Doctor Who:
Nightmare In Silver
By Neil Gaiman
“Hail to you the Doctor
savior of the Cybermen.”
Once it was announced that
Neil Gaiman was going to write another episode for Doctor Who I was happy at
the news and couldn’t wait to see it.
Now when it was announced that his story was going to feature The
Cybermen, well, I was even more eager to see that episode and when the airdate
was announced I circled it on the calendar.
Now you see The Cybermen are my favorite villains in Doctor Who and the
prospect of seeing them getting a new take by Neil Gaiman filled me with
delight that hopefully The Cybermen will be given justice and done right.
Now everyone loves The
Doctor’s Wife and it was such a wonderful story and one of the best in the Matt
Smith era so the expectations are high this time around for Neil Gaiman. So will Nightmare In Silver be heralded as
one of the best Cybermen stories like Earthshock or will it be really lousy
like Silver Nemesis. Read on to see what
I thought.
Well knowing what we know
and the fact that Neil Gaiman was doing a story with the Cybermen I wasn’t
expecting a story like “The Doctor’s Wife.”
What I was hoping for was something scary and something absolutely
different something in the vein that he is known for. Well
after watching “Nightmare in Silver” I wasn’t disappointed and was happy with
the story we got.
Neil Gaiman has made the
Cybermen scary again and has made them better and harder to kill. When the line of defense is to destroy an
entire planet to kill just one Cybermen that is scary in itself and raises them
back to being powerful again. Plus they
can upgrade their weaknesses on the fly fixing any problem they might
have. Plus they have a new weapon as
they can now move super-fast. Yes you
read that right they moved like The Flash at one point adding to the
scariness.
But I did have a problem
with the super speed. If they have that why didn’t they use it all the time in
the story? When the Cybermen were
storming the castle and got into the courtyard why didn’t they move like The
Flash and kill everyone. The battle
would have been over in no time and the Cybermen would be victorious and ready
to wreak havoc in the universe. It seems like if you had that ability you would
use it all the time.
I also liked how scary
Neil Gaiman made the story. There were a
lot of behind the sofa moments in this story which I absolutely love. The best part was when the military people
were hunting the Cyberman and his head was visible and the soldier was attacked
by the headless Cyberman. That was
pretty cool along with the Cyberman’s hand coming off and killing another
soldier. That was some pretty awesome
moments and scary also which works so well in Doctor Who and something they
should do more often. Love it when
Doctor Who uses horror in its stories.
I really loved the inner
battle between The Doctor and The Cyberplanner.
The Cybermen infect The Doctor’s mind with their programming and he is
struggling for control of his body against the Planner. This was really good and Matt Smith was so
brilliant playing the duel parts. This
performance is one of the best he has done in Series 7 if not in his entire
era. It was amazing watching him go in
and out of each character with such fluidity that you are just in awe at how
good of an actor Matt Smith is.
With all that said that
sequence of The Doctor playing chess against the Cyber Planner for his body and
the two kids was the highlight of the story.
I loved the fact that chess was used again as this was a staple in
classic Doctor Who last being seen in The Curse of Fenric. Plus the way the Doctor gets out of it was
pretty clever even if it was set up perfectly for him.
I did not mind Angie and
Arty that much as it set up the story and for The Doctor and Clara to be on the
Amusement Park planet. I found Angie to
be a tad bitchy but hey she is a teenage girl and that is how the act. I thought the screw ups from the military on
the planet were pretty funny and added to Clara’s dilemma. It was like a whole planet of Red Shirts for
the Cybermen to pick off. I really liked
Warrick Davies as Porridge. You knew he
had a secret and it was easy to figure out that he was the missing
Emperor.
The one thing that just
did not fit in the story and just felt pretty awkward was Porridge marriage
proposal to Clara. That just came out of
the blue at the end it just felt wrong.
Clara was ok in “Nightmare in Silver” and seemed to flourish and enjoy
being in charge of the military. I
didn’t mind this at all as it gave her something to do but this was a Doctor
story so pushing her to the background playing soldier was ok.
Nightmare in Silver was
everything I wanted and expected from a Neil Gaiman story and more. I loved the way he handled the Cybermen and
how he made them relevant again. I loved
the internal mental struggle The Doctor fought against the Cyber Planner as it
brought out a fantastic performance by Matt Smith and it was something
completely different that hasn’t been done before in Doctor Who and I thought
it was really great. Nightmare in Silver
was not “The Doctor’s Wife” and never intended to be just like that but what we
got was a really good scary monster story to enjoy for years to come.
Grade A
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