Doctor Who 7x13: Nightmare in Silver

[kerravonsen]

Doctor Who 7x13: Nightmare in Silver

(Yes, I forgot to review The Crimson Horror. Too bad.)

I'm still tense from this one.
Not as good as "The Doctor's Wife", but you have to admit, that one is hard to beat, even if you're the author of it.
Still, this was good.

Talk about upping the stakes. The Doctor himself! Gah, that was scary.
It was doubly scary because the Cyber-Planner-Doctor was not robotic in expression. Triply scary because one therefore couldn't always tell who was in control. (Kudos to Matt Smith)

Doctor/Clara? Don't be ridiculous!

Liked the bit with Artie:
"I'm not scared, I just think I should turn the light on."

I didn't guess that Porridge was the Emperor, but I did guess that he was an ex-soldier who had been the one who had destroyed the Tiberian galaxy. No, actually that doesn't make sense, because that was a thousand years ago, wasn't it? So I was doubly wrong. Well, at least I figured he wasn't who he appeared to be...

I liked how Angie was alert enough to be looking at the head on the penny, at the waxwork, and then recognised who Porridge really was. I wonder how long he'd been away? Not long enough to be declared dead, at least. Then again, if he wasn't married, he possibly didn't have any heirs. That is, if they used a traditional European model for Emperorship, which we can't assume they did.

Porridge asking Clara to marry him, that was rather out of the blue. Shades of Peri Brown, who in one version of history, did end up marrying the ruler of a planet.
Good choice, Clara; I wouldn't want to be queen of the galaxy either.

Why does the Doctor always end up in these places at the wrong time? (I know, I know, the TARDIS takes him where he needs to be...) This is the second time in recent history he's taken children on an outing to somewhere apparently safe as houses, only to find he's put them in mortal danger (The first time being "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe")

It's interesting; these Cybermen are becoming as dangerous and unstoppable as Daleks. In some ways, more so. Like an infection. Like a virus.

I wonder how far in the future this was?
We don't have a lot of clues, really. I mean, it's one of the "Great and Bountiful Human Empire"s, obviously, but apart from it probably not being the Fourth Great And Bountiful Human Empire, we don't know.
Oh, and obviously it's later than the earlier set of Cyber-wars where the cybermen were defeated by the glitterguns of Voga.

I like how the Doctor delighted in the craftsmanship of the Cyber-mite, even as he disabled it.

Also loved how the Doctor "won" the chess game, setting an impossible chess problem as a distraction while he deactivated himself.

Oh those scary moments when the Doctor got confused.
"Wait a minute, that's not good news."

If Angie's phone got upgraded, did the Doctor de-Cyber it when he gave it back to her, or is it a ticking time bomb?

Cybermen are really fond of hibernating, aren't they?

Which would be worse, a galaxy ruled by Cybermen, or by Daleks? Daleks, probably. They want to be cruel and cause misery. The Cybermen want to eliminate misery (along with joy, love, happiness...)

Comments

[tptigger]

I thought it was a complete different phone? (And that marriage proposal bit sounded a lot like a poke old school companions)

[infiniteviking]

As to Angie's phone, Gaiman said it's a completely new one; the scene where she discovers that her old one had been eaten down to the plastic case was cut from the finished episode.

The marriage thing was interesting -- we don't usually see purely pragmatic proposals that aren't set up for a laugh.

I'm sad that they also cut the part of the episode explaining why the kids were put to sleep on the planet instead of in the TARDIS, especially as the Doctor had already figured out that there was something wrong -- some explanation was needed.

[kerravonsen]

As to Angie's phone, Gaiman said it's a completely new one; the scene where she discovers that her old one had been eaten down to the plastic case was cut from the finished episode.

Ah.

I'm sad that they also cut the part of the episode explaining why the kids were put to sleep on the planet instead of in the TARDIS, especially as the Doctor had already figured out that there was something wrong -- some explanation was needed.

Yes, I'd wondered a little about that.

The other thing I was puzzled about was the casual mention of children disappearing (presumably when the park was still running) - that is, the Doctor mentioned it in passing as "oh that's why the children were disappearing" - as if it had already been discussed previously, and I don't think it had. Perhaps that was part of one of the cut scenes?

[infiniteviking]

I wouldn't be surprised. He sounded a little miffed about cuts in general this time around.

[avanti-90.livejournal.com]

I think Matt Smith did an excellent job as the cyber-planner-doctor. And I'm in favor of the phone being a ticking time bomb...

What, nothing about the next episode trailer?

[kerravonsen]

What, nothing about the next episode trailer?
I generally don't comment about next episode trailers.

[avanti-90.livejournal.com]

This one was kind of awesome :-)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that in the original Pelinor, the king proposed to Jo who, alas, turned him down.

[kerravonsen]

Oh yes, I had forgotten that. Now that one actually made more sense than all the others; they had, after all, had more time to interact.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Peladon. That was the first one that came to my mind, too, though my memory is that it used to be quite common for companions to receive proposals, some of which they accepted (if the actor was leaving) and some not. So I quite liked this as a nod to tradition, and rather hope that the Emperor will meet another of Clara's incarnations who likes him enough to overlook the inconvenient galaxies that come with him. Because I thought he was a Good Thing, and they could have worked out an escape plan if they needed to.

[kerravonsen]

I was wondering afterwards whether he could abdicate... but I suspect that he wouldn't want someone else to be stuck with the job either.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'd have taken Clara aside to explain that the real plan was to work out the constitution for a democratic republic enabling them to retire.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

That was a great piece of acting on Matt Smith's part.

Great, now the cybermen have a Borg like ability to upgrade on the fly, only not quite so fast as the Borg.

I like the new cybersuits but I miss the ominous marching noise - evidently they can be silent but deadly.

Umm I worked out who Porridge was by the way the soldiers commander behaved.

I sort of liked the cybermites and forsee they'll turn up as toys.

The phone was a new one courtesy of the TARDIS, not a repair job. However the cybermen will return because one of the mites survived.

Nice creepy setting for the story though.

[kerravonsen]

However the cybermen will return because one of the mites survived.
Ah yes I noticed that.

[brendanpodger.livejournal.com]

I felt the only down part of this episode was Angie's character. I don't know if we should be blaming Moffat or Gaiman for such a ham-fisted job of writing, but for me she took the gold medal for stupidly obnoxious characterisation when there really wasn't any need to.

[ms. clever (from livejournal.com)]

I know this is way late, but: Angie got a new phone at the end of the episode, not her own. Hers was red; the new was silver. He even tells her that the TARDIS is giving her a new phone.

Also, I looked it up, and the episode takes place approximately six thousand years from now.

I think it's less Doctor/Clara than Clever/Clara. Though Twelve is clearly into her as a woman, Eleven was into her as an enigma he needed to sort out.