(675) Silver Nemesis - Part 1

It would seem logical that in the silver anniversary of Doctor Who that the silver monsters would be used at some point. The last time that they made an appearance was back in season twenty-two in what I thought was the best Cyberman story if not one of the best. They made their last appearance nearly 50 episodes ago and boy has the showed changed in that time. There is a new Doctor, a new companion and a new attitude to the show. This episode aired on the 23^rd of November 1988 so it was effectively the anniversary story.

This is another story directed by Chris Clough and I make this his 6^th story out of the last nine stories to appear on TV. Not that it’s a bad thing because he has always directed the stories with a good amount of pace to them.

The story is that people are after the silver nemesis which is going to land (conveniently) on November 23^rd 1988. There are three villains after it, the first we see is De Flores (played by Anton Diffring). He is leader of a bunch of Neo-Nazi nutters. To be blunt, their involvement in the story is the one that I like the least because it do anything to the story. They rely on others doing all the dirty work for them. I like Diffring because he seems like a good actor but apart from that it’s a bit of a duff part of the puzzle.

Lady Peinforte (Fiona Walker) in 1638. She is quite a good villain and she’s good because of the way that she talks and also the way she moves. An odd thing to say I know but movement can lend a lot to a performance. I do find the moment when she and Richard suddenly appear in a tea room in 1988. Richard spends the entire episode afterwards being spooked by what he sees as Peinforte is taking everything in her stride. It’s good to see a female character that is a villain but not relying on men. She is using Richard as someone to act as a slave and it’s a refreshing change.

The Doctor and Ace don’t appear until we are in the fifth minute of the episode. There is a nice bit of build up so that when they appear. They do an awful lot of travelling in this episode. I think that they do more travelling in this episode than in the last season and a half.

Courtney Pine is the big name in the episode but to be honest I have never heard of him so if it is another piece of stunt casting then it doesn’t bother me. It was a nice little scene and its nice to have this sort of music in a 1980’s Doctor Who. It’s a refreshing change from the techno stuff that has been rife in the show.

The whole bit about filming at Windsor Castle does seem to be a little bit of an unnecessary narrative. Somebody is pretending to be the Queen for reasons that I don’t understand (apart from the fact that it’s one of her homes) but I just think that it’s silly. Apart from that there wasn’t very much in the episode that didn’t work. I like the nod to the very beginning of the show with the casting of Leslie French as the Mathematician who is killed early on. He turned down the role of the Doctor in 1963. I don’t know whether he regretted this.

The different villains isn’t a problem which is something that interests me because in a normal adventure this would be a problem. I don’t think that its due to this being the anniversary story but Kevin Clarke has done a good job of keeping the whole thing going along. The cliffhanger is nice because the very last shot is of a Cyberman standing in the middle of the screen. It’s a shame that they don’t appear until the end of the episode but its hard to argue that their return wasn’t dramatic.