Silver Nemesis
Story 150, Episodes 675-677, Season 25 Episodes 6-8
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: Ace McShane
It’s the 150th story, and the 25th anniversary of Doctor Who, and we get a breezy story with neo-Nazis, Cybermen, and bizarre references to the Doctor’s secret past.
The Review
I’ve heard a lot of negative things about Silver Nemesis, but for me, this is where the Doctor and Ace relationship really snaps into place. Ace is the Doctor’s apprentice in being punk, heck, the story starts with the two taking in a jam session of jazz music. The plot is at once complex and at once inconsequential, there are four factions, the Doctor and Ace, a group of neo-Nazis out of exile in South America, the cruel witch Lady Peinforte from the 16th century, and a bunch of Cybermen are here too. There’s some fun interplay as the groups play off of each other. I’m a sucker for Cybermen, but they’re really pretty disposable here, the Cybermen don’t feel like a legitimate scary threat but just another alien threat. Still, I like their design here and getting trolled by jazz music is great even though like Remembrance of the Daleks they ignore tons of chances to shoot the Doctor. The neo-Nazis are interesting in how blatantly political it is, but Lady Peinforte takes the cake for most interesting villain.
Lady Peinforte is a caricature, but I don’t mind, she’s a weird lady from 1638 obsessed with the MacGuffin of the story: the ‘Nemesis’, a living metal comet the Doctor set up. In one amusingly bizarre detour she and Richard are picked up by a mega rich American researching her family past who is incredibly confused by them. The other part of this story is heavily implying the Doctor knew and hung out with the Time Lord founders, and that Peinforte has ‘figured out his secrets’. There’s one shot where McCoy looks like he’ll explode with fury on her, but then he calms down when the Cyber-Leader says he does not care about all that. Even the ending has Ace asking the Doctor who he is and he mischievously shushes her. Really, I enjoyed Silver Nemesis because of how well-paced and plotted it was, and the dynamite chemistry between McCoy and Aldred. This might just be the best Classic pairing, others, Six and Peri especially have shined in Big Finish but not the show, these two are on fire.
It’s a weird story to celebrate the 25th anniversary (complete with the Queen herself making an appearance), but it’s easy breezy fun.
8.5/10 Nothing revelatory, but undeniably a good time.
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