(676) Silver Nemesis - Part 2

The ratings (people who watched as opposed to what I gave out of 10) for this season haven’t been that bad. I mean they haven’t been great either but the first episode of this story was watched by 6.1 million people whereas the previous best was episode two of Remembrance which got 5.8 million. The average season ratings have been in the 5.3 million which is what this episode and the next episode got. Something else that I forgot to mention in yesterday’s review was that this is technically the 150^th story in Doctor Who although they clearly class the Trial of a Timelord as a single story (which I don’t)

The Cybermen really get involved in this episode after a blink and you’ll miss it appearance in the previous episode. They pretty much get their backsides kicked by De Flores at first but then gain control of the Silver Nemesis. The Cybermen seem to be quite good as comedy because the Leader believes that Peinforte is going to go mad and when she reacts badly (not madly) then one of the Cybermen asks the leader if this is a sign of madness in what I thought was clearly a comedic line.

De Flores tries to form an alliance with the Cybermen and its rather tiresome seeing humans think that they can work with the Cybermen and in effect control them. It’s a trick that started with Eric Kleig in Tomb of the Cybermen back in 1967. There is an interesting bit where Lady Peinforte and Richard are followed through Windsor by two skinheads which were common place in the 1980’s. The one of them thinks that Peinforte and Richard are social workers. They are quite clearly stupid skinheads. There is a funny moment where Richard looks at some Llama’s and is terrified by them.  

The Doctor and Ace are doing more travelling as they get back in the TARDIS and do a lot of walking afterwards. I like the bit where Ace blows up the ship and the guards were then killed and her reaction is really good as she clearly takes responsibility for their deaths despite the Doctor’s reassurances that they were dead already.

There is a scene towards the end where the Doctor attempts to try and link its arrival near/on earth with terrible events in history during the 20^th century. It’s first appearance was in 1913 the year before the first world war, the next time was in 1938 which was the year when Hitler annexes Austria and then it arrived in 1963 which was the year Kenned was assassinated. The last two of these points were valid but it’s hard to think that in one instance something bad happened the year after it arrived whereas the other times it arrived in the same year.

The cliffhanger is the reveal that there are thousands of Cyber War Ships in space which have been hidden. I quite like this also it doesn’t quite have the impact that the previous cliffhanger did. The whole episode is pretty much like the previous one and that it has a lot of things going on and manages to keep it going very well. It’s not the greatest Cyberman story but it feels a bit more of a modern day Doctor Who story