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"Nightmare in Silver" is the twelfth and penultimate episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' and was first broadcast on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
on 11 May 2013. It was written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Stephen Woolfenden. In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor (
Matt Smith Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as the Eleventh Doctor, eleventh incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the BBC series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Daemon Targarye ...
) and the
nanny A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...
Clara Oswald Clara Oswald is a fictional character in the British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. She was created by series producer Steven Moffat and portrayed by Jenna Coleman. Clara was introduced in the Doc ...
(
Jenna-Louise Coleman Jenna-Louise Coleman (born 27 April 1986), known professionally as Jenna Coleman, is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Jasmine Thomas in the soap opera ''Emmerdale'', Clara Oswald in the science-fiction series '' Doctor Who'', ...
) bring Clara's charges Angie (Eve de Leon Allen) and Artie (Kassius Carey Johnson) to an extraterrestrial theme park, where an army of
cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.
s called
Cybermen The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings ( ...
reawaken centuries after their defeat in a war. The Cybermen discover the Doctor, and transform him into a "Cyber-Planner", which creates a split personality fighting for control of the Doctor's body with a game of
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
. The episode was the first to feature the Cybermen since the episode " Closing Time" in the previous series. It was watched by 6.64 million viewers in the United Kingdom and received generally positive reviews from critics.


Plot

The
Eleventh Doctor The Eleventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. He is played by Matt Smith in three series as well as five specials. As with previous incarnations of the Doct ...
takes
Clara Clara may refer to: Organizations * CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization * Clara.Net, a European ISP * Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium People * Clara (given name), a feminine gi ...
and her nanny charges Angie and Artie to an extraterrestrial theme park, after they blackmail her about her trips through time. They find the park is closed down and occupied by a punishment platoon, Webley, the theme park's museum curator, and Porridge, a little person who runs the museum's star attraction - a
Mechanical Turk The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player (german: Schachtürke, ; hu, A Török), was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854 it wa ...
-type chess apparatus with a deactivated
Cyberman The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme '' Doctor Who''. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings ...
in place of the Turk. There are a number of these deactivated Cybermen around the park, as they were defeated a thousand years ago. The Doctor convinces the platoon that he is an ambassador working for their missing Emperor, and is allowed to stay. An army of Cybermen that were hiding under the park and slowly upgrading their parts wake up and kidnap Angie and Artie. The Doctor puts Clara in charge of the troops, warning her not to let them destroy the planet while he rescues the children. The Doctor finds Angie and Artie and is partially upgraded into a Cyberman, sharing the Cyberman super-consciousness, the "Cyberiad". This gives him a split personality as both the Doctor and the "Cyber-Planner", who names himself Mr Clever, share the same body and each control almost half of the brain. The Doctor and Mr Clever agree to play
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
for the complete control of the body. Mr Clever is temporarily stopped by the Doctor placing a golden ticket on his face, explaining that the Cybermen's weakness to gold is still present in their current code; Mr Clever soon installs a patch to overcome this weakness. Clara relocates the platoon to a "comical castle", an attraction at the theme park, where they take stock of minimal arms: one large anti-Cyberman gun with a limited charge, five hand pulsers, and a planet-imploding bomb. The Doctor returns with Angie and Artie, and demands that Clara tie him up to let him finish his chess game, while the platoon hold off poorly against the Cybermen, who can quickly adapt and upgrade to overcome any obstacle. Mr Clever destroys the bomb trigger, leaving the group defenceless. The Doctor uses a hand pulser to remove Mr Clever from his mind. Angie reveals that Porridge is the Emperor — she recognised him from an imperial penny and a waxwork model. The Emperor activates the bomb verbally and signals for an imperial spaceship to teleport them away. At the Doctor's request, Porridge retrieves the Doctor's ship the
TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior a ...
just before the planet implodes, destroying the Cyberman army, however, a single piece of Cyber technology survives, floating in the vacuum of space.


Production

Writer Neil Gaiman had previously written the series 6 episode "
The Doctor's Wife "The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom, and later the same day in the United States. It was writ ...
", which was positively received. Lead writer and executive producer
Steven Moffat Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doct ...
contacted Gaiman about writing for the series and asked him to make the Cybermen "scary again". Gaiman announced his return to ''Doctor Who'' during his
Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
acceptance speech for "The Doctor's Wife", commenting that "only a fool or a madman would try again – so
e was E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plu ...
on his third draft now". Gaiman stated that the episode was planned for the second half of series 7, but could be delayed, as happened with "The Doctor's Wife". On redesigning the Cybermen, Gaiman thought back to classic series serials ''
The Moonbase ''The Moonbase'' is the half-missing sixth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 February to 4 March 1967. In this serial, the Secon ...
'' (1967) and ''
The Tomb of the Cybermen ''The Tomb of the Cybermen'' is the first serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was originally broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 23 September 1967. In the serial, the ...
'' (1967) and decided to "take the 1960s Cybermen and ncorporateeverything that's happened since". However, Gaiman said that he "got completely side-tracked by a mad, strange romp". Moffat stated that the Cybermen were redesigned because they did so often in the classic series, and yet had been consistent in the new series. The previous design of the Cybermen also appear in this episode, but are not the primary threats. Gaiman was motivated to provide a "rationalisation" for the Cybermen in current ''Doctor Who'' continuity. The classic series had depicted the Cybermen as alien cyborgs, while the revived series depicted them as human cyborgs from a parallel Earth; Gaiman opined that his Cybermen stemmed from an encounter and amalgamation of these two types of Cybermen following "
The Next Doctor "The Next Doctor" is the first of the Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials), 2008–2010 specials of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'' that was broadcast on 25 December 2008, as the fourth List of Doctor Who Christmas s ...
".
Warwick Davis Warwick Ashley Davis (born 3 February 1970) is an English actor. He played the title character in ''Willow'' (1988) and the ''Leprechaun'' film series (1993–2003), several characters in the ''Star Wars'' film series (1983–2019), most nota ...
stated that it was a "thrill" to be in ''Doctor Who'', especially in an episode with the Cybermen written by Gaiman. Some location filming took place in early November 2012 at
Castell Coch (; ) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff G ...
.


Lost script

During filming at Castell Coch, a copy of the readthrough script was found in a taxi in
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
. It was marked as being Eve De Leon Allen's copy and had the working title of "The Last Cyberman", which was subsequently changed. The script was found by Hannah Durham, who posted a picture of the script to Facebook with the caption: "found Dr Who script in the back of a taxi. Cheeky spoilers anyone?" It was then posted to
Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
by Dan Rowling with the caption: "Look what a Facebook friend found in a taxi in Cardiff on Monday". Arrangements were then made by Hannah Durham and Dan Rowling to return the script to the BBC.


Broadcast and reception


Broadcast

Overnight viewing figures estimate that the episode was watched by 4.7 million viewers, rising to 6.64 million after calculating the final ratings, making it the ninth most-watched programme of the week on BBC One.


Critical reception

The episode scored 84 on the
Appreciation Index The Audience Appreciation Index (AI) is an indicator measured from 0 to 100 of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by the B ...
, indicating that the public enjoyed it. Media critics gave generally positive reviews to the episode, and
Matt Smith Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as the Eleventh Doctor, eleventh incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the BBC series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Daemon Targarye ...
and
Warwick Davis Warwick Ashley Davis (born 3 February 1970) is an English actor. He played the title character in ''Willow'' (1988) and the ''Leprechaun'' film series (1993–2003), several characters in the ''Star Wars'' film series (1983–2019), most nota ...
' performances were universally praised. Dan Martin from ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' stated that "The Cybermen are back – and scary for the first time since the 60s, thanks to a whimsical but effective script from Neil Gaiman." Ross Ruediger of ''
New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
'' wrote that Gaiman "created an amazing yet believable world here — one that felt otherworldly and yet close to home. The designs of the amusement park captivate", and praised the cast, especially Davis' performance. Sarah Crompton at ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' gave the episode 4 stars out of 5. She felt that Gaiman succeeded in making the Cybermen scary again, though the episode "could have done with more variation in pace and tone". She also praised Smith and Davis' performances. Simon Brew of ''
Den of Geek ''Den of Geek'' is a US and UK-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture. The website also issues a bi-annual magazine. History ''Den of Geek'' was founded in 2007 by Simon Brew in London. In 2012, DoG Tech LLC licensed ...
'' called it "a very good episode, and it's worth having a second watch to pick up some of the lovely nods to Who past that have been fused in." He wrote that "You can't help but feel the influence of
the Borg The Borg are an alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the ''Star Trek'' fictional universe. The Borg are cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a hive mind called "the Collective". The Borg co-opt the technology and knowledge ...
from ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' in here", and referred to their Borg-like adaptation to specific threats as something that is both "familiar" and which "works in making them feel less beatable". ''IGNs Mark Snow gave a positive review, saying that the episode "still stands up as a solid if underwhelming return for one of Who's most iconic and timeless of villains." He also praised Davis' performance. Neela Debnath at ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' called it "another episode which failed to live up to the hype", and said that "Gaiman is a superb writer and his dialogue for the Doctor's internal battle was written well but the other characters felt superfluous and two-dimensional", but praised Smith's performance, calling it "one of the few reasons to watch this episode". Patrick Mulkern of ''
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' was negative, describing it as an "almighty Cyber flop", and comparing it to the "execrable" ''
Silver Nemesis ''Silver Nemesis'' is the third serial of the 25th season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 in three weekly parts from 23 November (the 25th anniversary) to 7 ...
''.


References


External links

* * * {{navboxes, list1= {{Neil Gaiman {{Eleventh Doctor stories, selected=Television {{Cyberman stories, selected=Television Eleventh Doctor episodes 2013 British television episodes Cybermen television stories Television shows written by Neil Gaiman Television episodes set in amusement parks