Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #350339 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-15
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Fortunately there is a silver lining...
The return of the second best Doctor Who monster heralds this latest original audio adventure for Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor - this time travelling solo. Two warring planets are fighting over scraps of Cyber Technology in order to improve their chances of winning the war; into this steps The Doctor, and he is soon working with Android spy `Temeter' to once again outwit his deadly foe...

McCoy brings his usual mix of dark whimsy and deceptive charm to the party, whilst The Cybermen do their thing and the plot rushes on. To be honest, that's about all I can say about an undemanding and generic Doctor Who audio adventure.

The bonus story `Keepsake' improves things no end, as The Doctor arrives many years later on a planet that appears to be a giant scrap yard complete with Droid attendant. The unusually intelligent mechanoid leads the Timelord to discovers what became of Temeter and his unfortunate colleague Sara after they had completed their mission. A stirring blend of pathos and intrigue ensues and I ended up slightly disappointed that this wasn't the main story.

The CD extras comprise the usual interviews with cast and crew - most notable of these is Nick Briggs' concluding chat with Sylvester McCoy, where the actor shares his thoughts about how The Seventh Doctor could be revived! All in all this is a slightly disappointing audio story which is rescued by its bonus story.

we shall become silver
an audio adventure for the seventh doctor who, as played by slyvester mccoy. in this story he is travelling on his own without any companions.

kingdom of silver is a three part story, spread over two discs, and there is also a one part story on disc two called keepsake.

as usual with these the first disc begins with a trailer for the next release in the big finish range of doctor who audios, and both discs end with roughly fifteen to twenty minutes worth of interviews with the cast and the crew involved in the story. the ones on this release do have their moments and are quite a good listen.

as regards kingdom of silver, you can see from the cover that it involves the cybermen. the doctor visits a planet that is relatively low tech, and the people there are using things they've discovered buried under the surface to enhance their technology. can he convince them how deadly the stuff is? and there are other beings on the planet with their own agenda...

this is an excellent little story. there's a great amount of detail to the setting, which makes it highly convincing and genuine science fiction. the first episode does take a while to get going and the first cliffhanger does come on us rather suddenly as a result, but after that it's gripping stuff, and there are some very gripping moments to come, in an audio that uses sound amazingly well. the noise of cybermen coming to life will create strong images in your mind.

all of the cast are excellent, there's a moral dilemma or two to think about at the heart of the tale, and it's really very exciting at times. an excellent story that might even have worked as a four parter.

the one part story keepsake acts as a coda to kingdom of silver, as the doctor happens to find out what happened to some of the characters involved in it. there's some good settings and good science fiction in this also, and a few more moral dilemmas, most notably how far should an army go to defeat an enemy? the central romance doesnt grab perhaps as much as it should and thus the end doesnt quite have the emotional impact it could have, but this is a decent little audio in so many ways.

it also serves to act as set up for the forthcoming audio series cyberman two, so one loose end it leaves will be dealt with in that.

an excellent doctor who audio, and really worth a listen

"I've heard this all before somewhere"

A three part story, "Kingdom of Silver" is followed by the single part story "Keepsake". I was looking forward to this, but have to say I was very disappointed...

The Doctor, travelling with no companions, lands on a planet on the brink of a technological revolution. Having made peace with those planets with surround it, the situation is very delicate. And it looks set to break entirely: the opportunistic leaders have based their new found technological prowess on ancient Cyber technology, littered all over their planet. For you see, this is a Cyber Tomb planet! Cue lots of running around as the Cybermen awaken.

So far, so familiar. This story is a virtual remake of the 1967 story "Tomb of the Cybermen", as was the Big Finish series "Cyberman". I'm getting totally fed up of listening to cold re-heatings of old stories. As such, the plot is cliched and anything but original. Unfortunately, the characters and dialogue fall into the same category. Even for three episodes, the plot seems thinly spread.

"Keepsake", on the other hand, I found a pleasant surprise. Set two thousand years after "Kingdom..", the Doctor stumbles across a reminder of his previous visit. This is a nice, simple meditation on life, death and memory- and as such is quite powerful.

The interviews on the disc are pretty samey, with everybody saying how fab they feel the script is and how much fun they have had making it. I only wish I'd had as much fun listening. In fact, the only thing I took from this is that it sets up the series "Cyberman 2". If it's anything like this, I won't be listening.

In short, if you are new to Dr Who and have never come across a classic series Cyberman story then you will probably like "Kingdom of Silver". Otherwise, you'll have heard it all before. I would give this CD 1 star if it wasn't for Keepsake, which boosts it to 3. If you want to buy a Big Finish, go and get something decent from earlier in the range like "Jubilee" or "Spare Parts".