| Big Finish Productions audio play | |
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| Spare Parts | |
|---|---|
| Series | Doctor Who |
| Release number | 34 |
| Featuring | Fifth Doctor, Nyssa |
| Writer | Marc Platt |
| Director | Gary Russell |
| Producer(s) | Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery |
| Executive producer(s) | Jacqueline Rayner |
| Production code | 6CE |
| Set between | Primeval and Creatures of Beauty |
| Release date | July 2002 |
Spare Parts is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. As with all spin-off media, the canonicity of this Doctor Who audio in relation to the television programme is unclear. Spare Parts was partially adapted into the television episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" although, in actuality, the two stories bear little resemblance to each other.
Contents |
Plot
On the planet Mondas, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa discover the origins of the Cybermen, but as with the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks, he dares not interfere with history by preventing their creation.
Cast
- The Doctor — Peter Davison
- Nyssa — Sarah Sutton
- Yvonne Hartley — Kathryn Guck
- Dad — Paul Copley
- Thomas Dodd — Derren Nesbitt
- Sisterman Constant — Pamela Binns
- Frank Hartley — Jim Hartley
- Mrs Ginsberg — Ann Jenkins
- Doctorman Allan — Sally Knyvette
- Zheng — Nicholas Briggs
Notes
- Spare Parts reveals how the Cybermen came to be, plus information about Gallifreyan physiology. It also reveals why Mondas had a propulsion system built on its surface (as mentioned in Attack of the Cybermen).
- In his introduction to Big Finish: The Inside Story, Russell T. Davies called this story (along with The Holy Terror) "some of the finest drama ever written for any genre, in any medium, anywhere".
- Doctor Who Magazine #368 confirmed that the two-part story "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" was inspired by this story, and that Marc Platt received a fee for the reused story elements; he was credited in the programme's end titles. However, writer Tom MacRae noted that his television story was not a simple rewrite of Spare Parts: "My story isn't the same — it's got a different setting, different themes, and different characters, cos once we started talking, the whole thing developed in a very different direction. But as Russell says, we wouldn't have started this whole line of thinking if he hadn't heard Spare Parts in the first place." Spare Parts takes place on the Mondas of our universe, rather than the parallel Earth of "Rise of the Cybermen", and the two stories feature two entirely separate races of Cybermen.
- Actor Derren Nesbitt previously appeared in the 1964 First Doctor serial Marco Polo, as the villainous warlord Tegana.
- Commander Zheng returns for a brief cameo in the Sixth Doctor audio drama The Reaping.
External links
Reviews
- Spare Parts reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Spare Parts reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
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| The Sirens of Time • Phantasmagoria • The Land of the Dead • Red Dawn • Winter for the Adept • The Mutant Phase • Loups-Garoux • The Eye of the Scorpion • Primeval • Excelis Dawns • Spare Parts • The Church and the Crown • No Place Like Home • Nekromanteia • Creatures of Beauty • Omega • Zagreus • The Axis of Insanity • The Roof of the World • The Game • Three's a Crowd • The Council of Nicaea • Singularity • The Kingmaker • The Gathering • Circular Time • Renaissance of the Daleks • Exotron & Urban Myths • Son of the Dragon • The Mind's Eye & Mission of the Viyrans • Return to the Web Planet • The Bride of Peladon • The Haunting of Thomas Brewster |
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| Third Doctor | The Blue Tooth |
| Fifth Doctor | Spare Parts • The Gathering |
| Sixth Doctor | Real Time • The Reaping |
| Seventh Doctor | The Harvest |
| Eighth Doctor | Sword of Orion • Human Resources • The Girl Who Never Was |
| Bernice Summerfield | Silver Lining • The Crystal of Cantus |
| Cyberman | Scorpius • Fear • Conversion • Telos |
