In Review: Big Finish: Doctor Who: Last of the Cybermen

Synopsis: It’s been ten years since the final assault on Telos, the last act of the Great Cyber War. Thanks to the Glittergun, humanity prevailed – and the half-machine Cybermen were utterly obliterated.

Out on the furthest fringes of the galaxy, however, they left their mark – in the form of a giant Cyber-head, hundreds of feet high. A monument? A memorial? A tomb? The Doctor, the Cybermen’s most indefatigable adversary, sets out to investigate… but he fails to return to his TARDIS. Leaving the Ship, his two companions – brave Highlander Jamie MacCrimmon, and super-intelligent Zoe Heriot – find a stranger in the Doctor’s place. A stranger in a coat of many colours, who insists that he’s the Doctor – transposed in time and space with one of his former selves…

But why here? Why now? Has the universe really seen the last of the Cybermen..?

Review: Alan Barnes constructed a marvelous script for the second installment of the “Locum Doctors” trilogy. Setting the story between “The Invasion” and “Revenge of the Cybermen,” Barnes perfectly captured Jamie and Zoe. Indeed, Jamie and Zoe were the crux of the tale. The strength, tenderness, and poignancy of the two Classic Who companions shown through as the friends navigated the time loop they found themselves and an unfamiliar Doctor within. This is the story I wish we had gotten instead of “The Two Doctors.”

As ever, Colin Baker, Frazer Hines, and Wendy Padbury were superb in their roles. I excitedly await the final chapter in this intriguing narrative, which their colleagues at Big Finish will release next month.

You can purchase “Last of the Cybermen” here: http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/last-of-the-cybermen-871

Written By: Alan Barnes

Directed By: Barnaby Edwards

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Lucy Liemann (Zennox), Kieran Hodgson (Findel), Nicholas Farrell (Captain Frank), Nicholas Briggs (Cybermen)