Spare Parts (audio story)
Spare Parts was the thirty-fourth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions it was released in July 2002. It saw a return to Mondas for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor and his companion Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton. This story was the inspiration for two 2006 Doctor Who television episodes; it had a credit in both TV: The Age of Steel and TV: Rise of the Cybermen.
Publisher's summary
"I'm not even sure they are people by the end. They’re just so many tinned left-overs..."
On a dark frozen planet where no planet should be, in a doomed city with a sky of stone, the last denizens of Earth's long-lost twin will pay any price to survive, even if the laser scalpels cost them their love and hate and humanity.
And in the Mat-infested streets, round about tea-time, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa unearth a black market in secondhand body parts and run the gauntlet of augmented police and their augmented horses.
And just between the tramstop and the picturehouse, the Doctor's worst suspicions are finally confirmed: the Cybermen have only just begun, and the Doctor will be, just as he always has been, their saviour...
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Yvonne Hartley - Kathryn Guck
- Dad - Paul Copley
- Thomas Dodd - Derren Nesbitt
- Sisterman Constant - Pamela Binns
- Frank Hartley - Jim Hartley
- Mrs Ginsberg - Ann Jenkins
- Doctorman Allan - Sally Knyvette
- Cybermen / Cyber-Commander Zheng - Nicholas Briggs
References
Species
- Yvonne has a pet Cybermat.
- The Doctor tries to fight off a Cyberman with gold, but it has no effect.
- This story marks the first chronological appearance of a Cyber-Planner. It originates in a union of the brightest minds of the Mondasian Council.
Notes
- Tom MacRae, who wrote TV: The Age of Steel / Rise of the Cybermen, drew inspiration from this story and gave Marc Platt a story credit as acknowledgement.
- This story has similarities to the unproduced story Genesis of the Cybermen. Both looked into the past of the Cybermen and featured the Fifth Doctor. (REF: Doctor Who: Cybermen)
- Paul Copley (Mr Hartley) would play Clem McDonald in Series 3 of Torchwood.
- Derren Nesbitt (Thomas Dodd) previously played Tegana in TV: Marco Polo and would later play Ordinal-General Quences, the Doctor's great-great-uncle, in BFDWU: Auld Mortality.
- This audio drama was recorded on 26 and 27 March 2002 at The Moat Studios.
Continuity
- This story takes place at the beginning of the Cybermen's creation. Many of its events lead into those of TV: The Tenth Planet.
- Mondas began to drift through space, due to the sudden arrival of a moon between Earth and Mondas. This upset the gravitational equilibrium of Mondas, causing it to escape it's orbit. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
- Cyber-Commander Zheng would return for a cameo appearance in AUDIO: The Reaping. That story depicted him as still being operational in September 1984. It is therefore logical to assume that he was on Mondas during the events of TV: The Tenth Planet, which took place in December 1986, and perished when the planet was destroyed.
- The Doctor's desire to eliminate the Cybermen from history is rather incoherent, since having no Cybermen means not only that Adric might not die (TV: Earthshock), but also that Zoe Heriot might never start travelling with the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon (TV: The Wheel in Space) and it would alter the circumstances of his first regeneration (TV: The Tenth Planet). Furthermore, it would have numerous other serious implications on the Web of Time.
External links
- Official Spare Parts page at bigfinish.com
- Spare Parts at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Spare Parts at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
