Big Finish, Companion Chronicles
Apparently Gareth Arnold, a dentist and scientist of some kind, has found a crashed cybership and lots of people start paying the consequence for that discovery. Liz inadvertently walks into his cyberconversion shop and the Doctor tries to communicate with the new cyberleader. It’s interesting how a human experimenting with cybertechnology comes up with a completely new technology that’s even more insidious but yet, it’s also not surprising. I’m a little mystified how the Doctor pities the cybermen he finds instead of wanting to destroy them, as he does in later regenerations. Maybe Spare Parts puts a whole new twist on his thinking and the bitter ironies that story presents pits him firmly against them in the future…
I like Liz Shaw, action hero, but even when the story is told from her viewpoint, it’s almost as if she doesn’t matter. Were the 60s and 70s really that down on women? They treat women like accessories and secretaries, not people who have their own contributions. That seems so backwards to me but my perspective is that of a woman so unless I considered myself an accessory, I don’t see how I could agree with it. I just didn’t love the era of this story and though the Cybermen are my favorite Dr. Who monster, this cybermen story is lacking a true cybermen mentality. And it’s good but not quite as good as I would hope!
Carolyn John (Liz Shaw) and Nicholas Briggs (Cybermen)
Writer: Nigel Fairs
Director: Mark J Thompson
Release: January 2007