Review: Human Resources

Following the tradition set by the new television series, the first season of stories to feature Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith concludes with a two-part story, featuring the return of one of the Doctor's most deadly enemies. Eddie Robson returns for writing duties, fresh from the success of Phobos, and gives us an epic encounter with the Cybermen, in Human Resources.

At the end of the previous play, the recurring character of the Headhunter finally caught up with the Doctor's companion, Lucie Miller, and kidnapped her for purposes unknown. Here, we join her in what's apparently Telford, about to start her first day or work as a clerk at Hulbert Logistics, brainwashed and confused. The Doctor, tipped off by the Time Lords about Lucie's location, inflitrates the company to find her, and is surprised to find out that the unsuspecting staff are helping to wage war on an alien world. When he discovers exactly who they're fighting, it looks like a missing companion is the least of his problems.

There's a lot of wit in Robson's script, particularly in the first episode, with some amusing cliched characters at Hulbert Logistics providing some hilarious moments. Jerry Cooper, as played by Owen Brenman, is an odious 'people person', spouting jargon and insisting on uncomfortable familiarity, and the company's loudspeaker cheerily reminds staff that they might wish to participate in Fantasy Football. As Roy Marsden remarks on the CD extras, there's a feeling of plausibility to Human Resources which, given the subject matter, is impressive. Perhaps it's down to Robson's juxtaposition of the outlandish alongside the banal, which is extremely effective, and emulates the Earth-centric episodes of Russell T. Davies's Who.

Extending those parallels with the RTD series is the tying-up of the story threads that have continued through the season. Interestingly, and completely unexpectedly, the arc involving Lucie Miller is subverted with the revelation that her placement with the Doctor was a mistake, and she is, in fact, 'ordinary'. Despite being an anti-climax, this works well, and fits in tonally with the season as a whole.

The dynamic duo of Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are pitch-perfect yet again. Throughout this series, Smith has been impressive, proving to be one of Big Finish's greatest casting choices to date. She's put passion and emotion into the role of Lucie Miller, and has really reinvigorated the Eighth Doctor with her confidence and dry wit. In part two, confronting the Doctor and Straxus, she puts in her best performance yet, showing that she's still got a lot to offer, even after seven fantastic episodes. The pair have been a joy to listen to, and have been consistently strong even when other elements have been weak.

Leading the guest cast as Todd Hulbert is the aforementioned Roy Marsden, the quintessential self-assured villain, confidently and calmly talking about the eradication of entire worlds, and creepily not seeing anything wrong with his actions. Louise Fullerton as Lucie's co-worker Karen is another highlight, giving Lucie the opportunity to bounce off someone more similar to herself, contrasting with her acerbic relationship with the Doctor.

Catalysing the episodes, and helping to wrap up the arc, is Katarina Olsson's character of the Headhunter, who comes to the fore slightly more and gets a chance to shine, having loitered in the background of the majority of episodes so far. She, too, is not quite what listeners had been led to believe, but Olsson is a great actress and performs well, convincingly menacing when confronting Jerry.

The Cybermen, portrayed by the ever-versatile Nicholas Briggs, are similar in voice to those that encountered the Tenth Doctor on screen, and the foot-stomping motif of those versions has also been carried across to audio, where it's equally chilling. It feels like a conscious effort has been made to ensure that they work on audio, and it's paid off, making up for failings in previous Cyber adventures such as Sword of Orion.

The bonus material on the CDs is nothing special, just the bog-standard shallow cast interviews that we've heard a thousand times already by this stage. This is a particular shame because, when these episodes were originally broadcast on BBC7, the accompanying Beyond the Vortex documentary featured some fantastic discussions with the producers, which were genuinely interesting and amusing, but the material here concentrates on the actors instead. I love the idea of adding extra features to the CDs, but the content definitely needs to be more varied in future.

This eight-part season has been one of the most consistent and enjoyable Big Finish projects ever, and Human Resources is a fitting conclusion, as well as being a contender for Big Finish's strongest use of the Cybermen. An amazing story.