7. Sword Of Orion
"We learn from our creators" A truely spine chilling adventure featuring The Doctor, Charley, a salvage team, an abandoned star destroyer and something deadly lurking in the darkness. With shades of Aliens and Blade Runner, "Sword of Orion" is the exactly the sort of tale that TV's Doctor Who sent children scurrying behind the sofa. The Doctor and Charley have landed on Garazone Central, which by the sound of it could compete with Mos Eisley in the wretched hive of villainy department. The Tardis is accidently loaded aboard a ship as cargo and The Doctor and Charley are forced to stow away to retrieve it. Finding the Tardis, it is almost immediately disabled by a temporal feedback leaving it temporarily uninhabitable and forcing the Doctor to land on an abandoned star destroyer. Without access to the Tardis and stumbling about the dimly lit halls of the ship, the pair soon realize that the ship isn't as abandoned as it looks... As the blue collar salvage crew is picked off one by one, The Doctor is accused of being the murderer and the sounds of heavy metallic footfalls echo through the hull of the ship. After years of being portrayed as bumbling oafs who could be taken out with something as simple as a gold coin, these Cybermen are seemingly unstoppable. No catch phrases, no rubbing their hands as they plot, the Cybermen of Sword of Orion bring the terror big time, ripping their victims to pieces with their bare hands. Other than Tomb of the Cybermen, I count this as my favorite Cybermen tale. No other story compares. The Cybermen have never been creepier and more relentless, yet the story works better if you don't know who the featured monster is. I would take responsibility for spoiling it, but with a Cyberman boldly emblazened accross the cover, Big Finish beat me to the punch.