Genesis of the Cybermen adapted by David K. Barnes (from an idea by Gerry Davis) and directed by David O'Mahony

 

Not at all what I was expecting from this story and all the better for it. I had been pre-warned (or pre-informed perhaps would be a better word) from David K Barnes in an interview that I did for him on a podcast that this was a synopsis that had some strange science and bafflingly little of the Cybermen in it. When you know that, it is easy to see all the strengths that David brought to the story including a strong sense of why the Cybermen came to be, who was responsible and a real sense of tying things up with The Tenth Planet in a very satisfying way. 

Is this as good as the much celebrated Spare Parts? Well, no. It seems that instead of a cataclysmic disaster that forced people into metal survival suits, this version of history sees one insane man decide the fate of his entire species because he thinks that mechanised people is the way to go. Which is far less interesting than what Spare Parts gave us (the edgy catastrophe and the slippery slide into losing emotions really gives that story a sense of sick inevitability) but what Genesis of the Cybermen gets very right is the inclusion of it's regulars in the grand plan of bringing the Cybermen into being. Both Nyssa (in a moment of kindness) and Adric (in a moment of stupidity - and bravery) play their part in setting the Mondasians on their inevitable course and we get to see Sarah Sutton in particular play scenes where she realises her part and suffers crushing guilt as a result. When the Doctor realises Adric's part in all this, Davison's line reading hilariously funny. I almost spat out my coffee. 

There's a genius plot twist that sees the characters go from the early days of the Cybermen time jumping to a point where there are prototypes ready to be copied and an army waiting in the wings which is where this story really differs from Big Finishes previous efforts to tell this story. Episode one is like a little short story of the Doctor, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa turning up on a medieval world and meeting the locals and it isn't until the final scenes that you realise the enormity of where they are. The sudden ramp up of tension with that reveal is like a knife in the gut after all the previous frivolity. The twist that the Prince hops forward in time with the TARDIS (in a very awkward stowing away on board and twist of the dematerialisation circuit) could have been very hokey but it's played superbly by Cano and Barnes writes a man out of time and not happy with what he sees in the future with real nuance. It means there is a real effort to have more than just 'how did the Cybermen come to be' be the focus of this story but the efforts of one man to try and right history politically, medically and morally too. As a dramatic device, the Prince is a great character to show how things have gone very wrong. 

In the mix is some bizarre science lectures that I could have happily have done without and poor Nyssa and Dega were forced to try and explain the science of the Cybermen. I think Barnes has toned down Gerry Davis' weird science and if this is the watered down version I can only imagine how the original synopsis read. 'That's the most unscientific thing I've ever heard' says Nyssa to the Doctor at the climax, and I like to think that is Barnes talking to Davis. 

Huge kudos to director David O'Mahony, who has proven to be quite a find in recent years (his execution of Goth Opera was outstanding too) who seems to approach each story as if it is the most important Doctor Who story of all time and not just a throwaway piece of ephemera. I think once you have been with the company for some time a feeling of complacency can set in but there is no sign of that here. The big moments in the story (such as discovering the planet is Mondas, the Prince forcing the Doctor into the future and emergence of the Cybermen themselves) are given huge weight by fantastic David Roocroft score and the performances are all energetic and steeped in the best kind of melodrama. All of the regulars are in fine form and Barnes gives them all authentic, witty things to say and moments when each of their strengths come to the fore. Huge kudos for the musical reminder of the last Gerry Davis contribution, Revenge of the Cybermen, in the last episode when the Cybermen are on the attack. 

Ultimately the story has to head for The Tenth Planet and when we first met them and so there can't be any great surprises at the climax but it still has a pleasing race against time suspense to try and stop that happening and we go via one of the better self sacrifices I've heard in a while. Meta is absolutely bonkers in all the best ways. Bravo Kelly Price.  

I went in expecting an inferior version of Spare Parts and came out with an alternative version, which is quite a shift in perception. The weaker parts of this story are Barnes trying to make Davis' mundane story work but at its best it captures that Spare Parts feeling of the future catching up with the people of Mondas and them not being able to escape it. The fact that he manages to conjure great set pieces, some wonderful characterisation of the regulars and a sweeping sense of dread is all to his credit. This was far more exciting and enjoyable than I was expecting: 8/10

The Robots Volume Three

 

The Mystery of Sector 13 written by Robert Whitelock and directed by Louise Jameson 

The Robots seems to be following the rule of most series, be it television or audio, where they begin with a bumpy first volume that shows promise, things ratchet up in volume two and then with the confidence of the base blocks of the range in place the third series begins to reap the rewards. If that's not the case and I've made that tradition up then The Robots is certainly on much surer footing in its third outing with some standout writing, direction and performances and a greater consistency of quality. This is the most Liv and Tula heavy story of the year and it wisely splits them up and lets them attack their separate investigations with their own unique talents. This is how you follow up on the promise of an exciting cliffhanger. Liv promised to investigate the corruption behind the scenes on Kaldor at the end of the previous volume and she is living up to that, albeit with some time having passed (it's exactly the sort of thing Big Finish often gets wrong - remember when the Doctor suggested he was on the trail of Rassilon in The Twilight Kingdom and that isn't followed up until four stories later in the Divergent Universe arc?). Louise Jameson steps on board to direct two stories this year and brings a fresh ear to the series with a stress on sound effects to create great moments of tension. There's a superb sequence at the start where lots of robots wrist alarms go off as medical emergencies start flooding in and Liv on the verge of discovering the secret underground is made all the more tense by the inclusion of a heartbeat-like alarm that pervades the closing scenes. I loved Liv teaming up with SV56 and their scenes have a wonderful banter that you can only get with a character who is commenting on the action with a knowing eye and a machine that cannot comprehend any of the humour - until it starts trying to be funny itself. The ultimate discovery is left open ended - you still don't understand the significance of the railway track under Kaldor at the end of this set but it has intriguing possibilities. Guy Falkes anyone? In the meantime Tula is discovering that all the Company mistakes we have seen catalogued in previous stories are being deleted from all records. I'm starting to get the impression that it doesn't matter if you're committing acts of terrorism for the Sons of Kaldor or covering up murders in the Company - whoever ultimate rules the City will be corrupt. Jon Culshaw arrives, and played a familiar sounding but very creepy character. More of him please. This really is starting to feel like a fully fleshed out world now: 8/10

Circuit Breaker written by Guy Adams and directed by Ken Bentley 

This is very dark indeed. It's a replay of the Toos & Poul story from last year but with much better dialogue, world building and a brilliant twist waiting to floor you. The more I explore the seedy underbelly of Kaldor, the less I am convinced this is as much of a utopia of the future as they tried to pass it off as in the first volume. It's certainly a much more engaging setting this way. We're down amongst the most poor, seeing just how they cope with their wretched day to day and indulge in some horrific roleplay in order to please themselves. Scenes of grown men acting out scenes with robots dressed up like their mothers telling them off should be hilariously terrible but played for real they come across as perversely, terrifyingly unnerving. Mummy why wouldn't you say you loved me, indeed. Add to this sinister business a murder investigation that Toos is trying to involve Poul in but he is reluctant because of his skin crawling robophobia and you have an episode that really strikes the right balance of sinister and revealing. Toos takes the back seat this time and we get rather deeper into Poul's insecurities than we have ever dared to go before and David Collings is more than up to the task of portraying his fears, his bravery and ultimately his deception. The twist that he is responsible for the 'murder' of the robots and has been using Ullman's theatre of cruelty to play out his fantasies of lashing out at the monstrosities comes at just the right point to floor the audience and Mark and I were looking at each other slack jawed. Bravo for taking such a frightening step with a much loved character. His actions in the last ten minutes leave me wondering where precisely we are going with him. More prestige casting in the form of Carolyn Seymour this time and although heavily accented (convincingly so), she delivers a humdinger of a performance playing the woman responsible for this nasty set up. Whether she is providing a form of therapy or merely accentuating peoples anxieties is left to the listener to decide. The creepiest story to date: 8/10

A Matter of Conscience written by Lisa McMullin and directed by Louise Jameson

This is a busy script and gets a little muddled at times but so much of what is being discussed is so interesting I can only really complain that it has a wealth of ideas and the lack of runtime to deal with them all. The idea of whether the Sons of Kaldor are terrorists of freedom fighters is raised and through the eyes of a brilliantly characterised new convert to the terror group we get to see why somebody might turn to violence to bring down the Company but also how they struggle with their conscience as they set to work setting explosives that have catastrophic effects. The moral compass swings between the Sons of Kaldor and the Company and both are seen here to be behaving in appalling ways and that whoever wins this struggle might be the lesser (or greater) of two evils. Then there is the whole business of Tarkov (from the first story of this set) and the bravura performance of Jon Culshaw who single-handed takes the insane and could-have-been-ridiculous twist about his character being the return of a familiar face and makes it work due to his superb studying of the original actors vocal mannerisms. He utterly convinces in the role, but with this unnerving spin on him it isn't just the return of an old face but pushing him in an intriguing new direction. Let's take a step back from the story for a second and look at the creators of this release. With Lisa McMullin writing, Louise Jameson directing and Nicola Walker and Clare Rushbrook in the central roles you have an all female major creative team and whilst it has taken a long, long time for Big Finish to get there, the results of doing so are a consistently thoughtful and exciting piece of work. McMullin delivers her most enjoyable script to date with lots of fascinating plots to juggle and the story rounds off in an enticing fashion with hints of an actual sequel to Robots of Death to come. It pleases me that they have waited until this range has developed an identity of its own before going there. This story proves that it has achieved that, and then some: 8/10

A confident volume; dark and insidious and very entertaining. Salivating for more. 

The Robots Volume Two

 

Robots of War written by Roland Moore and directed by Ken Bentley

Interestingly, this is exactly what I thought I would be going to get with the first series of The Robots. Our heroes trapped in a claustrophobic setting with Robots trying to kill them. So kudos to the creators for waiting until the fourth story to do an action piece that feels like Robots of Death and by this point less introspection and more excitement feels earned. I'm also getting more of a feeling of Kaldor, which was one of my wishes coming out of series one and this trip to a military installation helps to add another dimension to Liv's home. I'm not at all sure about the hierarchy protocol that is activated and means that everybody on the base is disposable leaving Liv and Tula fighting for their lives. Who on Earth thought that a protocol that insists on the murder of everybody because one person might be a traitor amongst them was a smart idea? The more I learn about The Company, the more eccentric their outlook is. There's hints of this series tying into both the eighth and fourth Doctor ranges too, with previous trips to Kaldor being mentioned and elements of those stories being tied into this narrative. Ultimately this is a big runaround to get the second series started with some particularly great robot voices that continue to terrify me because they so calmly and casually and politely inform people that they are going to be killed. There's something about a murderer with such good manners that terrifies me. Enjoyable, but I'm still waiting for the out and out classic that makes me want to shout from the rooftops about this range: 7/10 

Toos and Poul written by Andrew Smith and directed by Ken Bentley 

Andrew Smith is such an odd writer. I don't think he ever writes anything bad and his intentions are always there to provide entertainment and insight into his chosen characters. But I rarely think his dialogue sparkles, his plots tend to simmer rather than boil and I cannot think of a time where he has surprised despite his prolific Big Finish output. This is one of his better scripts in terms of character and he has the extreme good fortune to be assigned to the story that features the return of Toos and Poul to the fold and not content with relying on the audience being thrilled at the fact he has a great stab at catching us up with their lives and relationship since the Sandminer incident. The best thing here is their relationship, which has continued beyond Robots of Death; Poul dealing with his robophobia in an enforced way in order to help with this investigation and Toos refusing to give up on her friend despite him trying to walk away. It helps that Pamela Salem and David Collings are saying the words, they truly convince  in their reprised roles and you don't for a second miss Nicola Walker or Clare Rushbrook because they are such engaging actors. It's a good thing the character insight is so strong because the murder mystery (with a suspect pool of two) is barely adequate; it lacks suspense and the answers that spill are obvious and a bit underwhelming. More insight into Kaldor though, with a chance to get outside the city and see the view on robots from people who aren't dependant on them. If the mystery had been better structured and the murderer reveal had had some kind of impact this would have really shone. The last scene as good as says this wasn't the main reason Toos called on Poul, it was just side issue before they could get to the important stuff. Bring back Toos & Poul, just give them a more substantial story to lead next time: 7/10

Do No Harm written by Sarah Grochala and directed by Ken Bentley

A terrific end to the volume with a script that has a brilliant idea at its heart and doesn't run out of steam right up until the final moments. If you would have told me that a courtroom drama presided over by a robot judge and with a robot defendant in the dock would be the best story of the entire series to date I probably would have laughed in your face. Because Grochala structures the story with the courtcase and the actual events running concurrently there is huge suspense in listening to the story unfold. Who is doctoring the evidence? Did a robot murder 700 people for the greater good? Was it acting against its programming for a sinister organisation. The episode refuses to end up quite where you think it is going to go (I asked Mark to pause it to give him my theory of why the Company was behind it all and all tied into some marketing scheme of a new kind of AI and of course I was completely wrong) and it ends with both a surprising verdict that made me gasp out loud and a brilliant final speech from the robot about humanity's failings. You get a sense of a city that is tearing itself apart, anti-robot feeling is fuelled by the courtcase and the Sons of Kaldor are stirring the pot. Liv works well in the unlikely role of a makeshift lawyer and the story works brilliantly because despite the fact it is an emotionless automaton you have huge sympathy for the robot being accused of murder. I have been so impressed by all the robot characters so far and just how easy it is for me personify them. The only serious complaint is the use of the last minute witness to throw new light on the case but that is such a well trodden cliché of this type of story it might feel odd if they hadn't shown up. There's loose ends to tie us into the next series (I guess that is always going to be the case) but for now this is a great example of how keep this series engaging. Let's go for volume three: 9/10

The Robots Series One

 

The Robots of Life written by Roland Moore and directed by Ken Bentley

An oddly jazzy theme tune for such an introverted series that focuses on uncanny valley over action - I was half expect a robot army to come marching over the hill when this opened with militaristic drums. It caught on mind, I was humming it to myself by the end of the third episode. This is a competent opener that does everything that it needs to do without making great waves. Liv is back on Kaldor, we're introduced to her sister, she gets a job, embroiled in a mystery and it brings to light some strange goings on with the robots. I haven't explored the Kaldor City audios and so I can't really compare the two but the potential here comes from Nicola Walker and Claire Rushbrook; believable as sisters and actually driving stories because of their jobs as medics and technicians and the stress on the psychology of the robots and how they affect the people around them - which was the scariest aspect of The Robots of Death. The actual investigation here - the elderly medic murdering people by mistake and blaming it on a robot - is serviceable without ever being particularly riveting. Would it entice me to seek out more if I hadn't already bought the set? Doubtful, but it lays plenty of seeds invisibly that will be picked up later which means sticking with the series reaps rewards: 6/10 

The Sentient written by Robert Whitelock and directed by Ken Bentley 

Much better! This is exactly what I thought I would be going to get from a series called The Robots - freaky as fuck facsimile people behaving in an awkwardly naturalistic way. Vissey is a brilliant creation and played to perfection by Venice Van Someren. The early scenes of her role play sessions with Til are the creepiest of the year. She's played like a little girl, but she's capable of learning and adapting, of striking out, of taking control of situations and forcing conversations about class war and genocide. The fact that the voice is so saccharine is what makes her so frightening. There's a disconnect between how she sounds and how she is behaving and it is really uncomfortable to listen to. I loved the realisation of her scenes in the mediaweb too - chatting happily with other artificial lifeforms in the robot equivalent of social media. At first Liv & Tula feel a little surplus to requirements but they take on a very important role towards the end of the episode where they effectively have to save the whole city. That's where this falls apart for me; Vissey is uncomfortable to listen to those early scenes because she is so benign but once she becomes a super villain that wants to poison the entire population all subtlety is lost. A shame, I can see real potential in keeping her around and playing the long game with an sickly sweet AI that can learn and best it's creators. Props to Jaye Griffiths who does stellar work as Vissey's creator. There's an uncomfortable running theme of robots taking the place of human beings in peoples affections that will really come to fruition in the next episode. I was gripped for the first 30 minutes, less so for the climax. More like this please, I enjoy being put on edge like this: 8/10

Love Me Not written by John Dorney and directed by Ken Bentley 

What would you do if you lost your partner and somebody sent a ready made and reprogrammable robot round to help you with the grieving process? I think you know where I am going with this and instead of ending this set on a big, bold noisy Big Finish spectacular, John Dorney instead opts for a touching and intimate look at what you are capable of when you are grieving. I was constantly caught between thinking that Volar was very disturbed in indulging in his make believe home with his fake dead wife and asking myself if I would do anything different if I was in that situation. It's the sort of domestic affair that you can get into with a science fiction angle when you aren't stuck within the rules of Doctor Who and it plays out very convincingly. I really liked how Liv & Tula refused to pity him but instead peel away his layers of deception and try and help him. There's a soapy subplot about a possible affair between Skellen and Jadar that doesn't really go anywhere and it takes a long to get all the characters into Volar's house and exposing his make believe family but when you are there it is butt clenching time again as everybody plays along for a bit and you are waiting for somebody (anybody) to drop the bomb and say 'your dead wife is a robot!' I thought the interaction between the Chenka sisters was much punchier here too, benefitting from Dorney's ear for funny lines. The whole thing rounds off pretty quietly and I was wondering where the series goes from here after three relatively contained character pieces but there is a dangling carrot at the end as a familiar face from Robots of Death turns up to suggest that there is some mileage yet in the idea of sentient robots: 7/10

I went into this set wondering what it would have to offer me. I'm not too keen on Liv Chenka at the best of times - Walker is a great actress but is often given leaden characterisation in her Doctor Who stories - and a series about robots (it's what's on the tin!) rather than people wasn't going to grab my attention. What surprised me were the creepier scenes in this set that left me feeling weirded out because Big Finish is so neutered these days in it's everything through Cardiff that I didn't think it could get under my skin like this anymore. What I would like to see going forward is a better sense of Kaldor itself. Because of the nature of these stories we only really visit a few houses, a hospital and robot facilities and handful of characters. Kaldor was never seen in Robots of Death but it was painted with such vivid detail, far more detail than they manage here in three hours. I'm definitely up for more though. Despite my reservations, the robot characters are fantastic. And Walker is far more palatable divorced from Doctor Who. Go figure.