I’m greatly anticipating Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. I’ve been perusing official set pictures of Twelve with Cybermen and listening to an official promo apparently featuring Davros. While waiting for the new season of Doctor Who to begin, I’ve also been reviewing wonderful Big Finish Doctor Who audios for SciFi Pulse. While reviewing current titles, it came to my attention that two early audios set the stage for the current interpretations of the Daleks and the Cybermen…
So thought why not take a look at them for the new generation of Doctor Who fan that may want to explore them at a future date.
Title: Jubilee
Synopsis: The story that became ‘Dalek’ on TV. Although the televised episode in 2005 (starring Christopher Eccleston) ended up being very different in many important ways, this is the core of the idea that Russell T. Davies wanted writer Rob Shearman to develop. Find out how it all started…
Hurrah! The deadly Daleks are back! Yes, those loveable tinpot tyrants have another plan to invade our world. Maybe this time because they want to drill to the Earth’s core. Or maybe because they just feel like it.??And when those pesky pepperpots are in town, there is one thing you can be sure of. There will be non-stop, high octane mayhem in store. And plenty of exterminations!??But never fear. The Doctor is on hand to sort them out. Defender of the Earth, saviour of us all. With his beautiful assistant, Evelyn Smythe, by his side, he will fight once again to uphold the beliefs of the English Empire. All hail the glorious English Empire!??Now that sounds like a jubilee worth celebrating, does it not?
Written By: Robert Shearman?Directed By: Nicholas Briggs and Robert Shearman
Starring: Colin Baker and Maggie Stables
Screen Adaptation: Robert Shearman altered the context of the story. “Jubilee” featured an alternate timeline created by Dalek invasion in 1903. In 2003, one Dalek remained and the Jubilee of the title was the 100th anniversary of Humanity’s triumph over the Daleks with the Sixth Doctor’s help. The Sixth Doctor became the Ninth Doctor and a post-invasion story became a post-Time War story. In both, the one remaining Dalek was tortured, offering commentary on its captors and itself. In both, the Doctor was forced to examine himself. The fundamental difference in the screen version was thematic exploration. Shearman excised most of the thematic depth in Jubilee, due to time constraints and the fact that the BBC was courting a new audience. He took out commentary on fame, politics, history, merchandizing, law, gender equality, and perceptions of good and evil. He had no choice, there just wasn’t enough room for all of that in a 45-minute episode that reintroduced the Daleks for the first time since the Classic series.
You can buy “Jubilee” at www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/jubilee-206
Title: Spare Parts
Synopsis: The story of the genesis of the Cybermen. One of our listeners’ favourite releases. Dark, moving and terrifying…
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, around tea-time, the Doctor and Nyssa unearth a black market in second-hand body parts and run the gauntlet of augmented police and their augmented horses.
And just between the tramstop and the picturehouse, their worst suspicions are confirmed: the Cybermen have only just begun, and the Doctor will be, just as he always has been, their saviour…
Written By: Marc Platt?Directed By: Gary Russell
Starring: Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton
Screen Adaptation: “Spare Parts” was the basis for the Season Two two-part story “Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel.” Tom MacRae penned a script in which the Fifth Doctor became the Tenth Doctor. Additionally, the Cybermen’s dying home world, Mondas, became a parallel Earth. Again, the changes were made to minimize exposition for the new audience. However, I feel “Spare Parts” had greater thematic power. People turning themselves into cyborgs, because they’re facing imminent extinction created greater pathos than people turning themselves into cyborgs out of an abstract fear of death and one man’s quest for totalitarianism.
You can buy “Spare Parts” at www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/spare-parts-200
Written By: Raissa Devereux
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