The Forth Generation

The Ninth Doctor Adventures Series 1 #4.3

Released: 16 February 2022

Listened: 10/1/22

In a dramatic twist from the end of the last story, it turns out the Forth Bridge is full of Cybermen. Whoops. In a tie to “Monsters in Metropolis,” the pair of Cyber-scouts who came to Earth millennia ago got separated, and the missing one ended up here, before the construction of the bridge. These older-style Cybermen have individual names and vestiges of personality, and this one carried right on with his assimilation mission, using those who died during the bridge construction as raw materials. Unfortunately, with crude conversion techniques, he wasn’t able to fully convert them while their memories were still intact, but the Doctor fixed that last story. Again, whoops. Honestly, it’s kinda dodgy, but the point is to develop a plot contrivance to get to the image of a bunch of Cybermen bursting out of the bridge and climbing down. The Brigadier doesn’t have as much to do this time around, but he still proves a worthy ally, with good ideas of what to do against Cybermen, as well as his own priorities concerning national defense. There are some slight hints at his fate in “Death in Heaven,” but you can ignore that if you want to. The Doctor gets that special kind of angry he only gets when he’s screwed up and lives are lost as a result. Of which there are more than a few. The resolution is again kind of a stretch, but consistent with the tone of this season. Taken as a whole, these four boxed sets have really put the Ninth Doctor on a pedestal, emphasizing his humanity and his post-war trauma, while submerging his tendencies to be rude and judgmental. Which is fine if you think you might never get to do this again, but fortunately, Eccleston liked it so much that he decided to do some more.