We’re hitting the 40th anniversary today; both momentous in itself, but also for what happened during that year, when in the corridors of power at the Beeb, a great decision was made. But before that, let's look at a story that, though only on audio, has profoundly influenced one of the series’ star monsters.
Year 39: 2001 to 2002 - Spare Parts
The idea for a “Genesis of the Cybermen” had been around for quite a while whilst the TV series was on. Gerry Davis, the original co-creator of them, did have a full pitch back in the day, which you can read in the David Banks’ Cybermen book. Also, in the DWM comic The World Shapers by Grant Morrison (!), it had the rather bonkers idea that the Cybermen were originally the Voord from The Keys of Marinus. (!!!). But in 2002, we got this story from Marc Platt, who wrote Ghost Light in the TV series, a take on their origins that feels very true to their original conception in The Tenth Planet, right down to Nick Briggs doing their original sing-song style voices.
Now of course a story like this is going to be compared to Genesis of the Daleks, and Platt definitely seems to have been aware of this, so it does quite a few things very differently. For example, the main scientist behind the Cyberman program, Doctorman Allan, is as far from Davros as you can get, being a hard drinking, bitter type, who’s just trying to make sure Mondas and its people live a few days more. Also, Genesis made as overt as possible the allegory between the Daleks and the Nazis. Well for many years a few people have seen some communist parallels with the Cybermen, so Spare Parts leans into this hard; the set up of Mondas with its central Committee are very Soviet Union, especially in terms of the level of poverty. I have often thought the Cybermen/commies thing was a bit of a stretch, but it certainly works well here. But I think the biggest point of difference is that in Spare Parts, we see how all this affects normal people. I have little idea what an “Average working Joe” amongst the Kaleds is like, but in here, we focus on a small family in the midst of the whole thing… which makes what happens to them so much more tragic.
There's a lot more I could talk about, including the smart move of making this a Fifth Doctor and Nyssa story, with the events of Earthshock a relatively fresh wound for them, but you get the idea that this is a very well remembered story for good reason. It has had quite the influence; just as Genesis changed how the Daleks were written going forward, so did this with the Cybermen, and definitely for the better. When they were brought back in the Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel two parter, they didn't adapt this story as such, but they did take some pointers, which is why Marc Platt gets an acknowledgement in the credits. Also, New Who did do it's own take on a Cyberorigin with Capaldi’s final two partner, however they had that good touch where the Doctor pretty much implies that Spare Parts is still canon, it hasn't been contradicted. (It even name checks Marinus too, so CyberVoord are still a thing I guess.). Again, it's three quid for a download, listen to it if you haven't already, it's a sad but bold piece of work.
Year 40: 2002 to 2003 - The announcement of the return
Now there is a lot during this 40th anniversary year I could have picked from. The DWM comic strip did some fine stuff, including a moment that RTD was really jealous that he got beaten too. Big Finish were going from strength to strength, with stories such as Jubilee, Doctor Who and the Pirates, Davros. Plus we got news of a new animated webcast, Scream of the Shalka, which would star Richard E. Grant as the Doctor. But overall, there really could be only one thing I could pick, and that was on the 26th of September, when we got the news that the show was coming back.
This was huge; at that point we were coming up to the fourteenth anniversary of Survival, the possibility of it properly returning did seem pretty remote. A lot of us had kind of already adjusted to Doctor Who just being the books, the comics, the audios from that point on, and we could have been happy with that. But in this year, we suddenly knew the show had a future. I have to admit to being a bit more trepidacious myself; I remembered the last time a notable SF property had returned sixteen years since the last installment, and look how that turned out. But I still had to be glad that the Beeb was properly giving it a shot, after the weird relationship it had with the show for so long. And you know what? I was right to be excited.
On this note, here's a fun fact for you; the Wilderness Years, if we go from the broadcast of Survival part three, to the broadcast of Rose lasted fifteen years, four months, three days. Which means that, as of the 15th of August 2020, the show has been back for longer than it was away. I guess Doctor Who fans should know better than most that times change.
Next time, we have a finale for the Eighth Doctor in one medium, and the dawn of New Who…
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