Doctor Who: The Silver Turk

This is the first in a trilogy of stories pairing the 8th Doctor with Mary Shelley, the real-world author of Frankenstein. Here, the Doctor takes Mary to the Viennese Exposition of 1873, where they encounter a crippled cyberman being used as one of the exhibits.

There is an obvious parallel with the TV story Dalek here, and there are certainly some thematic resemblances, with Mary taking on Rose's role. However, we're reminded more than once that the cyberman isn't simply going to give up and die, and that we're therefore headed for a different ending. The theme may be repeated; the plot is entirely new.

By this point in Big Finish's run, Eight had been appearing primarily in one-hour stories for the last several years. The two-hour length of this offering allows more development of the story than we've seen recently, at least outside of the occasional two-part release. There's a significant cast of characters, most of whom are at least partially working at cross-purposes, yet the story does not feel rushed and overly complicated, as it might have had it been shorter.

Mary is an effective companion, showing a mixture of pluck and compassion, even while she's not entirely sure how much she should trust the Doctor (having only just met him). The fact that she's several decades in her own future, even if she's over a hundred years in our past, is also dealt with well, leaving her in some respects as isolated as the title character.

There are some individually great scenes, many of them riffing off of Frankenstein, and some creepy imagery that draws parallels between that story and the cyberman theme of harvesting body parts for their own survival. There is perhaps a little bit of a credibility gap with the effectiveness of the secondary villain's scheme, but everything is carried through so effectively that it doesn't detract too much.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.