Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Warwick Davis, Tazmin Outhwaite, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Jason Watkins, Eloise Joseph, Will Merrick, Clavin Dean, Zahra Ahmadi, Aiden Cook, Nicolas Briggs.
The Doctor is never better when he is the only lunatic in the room, the mad man completely outside of his box fighting against himself, for there really can be no victor, the Timelord is not triumphant and in the penultimate episode of the series, Nightmare in Silver, that rage that he keeps well hidden is finally able to come out and play for a while.
The greatness of this episode is down to three things, three very simple rules that should be a staple for the shows continued success as it goes past its 50th Anniversary in November. Alongside Mark Gatiss, let Neil Gaiman write at least one episode per season because his stories have the flair and imagination needed to keep an audience interested. Secondly, don’t let monsters become flat, let them seem invincible and not just a filler for the show and thirdly let the Doctor not only be seen to be doing good in the universe but every so often show exactly what he is capable of as the dark side rears its ugly head every so often. In this episode all three rules, new points for Doctor Who were wonderfully adhered to.
Neil Gaiman aside, for to be able to get him back every season might be too much of an ask, the two other pointers were used magnificently, the re-emergence of The Cybermen as a truly terrifying foe were well written and far and away from the shadow of the tin men that they had become. This was an enemy who wasn’t defeated in war, if anything the humans who did get away, led excellently by Warwick Davis as Porridge, fought them to a draw. They may have been blown up Hedgewick’s World of Wonders but they are not gone and they will return. Thirdly…or secondly if dismiss Neil Gaiman out of sight, The Doctor as an instrument of evil, the menace at the heart of the episode was so well handled by Matt Smith that the scenes that he was playing chess against himself and for control of his brain were Matt Smith at his very best. The mad man out of his box and let loose in the same way that it echoed one of the most intense scenes of David Tennant’s era was when he exclaimed in The Waters of Mars that he was triumphant were chilling.
Whether Neil Gaiman had listened to Marc Platt’s riveting eighth Doctor Big Finish story The Silver Turk to get the idea of a Cyberman playing chess, perhaps we will never know but either way it bought the menace of the monsters just that little closer if they play as if possessed by Kasparov.
The series may nearly be at end, but it’s really looking as if the second half of the season as living up to the height it set the team behind the programme had set itself for there is no better enemy that the man who tries to make people feel better.
Ian D. Hall