Nightmare in Silver

238 – "Nightmare in Silver"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara Oswald)
Others Eve de Leon Allen – Angie Maitland Kassius Carey Johnson – Artie Maitland Jason Watkins – Webley Warwick Davis – Porridge Tamzin Outhwaite – Captain Eloise Joseph – Beauty Will Merrick – Brains Calvin Dean – Ha-Ha Zahra Ahmadi – Missy Matt Smith – Mr. Clever Aidan Cook - Cyberman Nicholas Briggs - Voice of the Cybermen
Production
Directed by	Stephen Woolfenden
Written by	Neil Gaiman
Produced by	Denise Paul Marcus Wilson (series producer)
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	Series 7
Running time	45 minutes
First broadcast	11 May 2013 (2013-05-11)
Chronology
← Preceded by "The Crimson Horror" Followed by → "The Name of the Doctor"

"Nightmare in Silver" is the twelfth and penultimate episode of the seventh series of the British science-fiction drama Doctor Who and was first broadcast on 11 May 2013. It was written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Stephen Woolfenden.

The episode starred Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald. The episode marked the return of the Cybermen, following their last appearance in the sixth series episode "Closing Time".

Plot

The Doctor takes Clara and the two children, Angie and Artie, to whom she is nanny, to an extraterrestrial theme park. However, they find the park abandoned and closed down, and under military occupation. The Doctor convinces the troops and their Captain stationed there that he is an official looking for their missing Emperor and they find Webley, the owner of the theme park, who takes them on a tour. Webley then shows them several deactivated Cybermen, explaining that the Cybermen race was defeated and exterminated a thousand years ago. They are harmless museum pieces while one is converted into a chess-playing machine operated by Porridge, a chess champion with dwarfism. After having fun playing at some of the park's attractions, Clara is ready to take Angie and Artie back home. However, the Doctor decides to stay, becoming suspicious of strange bugs infesting the park. The bugs are revealed to be cybermites, which reactivate the Cybermen in the museum. The Cybermen then abduct Webley, Angie, and Artie.

The Captain and her platoon are shocked that there are still active Cybermen, and admit that they are a punishment unit that was banished to this planet to keep them out of the way. The Doctor then puts Clara in charge of the troops, warning her not to let them destroy the planet while he goes to rescue Angie and Artie. Since communications with the rest of the Empire are cut off, Clara has them relocate to a nearby castle to fortify it. Meanwhile, the Doctor finds Angie and Artie have been infected with the cybermites and are under the Cybermen's control. A partially converted Webley reveals to the Doctor that the Cybermen have been secretly rebuilding themselves, kidnapping people from the amusement park before it closed. However, to further their plans, they need an advanced brain like the Doctor's. The Doctor points out that Cybermen can only use humans, but Cyber-Webley reveals that they have upgraded themselves to the point where they can convert any organic lifeform, and infects the Doctor with cybermites. The Cyberman consciousness known as the Cyber-Planner that attempts to take control of the Doctor's mind, powered up by having access to a Time Lord brain, then dubs itself Mr. Clever. To prevent Mr. Clever from seizing control of his mind, the Doctor threatens to initiate a regeneration, which would destroy the Cyberman implants in his brain. Realizing that they are at a stalemate, the Clever agrees to the Doctor's challenge to play a game of chess, with the winner taking control of the Doctor's mind.

Meanwhile, at the castle, Clara takes stock of the platoon's anti-Cybermen weapons. However, they only possess one anti-Cyberman gun, several hand pulsers, and a planet-destroying bomb. Clara takes possession of the bomb trigger and orders the Captain not to use the bomb's verbal command. In a private moment, the Captain reveals that she knows Porridge is the missing Emperor, having once been part of the Imperial Guard. Porridge tells Clara that drastic measures are the only way to fight the Cybermen, and if a Cyberman cannot be immediately destroyed, then the entire planet must be destroyed. The Captain, having been sent to the punishment platoon for disobeying orders, decides to make up for her past failure by activating the bomb, despite Clara and Porridge's protests. However, the Captain is shot and killed by a Cyberman before she can give the detonation command. Clara decides to go on the offensive, and working with the platoon, she manages to destroy the Cyberman attacking them.

In the Cyberman base, the Doctor manages to temporarily disrupt the Clever's control over him, and reunites with Clara, warning her that Clever will reactivate the rest of the dormant Cybermen in order to wipe them out. He then continues the chess game against Clever, knowing that it will not keep its promise if he wins. Posing as the Doctor, Clever then tricks Clara into giving it the bomb trigger, which he destroys. With no more threats to himself , Clever then sends its entire Cyberman army against Clara and the platoon. As the humans and Cybermen battle, the Doctor agrees to sacrifice his Queen and guarantee his loss in return for setting Angie and Artie free. The Doctor then bluffs Clever, saying he has a way to defeat him in three moves. Falling for the bluff, Clever shuts down the Cyberman army to use their processing power to figure out the Doctor's strategy. The Doctor then uses the distraction to disable his implants with a powered-up hand pulser, banishing Clever from his mind.

However, the Cybermen begin to reactivate. Porridge, who never wanted to be Emperor, reluctantly uses his voice command to activate the bomb, revealing that using this command will immediately summon his flagship which will automatically teleport him aboard. Everybody is transported to safety while the planet is destroyed along with all of the Cybermen. Porridge then asks Clara to marry him, impressed by her beauty and intelligence. However, Clara turns him down saying she has no wish to be the Queen of the Universe. The Doctor and Clara then return Angie and Artie home.

After scanning for any remaining Cyberman technology, Porridge orders his ship to return home. However, a single cybermite is seen floating through space.

Continuity

The Cyber Planner/Plotter first appeared in two Second Doctor stories, The Wheel in Space and The Invasion, though in these instances it was a stationary mechanical device.

The Cybermen having died out/been wiped out was also a plot element of The Moonbase (1967), The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and Revenge of the Cybermen (1975).

The Doctor mentions the Cybermats seen previously in The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Wheel in Space, Revenge of the Cybermen and most recently in "Closing Time".

The Doctor tells the Cyber-Planner that earlier versions of the Cyber operating systems could be scrambled by gold or cleaning fluid, the Cybermens weakness to gold was first shown in Revenge of the Cybermen and during the Moonbase episode 3 the Doctors companions Ben and Polly mix a cocktail of cleaning solvents (refered to as Cocktail Polly) that is used to dissolve the Cybermens chest units.

The Cyber Tombs featured in two previous stories, The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and Attack of the Cybermen (1984).

The revived series Cybermen from "Rise of the Cybermen" appear as do Cybermen from our universe. Gaiman's explanation is that the "Cybus" Cybermen and the "Mondas" Cybermen joined together to upgrade themselves into the new look Cybermen.

When inside the Doctor's mind all ten of his previous incarnations appear, including the regeneration sequence into his eleventh form from The End of Time.

When playing chess against the Cyber Planner, the Doctor says that the Time Lords invented chess.

The Doctor also defeated an enemy via a chess game in The Curse of Fenric (1989).

Whilst under possession by the Cyber-Planner, the Doctor mimics the Ninth Doctor's accent and catchphrase of "Fantastic", as well as the Tenth Doctor's of "Allons-y".

Outside reference

A very similar chess-playing machine, the Turk, was constructed by the Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen in the 18th century. (This invention was also referenced in the Eighth Doctor audio The Silver Turk, where the Doctor encountered a damaged early Cyberman that was being used to play chess.)

Production

Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat contacted Neil Gaiman about writing for the series and asked him to make the Cybermen "scary again". Gaiman thought back to classic series serials The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and decided to "take the 1960s Cybermen and [incorporate] everything that's happened since". Warwick Davis stated that it was a "thrill" to be in Doctor Who, especially in an episode with the Cybermen written by Gaiman. However, Gaiman said that he "got completely side-tracked by a mad, strange romp".

Moffat stated that the Cybermen were redesigned because they did so often in the classic series, and yet had been consistent in the new series. However the new series Cybermen are to make an appearance in the episode as shown in the trailer for the episode. Gaiman was motivated to provide a "rationalisation" for the Cybermen in current Doctor Who continuity. The classic series had depicted the Cybermen as alien cyborgs, while the revived series depicted them as human upgrades from a parallel Earth; Gaiman opined that his Cybermen stemmed from an encounter and amalgamation of these two types of Cybermen following "The Next Doctor".

Some location filming took place in early November 2012 at Castell Coch. During this time, a copy of the readthrough script was found in a taxi in Cardiff. It was marked as being Eve De Leon Allen's copy and had the working title of "The Last Cyberman", which was subsequently changed. The script was found by Hannah Durham, who posted a picture of the script to Facebook with the caption: "found Dr Who script in the back of a taxi. Cheeky spoilers anyone?" It was then posted to Reddit by Dan Rowling with the caption: "Look what a Facebook friend found in a taxi in Cardiff on Monday". Arrangements were then made by Hannah Durham and Dan Rowling to return the script to the BBC.

Broadcast and reception

Overnight viewing figures estimate that the episode was watched by 4.7 million viewers.

The episode received generally mixed to positive reviews. The Independent gave a mixed review saying "it was another episode which failed to live up to the hype," and that "None of this episode seemed to make much sense." But praised Matt Smith's performance saying "Matt Smith’s performance was one of the few reasons to watch this episode." The Telegraph gave the episode 4 stars out of 5. They felt that Gaiman succeeded in making the Cybermen scary again, though it "could have done with more variation in pace and tone". They also praised Smith's and Davis performances. IGN's Mark Snow gave a negative review saying there was an "underwhelming concept and execution," "terrible child actors." He thought that it was "hard to feel as though Gaiman missed an opportunity to reinstate the psychotic cyborgs as one of the Doctor's most terrifying enemies." He did however praise Warwick Davis' performance. Radio Times was negative, describing it as an "almighty Cyber flop", and comparing it to the "execrable" Silver Nemesis.

External links

• Doctor Who: Neil Gaiman on the Cybermen, re-writing for Clara and the radio adaptation of Neverwhere, radiotimes.com