7X12 Nightmare in Silver(Grading/Discussion)(SPOILERS)

[Lonemagpie]

It seemed like only that one Cyberman had the weird abilities, or at least it's the only one that used them, no?

I think it was, but since it was the first one of the new design, it was obviously meant to represent what they could all do.

And I do like the new abilities - albeit mainly cos they're ones I've often said before that they should have. (I've said many times since the days of rec.arts that if they're supposed to be so superior, they should be faster than a sprinter, more agile than Bruce Lee, etc - and that the Cybes themselves should logically be more like the Raston Warrior Robot)

 

[The Wormhole]

It was okay. Entertaining, but not awesome. Again, this episode was overhyped, being the season's Neil Gaiman episode and introducing the "new" Cybermen. Despite all the hype about the Cybermen getting a new redesign and being "totally reinvented" they're not really much different. Sure they have a new Iron Man-esque look, can move at really fast speeds and can pull off various limbs for fancy tricks. But really, that's what they are, same old Cybermen with a few new tricks. And those tricks, while cool, don't really bring the Cybermen back to the "forboding threat they were in the classic era" or whatever the buzzword of the episdode was. The basic thrust of the episode is an army of Cybermen marching off to fight Our Heroes, just like in the RTD days.

Hell, we even have the same Cybermen theme playing that was used in the RTD era. Which I don't mind, it's a good tune, but when Moffat took over pretty much all music from the RTD era was abandoned and the show started from scratch. We hear the occasional snippets of All the Strange, Strange Creatures, but the show as a new action theme, new theme for the Doctor, new Dalek theme. UNIT's theme wasn't used when they were on the show earlier in the season (and that was used on SJA as well). Yet, despite all this, the Cybermen keeping the same theme introduced for them in 2006 seems very odd.

They didn't really need to use the kids that Clara looks after in this episode. Really, they could have just used any random kids that live on the planet for whatever reason. Yeah, I get it, using Clara's charges gives her a vested personal interest in defeating the Cybermen, but that wasn't really captilized anyway so it seems rather unnecessary.

The "punishment platoon" of losers and rejects was an intersting idea, but again they didn't really do anything with it. Aside from the trope of a disgraced commanding officer making up for past mistakes it was just an excuse to feature unlikely soldiers, like the scrawny guy with glasses or the fat guy who probably never works out.

Oh, and the twist that Warwick Davis was the Emperor? Totally saw that coming.

 

[Captain Crow]

Another crap episode.

No real story to it, annoying punch in the face worthy smug children who can't act, Cybermen portrayed as robots rather than humanoids in life support suits, and Matt Smith in level 10 hammy acting mode.

These are the original Telos cybermen.

Cyberman are for Earth's twin Mondas not Telos. They just colonized Telos.

 

[Australis]

Yeah, didn't do it for me. Warwick Davis channelling Tyrion was okay, but I dunno. Why the kids? Completely unnecessary, shoehorned in. The Cybermen were okay, but the Cyberplanner thing was very meh (kind of like the borg Queen, unnecessary). TBH, there ios no comparison to 'The Doctor's Wife'. Average. Very, very average. There needs to eb some kind of change of pace, but I'm not sure what it is.

 

[Ghost Bones]

Also, am I the only one who thinks the answer to who Clara is is that she is a regenerated Jenny?

Surely not enough people in the general audience would remember a character from one terrible episode 4 years ago for it to be that. It is such a dreadful idea though that I wouldn't bet money against it being true.

 

[Captain Crow]

Also, am I the only one who thinks the answer to who Clara is is that she is a regenerated Jenny?

Surely not enough people in the general audience would remember a character from one terrible episode 4 years ago for it to be that. It is such a dreadful idea though that I wouldn't bet money against it being true.

Judging from rumors referencing "City of Death", mentioning paradoxes resolve themselves in "Hide", and the recent trailer it looks like she uses the TARDIS to splinter herself in time creating a paradox that will resolve itself. Most likely in a similar way to how "Bender's Big Score" delt with it (e.g. kill off paradox clones).

 

[Lonemagpie]

The leaked synopsis is correct, going by everything - especially the trailers - we've seen so far.

 

[DalekJim]

Not sure where some of you are coming from. Thought it was miles better than Rise of the Cybermen, Doomsday, The Next Doctor and Closing Time. Quite liked it. Kids were irritating though, as was the sentimentality. Wish one of the kids died or was gruesomely converted ala Attack of the Cybermen.

The finale will likely be disappointing so I think it's safe to say Mark Gatiss has won Series 7. His 2 episodes have been my favourites.

 

[Procutus]

Last week was a waste of Diana Rigg. This week was just a waste.

After reading a lot of the above comments, I'm beginning to be glad that I didn't make it home in time to see this after all!



I'll still watch it at some point, but I get the feeling that it's going to be a bit of a disappointment. Which leads me to wonder if next week's finale is also just going a bunch of hype that it can't possibly live up to.

 

[DalekJim]

It was insanely overhyped as the episode that would make the Cybermen scary again but it didn't really deliver. They're only slightly less shit than the RTD ones and the resemblence to Iron Man is pretty annoying.

Hasn't been a great TV Cybermen story since The Invasion. Though I do like Earthshock and Attack.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Cybermen have always been crap, barely surviving their encounters with the Doctor, defeated again and again. Survival has always been the Cybermen's recurring theme.

Also: a base under siege scenario. I'd say it was an intentional homage to the second Doctor, and even if it wasn't, I'll just pretend it is.

The kids, though, were completely useless, which is a pity because I was actually looking forward to seeing them.

 

[diankra]

OK, I think my current season poll would probaly run something like...
1) The Crimson Horror
2) Nightmare in Silver
3) Bells of Saint John
4) Cold War
5) Journey to the Centre...
6) Hide
777) The Rings of Please No Not a Song.*

*Sorry, just can't be bothered to check the right spelling, so went with a lame jibe.

You've got to be kidding. Crimson was terrible. A little funny in places and I found that parasite thingy surprisingly cute, but other than that, awful. Plus I hate the stupid Sontaran Silurian lesbian trio. My rating for Series 7 Pt2 would go like this:

1) Cold War
2) Nightmare is Silver
3) Bells of Saint John
4) Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
5) The Crimson Horror
6) Hide
7) Rings of the Musical Piece of Crap

Bare in mind though I only liked Cold War, Nightmare in Silver and Bells of Saint John. After that it was just the best of a bad situation.

Actually, we're not far off agreement, seeing as Cold War was a very close runner up for fourth or third place for me, apart from my liking Crimson Horror while you couldn't stand it. Apart from that we're in the same ball park for most of them...

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

Cybermen have always been crap, barely surviving their encounters with the Doctor, defeated again and again. Survival has always been the Cybermen's recurring theme.

Also: a base under siege scenario. I'd say it was an intentional homage to the second Doctor, and even if it wasn't, I'll just pretend it is.

The kids, though, were completely useless, which is a pity because I was actually looking forward to seeing them.

^ This is what annoyed me.

I was really looking forward to seeing a second Gaiman episode and, for the most part, I enjoyed it until it turned into a run-of-the-mill base under siege story. Smith was mostly good and Warwick Davis was outstanding. I didn't think much of Mel Owen, the ginger kid from Skins or that James Corden tribute act. As others have said, the whole "punishment platoon" was a wasted concept.

I couldn't help but feel this episode had a greater degree of Moffat interfering, particularly given its place in the season. The images of the previous Doctors showing up is surely an allusion to the finale so the younger kids understand the Doctor's past.

I might change my mind on a second viewing, but this episode fell far short of The Doctor's Wife.

 

[Ghost Bones]

A base under siege for about 2 minutes while the Cybermen marched a few metres very slowly up to the enemy, rather than finishing things quickly because the plot required them to fall down like Anakin had blown up their droid control ship.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

So instead of cybermats we have cyber-roaches?

I thought "cybergnats" was a shoo-in.

I thought The Doctor said "Cybermites" but either one works.

He did, I was just suggesting cybergnats as a play on cybermats. Cybermite is a visual play, I was making an aural pun. I did think MS might say that before he said mite.

 

[MickJo1701]

Not as good as The Doctors Wife but still very enjoyable. The Doctor/Cyber Planner battle of the minds was brilliant.

 

[Stoo]

Was a decent ep overall but a bit disappointing. Maybe just because my expectations were too high.

I wasn't keen on all that "battle for teh Doctor's brain" stuff, it felt like just an excuse for Smith to crank up the over-acting. I wanted more cybermen and less of him whirling on the spot yelling at himself. The cyber-controller persona should have been more cold and calculating.

The bullet-time Cyberman was a great holy-shit!! moment, but if they'd all been able to do that our heroes would have gotten wiped out so the ability gets forgotten. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, the cybermen are too purely robotic (tho this has been the case all along since 2006). We've kind of lost that horrific aspect to them, of a human body violated by machinery. I do like their new sleek look, there should just be more scraps of human left under the shell.

Kids didn't contribute much but at least that meant they didn't get too annoying.

Warwick Davis was brilliant, definitely one of the episode's greatest strengths.

I would say it's better than the last few episodes to feature cybermen. (really didn't think much to that one with James Cordon)

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I've been thinking about the hyper-speed Cyberman moment and had a thought: The Cyberman don't seem to apply more force than needed at any given moment. That is to say, overkill isn't their thing. That particular Cyberman might have noticed he was badly outnumbered, and while he still probably had the advantage, now might be a good time to use that. Later on once the tomb had been woken up I imagine they figured that fast or slow they were going to mow down the human resistance.

 

[Icemizer]

I can only hope that at some future point we get an Emperor(Davis) featured episode. I enjoyed this one well enough but mostly for Davis.

 

[DalekJim]

I'd rank this series so far:

1) Cold War
2) The Crimson Horror
3) The Bells of St. John
4) Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
5) Rings of Underrated
6) Hide
7) Nightmare in Silver

Enjoyed 'em all though to some extent. Just odd that Mark Gatiss has kicked arse while Neil fucking Gaiman delivers the weakest offering.