Silver Nemesis Review

Silver Nemesis

The Cybermen are on the scene

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

Sunday in the Park

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 and Richard

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.

Welcome to Windsor

The Five Doctors Review

The Five Doctors

The titular four Doctors



Story 129, Episodes 602, 20th Anniversary Special

Doctor: The First Doctor, The Second Doctor, The Third Doctor, The Fourth Doctor, The Fifth Doctor

Companions: Susan Foreman, The Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Romana II, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough

Doctor Who celebrates its 20th Anniversary in style, bringing back classic Doctors and probing deeper into Gallifreyan history.

The Review

The First Doctor and Susan meet the current team

Anniversary specials are a funny thing. We all want to see our favorite characters from the show return, but also don’t want something that is dumb and stupid. It would be exceedingly difficult to bring as many characters back as The Five Doctors does and come up with some killer emotional story, so it doesn’t really try. For the big reveals we return to Gallifrey and finally meet Rassilon, who for a decade has been spoken of as the legendary founder of the Time Lords. That at least makes the story feel special rather than tossing in characters. First off, we see shots from the unfinished Shada representing the Fourth Doctor and Romana, who we are told are ‘stuck the vortex’. It’s a shame Tom Baker didn’t return, as seeing him and Lalla Ward again was genuinely heart-warming. With William Hartnell having passed, Richard Hurndall is cast as the First Doctor, and he cuts a warmer figure than Hartnell. Susan is also back as a woman now, curiously the Fifth Doctor doesn’t seem too happy to see her. She then twists her ankle, which is honestly a cruel joke played on Carole Ann Ford.

The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane reunited

The Five Doctors smartly gives us some character pairings we haven’t seen in a while starting with the Second Doctor meeting the Brigadier, and the Third Doctor meeting Sarah Jane. Troughton is delightfully and completely himself, and despite his hair having gone completely white Pertwee still has his sharp edge. Sarah Jane doesn’t get as much to do as she deserves, there’s no really interactions with the Fifth Doctor and she falls down a hill. Turlough gets stuck in the TARDIS for most of it, but Tegan does get to hang around with the First Doctor which is quite a fun crossover. As for the Fifth Doctor he gets some time on Gallifrey taking to Lord President Borusa and other members of the high council, trying to figure out who brought them all here. It’s a good narrative structure to have all these pairings and bring them together at the end.

Rassilon makes an appearance at last

We of course get some villains, the Daleks are only represented by a lone entry while we get a lot of the Master and the Cybermen. The Master is tasked with rescuing the Doctor from the ‘Death Zone’ on Gallifrey, where Rassilon’s tomb is, but once again Ainley doesn’t get to do much despite putting in a good acting performance. I don’t know who expected a lot of the Cybermen in this story, but it is fun to see their silver suits out in the foggy Welsh highlands of the Death Zone. Certainly would take them over lots of EXTERMINATE! In the end, President Borusa turns out to the the villain, desiring Rassilon’s immortality, and he gets it as others before him, immortality as stone on Rassilon’s tomb. The First Doctor gets the pivotal line goading Borusa into it, a good decision by the script. As they all leave, the Fifth Doctor is appointed President of Gallifrey, so he jumps in the TARDIS and flees. After all, that’s how it started. Listen, The Five Doctors is just pure fun. We even get illusions of Liz, Yates, Jamie, Zoe to round it out. Classic characters, a good plot, and an ending ensuring the show continues.

It opens with William Hartnell’s monologue to Susan from The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and ends with the Peter Davison Doctor running away from Gallifrey. All told, it’s good fun. I just wish the companions other than the Brigadier got more to do.

9.25/10 A great template for future anniversary specials. Give us characters!

The Master in discussions with the Cybermen



The Day of the Doctor Review

The Day of the Doctor

The 11th, 10th, and War Doctors

Story 240, Episode 799, 50th Anniversary Special

Doctors: Eleventh, War, Tenth (Eighth)

Companion: Kate Stewart, Clara Oswald

Here comes the spoilers in the start of the 900-ish-Episode quest to review every Doctor Who episode!

Prequel- The Night of the Doctor

The Eighth Doctor returns at last

For some, this was an incredible moment. It was the return of the Eighth Doctor to Doctor Who proper after last being seen in a one-off movie in 1996. As having no Eighth Doctor experience, it was simply a good representation of the Time War. The Eighth Doctor is rebuked by a Companion and is mortally wounded trying to save her. He is offered a choice, regenerate and stop the Time War from ripping the universe apart. The prequel simply gave the Eighth Doctor closure and introduced the War Doctor.

8.5/10

Prequel-The Last Day

Less good as the Night of the Doctor, The Last Day showed a promising start to a new FPS blending Time Lords and Halo. Despite that such a game is too awesome to exist, The Last Day was even more ‘prequely’ than the last one. The Fall of Arcadia indeed.

6/10

The Day of the Doctor

The Doctor

The Day of the Doctor is truly brilliant. It is one of the best episodes of Moffatt’s run, and undoubtedly deserving of the 50th Anniversary special. Contrary to expectations, the true main character was the War Doctor, played by John Hurt. The sadness and gravitas he brought to the role left me saddened that all we see of the War Doctor is this episode. The crux of the 50th Anniversary is the War Doctor being shown by The Moment/Bad Wolf/Rose what he will be if he murders trillions of Gallifreyans and Daleks. He is thrust into seeing Eleven and Ten meeting up to solve an ingenious Zygon invasion. The other Doctors are understandably scared of him, as they remember his murder. Also fantastic is the return of David Tennant, who hasn’t been seen since he regenerated four years ago. He hasn’t missed a beat. Tennant dives right back into the role, and all the things that made the Tenth Doctor my favorite were shown in force in his scenes with Elizabeth I. The wit, the charm, everything that truly made him, as Clara called it, The Hero. Ten is the quintessential Hero, and his return was seamless. The Zygon invasion was utter genius, especially with the Time Lord being a 3D moment in time. So, in 1592 or whatever, the Zygons hide in paintings that the Zygon Elizabeth I places in her collection until 2013 when the Earth is ripe for the taking. The round-about way of Eleven and Clara being called in by UNIT to deal with the Zygons escaping (by Kate Stewart in a commanding performance that wants me to see more of her), and finding Ten investigating the same invasion was perfectly executed. The War Doctor is aghast at his future selves ‘timey-wimey’ speak and kissing and what the New Series in general. As he may be near the age of long-time Doctor Who fans, it was a way of comparing the old and new.

The Moment is at hand

Through it all, he sees that the future is in safe hands, but he cannot avoid activating the Moment, the Time War must be stopped. Ten and Eleven come to help him in a heartbreaking scene, until they realize: Time Lord art is frozen in time, a moment frozen there. What if, they can do that to Gallifrey? Suddenly, the three Doctors rush to Gallifrey to do this, and contact the planet and their faces pop up on holograms. But not just there’s, ALL THIRTEEN Doctors arrive to save Gallifrey, including Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor! They freeze Gallifrey and it vanishes and the Daleks’ fire destroys themselves. The Doctors depart, with the War Doctor and Tenth Doctor knowing their knowledge of them not committing genocide is lost. Seems only the oldest Doctor remembers multi-Doctor stuff, for the most part. The War Doctor regenerates of old age, into the Ninth Doctor, but cuts out before we see Eccleston. D’aw. The final scene had Tom Baker returning for the first time since 1981 as a Curator to lead the Doctor on his journey…to Gallifrey. It’s almost poetic, the Doctor’s going home. Stunning episode, great 50th Anniversary that shows what the Doctor’s mission now has become: going home.

10/10

Highlight: All thirteen incarnations of the Doctor arrive to save Gallifrey.

Previously: The Name of the Doctor

Next: The Time of the Doctor

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