Review: Doctor Who: Nightmare in Silver
Nightmare in Silver was written by Neil Gaiman, directed by Stephen Woolfenden and stars Matt Smith as the Doctor, Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara, Jason Waktins as Webley, Warwick Davis as Porridge, Eve de Leon Allen as Angie, Kassius Carey Johnson as Artie, Tamzin Outhwaite as Captian, and Aidan Cook as Cyberman.
From the BBC Website:
Hedgewick’s World of Wonders: the perfect theme park day out. And ground zero for a deadly silver resurrection.
I have been waiting for this episode since I originally posted the rumor back in August of last year. Gaiman is an excellent writer and his previous Doctor Who Episode “The Doctor’s Wife†was great. This time around he reinvents my favorite bad guys, the Cybermen! Neil Gaiman promised to make the Cybermen creepy again. I believe he succeeded on both accounts.
*****Spoilers*****
I have to say these new Cybermen look great, much better than the Cybus-men that have been around since the series returned in 2005. They are much sleeker and more menacing just in appearance, then throw in their Borg-like ability to upgrade on the fly and the Daleks better watch out when these Cybermen show up.
Warwick Davis was great as Porridge. Artie was almost a non character, but what was up with Angie, one minute she’s like yay I’m floating in anti-grav, the next she’s bored and expect the military troops to entertain her? I know most teenagers a self-absorbed, and self-important, but to think that it was the job of a platoon stationed on the planet to entertain her, that’s just insane.
There were some nice creepy scenes and I love the idea of the Cyber-Mites. The opening scenes with the Cyberman reworked to play chess made me think of the wonderful Big Finish Doctor Who audio “The Silver Turkâ€Â.
We get to see Clara take control of the military and try to hold off a Cyberman assault on a castle. In what other show do you get to have Cybermen attacking a castle with an electrified moat?
I loved the scenes in the Doctor’s mind between him and the Cyber-planner with flashes of all the old Doctors. It was also a nice touch making the tombs of the Cybermen reminiscent of the tombs in “The Tomb of the Cybermen†complete with those nice half circle ladder rungs.
I don’t want to get into too many details of the episode itself, but I enjoyed this one, it was proper Doctor Who with no wave of the magic wand to solve the problem. No master plan by the Doctor, just use of the available resources to survive the Cyberman onslaught. Also a return to the classic standpoint of it can’t possibly be Cybermen, they have been extinct for a thousand years viewpoint.
Check out our “Nightmare in Silver†photo album.
For those of you like me missing Doctor Who Confidential, here is a short behind the scenes clip from the BBC.
Next week’s episode and Season Finale is “The Name of the Doctorâ€Â
And here is the “She Said, He Said†Prequel to next week’s episode.
