Nightmare in Silver (TV story)

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Nightmare in Silver was the twelfth regular episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

Synopsis

Hedgewick's World of Wonders: the perfect theme park day out. And ground zero for a deadly silver resurrection.

Plot

The Doctor takes Clara and the children she governs to the larghest theme park in the universe. Much like pretty much everything that's the largest in the universe, it is an entire planet. While exploring the park, the Doctor finds the last of the Cybermen. Once finding out that they were no harm to anyone, he started searching for strange insects he finds. After finding a cluster of them, he discovers that they had replaced the Cybermat. Unfortunately for him, a group of them latched onto his head and gave him a partial conversion. Discovering his extreme intellect, he was planned to become the Cyber-Planner. Strapping a golden ticket to the side of his face where he had been upgraded, he managed to go to the castle where Clara and the residents had set up a fortress. He played the Cybermen at chess for control of his mind.

Cast

References

Alien Species

  • The head of a Uvodni and upper body of a Blowfish can be seen on display inside the room housing the chessboard.

Cybermen

  • The Cyber-Wars lasted 1,000 years. The planet Hedgewick's World is on was used to hide 3 million Cybermen and repair them.
  • Whilst not being able to convert non-humans in the past, the Cybermen can now process creatures like Time Lords, at least partially.
  • The "Cyberiad" refers to collective consciousness of the Cybermen.

The Doctor

  • Whilst under possession by the Cyber-Planner, the Doctor mimics the Ninth Doctor's accent and catchphrase of "Fantastic", as well as the Tenth Doctor's of "Allons-y".
  • When the Cybermites take over, the Doctor lets them see the regeneration power, by showing him his previous incarnations, plus the regeneration from his tenth to his current self. He claims that he can regenerate at will.
  • The Doctor has been erasing himself from history, leaving a hole in the Cybermen's records that used to be him.

Clara

  • It is suggested that the Doctor and Clara meet on Wednesdays for their adventures, as opposed to Clara being in residence aboard the TARDIS.

Games

Cultural references from the real world

  • Porridge is inside an undefeated "automated" chess player. This is very similar to real-world the Turk, who was too exhibited as an undefeatable chess-playing machine, but was actually controlled by a man inside.
  • Interestingly, the Turk was the inspiration for the Clockwork Droids. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)

Story notes

  • The episode's title, Nightmare in Silver, is reminiscent of Silver Nemesis, in that, in both cases, the "Silver" is referring to Cybermen.
  • A working title for the episode was The Last Cyberman.[1]
  • The Cyber-Doctor answers to Clara's question of "More Cybermen?" with "They're waking from their tomb right now." which is a possible reference to the television story TV: Tomb of the Cybermen.
  • Subsequently, the Cybermen exiting their tombs mirrors the cliffhanger of Earthshock Part 3 when three rows of Cybermen march towards the camera. It's also very similar of the scene where the Cybermen come out of their tombs in The Tomb of the Cybermen.
  • When the Doctor lets the Cyber-Doctor access his memories on regeneration, his previous ten incarnations are seen. Each image of an incarnation is taken from photograph stills used as promotional material during the respective actors' tenures.
  • The Cybermen's ability to adapt to attacks is reminiscient of the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Additionally, the Borg used nanotechnology to convert individuals, similar to the cybermites, and Webley's cyber-appearance is reminiscient of the Borg's "half machine, half human" face. And as of "Star Trek: First Contact" they, like these Cybermen, assimilated new members by use of something coming out of their wrists.
  • The Cyber-Doctor imitates the Ninth Doctor and says "Allons-y" like the Tenth Doctor.

Ratings

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Filming locations

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Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

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Continuity

Home video releases

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External links

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References