Mankind is fighting a long and costly war with its android creations in the Orion System. The deadlock must be broken.
1 Comment
Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 8:52 PM
CYBERMAN: SCORPIUS
With three Dalek Empire series in the book at the time, it was unsurprising that Big Finish would turn to Doctor Who’s other iconic monster, the Cybermen, for a miniseries release of their own. Much like Dalek Empire, Nicholas Briggs is again in charge of everything — and the backstory to this series can be found in Briggs’ own Doctor Who release “Sword of Orion.” “Scorpius” is an introduction to the “Cyberman” universe: it establishes the war between humans and androids in the Orion system, shows that the war isn’t going particularly well for Earth, and introduces (presumably) the major players. There’s a clear parallel here with the Iraq war — an initially-popular conflict expected to last a year at most degenerating into a wildly unpopular campaign with casualties on the rise — and the motives behind the conflict are equally unclear. There’s talk of humanity “defending its way of life” — which should sound familiar — but it’s also clear that Earth initiated hostilities, and it’ll be interesting to hear if this develops.
This first story follows Karen Brett (Sarah Mowat, much improved over Dalek Empire), an Earth admiral, as she rapidly advances upward until she becomes President of Earth. Her advancement is controlled behind the scenes by Scorpius — a mysterious organization quickly revealed to be under the control of the Cybermen — as all those in front of her are killed or otherwise removed. This includes one particularly surprising scene in which Cybermen march right into the Presidential palace and assassinate the President, one of several well-directed set pieces throughout the play. It’s all setup, of course, so we don’t know the Cyber-plan, but they clearly have domination on their minds. I’ve seen other reviews draw attention to similarities between this play and the Dalek Empire series, and this is certainly true: the future-historical period seems similar, the bad guys have a secret plot to which the lead character (played by Sarah Mowat) is uniquely suited, etc. Fortunately, the material is gripping enough to forestall any concerns for now. The voiceover narration is an interesting creative choice, also similar to Dalek Empire, but I’m not sure if it works.
Briggs does his own sound design and direction, and it’s all very good: the pace flags at the conclusion, but there’s never any confusion and the senes of place is always strong. The score, also by Briggs, is a bit discordant, and the theme music, complete with “Cyberman!” intonation, made me giggle, but it’s solid nonetheless. I’d like to comment on the acting, but unfortunately Big Finish decided for some reason to omit liner notes on these releases, directing listeners instead to a series-specific website. Sounds like a cool idea — or at least it would be if that website hadn’t been deleted in the BF main site relaunch. In sum, I have no idea who’s playing whom. Oh well.
“Scorpius” is a fine introductory episode, and is recommended.
CYBERMAN: SCORPIUS
With three Dalek Empire series in the book at the time, it was unsurprising that Big Finish would turn to Doctor Who’s other iconic monster, the Cybermen, for a miniseries release of their own. Much like Dalek Empire, Nicholas Briggs is again in charge of everything — and the backstory to this series can be found in Briggs’ own Doctor Who release “Sword of Orion.” “Scorpius” is an introduction to the “Cyberman” universe: it establishes the war between humans and androids in the Orion system, shows that the war isn’t going particularly well for Earth, and introduces (presumably) the major players. There’s a clear parallel here with the Iraq war — an initially-popular conflict expected to last a year at most degenerating into a wildly unpopular campaign with casualties on the rise — and the motives behind the conflict are equally unclear. There’s talk of humanity “defending its way of life” — which should sound familiar — but it’s also clear that Earth initiated hostilities, and it’ll be interesting to hear if this develops.
This first story follows Karen Brett (Sarah Mowat, much improved over Dalek Empire), an Earth admiral, as she rapidly advances upward until she becomes President of Earth. Her advancement is controlled behind the scenes by Scorpius — a mysterious organization quickly revealed to be under the control of the Cybermen — as all those in front of her are killed or otherwise removed. This includes one particularly surprising scene in which Cybermen march right into the Presidential palace and assassinate the President, one of several well-directed set pieces throughout the play. It’s all setup, of course, so we don’t know the Cyber-plan, but they clearly have domination on their minds. I’ve seen other reviews draw attention to similarities between this play and the Dalek Empire series, and this is certainly true: the future-historical period seems similar, the bad guys have a secret plot to which the lead character (played by Sarah Mowat) is uniquely suited, etc. Fortunately, the material is gripping enough to forestall any concerns for now. The voiceover narration is an interesting creative choice, also similar to Dalek Empire, but I’m not sure if it works.
Briggs does his own sound design and direction, and it’s all very good: the pace flags at the conclusion, but there’s never any confusion and the senes of place is always strong. The score, also by Briggs, is a bit discordant, and the theme music, complete with “Cyberman!” intonation, made me giggle, but it’s solid nonetheless. I’d like to comment on the acting, but unfortunately Big Finish decided for some reason to omit liner notes on these releases, directing listeners instead to a series-specific website. Sounds like a cool idea — or at least it would be if that website hadn’t been deleted in the BF main site relaunch. In sum, I have no idea who’s playing whom. Oh well.
“Scorpius” is a fine introductory episode, and is recommended.
7/10