Spare Parts (audio story)

 was the thirty-fourth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It explained the somewhat surprising origins of the Mondasian Cybermen.

It was the partial inspiration for two 2006 Doctor Who television episodes — The Age of Steel and Rise of the Cybermen, on which Spare Parts writer Marc Platt received acknowledgement.

Publisher's summary
"I'm not even sure they are people by the end. They're just so many tinned left-overs..."

On a dark frozen planet where no planet should be, in a doomed city with a sky of stone, the last denizens of Earth's long-lost twin will pay any price to survive, even if the laser scalpels cost them their love and hate and humanity.

And in the Mat-infested streets, round about tea-time, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa unearth a black market in secondhand body parts and run the gauntlet of augmented police and their augmented horses.

And just between the tramstop and the picturehouse, the Doctor's worst suspicions are finally confirmed: the Cybermen have only just begun, and the Doctor will be, just as he always has been, their saviour...

Surfacing (1)
to be added

Necessary Force (2)
to be added

Popping the Seals (3)
to be added

Shelter (4)
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Yvonne Hartley - Kathryn Guck
 * Dad - Paul Copley
 * Thomas Dodd - Derren Nesbitt
 * Sisterman Constant - Pamela Binns
 * Frank Hartley - Jim Hartley
 * Mrs Ginsberg - Ann Jenkins
 * Doctorman Allan - Sally Knyvette
 * Cybermen / Cyber-Commander Zheng / Radio Announcer / Nurse / Citizen - Nicholas Briggs
 * Minister / TV Commentator - Alistair Lock
 * Philpott / Nurse - Gary Russell

Species

 * Yvonne has a pet Cybermat.
 * The Doctor tries to fight off a Cyberman with gold, but it has no effect.
 * Part of the Cybermen design is structured after the Doctor's own brain.

Foods and beverages

 * Allan drinks wine.
 * Frank has an obsession with tea. In exchange for the food rations that the family gives to Nyssa, she gives them some tea leaves she found in the TARDIS. The Doctor explains sternly that they came from Emperor of China and he was saving them for a special occasion.

Continuity

 * This story takes place at the beginning of the Cybermen's creation. Many of its events lead into those of TV: The Tenth Planet.
 * Mondas began to drift through space, due to the sudden arrival of a moon between Earth and Mondas. This upset the gravitational equilibrium of Mondas, causing it to escape its orbit. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
 * Cyber-Commander Zheng would return for a cameo appearance in AUDIO: The Reaping. That story depicted him as still being operational in September 1984.
 * Nyssa recalls Adric's death. (TV: Earthshock)
 * Nyssa has sympathy with people losing their family. (TV: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis)