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Spare Parts

july 2002

(4 EPISODES)

Ever since they first appeared in William Hartnell’s swansong, The Tenth Planet, how the Cybermen came to be has been one of Doctor Who’s most tormenting questions. Those who grew up reading Target’s novelisations of early Doctor Who stories were told a parable-like tale about the technologically advanced people of the planet Telos who replaced their body parts with metal and plastic, only to lose their very souls; viewers of monochrome Cybermen television serials, conversely, were fed an equally romantic fable about the inhabitants of Earth’s long-lost twin planet, Mondas, being forced to fuse man with machine when their world broke out of its orbit. Spare Parts sees peerless world-builder Marc Platt turn his attentions away from ancient Gallifreyan lore and finally set the Cyber-record straight –at long last, Genesis of the Daleks has its Cyber-counterpart.

It came as little surprise to me that Spare Parts adheres to the televised version of Cyber history, as opposed to Target’s inexplicably skewed take on it, but what did astonish me was Platt’s literal interpretation of Mondas’s “twin planet” standing. Mondas is exactly like Earth, right down to its picture houses and regional dialects. How this improbable state of affairs came to be isn’t broached by the script, but if you can swallow its truth, then Spare Parts takes on a terrifying intimacy that even Terry Nation’s hitherto-unrivalled Genesis of the Daleks lacked. The Kaleds that Nation introduced us to were a warlike and largely unsympathetic bunch; quislings and bigots all. The people that populate Platt’s Mondas, however, are just like us. Naturally, there are crooks, busybodies and even wayward teens amongst them, but there is not a single character who you’d brand as evil. Even Doctorman Alan, who is for all intents and purposes the creator of the Cybermen, is merely a misguided alcoholic who’s doing her best to ensure that her people live on.

It is this sense of familiarity that makes Spare Parts such a shattering piece of work. Told from the perspective of a native family and an oddly affable body parts dealer, the listener experiences Mondas at street level. Platt’s characterisation is exquisite as he paints a picture of a haggard black marketer; a doting but careworn father; an angsty, propaganda-indoctrinated son; and a lovely, compassionate daughter who only wants to make her family proud. For me, Yvonne Hartley’s return home after botched conversation is without a doubt the most moving moment in the play -she calls out to her brother and father in a clipped, cybernetic voice redolent of 1960s’ Cybermen as her spirit ebbs into the ether, a pseudo-synthetic distortion of the kind young woman that she was. I couldn’t possibly praise the performances of Paul Copley and Kathryn Guck enough – they are truly heartbreaking under the harsh glare of Spare Parts’ typifying father and daughter floodlight.

“Spoiler alert,” I hear you cry, but it isn’t; that’s the beauty of it. Spare Parts is effectively spoiler-proof as everybody knows exactly what’s coming – especially the Doctor and Nyssa. The Doctor of this story has no agenda beyond trying to help the people of Mondas to help themselves – the tragedy is that he knows he can’t. Mondas is frozen, its people forced to live underground. They have no star to draw to draw power from. The only way that they can eat is to grind up the bones of their dead. As primitive Cybermen roam the freezing, subterranean streets astride augmented horses, rounding up what remains of the populous for mass conversion, the Doctor knows in his hearts that there is only future for the Mondasians, and it will smother their faces in cloth and replace their hearts with plastic. Naturally, Platt has to tease listeners with the notion that somehow the Doctor can make a difference here, using the Time Lord’s raw grief over Adric’s death at the hands of the silver giants to plausibly push him towards breaking – or, least, bending – the laws of time, but ultimately the Doctor can only become an involuntary part of events in the most cruel of fashions.

Spare Parts is an exquisite fusion of inexorable tragedy and meticulous fan service that is sure to sate many a long-held hunger. From its script to its performances to its superlative, evocative sound design, this is a work of such scrupulous quality that I can’t see how Big Finish will ever surpass it.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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