Scorpius (2005)

Well it was bound to happen. After the Daleks got their own series it was the turn for the Silver Giants to get their turn. This was structured slightly different to what we got with Dalek Empire. This story is very much a set up episode. There isnt to much of the Cybermen in this one as this is a four part series its not a problem. What we know is that there is a war between the Humans and the Androids. The Androids have turned on their masters (very Battlestar Galatica) and this story sees how some help could be at hand for the humans. There are four characters that we are introduced to. There’s Paul Hunt, Samantha, Karen and Liam. The character of Karen is portrayed as a military leader who finds herself in a position where she is manipulated. She starts the story as a particularly nasty character who tortures someone to get information in one of the most disturbing scenes that I have ever heard from Big Finish, to be honest I found it unnecessary partly due to the length of that scene. She leads the military force and lost all of her men and she was portrayed as a hero. Apart from the torture scene she was quite a likeable character and I found her to being a character that was unsure about herself. The character of Paul Hunt was perhaps the most interesting as in every scene he was like someone who knew everything. The character was totally unlikeable but was still enthralling in every way.

As a first episode it was good. All the main characters were well laid out and the actors playing them are all likeable in different ways. Nicholas Briggs has done a great job with this story and did that classic trick in Doctor Who of holding out the monster until the last possible moment. It bodes well for the rest of the series.