"Spare Parts"
by Marc Platt

After Genesis of the Daleks revealed the origins of Doctor Who's favourite enemies, and became one of the most popular serials ever produced, fans had always been curious about a similar backstory for the Cybermen. Their origins were discussed during their first appearance, in The Tenth Planet, but we'd never seen the events leading up to their creation. Until 2002, that is, when Big Finish released Marc Platt's Spare Parts, which shows us the early days of the horrific cybernetic race.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa land on Mondas accidentally, exploring an apparently-deserted city at night, and discovering a culture where body parts can be removed and replaced with cybernetic equivalents. Meanwhile, cyber-augmented policemen with horribly familiar voices patrol the streets, and a larger conversion programme is about to begin.

In this audio, Marc Platt has taken the concept of Mondas as Earth's twin planet, and made the two as similar as possible. Although it seems incredibly coincidental at first - Mondas has a winter festival with baubles and tinsel, for example - it works effectively in conveying the horror of the situation. The fact that it's quite easy to see the events of Spare Parts happening on our own world is one of the most scary and disturbing elements of the play, which is fantastic; and approaching the emergence of the Cybermen as the next step in Mondasian development rather than having a Davros-esque mad scientist responsible is inspired. In the second half of the play, when the character of Yvonne Hartley has undergone Cyber-conversion and returns to her home, Platt's writing is at its best, and her hellish screaming makes for painful and uncomfortable listening.

The characterisations are fantastic, and the performances exemplary. The Doctor is secretive and worried as the play begins, suspecting that he has materialised on Mondas and hiding that knowledge from Nyssa, who is still raw with anger and sadness over the death of Adric. I have nothing against either Peter Davison or Sarah Sutton's acting on TV, but it looks lazy compared to their work here. The universally-strong guest cast is also a joy, with Pamela Binns as Sisterman Constant my favourite. The entire Hartley family, who act as the listener's principal identification point for the story, are brilliantly-drawn and well-casted.

The Cybermen, in their various early forms, are used brilliantly. The sing-song voices from The Tenth Planet are also used here, of course, but Nicholas Briggs makes them threatening and eerie - a cruel parody of human speech, artificial and unnerving. When the Doctor encounters a police patrol, and the officers speak, a shiver went down my spine. All the Cybermen-related sound design in this play is impressively strong.

Spare Parts is poignant, emotional, and really very frightening; a monumentally important story, told with skill and acted with power. Smashing stuff.