Cyberman: Telos

Cyberman #1.4

by Nicholas Briggs

This is a full-cast original audio play featuring the popular Doctor Who enemies the Cybermen.


NOW THERE IS A COMMON ENEMY.

The Earth's government is under Cyber control. The only hope for civilisation is that androids and humans can work together. But the Cybermen intend to activate their Master Hibernation Vault on Telos, releasing billions of Cybermen...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, War, British Literature, Robots

1 pages, Audio Play

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

Nicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs. Some of Briggs' earliest Doctor Who-related work was as host of The Myth Makers, a series of made-for-video documentaries produced in the 1980s and 1990s by Reeltime Pictures in which Briggs interviews many of the actors and writers involved in the series. When Reeltime expanded into producing original dramas, Briggs wrote some stories and acted in others, beginning with War Time, the first unofficial Doctor Who spin-off, and Myth Runner, a parody of Blade Runner showcasing bloopers from the Myth Makers series built around a loose storyline featuring Briggs as a down on his luck private detective in the near future.

He wrote and appeared in several made-for-video dramas by BBV, including the third of the Stranger stories, In Memory Alone opposite former Doctor Who stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. He also wrote and appeared in a non-Stranger BBV production called The Airzone Solution (1993) and directed a documentary film, Stranger than Fiction (1994).

Briggs has directed many of the Big Finish Productions audio plays, and has provided Dalek, Cybermen, and other alien voices in several of those as well. He has also written and directed the Dalek Empire and Cyberman audio plays for Big Finish. In 2006, Briggs took over from Gary Russell as executive producer of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio range.

Briggs co-wrote a Doctor Who book called The Dalek Survival Guide.

Since Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, Briggs has provided the voices for several monsters, most notably the Daleks and the Cybermen. Briggs also voiced the Nestene Consciousness in the 2005 episode "Rose", and recorded a voice for the Jagrafess in the 2005 episode "The Long Game"; however, this was not used in the final episode because it was too similar to the voice of the Nestene Consciousness. He also provided the voices for the Judoon in both the 2007 and 2008 series. On 9 July 2009, Briggs made his first appearance in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood in the serial Children of Earth, playing Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Rick Yates.

Reviews

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot give individual rating, so a complete review is going to be equal to the four parts of this audiobook.

This is a new type of audiobook for me. First of all, the correct term is AudioDrama (very similar to Black Library - or they are similar to these ones).

In the beginning you are inducted into the story in the thick of a battle between humans and androids. Back home, where no conflict is present, there are rallies against the war (imagine the rallies in USA for the Vietnam War). Karen, a military officer, ascends to the presidency with the help of Paul Hunt, a mysterious man that was chief of a investigation called "Scorpius".

After the death of former president by the Cyberman, Paul Hunt tells Karen that only with their help humanity shall triumph. Liam, friend of Karen, now commander in chief of the armed forces is weary of Karen change and don't trust Paul Hunt, now risen to advisor for the president of the world.

First, framed for things he did not, he (Liam) became persecuted and was forced to exile with the help of an android.

It was very interesting to see them work together. Android (Samantha) and Human (Liam) against a common foe - the cybermam. You must understand that from the start there is a palpable aura of mistrust between those two races.

This book has no Doctor Who, as you've imagine and deals with a dimension where cyberman were asleep throughout the galaxy but some were unearthed by archaelogists and now are trying to rule the galaxy once more. With the help (servititude?) of some humans they are trying to get to Telos, where they will activate every cyberman asleep. Millions upon Millions. At the same time, the story travels between earth where Karen advised by Paul is trying to built more cyberman enlisting first refugees and prisoners and then "normal" humans.


Spoilers Ahead:

The final confrontation is quite good with Telos being desactivated, after Karen, now a cyberman, is killed. The open ending give the propose to have a second series. Sam and Liam are stranded in a ship without hyperdrive.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was certainly an entertaining and exciting conclusion to this series, I have to be honest - I was not overly impressed with the finale. I rather felt that things just sort of ended, without being completely resolved.

(But then, there is a another 4-part series, Cyberman 2, so maybe it was just setting up events for the sequel).

[Natira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teil 4 von 4
Ich mochte das Ende, die Darsteller waren insgesamt über alle Teile sehr gut und die Audio-Begleitung sehr atmosphärisch. Dennoch fand ich diesen Teil etwas ... lang.

Die Gesamtwertung für diese Cyberman-Story liegt für mich bei 3,5 Sternen wegen der sehr guten Audio-Präsentation.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tad abrupt on the ending. An ok cyberman story better than some of the episodes.

[Tabitha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't seem to care about this one at all

[Seb Hasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Telos was a well executed finale for the first series of Cyberman and left enough open to lead into the second series, but it wasn’t anything to phone home about. It’s essentially a big shoot out in space and the main characters fighting for their lives. None of the actual stuff on Telos is interesting, and surmounts to just ‘planting a bomb’. The Karen Brett plot comes to it’s conclusion here and that mixture of body horror and grim psychology are one of the highlights of the very solid series. As I mentioned in my review of episode two, this series is great when collected but each individual part isn’t anything superb or unique. The Cybermen who are in the background on earth are the interesting ones and we barely see them here as it’s focused on the Cybermen heading to Telos, who are just doing their generic shootouts. The thing that really surprised me was how effective the character drama was, leaving me genuinely caring for Samantha and Liam Barnaby, really hoping they both make it. Nick Briggs isn’t great at characterisation but somehow here it was done to a brilliant level. I can say that the story does set up a clearly more interesting series two; with no neat conclusion to that Cybermen’s plans or the android/human conflict. I can essentially describe the last half of this story as a pretty effective advert for series two.

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The androids are our best attempt at creating a lifeform. We made them as much like us as we could. And then what? We ended up hating them for it."

Ooo0Oh, this episode was very interesting. We're off to Telos to try to stop the Cybermen before they leave their storage vault but immediately we discover that Telos has been destroyed. De-stroyed! Epic. So where are the awaiting hordes of Cyberfolk? Can the humans and androids go home, get back to their own war and forget the Cybermen now? Hmm.

"Next to the Cybermen, androids and humans look pretty much the same"

This episode was a definite highlight and the perfect series climax. It was like they saved all the good stuff for this episode. The pace suddenly bumped up a few gears and the action is all high intensity stuff.

The series at half way through has had plenty of cheesiness but also many quotable moments and I've enjoyed it, even though I think it would be a better story with a Doctor in it..... any damn Doctor!

I feel like I can't leave a review on an audio drama without commenting that novels are betterer. Pffffft. Shut up Frank.

[Jepha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok.
Ok.

On top of the ridiculous cross-species make out fests in the previous part, NOW we have the android leader getting all Alpha Male about what happened between Liam and Samantha.
Not only is Liam a different species, he is part of a species which has been doing everything they can to wipe out androids in a war with deaths in the tens of thousands.
But his main beef with Liam is that Samantha kissed him.
SERIOUSLY?!
Goddamn it Doctor Who, can we have a female main character who DOESN'T have a gorram romantic plotline or at least not a fucked up love triangle?!

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun and short Doctor Who spinoff series. I really liked the audiodrama format (except for the kissing, seriously the kissing sounded ick) as it added so much life to the story. The cybermen were scary, the story was solid, and all of the voice actors were great. This was a nice way to start out 2016.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic ending to a great series of stories. Full of action and suspense. Never made me confused. Can't wait to get Cybermen 2

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

All right conclusion, but still too many ads.