Spare Parts [Doctor Who, Diversion 31]

Spare Parts by Marc Platt
31 July 2002

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There's a certain group among the early Big Finish stories that everyone has mutually agreed are absolute masterpieces. There was a vital energy in these days which seems to have gone out of Big Finish now, but this hasn't changed the fact that some of these audios stand among the very best Doctor Who stories of any medium.

Spare Parts is a magnificent idea, and slots into a very vital spot in the Fifth Doctor's life, between Seasons 19 and 20. When listened to fresh off the heels of Earthshock, its aura of grief and misery is amplified greatly. That atmosphere of cold darkness and inevitability hangs over the whole story like a pall, leaving the informed listener with no doubt about where the story is ending.

Until it ends somewhere you don't quite expect, with the Mondasians seemingly set to undo the worst of the Cyberman work and infuse some humanity into the project... only for that rug pull to come in at the last moment, like a kick in the balls. It's expertly done.

The Doctor and Nyssa both get some pretty meaty stuff in this story, and understandably the topic of Adric features prominently. Their conversation about him in the TARDIS is poignant, and feels like an after the fact sort of apology for the show brushing past the event so quickly. The guilt weighing on both of the characters for that incident is palpable, and makes their efforts to stop the Cybermen carry more gravitas.

Without Adric or Tegan around, Nyssa gets a lot more opportunities to do the companion thing, and has a lot of great character moments as a result. This is slowly cementing my opinion that she is my favorite out of this companion crop, but I will have to see more of her in the show to solidify that opinion.

Peter Davison makes the most of this weighty material too, and his version of the Doctor shines through, especially in the moments where he is being forced to aid in the creation of the Cybermen - a dramatic irony that really adds onto the desperate air of the whole story.

I'm gratified to get a story that once again plays on the post-modern Prometheus origins of the Cybermen, as you're probably already aware from my moaning over the fact that they did them better in the Sixties the last couple times the silver giants popped up. There are some great moments to that effect in this story, including the girl coming home from Christmas and the mental image of the Cyberman patrolling atop his Cyberhorse.

Fantastic stuff, and rewarding on a repeat listen, as this one was for me. Back to television again, finally, with Arc of Infinity next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 18 August 2023.)