25x3. Silver Nemesis
Writer: Kevin Clarke
Director: Chris Clough
Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: The
Doctor and Ace become involved in a battle for control of the Nemesis
statue, a piece of "living metal" originally designed by the Time Lords
which has crash-landed near Windsor Castle, between the Cybermen, the
powerful Lady Peinforte from the 17th century, and a group of South
American Neo-Nazis. The Doctor schemes to keep the Nemesis away from
all three factions and destroy the Cyber Fleet, while Lady Peinforte
threatens to reveal his true identity.
Review: One could be forgiven, so soon
after "Remembrance of the Daleks," for viewing "Silver Nemesis" and
thinking, "Wait a minute, didn't I just see this story?" Once again,
multiple factions are competing to get their hands on a Gallifreyan
relic; once again, the Doctor comes off as a more mysterious and
scheming figure with hints that he's played a larger role in Time Lord
history than he's previously let on, while setting a trap for a
returning enemy; and once again, human right-wing extremists are in the
picture. These are all potentially worthwhile concepts, as
"Remembrance" proved, but the script doesn't really elaborate on them
or make any point that hadn't already been made in "Remembrance."
Instead,
it feels second-rate and lacking in subtletly: we're told outright that
the Doctor is guarding a secret about his past instead of having it
implied through conversation with Ace, we get literal Nazis instead of
British fascists, and the action scenes often lack an effective sense
of space while both the Cybermen and the Nazis appear unable to hit the
broad side of a barn. The Nazis in particular seem like an unnecessary
and irrelevant addition for a Cybermen story. While the Daleks and
their creator are driven by a sort of eugenicist ideology and by
xenophobic hate in general, the Cybermen are more a symbol of
mechanistic logic taken to inhuman extremes - their purpose and modus operandi
really have little in common with the impulses and ideology behind
Nazism. Of course, the original concept behind the Cybermen itself
seems to have been watered down over the course of the series. There
are occasional references to "logic," and they seem to have taken
preliminary steps towards turning two captured humans into Cybermen,
but for much of the proceedings, they just function as generic baddies
in silver suits. Unlike after "Remembrance," which breathed some new
life into the Daleks, I think I'd be fine with not seeing the Cybermen
again after this even if I didn't know that the original series was
nearly over.
The
character with the most potential is probably Lady Peinforte, who hails
from the pre-modern era and yet seems to know something about the
Doctor and the Time Lords and uses what the Doctor himself
characterizes as "black magic" to travel through time. (Normally Doctor Who steers
clear of the supernatural, but if "Snakedance" can have its
borderline-magic rituals, then I suppose "Silver Nemesis" can have its
magical time travel.) Unfortunately, her dialogue isn't always the
best: one of her lines is literally "I am evil," and the way she spends
a car ride indulging in "it will all be mine!"-style cackling to a
perplexed fellow passenger is amusing but logically dubious - she ought
to be keeping quiet so as not to call attention to herself. As for the
Doctor's role, I'll admit to being intrigued by Peinforte's threat to
reveal his true identity and her allusions to "the Old Time...the Time
of Chaos," but I wonder if they're taking this darker turn in his
character too far by having him respond somewhat coolly when the
Nemesis statue - which is apparently sentient - asks if it will be
free, as he is determined to use it to destroy the Cyber Fleet. I can
buy the idea that Rassilon and Omega might have once created a living
creature to use as a weapon for the Time Lords - Doctor Who has
never idealized Gallifrey or the way the Time Lords use their power -
but why doesn't the Doctor try to free the Nemesis from its destructive
purpose altogether? That would have still kept the
three competing factions from harnessing its capabilities and been more
in keeping with his character, while still preserving the mystery of
his identity and his involvement with Time Lord history.
Finally,
there are some attempts at lighter moments that just don't sit quite
right in the context of an otherwise dark and mysterious narrative. The
entire notion of the action taking place in and around Windsor Castle
feels like the script trying too hard to be clever, especially when
it's made to appear that the Queen has just walked by with her dogs and
the Doctor then tries to catch up with her to ask for the assistance of
the police and military. For one thing, he has to know that the Prime
Minister would be the one who would actually make such a decision, and
the sort of visual trickery employed here accomplishes little other
than to call attention to itself. A later scene in which two muggers
try to accost Peinforte and her servant Richard, only to be discovered
hung upside-down from trees in their underwear shortly afterwards,
similarly comes off as an artless distraction rather than an effective
piece of comic relief.
To its credit, "Silver Nemesis" does seem
to know that it's a retread - Ace remarks at the end on how the Doctor
had set a similar trap for the Daleks, and a couple of references to
"unfinished business" suggest that the Doctor is also aware of the
parallels - but acknowledging that we've already been here and done
this can't make up for the fact that, well, we've been here and done
this.
Rating: **1/2 (out of four)
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