The Sixth Doctor trips over a root and finds himself somewhere thoroughly unexpected - on a different planet, with the wrong version of his TARDIS! Zoe and Jamie are there too, and are confused that the multi-coloured stranger keeps insisting that he's the Doctor. They leave the TARDIS together, only to encounter a friendly Cyberman from Lancashire and a giant Cyberman head on a nearby mountain. The mysteries have only just begun...
The Sixth Doctor's "Locum Doctors" story, and the 199th regular instalment of the main range of Big Finish Doctor Who. Can be purchased here
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Tropes
- Arc Welding: The episode welds the events of "The Wheel In Space" and "Tomb Of The Cybermen" together, explains the transition to the hammier, more emotive Cybermen of the "Revenge Of The Cybermen" era onwards and even includes a Continuity Nod that the Cybermen may be hiding out in Orion. Nicholas Briggs pitches the Cyberman voice effect halfway between the Sixties tone and the Seventies effect. It even explains why Michael Kilgariff played a fat Cyber-Controller in "Attack of the Cybermen"! (His body is full of electronics connecting him to the whole Cyber-race.)
- Ax-Crazy: The Super-Controller is deranged, psychotic even, on account of feeling all those Cybermen dying.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Jamie and the Doctor when they pretend to be beating one another up, to dupe Lennox.
- Bait-and-Switch: Lanky isn't really half-Cyberman, but Findel is.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Cybermen are defeated, at the cost of Findel's life... but they'll return sooner or later, and Jamie and Zoe forget the Time Lords are going to erase their memories.
- Bluff the Imposter: Jamie attempts this with the Sixth Doctor, asking him what his Doctor would usually say when faced with an alien antagonist. ("When I say run, RUN!"). However, the Sixth Doctor never answers him, but proves his identity in other ways.
- Call-Back: Expect references to the Cyberman tomb on Telos and the "final skirmish" there.
- The Fourth Doctor previously note interfered with the Second Doctor and Jamie on Telos too, in "Return To Telos".
- The Logicians return, and it turns out they're born from the same institute Zoe came from.
- Jamie mentions Polly, who told him the Doctor had changed faces before. He thought she was teasing him.
- The Doctor mentions as proof of his face-changing that time he accidentally failed to restore Jamie's face in the Land of Imagination. He's still feeling guilty about it four lifetimes on.
- When "The Invasion" gets brought up, Jamie mentions how he was out of the action, having been shot in the leg.
- Jamie, when faced with a Cyberman:
Jamie: I know what the Doctor would do in this situation: bung a rock at it!- Among her And This Is for... moment, Zoe cites Gemma, her friend from "The Wheel in Space".
- Call-Forward: When everything's over, the Doctor mentions the leftover Cybermen scattered about the universe will become irrational, or that they'll probably want "revenge".
- Character Tics: Jamie notes that the Second and Sixth Doctor both make similar faces sometimes.
- Cliffhanger Copout: Part 1 ends with the Doctor and Jamie surrounded by Cyber-mats and no way out. Part 2 instantly begins with Lanky opening the door to free them.
- Conflict Ball: Jamie and the Doctor get into a scuff up, interrupted by Frank knocking them out.
- Continuity Cavalcade: As the Doctor and Jamie recap Jamie's recent history to establish where they are time-wise, they mention several escapades he and the Doctor have had including TV episodes, Big Finish episodes and the Stephen Baxter novel The Wheel Of Ice.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Findel is willing to sacrifice himself to save Zoe, who he had about five minutes of conversation with over their shared history.
- Evil Is Bigger: The Super-Controller, much bigger than the regular Cyber-Controller.
- Foregone Conclusion: When the Doctor explains to Jamie about the Time Lords and the events of "The War Games" in Episode 2, you just know either the whole adventure will be erased from time or Jamie will get amnesia before the end of it.
- Flying Face: The giant Cyberman head.
- Foreshadowing: A few times in part 2 Frank makes some odd statements, before clamming up. Turns out he's worrying about casuality.
- Gaia's Lament: Hinted at. Jamie says Frank offered him a chance to live in Scotland, or at least "the half that isn't irradiated". Eep.
- Godzilla Threshold: The situation with the Cybermen is so bad the Doctor seriously considers summoning in the Time Lords, the ones of the Second Doctor's era, to try and resolve things.
- Have We Met Yet?: This takes place before The Two Doctors, and in a different universe to The City of Spires and later stories, so Jamie doesn't remember meeting this incarnation of The Doctor yet.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Frank sacrifices himself to distract the Cyber-mats, because of an earlier injury that would've made him The Load if he attempted to escape. Except not really. He's actually fine.
- Played straight with Findel, though, who uploads himself into the Super-Controller husk to stop the Cybermen, the strain killing him.
- Hyperaffixation: The Cybermen add the Cyber-Citadel and Cyber-Cuffs to their Cyber-Dictionary.
- Insane Troll Logic: The Logicians again. Zennox in particular tries holding a gun at a Cyber-Controller, thinking this puts her in charge. The Cybermen disabuse her of the notion, but she dies still agreeing with their insane logic.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: A captive being led to the cyber-conversion units tells the Cybermen he won't give them the satisfaction of screaming. He screams.
- Jerkass: Zennox. Her being a Logician, and out to revive the Cybermen comes as very little surprise.
- Kill All Humans: Having gone quite nuts, the Cybermen have decided they no longer want to convert humans. Now, they're just going to kill them all.
- Lack of Empathy: The first sign Lennox is not a remotely pleasant person is when Findel gets zapped by a Cyberman console and she shows absolutely no regard for his well-being.
- Meaningful Echo: Discussing Jamie's future, he asks about potential lassies, and the Doctor brushes him off since that's not his business. At the end, Jamie wistfully talks about living on future Earth, and the Doctor inquires if there will be lassies. Jamie repeats that it's not his department at him.
- Meaningful Name: "Lanky", so called because he's from Lancashire.
- Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Zennox is Mission Control for the Doctor and The Captain, up to the point where she attempts to steal a cyber-controller and put Zoe's brain inside.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: Jamie apparently calls Zennox a very nasty set of words, but we only hear Zoe's scandalised response.
- No OSHA Compliance: Navigating the Cyber-Citadel, the Doctor, Jamie and Frank have to cross a narrow walkway which, naturally, has no handrails. The Doctor even comments that Cybermen don't care much for health or safety.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Between parts 3 and 4 the Doctor engages in a Battle in the Center of the Mind with the Cyber-Controller, managing to out-logic it and then boot it out of Zoe's mind for good. He recounts this afterward to Zoe.
- Once More, with Clarity: When Lennox is holding the Doctor at gunpoint, he makes a few odd statements. Once he reveals what's going on, the scene jumps back to show he was talking with Frank through the wire the whole time.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As the Doctor notes, Cybermen don't typically build monuments in their image, since that's an emotional act.
- Pastiche: All three "Locum Doctors" stories were In the Style of their respective eras. This one is very much a Second Doctor story - a Space Opera Cyberman epic with "base under siege" elements.
- Playing Possum: Jamie tries to do this, pretending the Doctor knocked him out with some Venusian karate, but thanks to mishearing the agreed upon password jumps the gun and attacks Zennox early.
- San Dimas Time: The Doctor and Zoe find the TARDIS to escape the destruction of Telos in the "ten years ago" era, only to discover she's "come loose from time" thanks to a slightly unstable time loop. It's only when they work out what they've forgotten (Six need to send a telepathic message to Two so he comes to the planetoid in the first place) that the TARDIS springs into life as the final piece of the time loop is in place. Paradoxically, the TARDIS' telepathic circuits couldn't work until the Sixth Doctor realised he needed to use them and so caused them to be useable again!
- Sequel Hook: The Doctor and Zoe work out that the Doctor's translocation must have been a deliberate attack by persons unknown...
- Stable Time Loop: The whole adventure. Frank and Lanky actually recognise the trio from ten years ago and are playing along to maintain the timeline. They first met them ten years ago when they travelled back from the present with the Cybermen. The last great strike on Telos was actually the Cybermen's own rescue fleet from the future forced to ram the planet by Findel, who merged with the Cyber-Planner in the future. And the reason the Second Doctor came to the planet in the first place was because the mysterious message he received was from his Sixth self.
- Stiff Upper Lip: Frank is a WW2 Spitfire pilot in the future! He even flies a Star Spitfire.
- Two of Your Earth Minutes: Lennox notes the Cyber-Wars were "ten Earth years ago".
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Neither the Doctor, Jamie or Zoe seem surprised by a Cyberman speaking with a strong Lancastrian accent. It's not until he uses "sorry" and "please" they really register he's no ordinary Cyberman.
- Wetware CPU: The Cyber-Controller does this to Zoe, but luckily the Doctor saves her.
