The Silver Turk

"Machines don't have secrets."

Writer: Marc Platt

Format: Audio

Released: October 2011

Series: Monthly Adventures 153

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Mary Shelley

Synopsis

Roll up! Roll up! To the great Viennese Exposition, where shaman Stahlbaum will show you his most wonderful creation, the Silver Turk – a mechanical marvel that will not only play for you the fortepiano, the spinet and the flute, it will play you at the gaming table too!

But when the Doctor brings his new travelling companion Mary Shelley to nineteenth-century Vienna, he soon identifies the incredible Turk as one of his deadliest enemies – a part-machine Cyberman.

And that's not even the worst of the horrors at large in the city...

Verdict

The Silver Turk was an excellent Monthly Adventures audio from Big Finish! It seems a little strange for the Eighth Doctor to be featured in this range but having him here for a brand new trilogy of adventures alongside Mary Shelley as the companion is incredibly exciting! It followed on from where Mary's Story concluded in this incarnation's last Monthly Adventure of The Company of Friends, and just having her react and interact with the near future was tremendous. I loved the humour that came from the Doctor's claim to have only moved in space, but it turned out they were quite a few years off from 1816 in Vienna. It was 1873 and Mary was in shock that her husband was dead, and that she was nearly 76! Her excitement at the setting of Vienna was lovely and I was a big fan of it myself. I am yet to be lucky enough to visit the city but it's high on my bucket list. Having a famous figure of history in a companion role is a bold move but it works well here and the suggestion of a Cyberman being the inspiration for Frankenstein was delightful, and it's no surprise that something similar occurred on television in The Haunting of Villa Diodati. Unless there is some kind of retcon, there's a blaring continuity error there but I'm more than happy to let it slide. The concept of a Cyberman being the Turk was great and I liked how it was an actual historical fact. The image of a Cyberman playing chess was utilised in Nightmare in Silver fantastically and this sounded on equal footing. The Doctor describing this version of the Cybermen as a Mondasian original was brilliant and I love that we get a mesh of eras with the eighth incarnation coming up against the Cybermen's first. His reference to Spare Parts and witnessing the Cybermen's origins was delightful. I thought the threat of the Cybermen was actually surprisingly minimal for a lot of the story and it was more sold by the Doctor's experience of them in the past. He knew they were up to something and that their survival instincts would be kicking in, but he couldn't quite work out what. The fact the Cybermen thought they were on Monday was an element I adored and actually hearing pain in the emotionless Cybermen was chilling. The timeline issues of the Mondasian Cybermen being here before they should have been developed was really well tackled and it was good for the Doctor to mention that. Shelley having sympathy for the Cybermen was lovely too and really highlighted this as her first adventure. I thought it was fun that she rejected the notion the Doctor had kept her promise of showing her the stars. That would have to wait! The Cyber Puppets were a great part of the story and the eeriness of their performances was brilliantly done. They just sounded creepy, as ought to have been the case. Johan Drossel was a tremendous villain and was probably even more threatening than the Cyberman in his efforts for control. The foreign accent just accentuated the evilness too which was perfect on audio. Having the Cybermen named as Bremm and Gramm was a startling reminder of how close to humanity they were and the two factions of enemies essentially wiping each other out as the Doctor was able to burn down the puppets was a neat conclusion! Mary Shelley wanting to stay on despite the fear experienced in the adventure was lovely and as a whole I thought this was a very strong adventure! 

Rating: 9/10