Do you reckon when Russell T Davies comes back in 700 days/on Thursday, the 23rd of November, 2023, he’s just going to sit there in a chair for a second before explaining Chibnall is a hack? I mean, it was RTD that established the time vortex as the thing that makes you a Time Lord, and when Moffat explained River’s conception it was that Amy and Rory conceived her in the vortex on the TARDIS. “The Timeless Children” established that Chibnall is a hack, and that the whole regeneration business (which only Time Lords have) is a genetic modification to be like the Doctor. That means anyone can be a Time Lord now. I wonder why that entire process came into my head this week?

This week we’re diving into “Nightmare in Silver,” or as it is sometimes called “that other episode Neil Gaiman wrote” or “that one episode where the Doctor plays chess with himself.” An exceptionally brilliant episode, it is just a shame Clara is once again pulling focus with the “you are too special for this world!” theme. I did it last week with Gatiss, I’ll do it here again: “Nightmare in Silver” feels like one where we get an actor told to just be Helena Bonham Carter. If someone wants to get a hold of Gaiman to confirm that’s who he was writing for, I’d like that very much, because as lovely as Suranne Jones happens to be, she was second in that role.

Anyway, do I even need to say it? The whole Cyberman thing is a little bit obvious with that title, alongside the probable images I’ll use as the header or the one around this paragraph. I’m sure I said it before, but I’ve never been much of a fan when it came to the Cybermen. Sure, the space Nazis from Mars are equally (if not more) overused within the series as a whole. However, Daleks are at least a little interesting. Cybermen lack something about their overall story and ultimately turn into slow stompy monsters of doom. We get a story where they are banging at the doors about to extinguish all life and assimilate the Doctor’s brain? Now, that’s an episode of Doctor Who.

Despite all my Clara hate, she’s actually good in this one. This tends to be my problem with her: She’s got a character drive that shakes like a leaf and more often than not, she has a skewed morality and pulls focus from an interesting plot. The less I say about the Moffat and Capaldi era right now, I think the better because I don’t want to put my fist through the concrete walls of my office here. Nonetheless, I somewhat like that the kids she’s babysitting being her reason for morality along with her holding the key to the nukes (or planet-destroying bomb), and generally being the interpreter of sorts between the Doctor and others.

I also really like this week’s guest stars. I don’t think you can go wrong with a bit of Warwick Davis, while Jason Watkins is exactly who you’d cast as the impish henchman. I can’t say I love Tamzin Outhwaite in the role of the Captain of the irregulars all too much, but she’s very much meant to be the antagonistic one fighting with Clara for power. I don’t want to say it is the actor, I’d much rather say it was the writing of the hamfisted military-type we’ve seen a million times in Doctor Who that wants to just follow orders with no actual thought put into the actions. It feels like she took what she was given and made the best of it though. I didn’t like her as a character because Outhwaite is that good, but it feels like it was the stock character for episodes that are anti-war.

Also, I just want to say that Moffat was either looking the other way when this went into production or he can jump in a bin for all I care. Zahra Ahmadi’s character, Missy, made me do a double-take that resulted in a bit of research when I watched this episode back a few weeks before I actually had to write this. We’re 12 stories and the anniversary away from getting the wonderful Michelle Gomez, and we’re three episodes from picking up a line from back in “The Bells of Saint John.” So why are we calling a character Missy before we get Missy proper unless Moffat wants to spin yarn to keep you questioning reality? I love him but sometimes I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist trying to figure out the plot.

Though they are very much the big stompy monsters of death, I think the Cybermen work here as the angels of death banging at the door while the Doctor plays a literal game of chess. The game made to be the ultimate scale model of war, which is used as nothing more than a stalling tactic so the Doctor can beat off the Cyberman brain download-thing, is good. It is that Star Trek and Doctor Who archetype of a good sci-fi episode in a nutshell. It takes a big concept and does it in small human ways. I’m thinking “Dax” from DS9, a courtroom episode about relationships and if a person can be reformed/did they actually do it. Spoilers for episode 7 of a 1993 show you should have at least watched once.

Davis wonderfully performs that grand emperor that is kind of ashamed of himself or doesn’t fit the prototypical idea of a grand space emperor being only 3ft tall. He’s very much the type of monarch that wants to be among his people, but in doing so, he desperately doesn’t want to kill his people. Meanwhile, Smith… Do I have to say it? The manic two personalities pulling the character of the Doctor in separate directions, the energy he brings, and every little bit of delivery, it is something only this Doctor could have done in this New-Who era. You could never see Capaldi doing this and Jodie’s just been given crap every time she’s on-screen fighting for attention.

While I don’t love Gaiman’s every word in Doctor Who, he’s one of the standouts in terms of writing. A bit like Moffat, he’s good with the snappy dialogue, the fun ideas, and general understanding of how to make an episode what it needs to be. Of course, there are bits of Moffat in here as the showrunner, and there was a bit of script editing in there to get it to TV. Generally, it was “The Doctor’s Wife” again but better because it wasn’t just fan service. Anyway, next week more of Clara Who! Wait, what?

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Doctor Who "Nightmare In Silver"

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Emperor Porridge.
• Smith and Davis' performances.
• Big concept made small.
• Making the Cybermen interesting for once.

Cons

• Clunky 2D characters.
• Heading into Clara-Who.
• A character called Missy just before we start building to Missy.