Doctor Who 7.12: Nightmare in Silver
If only we could have a Gaiman script every year!
My expectations were high for this because Neil Gaiman's last script was one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who episodes. So I was trying not to expect too much in case I was disappointed but I still ended up ridiculously excited for this.
I mean, Gaiman. Doing Cybermen.
And the good thing is that I loved it as much as I'd hoped I would! It's definitely a Gaiman script and definitely a Cyberman story and thoroughly brilliant. I particularly loved the idea that they've upgraded themselves and continue to upgrade, making them into a genuinely scary and almost unstoppable menace. Those moments when the first Cyberman was moving superfast and shrugging off everything anyone shot at him? It set up the whole concept of the Cybermen being a genuine enemy beautifully. If one Cyberman is that fast and hard to kill, what will an entire army of them be like?
And Gaiman didn't give the Doctor an easy off switch for dealing with them. Those scenes where the Doctor is fighting the Cyberplanner for control, knowing that its going to cheat and there's no way he can win, were brilliant. Matt Smith did a fantastic job of playing both characters and signalling - sometimes obviously, sometimes very subtly - which one he was at each moment. And the hint of despair in the Doctor's eyes because he knew the Cyberplanner wouldn't stick to the bargain were just heartbreaking. I still can't decide whether he knew the pulse gauntlet thingy would eventually be his way out or whether that was a happy coincidence - it could go either way - but the whole plotline was just great.
And Clara! Oh, Clara, so brilliant and strong and amazing as soon as she's put in charge. This was possibly one of my favourite episodes for Clara being awesome. It was genuinely fascinating to watch her in this because she was so determined and so clever. She would be a formidable enemy to be on the wrong side of, she really would. And I loved that she could see through the Cyberplanner's manipulation because while she may like the Doctor and be a little attracted to him, she also knows him well enough to see that he just come right out and tell her how beautiful and wonderful she is.
Putting the children into danger but removing them from the action for a large chunk of the episode was probably a good idea. It would have been difficult to do everything else the plot needed with them running around and getting in the way, but we needed to have something the Doctor was fighting for. If the children hadn't been where they were, he could have simply popped everyone in the TARDIS and flown away after setting the plane to implode. He knows that there's no way to reason with a Cyberman and if there was an army on the planet then they were always going to have to destroy it. But he couldn't leave the children and that's why we got an entire episode worth of plot.
Also, can I just say how much I loved Warwick Davis in this? It was an absolutely wonderful character, one that I got attached to immediately and worried for. I'd worked out that he was the Emporer as soon as the captain called him 'sir', but the reveal was nicely done. The thing I really enjoyed was that his character wasn't all about his size, if anything that was the least important thing about him. Having Warwick Davis get to play a layered, lovely character like that was just brilliant. Usually he gets the guys in silly makeup type roles and this? This was just a man and his central angst and pain wasn't about his species or his size, it was about the hard choices and lonely life of being who he is. I felt kind of sad for him by the end.
Particularly when we spotted that bit of Cyber tech floating in space at the end. It's not over for him, it will never be over. The big question is when they'll come back and why his technician missed it during her scan. Is she secretly a Cyber sympathiser or is their scanning tech just not up to the job?
I'm missing so many things here but the short version is: loved it, can we have more Gaiman episodes?
Also, next week's preview looks bloody fantastic and I want it right now. Argh, it's going to be a long wait!
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/493618.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth
My expectations were high for this because Neil Gaiman's last script was one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who episodes. So I was trying not to expect too much in case I was disappointed but I still ended up ridiculously excited for this.
I mean, Gaiman. Doing Cybermen.
And the good thing is that I loved it as much as I'd hoped I would! It's definitely a Gaiman script and definitely a Cyberman story and thoroughly brilliant. I particularly loved the idea that they've upgraded themselves and continue to upgrade, making them into a genuinely scary and almost unstoppable menace. Those moments when the first Cyberman was moving superfast and shrugging off everything anyone shot at him? It set up the whole concept of the Cybermen being a genuine enemy beautifully. If one Cyberman is that fast and hard to kill, what will an entire army of them be like?
And Gaiman didn't give the Doctor an easy off switch for dealing with them. Those scenes where the Doctor is fighting the Cyberplanner for control, knowing that its going to cheat and there's no way he can win, were brilliant. Matt Smith did a fantastic job of playing both characters and signalling - sometimes obviously, sometimes very subtly - which one he was at each moment. And the hint of despair in the Doctor's eyes because he knew the Cyberplanner wouldn't stick to the bargain were just heartbreaking. I still can't decide whether he knew the pulse gauntlet thingy would eventually be his way out or whether that was a happy coincidence - it could go either way - but the whole plotline was just great.
And Clara! Oh, Clara, so brilliant and strong and amazing as soon as she's put in charge. This was possibly one of my favourite episodes for Clara being awesome. It was genuinely fascinating to watch her in this because she was so determined and so clever. She would be a formidable enemy to be on the wrong side of, she really would. And I loved that she could see through the Cyberplanner's manipulation because while she may like the Doctor and be a little attracted to him, she also knows him well enough to see that he just come right out and tell her how beautiful and wonderful she is.
Putting the children into danger but removing them from the action for a large chunk of the episode was probably a good idea. It would have been difficult to do everything else the plot needed with them running around and getting in the way, but we needed to have something the Doctor was fighting for. If the children hadn't been where they were, he could have simply popped everyone in the TARDIS and flown away after setting the plane to implode. He knows that there's no way to reason with a Cyberman and if there was an army on the planet then they were always going to have to destroy it. But he couldn't leave the children and that's why we got an entire episode worth of plot.
Also, can I just say how much I loved Warwick Davis in this? It was an absolutely wonderful character, one that I got attached to immediately and worried for. I'd worked out that he was the Emporer as soon as the captain called him 'sir', but the reveal was nicely done. The thing I really enjoyed was that his character wasn't all about his size, if anything that was the least important thing about him. Having Warwick Davis get to play a layered, lovely character like that was just brilliant. Usually he gets the guys in silly makeup type roles and this? This was just a man and his central angst and pain wasn't about his species or his size, it was about the hard choices and lonely life of being who he is. I felt kind of sad for him by the end.
Particularly when we spotted that bit of Cyber tech floating in space at the end. It's not over for him, it will never be over. The big question is when they'll come back and why his technician missed it during her scan. Is she secretly a Cyber sympathiser or is their scanning tech just not up to the job?
I'm missing so many things here but the short version is: loved it, can we have more Gaiman episodes?
Also, next week's preview looks bloody fantastic and I want it right now. Argh, it's going to be a long wait!
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/493618.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth