Put your Spare Parts aside for a moment, along with Series 10’s World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. We are about to delve into the original – you might say – storyline of the Genesis of the Cybermen, by Gerry Davis, which he submitted to the BBC in the early 1980s. Now adapted into a full-cast audio drama, by David K Barnes, this retooled version features the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse).
Yes, you will definitely be in for an Earthshock, as Adric was tragically killed off in the penultimate Season 19 serial. Despite both stories contradicting each other, it’s safe to say that the outcomes of Genesis are drastically different, with the origin story itself existing in a separate timeline (you can read more about it in Vortex 192). And to quote Russell T Davies in his introduction to Doctor Who and the Time War, “All stories are true.”
Maintaining faithfulness to Gerry’s outline, the Lost Stories adaptation involves Prince Sylvan (Nuhazet Diaz Cano) wishing to pursue a career in the arts, despite being heir to the throne, whereas his younger brother Prince Dega (Michael Abubakar) is driven by science and technology in order to save the kingdom’s dying inhabitants. But, to the Doctor’s horror, this is none other than Earth’s twin orbiting planet, Mondas. The consequences become deadly when Sylvan ends up travelling many years into the future with the TARDIS crew, where King Dega (Colin Tierney) is now ruler and the Mondasian Cybermen (voiced by Nicholas Briggs) are on the rise; leaving behind Meta (Evie Ward-Drummond) who has become Dega’s wife and Queen (Kelly Price).
Unlike last year’s Operation Werewolf, I never thought Genesis of the Cybermen would end up getting the Big Finish treatment. But I was pleasantly surprised when they announced it last October, despite not having read the original outline as published in the 1988 reference book Cybermen, written by the “Excellent!” David Banks (best known for portraying the Cyber-Leader). And it definitely didn’t disappoint upon release, especially having the Season 19 companions instead of “Felicity” who was deemed too generic.
I love how Barnes’ script explores the characters and themes with a substantial range of thrills, emotional weight, and scariness. It doesn’t erase the acclaimed Spare Parts, which later became the inspiration for Series 2’s Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel (with Peter Davison’s future son-in-law David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor), especially the Harold Saxon Master sneakily dropping the title in World Enough and Time (thank you, John Simm!) with the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) brilliantly pointing out “parallel evolution” in The Doctor Falls. Come to think of it, you can also spot the Mondasian colony ship from the Series 10 finale, plus several Cyber-ships from Series 6’s A Good Man Goes to War, in Sean Longmore’s glorious cover artwork.
“They always get started. They happen everywhere there’s people. Mondas, Telos, Earth, Planet 14, Marinus. Like sewage and smartphones and Donald Trump, some things are just inevitable.
“People get the Cybermen wrong. There’s no evil plan, no evil genius. Just parallel evolution.”
Out of all the designs, I always found the original Mondasian Cybermen to be extremely terrifying, mainly in their debut serial, The Tenth Planet. Not the camp sing-song voices, which sound weirdly hilarious, I honestly can’t bear to look at their visible organic eyes behind the cloth face masks (especially when they blink). Talking of which, I personally would’ve preferred it if Genesis had used the exact same vocal modulation from either Spare Parts or the Series 10 finale, rather than sounding more akin to the Cybus variant, but I’m pleased that Nick Briggs retained the sing-song style.
If bringing Gerry Davis’ original ideas to life wasn’t enough, there’s also David Roocroft’s electronic scores giving nostalgic ’80s vibes, with a few excerpts of Malcolm Clarke’s incidental music from Earthshock. Lovely homage! The same goes for Lee Adams providing his magnificently crafted sound design, plus the RTD1 era Cyber-conversion sound effects which added a nice touch.
Overall, Genesis of the Cybermen is an incredibly fresh take on Gerry Davis’ original outline, which indeed exceeded my expectations. A stark contrast to Spare Parts, in a positive sense, which exists in its own continuity (whilst acting as a prequel to The Tenth Planet, as Gerry always intended). Definitely a Lost Stories audio that I would highly recommend to Doctor Who fans, new and old alike!
Genesis of the Cybermen is available now from Big Finish.
