The Isos Network

The Cyberman invasion fleet is in flames over Earth but the Doctor spots one ship escaping the destruction. He sets the TARDIS on a pursuit course but due to the Cybermen deploying countermeasures the ship arrives on the planet Isos II months after the Cybermen, and the population has already been attacked and converted. The planet is also host to a species of gastropod which is causing its own brand of havoc as a military force arrives to put things right. But with the emergence of a Cybercontroller, the odds tip in favour of victory for the Cybermen.

I remember thinking for a bit after I finished this one that I must have missed something because I could not for the life of me remember anything that was the big reveal or huge “moment” of the story, and I sat here staring at the screen wondering what I was going to say about it. Did I nod off at a crucial spot, I wondered? Was my download from Big Finish missing some tracks? Surely I wasn’t on the phone while this was playing?

Turns out I can’t remember that kind of detail because The Isos Network doesn’t actually have anything like that in it. Someone in another blog said that by episode two “the plot vanishes up its own arse” and I really can’t put it better myself. But then as I thought about it a bit more, I realized it doesn’t matter. This isn’t a complicated story at all. The Doctor goes after the Cybermen after The Invasion and finds them trying to set up shop somewhere else to rebuild after their defeat. And that’s about as complicated as it gets.

Fraser Hines once again plays both the Doctor and Jamie as if it were just days after The Invasion was broadcast, and Wendy Padbury is there as Zoe as well. Mind you, they’re not exactly doing anything that any other companions couldn’t do; Jamie’s not baffled by science anymore (although to be fair he’s been with the Doctor a while and as we saw in The Mind Robber he has managed to learn how to read due to tutelage by Victoria, the Doctor himself and presumeably Zoe as well) and Zoe isn’t blowing up computers with her logic driven smarts; they could have been any companion duo save for the fact that this is set right after The Invasion. In the absence of really huge heavy plot or big character driven moments, then, there’s the awesome audio production values of the story to enjoy, starting with the series regulars and moving to the fantastic recreation of the Invasion Cyberman voices and the Controller from Tomb, which would make for the first time we have more than one “version” of the Cybermen in a story. And there’s the musical cues as well – definitely inspired by The Invasion to evoke the sense of those Cybermen once more lurking in dark tunnels on Isos II.

Problem, though. I mentioned in the post about The Invasion that there was a timeline difference between it and The Tenth Planet which now comes back to haunt as the Cybercontroller has data about the first Doctor as he appeared in Planet. The only way out of this one is to assume that the Cyberman countermeasures deployed to throw the TARDIS off their trail allowed the Cybermen themselves to travel into the future beyond Planet; the story states that it’s been a few months since the Cybermen landed on Isos II but hey who’s to say that it’s the same year as Earth during The Invasion anyway?

I’m going to go with that.

Did Big Finish finally deliver a sub-par episode? I don’t think so. There’s nothing wrong with something simple and fun so long as it’s done right. They don’t all have to have the fate of the universe at stake (again) and play out like the script was tossed on the floor and reassembled out of order (again)… they’d be the 2010 to 2013 series if that were the case and they, frankly, are crap. But we’re not there yet.

NEXT EPISODE : PRISON IN SPACE