Code Silver

UNIT #6.3

Released: 10 May 2018

Listened: 4/16/23

OK, we all knew that the Cybermen would be turning up in this story, and yes, that’s who created the VR helmets. They’re other-dimensional Cybermen, who can send the helmets through to a new dimension, then establish a link to the local sentients, partially convert them, and use that to create a tunnel to bring through Cybermen properly. We’re told that these Cybermen probably aren’t any ones UNIT has met before, since there are so many different origins for them, and of course these are from another dimension entirely. Key differences in this bunch is that they have the sing-song voices of Mondasian Cybermen (probably because Nick Briggs loves those voices), and they convert folks really, really quickly. Which makes them even more Borg-like than Cybermen usually are. Shindi, Sam, and Osgood are all “partially converted,” which means that Shindi and Sam do nothing at all, but Cyber-Osgood wants to help the invasion effort, which means retaining her individual personality because that’s the key to her creative thinking. And apparently, Cyber-Osgood is really snotty. She’s completely unimpressed by the Cybermen and their invasion plans, and thinks she can do a lot better. That leaves Josh and Kate dealing with the base-under-seige, running around, hiding, and trying to find effective weapons. But what Kate and Osgood are both doing is dropping exposition. Oh, so much exposition. Kate covers Cybermen 101, their origins, motivations, variations, and potential weaknesses. Osgood has to spell out their game plan, because it’s admittedly complicated. And every other UNIT staffer on the base is busy getting slaughtered or converted. I know I keep complaining about this, but having a 100% death rate for anybody not in the credits is starting to get annoying. Of course, Cybermen are tough, and sometimes you have to have a story where UNIT just can’t win on their own, don’t you?