The Great Cyber-War (audio story)

 was the second and final story in the audio anthology Audacity, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Tim Foley and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Jaye Griffiths as Lady Audacity Montague.

Part one
The Great Cyber-War. Humanity and her allies versus the horror of the Cybermen. This is no place for the Doctor to take his new best friend. But on the Aurum, the war seems far away. There are parties and cupcakes and all the gold of Voga - and not a Cyberman to be seen...

Part two
The Cyber-War has come to the Aurum. The best hope of survival lies with the great Oberon Fix - the finest scientific mind of his generation, working to protect humanity. But the Doctor is worried that his own presence will affect history's outcome. And for Audacity, life with the Doctor will never be the same again...

Part one
The Doctor sets the TARDIS's controls at random for Audacity's first adventure and they land on the Aurum, a space station seemingly made of gold and which is orbiting a planet the Doctor recognises. They find that they have arrived during a party in honour of Oberon Fix, a scientist working to end a war, and go to leave when the Doctor realises that they have arrived above Voga during the Great Cyber-War, inadvertently sabotaging Dellatine's attempt to assassinate Fix during his speech. Audacity chases Dellatine and is separated from the Doctor when a lockdown is initiated and he is arrested whilst Audacity, already believed to be an accomplice, leaves in a shuttle with the would-be assassin.

Station administrator Galta interrogates the Doctor until he offers up undiscovered mathematical proofs to get the attention of the elite and finds that the arrival logs were corrupted by somebody using brute force. Vrull, one of the Vogan guards, releases the Doctor and takes him to Fix, who has confiscated the TARDIS and believes that the Doctor is a time tourist from the Causeway. Fix has been building the Golden Pulse, the device with which he intends to wipe out the Cybermen, and agrees to let the Doctor join Galta and her team in travelling to Voga to capture Dallatine and recover Audacity. Before he leaves, the Doctor mentions the data breach to Vrull.

Dellatine sedates Audacity and takes her to a hangar near the city Grey Divers so that she and Nelvin can use the implant given to the guests on the Aurum, but they soon find that she does not have one and Dellatine has to make do stealing and uploading Aurum data without it. The Doctor arrives and finds Audacity, who directs Galta and her team into a maze in search of Dellatine whilst she takes him to Nelvin in an underground ward of Vogans suffering from mining sickness. The rebels' objective was to steal resources from the Aurum to help the Vogans overworked for the construction of the Golden Pulse and not to assassinate Fix, which Dellatine attempted without permission.

Galta has Dellatine executed and the Doctor, having learnt from Audacity that Dellatine had made contact with potential allies, confirms that she had already sent a copy of the Aurum's information using alien technology which he destroys. The Cybermen make contact to confirm receipt of the data and, finding that they had been compromised, the Cyber-Leader orders a bombardment of Voga and for the Cyber-Fleet to launch its attack on the Aurum, where Fix's entire team starts collapsing.

Part two
The Cybermen bomb Grey Divers and the Doctor, Audacity, Galta and Nelvin depart in the shuttle, leaving Galta's team of Vogans to assist their people. The bombardment ends, however, when the Doctor reveals his identity to the Cyber-Leader and the attackers' attention is redirected to the shuttle, aboard which Galta is killed when a Cybermat inside her metal leg is activated. The Cybermat accelerates the shuttle's engines to make it collide with the Aurum, forcing the Doctor to take control and steer it into an open dock where it burns. Vrull, Nelvin's mother, explains that all humans with an implant have been made unconscious, that she has shut down the power and that Fix called for help despite being at the most secure part of the station.

The Doctor sends Audacity, Nelvin and Vrull to barricade against the Cybermen and climbs a lift shaft to reach Fix and get the lift working again so that the others can get to safety as well. He saves Fix from a Cyberman coated in gold, which had been tortured for his research, and reactivates the lift, but the Cybermen use a disruptor to stop it as it ascends and Audacity and Nelvin climb whilst Vrull remains inside to buy them time when the lift inevitably descends. She is killed and the Cybermen enter the lift, leading the Doctor to access the gravity generators to let float Audacity and Nelvin upwards before reversing it and disrupting the Cybermen's disruptor.

to be completed

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Audacity Montague - Jaye Griffiths
 * The Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * Oberon Fix - Keith Drinkel
 * Vrull - Karen Archer
 * Nelvin - James MacCallum
 * Dellatine - Diana Yekinni
 * Galta - Trudie Goodwin

Uncredited cast

 * Charlotte Pollard - India Fisher

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor has a perpetual teapot.
 * Audacity mentions the Prince.
 * Audacity sees Charley's bedroom.
 * Audacity bought a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica for Ignatius.
 * The Doctor mentions Napoléon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt.
 * Audacity can fence.
 * Expecting tea, the Doctor asks for milk and no sugar.
 * Galta was part of the Earth Interstellar Fleet and fought in the Winter system, serving as vice-commanding-officer for the third unsuccessful assault on Haven. She was found by Martians.
 * The Doctor does not think that he has met Oppenheimer.
 * Nelvin mentions Brennan.
 * Simeon and Targreaves serve Oberon Augustus Hettica Fix.
 * Apex is an operating system.
 * Fix shows the Doctor a prototype of the Glittergun.
 * Glitterguns are said to be responsible for the Scarlet Victory.
 * Audacity says that the rebels are tidier than the Marquess of Hexley.
 * Nelvin is a medic.
 * Dellatine thanks Minerva.
 * The Cybermen avoid Glittermines.
 * The Doctor stuns a Cybermat with a fire extinguisher.
 * The British government claimed that carrots could help people see in the dark.
 * Fix worked with Earth Security.
 * Audacity can ride a horse one-handed.

Continuity

 * The Doctor mentions that he has encountered live mummies, which he did with Charley in The Mummy Speaks!
 * Audacity remarks that she should have brought her pistol, which is actually a novelty fire-lighter, to threaten the people at the party into handing over their valuables. She did this in The Devouring.
 * The Cybermen have not yet found Voga, which they attempt to destroy in Revenge of the Cybermen and Return of the Cybermen.
 * The Doctor was recently caught out by androids pretending to be human in Sword of Orion and Heart of Orion.