Cyber-Reality: Code Silver

"You are slaved to the Cyber ideal."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: May 2018

Series: UNIT 6.03

Featuring: Kate, Osgood

Synopsis

The Cybermen are coming. Across the barriers between universes, conquering all before them. Conquering and converting.

As her troops fight a relentless enemy, Kate battles to lock down the threat. But how long can UNIT resist?

Verdict

Code Silver was an outstanding story to continue the Cyber-Reality anthology sixth series of UNIT! This really was a sensational adventure and may rank as my favourite UNIT story yet from the spinoff range. After a brilliant set up in Game Theory and Telepresence, this really did have all of the ingredients for a great episode and it certainly didn't let us down! The Cybermen arrived in emphatic style and I loved the parallels with Army of Ghosts, particularly with this episode then very much having a Doomsday feel. There was a huge amount going on and Kate acting quickly to lock down the fort showed just how seriously she took the threat of the Cybermen. Her alluding to the events of The Invasion and Silver Nemesis for past experience UNIT had against the silver foes was excellent and I loved that UNIT had a designated Code Silver for their presence and threat. I thought that was wonderful and was such a great name for the story. Kate's knowledge of the Cybermen was extensive which I really enjoyed and her mentioning of all of the different origins such as The Tenth Planet and Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel as well as everything they were susceptible to from gold to acetone was a lovely throwback to several Classic adventures. Consistency is definitely not applicable to the Cybermen and the fun gag of depending on the type of Cybermen was lovely between Kate and Josh. His Auton elements initially getting him past being converted was good and I like the continuity there going back to the first UNIT series. He had a strong adventure. Osgood was magnificent in this episode where she was in the mainframe and mentally converted, and her challenging of the Cyber Controller was an absolute delight. If anyone could take on the Cybermen with logic then it was her, and she did so in incredible style. She always seemed in total control. The prospect of pitting Kate and Osgood against each other was brilliant and the frustration the latter had at the former causing the blackout was great. From the artwork, I was expecting the Cybermen we were introduced to in Nightmare in Silver, but it was clear that wasn't the case as soon as they spoke. These Cybermen were from a completely different universe which was so fun to concept and added to the enigma of different types of Cybermen. It was fun to have Shindi and Sam converted only mentally and hearing them talk in a semi-Cyber voice was terrific. It was good to have them still featured in a prominent role. Osgood trying to increase the efficiency of the Cyber invasion was marvellous and her efforts in using the Auctioneers' app was very good. I loved how she challenged the Controller on how her local knowledge and lack of being converted was useful. She almost relished that. With all going to hell and the Cybermen wreaking havoc with the fort in lockdown and blacked out, the arrival of a TARDIS was just delightful, especially when it wasn't the Doctor's! Kate's reaction to that was superb. What a way to set up the finale!

Rating: 10/10