending though - as the listener surely knows that the peace will not last anyway.

The 5th Doctor and Nyssa arrive on the planet Mondas and discover a population eking out an existence below ground; a situation which will see the beginning of the Cybermen.

Nyssa meets the Hartley family and witnesses their daughter, Yvonne, become a proto-Cyberman. The Doctor meets Thomas Dodd, a ‘spare parts’ black marketeer and the earliest Cyber forms.

The planet Mondas is dying and the Committee is processing humans into Cybermen to allow them to survive on the surface of the planet. Despite the Doctor and Nyssa’s efforts, the humans trudge inexorably towards their predestined fate – to become the Cybermen.

The Doctor is horrified when Doctorman Allen, the creator of the cyber process realises that his alien physiology could be the answer to the problems she has been having with humans rejecting the process. Against his will she includes her findings in the process meaning that all Cybermen are, in part, based on a template of the Doctor.

However, the Committee eventually loses all vestiges of humanity and the processed Cybermen begin to take charge; their cold logic defeating the cries of even Doctorman Allen, who finally realises the terrible mistake she has made.

The Doctor and Nyssa succeed, however, in destroying the Committee – now the Cyberplanner – and the Cybermen’s commander, Sheng. They leave Mondas presuming that, if nothing else, they have given the Cybermen a chance to coexist with the unprocessed humans and that Allen is planning on reversing the processing as far as possible, allowing the Cybermen to at least experience some emotion.

In their absence, we discover that Sheng is still alive and that the humans are doomed after all…

As Lance Parkin states in A History, the dating of Spare Parts is difficult as there is little in the story itself to suggest when this occurs relative to Earth.
The Doctor states that Mondas’ technology is millennia ahead of Earth, therefore implying that although the setting and characters reflect 1950s Northern England (all planet’s have a North), this is merely an affectation for the purposes of storytelling; giving the drama somewhat of a post-World War Two vibe.

The Doctor does state that, due to the Committee’s decisions the planet is ‘stuck in the 1950s’ suggesting that were it not for the cybernetic enhancements to their population, the Mondasian culture would be millennia ahead of Earth in technology and culture, seeing as their ‘1950s’ has occurred whilst Earth humans are still little more than apes.

A History suggests that this story occurs somewhere between 65,000,000 BC and 12,000,000 BC. The planet begins its journey back to our solar system at the end of this story and Parkin suggests that, as this will not take as long as the journey out due to the propulsion system, that the Cybermen may well pilot Mondas around the Universe before re-entering out Solar System in 1986 as seen in The Tenth Planet.

It’s interesting that in this ‘prehistory’ section of the Universe’s history, it is the 5th Doctor and Nyssa who seem to be witnessing many of the events (both real and, in the case of The Boy that Time Forgot, artificially created). They have visited Jurassic Earth, witnessed the destruction of the dinosaurs, visited an alternate prehistoric timeline and now, have seen the early days of Mondas. Looking ahead, they will also visit the distant past of Nyssa’s own planet Traken, in Primeval.

Spare Parts is simply put – superb. It is the ultimate tragedy. As listeners, we know exactly what the Mondasians will become and to see it painted for us with human characters who you really care for, brings home the horror far more than the origins of the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks ever does. Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are brilliant in one of their best performances as the Doctor and Nyssa. The personal level of seeing the beginning of the Cybermen so soon (relatively) after Adric’s death hits home and the contrast between the Doctor’s initial desire to leave Mondas to its ultimate fate and Nyssa’s determination to fight against it happening makes for some passionate scenes. The guest cast are note perfect, particularly Sally Knyvette (of Blakes 7 fame) as Doctorman Allen and Paul Copley as Mr Hartley.

It is quite possibly the ultimate Cyberman story and will stand as, not only one of the best stories that Big Finish have produced, but one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time.