Silver Nemesis

It is obvious to anyone how similar Silver Nemesis is to Remembrance of the Daleks. Both involve the Doctor using an ancient Gallifreyan device to destroy an army of aliens. Both were broadcast in the 25th season. However, this story is the ‘official’ anniversary story and the Cybermen are used instead of the Daleks- and it fails where the other succeeded and the fact that they are so similar is one of the less serious problems with the story. The main problem is the very poor script. Remembrance of the Daleks was, in part a celebration of the past 25 years of Doctor Who. Silver Nemesis seems to focus merely on the period of 25 years. Adversaries and events are inserted into the story with no thought as to how they will work individually, let alone together. The Nazis are entirely superfluous and are given virtually nothing to do, the main villainous parts being taken by the Cybermen and Lady Peinforte. There are some truly awful scenes- the nonsense with the Queen and Windsor Castle is bearable, but the (very RADA) skinheads and the American tourist are utterly cringeworthy. The characterisation is virtually non-existent, with only Lady Peinforte and Richard showing any signs of life- the rest are merely one-line descriptions- in fact, for DeFlores and his gang of Arisch cavemen, I suspect that it was less, even, than that.

This is a shame, as some of the story looks quite impressive. The Cybermen look fantastic- for the first time their costumes look like actual designs rather than bits and pieces sprayed silver. We even have the return of the visible lower jaw from Earthshock. The special effects for their ship are also quite impressive. Unfortunately, the script has to have them be worse shots than Helen Keller and take part in ludicrous scenes such as that ridiculous sleight of hand involving the bow of the Nemesis. It is difficult to truly judge the effectiveness of Chris Clough’s direction, considering how hamstrung he was with the script. It must be said that all the major characters are well acted, especially Fiona Walker as Lady Peinforte and Gerard Murphy as Richard. Anton Diffring could play a character like DeFlores in his sleep and, although he is blatantly thinking more about Boris Becker than Doctor Who, he is always watchable in a very poorly written part. Keff McCulloch again seems to think that the more notes you cram in, the better the result would be. Someone should have realised that you do not have a guest performance from Britain’s foremost jazz musician and have McCulloch doing the rest of the music. Sophie Aldred is great in this, but Sylvester McCoy ranges from inspired to silly.

I must admit that, at the time, I enjoyed the story almost as much as Remembrance of the Daleks. It has exciting fight scenes and other things that can divert a 12-year old. However, Remembrance of the Daleks is a story that I still enjoy today- this story is just embarrassing.

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