With the season only being fourteen episodes long, it means
that there are two four part stories and two three part stories and sadly
Silver Nemesis is one of the three part adventures. I think that the four part
slot given to The Greatest Show in the Galaxy should have been swapped with
this story.
There is a nice scene early on where Ace admits that she’s
scared and the Doctor apologises. What is weird though is how she then decides
that she wants to carry on. Ace get to do quite a lot of action stuff in this
episode. She spends a good portion running away from a Cyberman with the worst
aim in history. There is a nice panning shot where the camera follows Ace along
a gantry. There are a couple of good directing shots. Chris Clough has directed
these three episodes really well and to give him credit he always directs his
stories well and strives to go that extra mile even if things don’t work out as
he would have liked.
When the Doctor arrives at the crypt of the statue with the
Cybermen it’s a nice quick scene that seems to happen in one take and despite
their being little room it is surprising when the Nemesis rises and explosions
occur around her. Speaking of the statue/nemesis, it’s a good design and its
use to destroy the Cyber fleet is a good use for the character although there
is a lot of mystery about its co-operation with the Doctor. It’s a bit of a
thankless task being the Silver Nemesis but it’s a good idea of Kevin Clarke’s
and he has done a good job in writing a lot of things into just three episodes.
I wish that he had written more stories
There is the beginning of a long term story arc where the
Doctor is playing Chess. This is something that will be referred to in future
stories. It doesn’t look like much at this point but the benefit of seeing all
these stories before means that it’s quite a significant moment in the show. The
question of who the Doctor is raised in this episode and begins the mystery of
the character that Andrew Cartmel tried to bring back to the character.
Peinforte knows the secret and threatens to tell Ace about the Doctor
Lady Peinforte and Richard try and hitch a lift and sadly
they come across Mrs Remington who is an American cliché and it’s only worth it
to see the look on Richards face when Mrs Remington tells her it took just 40
minutes to get from London. Its another instance of something being put in an
episode when it doesn’t need to be there. I thought that Lady Peinforte’s death
was quite good and considering that the Nemesis looked like her it made sense
that they would end up as one. De Flores has been totally pointless in this episode.
In fact he has been pointless in this entire story because Lady Peinforte has
been entertaining and the Cybermen have been worthwhile as always but what has
De Flores bought to the story.
The different journeys of De Flores, Lady Peinfote, the
Doctor and the Cybermen meet up in the one place and it’s a very dramatic scene.
The Cybermen haven’t felt like supporting monsters and were well used in this
anniversary story.
The final scene takes place in 1638 with Richard with a bit
of Lute playing with Ace asking just who the Doctor is with the Doctor
responding with putting his finger against his lips. This episode has hurried
along at a great pace but I think that it finished at the right point and I didn’t
feel short changed. I don’t know whether Silver Nemesis is the greatest
Cyberman story but it was an enjoyable story and that’s two stories out of
three that I have enjoyed very much. 
No comments:
Post a Comment