Back to the Cyber War - Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake

I decided to stay with 7 a little longer because he really is the most hard done by of all the Doctors for me. Besides, these two audios (released as one serial) form a sequel to The Sword of Orion. After Cyberman you would have thought I'd learned my lesson, but I keep hoping that there's a sequel that does that fantastic serial justice. That it's written by Cyberman 2 writer James Swallow gives me some hope.

Thankfully Swallow manages to take the setting of the Orion war and use it well again (or the first time, since this came out first). It almost would work without it, but it just adds a nice bit of flavour and helpfully explains the presence of the two androids there. Once more he manages to perfectly characterise the androids, their abilities, and their similarities to Humans. It seems he's a much better suited writer to the whole android/human dichotomy. Not really that surprising from the guy who wrote the recent Deus Ex games.

It seems the most disappointing part of the war is the actual war itself. Which is a shame, because it had some serious promise (yes I am going to keep moaning about it).

Kingdom of Silver makes a brilliant companion to Cyberman 2's ending, and finally does something the idea of a Cyber tomb world while avoiding Telos. In fact having a situation very different to the one we saw in Tomb of the Cybermen. I think I finally found something that can stand alongside The Sword of Orion.

Big Finish also did something a little different here. Kingdom of Silver is only three parts, and the traditional fourth instalment is taken by a sort of sequel in Keepsake. That follows the two android agents and shows where they went after the events on and offers a nice little nod to Corvus from Cyberman 2 too. I can't quite remember who he is over there, and a quick google on all the usual places seem to indicate no one else has really bothered to keep track, other than admit it is followed up.

There's also a lovely little reference to the 'desktop' of the TARDIS, bridging that whole Classic/New gap of Who, with Two'Mark the scrap dealer referring to the Gothic interior as seen in the TV Movie being better than the Roundels but Coral (Tennant's) being his favourite.

Again, I find myself in the position of wanting to see more of the Orion War, but with the knowledge that means something along the lines of Cyberman, I'll ignore it this time.