A new race of Cybermen has arrived in Scotland…

Think back to the heady days of summer 2005 and the end of Christopher Eccleston’s season as the Doctor. We got a spectacle that had previously been confined to the realms of comic strips or fan fiction – thousands of Dalek ships descending on Earth. If we weren’t convinced already, it was clear that this new Doctor Who was being told on a much wider canvas than before. For this first season finale of the Eccleston audio adventures Roy Gill gives us an equally epic tale, as a legion of Cybermen comes forth from the Forth Bridge under the guidance of one of their Mondasian forbears.

Gill juggles the various elements – internal conflict for the Cybermen, the fate of Sam Bishop’s girlfriend Fiona, the Doctor trying to find a way to avoid conflict if he can, the Brigadier and Sam facing peril, and much more – with deceptive ease. The plotting is carefully done – there are so many moving pieces here that the whole edifice could easily collapse, but it doesn’t, and there’s plenty of room for some strong moments of characterisation. Eccleston, Jon Culshaw and Warren Brown show us different sides to their long established characters, while Elinor Lawless gives us a very unusual addition to the roster who I hope makes a return (there’s one hell of a dangling thread there which I don’t believe for a second has been overlooked).

Verdict: I’m delighted we’re getting another run of adventures for the Ninth Doctor after this, but even if Eccleston had decided that this would be another one and done, we’ve had a chance to hear him present different aspects of his Doctor. This particular adventure is a good capstone to that first year. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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