25.03 Silver Nemesis
The Seventh Doctor with Ace
Follows on from Remembrance of the Daleks and The Happiness Patrol
ACE: "Who'd want to kill us?"
DOCTOR: "I'm afraid there's an infinite number of possibilities."
Overview
Silver Nemesis began its three-episode run on 23 November 1988 it was Doctor Who's official silver anniversary serial, airing 25 years to the day after the broadcast of An Unearthly Child and the beginning of the ongoing saga of the enigmatic Doctor and his companions. I was 11 years old. I would have watched the serial, I know I would have, because we always did but I have no clear memory of watching it, unlike most of the stories that surround it. It's funny to consider why some childhood viewing experiences leave a lasting memory where others don't. In the case of Doctor Who, I suspect that the question of whether or not I retain clear memories 25 years later of watching particular serials as a child depends in many instances on whether or not we later came to own the novelisation or VHS or both with which to reinforce those memories. We had neither for Silver Nemesis, it seems. Or maybe the story just wasn't all that memorable.
Today, almost a quarter of a century after it first aired, Silver Nemesis has a mixed reputation, largely because it has such a rubbish plot. I rather enjoy it, though. I find that if I hand-wave the plot, the action and banter are thoroughly entertaining, and I love that Ace gets to fight off a squadron of Cybermen armed with a slingshot and a handful of gold coins wicked! Sorry, I can't help it: Seven and Ace were the Doctor and companion of my childhood, and something inside me reverts to that 11-year-old whenever they are on screen.
Plot-wise, Silver Nemesis bears more than a passing resemblance to Remembrance of the Daleks, in that it plays out as the continuation of events set in motion by the Doctor long ago, off-screen, so that the viewer hits the ground running by coming into a story already in progress as does Ace, whose subsequent need to have the plot explained to her as it goes along is the only thing that allows us to understand the story in the slightest. The Sylvester McCoy era was to Classic Who what the Moffat/Matt Smith era is to NuWho: an era that liked to play very intricate, manipulative, timey-wimey mind games that don't always hold together terribly well when you attempt to unravel them. It isn't to everyone's taste and they don't always pull it off, but the ambition and the attempt to explore the possibilities inherent in the backstory of Gallifrey, the nature of time travel and the darker elements of the Doctor's personality have to be applauded nonetheless.
Of course the biggest problem Silver Nemesis has is that the idea was too big to be pulled off in a three-episode serial made in 1988 on a budget of 50p, especially given how many characters and factions are squeezed onto the canvas. It's a shame because it's otherwise a fast-paced, lively and action-packed serial populated by entertaining characters, one or two exceptions aside.
The gist of the story, in a nutshell, is this: once upon a time on Gallifrey a very special kind of metal was invented, called validium living metal. Somehow and the Doctor is suspiciously cagey on this point, which reminds me that he was the one who brought the Hand of Omega to Earth, thus setting off the events of Remembrance a lump of that living metal ended up falling to 17th century Earth as a meteorite. There, re-shaped as a statue, a bow and an arrow, it sparked off a minor war. The Doctor intervened, as is his wont although just when he found time amid his well-documented other adventures is another matter and temporarily resolved the problem by sending the statue off into space in a rocket disguised as an asteroid but he got his sums wrong, so that the ever-decreasing orbit of that rocket brings it back to Earth in a surprisingly balmy-looking November 1988. Various factions, including the Cybermen, promptly attempt to claim control over the statue, as well as the bow and arrow that were left behind, because once the three are brought back together the living metal will be activated, and whoever controls it will wield unthinkable power.
Something like that, anyway. It all gets a bit messy, as the ideas are thrown out there but not really explored in any depth because there's a bit too much going on, but that's the upshot of it. That's just the plot, however, which is not really what this story is about no, what the story is about is the Machiavellian, manipulative nature of the Seventh Doctor, and the mystery of just who he really is.
In common with most Seventh Doctor stories, this serial plays strongly on his tendency to be far more pro-active than his predecessors; where previous Doctors tended to stumble into their adventures, reacting to the situations they found themselves in, Seven not only actively seeks out confrontations with his greatest enemies, but goes so far as to set them up although in this case he did it so long ago that he had forgotten all about it until his alarm went off (he's brilliant, but not infallible, after all). The Seventh Doctor is a mastermind, constantly playing games (usually chess) with friends and enemies alike, with the gung-ho Ace always at the ready to back him up, whether she fully understands what he's playing at or not. They make a great double act and have fabulous mentor-student chemistry but as this story reminds us, Ace has no idea who the Doctor really is, and although he loves to teach her and constantly encourages her to grow and learn and develop, there is only so much he is willing to tell her about his murky past back on Gallifrey, which is alluded to throughout this adventure.
Doctor Who? That was the theme of this the show's 25th anniversary serial and it appears that it will also be the running theme of the show's 50th anniversary season, as well. Fitting, perhaps just so long as the mystery ultimately remains unsolved, to intrigue another generation.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
I really like that our first glimpse of the Doctor and Ace in this serial sees them just chilling out at an open-air jazz concert (featuring a cameo appearance by Courtney Pine). Jazz might not be the kind of music one would expect to appeal to a teenage tearaway of the 1980s like Ace (although of course it doesn't do to stereotype), and the Doctor has never previously shown any interest either, but it's really nice to see him and his protégée just hanging out, enjoying one another's company it's so rare to catch a glimpse of who the Doctor is when he has some downtime to enjoy, between adventures. Not that it lasts long, of course.
It's a rather obvious blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual joke, but I do enjoy seeing the Doctor completely missing the significance of the front page headline of Ace's newspaper meteor approaching England mere seconds before his pocket alarm goes off to warn him of impending deadly danger, somewhere
En route back to the TARDIS to investigate the alarm, the Doctor and Ace are shot at by unknown assailants and narrowly escape with their lives. It's a good way to get the story off and running, emphasising the mortal danger now interrupting their casual afternoon of jazz appreciation, but this is one of those plot elements that suffers badly from underdevelopment, thrown in there to add a bit of excitement rather than adding to the plot in any meaningful way. It eventually transpires that the would-be assassins are human agents, partially converted by the Cybermen into mindless zombies, but their part in the story is very much by-the-way, almost incidental to the plot, receiving no focus whatsoever. The same could be said of the Cybermen in general, in fact. They are part of the story purely to add a 'monster of the week' element to draw in viewers, rather than playing any integral part in the plot. We are never told how they became involved or how they know about the validium, etc.; they simply show up out of the blue as just another obstacle to be overcome, with little or no development of their motivations or ambitions beyond the desire to control a powerful object that can be used as a weapon, evil for the sake of evil.
Continuity alert! The Doctor has built Ace a new tape deck after her old one got blown up by the Daleks in Remembrance of the Daleks. Being the Doctor, of course, this is no ordinary tape deck, but rather is one he can make use of himself in all kinds of hi-tech ways including as an interstellar scanner, no less! I kinda like that although he could have built himself such a scanner in any old style, including one a lot less cumbersome than a 1980s tape deck, he has kept it in keeping with Ace's expectations and desires, as a child of her time.
The main villain of this story is Lady Peinforte, who, for an English noblewoman from 1638, proves to be an impressively pro-active and forward-thinking individual. It was Lady Peinforte who found the validium when it fell to Earth in the first place and who fashioned it into a statue (in her own image), a bow and an arrow (for reasons unknown). With the Doctor having taken this treasure from her and launched it into space, she has devoted her life to reclaiming her prize and apparently somehow learned enough from it to be able to travel through time to 1988, once she knows that is when it will return to Earth. The Doctor reckons this is possible if she used the validium arrow plus some rudimentary knowledge of time travel that he dismisses as mostly black magic. Sounds like hokum to me.
Lady Peinforte's scoundrel sidekick Richard Maynarde, shaken to the core by their trip to the future, is also an engaging figure to follow through the story.
I do think that there should be far more public reaction to Lady Peinforte and Maynarde materialising out of thin air in the middle of a crowded cafeteria and then Peinforte then goes on to smash a window, you really would expect someone to call the police!
While searching through the junk-filled basement in what used to be Lady Peinforte's house, Ace finds a fez and puts it on the Eleventh Doctor would approve!
I like that when the Doctor takes Ace back to 1638 to investigate there, he is quick to cover up the corpse of Lady Peinforte's unfortunate mathematical advisor, so as not to upset her. Ace is made of pretty stern stuff and likes to think of herself as tough and streetwise, but she is very young and a lot more vulnerable than she generally cares to admit. She doesn't necessarily need to be shielded from this particular sight of death, but it's a nice little character touch that the Doctor thinks to make the gesture anyway.
Ace wants to know why the Doctor just launched something so dangerous into space and forgot about it. It's a good question that he glosses over, but the crux of this story hinges on the fact that the Doctor has screwed up. He admits that he was in a hurry and made mistakes when he dealt with the validium last time, but there is no getting away from the fact that people die in this story as a result of those mistakes. The Doctor is fallible, after all.
It can be it quite confusing to keep track of who has possession of which validium artefact when and why. I mean, Lady Peinforte has the arrow in 1638 and takes it with her to 1988, while the statue was launched into space by the Doctor in the 1630s and crashes back to Earth in 1988, that much is clear. But what is less clear is how the bow ends up in the possession of the neo-Nazi Del Flores (it belonged to Lady Peinforte, so why would she have left it behind when she time travelled?) and why the Cybermen, having claimed possession of the statue, move it into Lady Peinforte's empty crypt. It's all a bit woolly.
It amuses me immensely that Lady Peinforte's trusty sidekick Richard Maynarde is able to destroy Cybermen with a bow and arrow, where Del Flores's gun-wielding henchmen fail. The arrows are gold-tipped, of course, which is the secret of their success.
There's so much shooting and banging in this serial, you'd almost think it was a UNIT story!
I am very amused by the scenes of Lady Peinforte and Maynarde randomly strolling around Windsor in their 17th century outfits, with puzzled passers-by wondering what the fancy dress is all about. I am less amused by their confrontation with a pair of random local hoodlums, who are appallingly badly written and even more badly acted.
It amuses me that Ace is always so heavily laden with baggage. Most of the Doctor's companions tend to travel very light, exploring one alien landscape after another with nothing more than the clothes they stand up in and the contents of their pockets. Ace, on the other hand, likes to be prepared, so she lugs that rucksack around pretty much wherever she goes, and also has her tape-deck to carry around in this story.
This serial never seems entirely sure if it wants to be hard-hitting and dramatic or light-hearted and fun, and it suffers from that ambiguity, generally striking quite a light, whimsical tone that frequently undercuts the seriousness of the situation. Having said that, I do enjoy the lighter scenes, like the one where the Doctor and Ace are just lounging around in a field listening in on the tape deck scanner and then broadcasting jazz across the galaxy by way of a jamming signal. It's a nice little moment of time out for them both, in the middle of the adventure, and I enjoy seeing how relaxed they are in each other's company. Plus, Ace is wearing the Doctor's hat, which is cute.
I would be amused about the Doctor using a tape of jazz music to jam the communications of the Cyber fleet, except that cassette tapes do have strictly limited running times, which he seems to have completely forgotten about and when the tape runs out, so does the jamming signal.
There's something very timey-wimey about Lady Peinforte in 1988 taking Maynarde to see the tomb she had pre-ordered for him back in the 1630s. I do like the contrast between Maynarde being totally wigged out by the experience and Peinforte being utterly untroubled by their visit to her own tomb which is also timey-wimey, because as the events of this serial play out, it transpires that she never was buried in that tomb, yet it was built anyway.
I really like the little exchange between the Doctor and Ace over whether or not she's packing nitro-nine explosive. They both know that she is, but they play that little game anyway, and it's really cute. I do love Ace's enthusiasm for blowing things up she loves a good explosion even more than the Brigadier does! I'm not quite sure why she simply chucks her whole rucksack into the Cybermen's spaceship, though, instead of setting the explosives properly. Maybe she just didn't want to risk taking her time about it, with the Doctor having put himself in danger by creating a diversion for her.
The half-converted cyber-slaves are summarily executed for the crime of allowing the Doctor and Ace to destroy the Cyber vehicle, and Ace is distraught, blaming herself for their deaths. It's another strong character moment in this serial, allowing Ace to take responsibility for the consequences of her actions an action that was for the greater good, something the Doctor had asked her to do, but which she threw herself into and enjoyed without a second's hesitation or thought about what it might mean. It was something that needed to be done, but I like that the story allows her to see the collateral damage and react accordingly, and that this also gives an opportunity for the Doctor to give her comfort and reassurance the partially-converted men were effectively dead already, after all thus strengthening their bond.
How are we supposed to take the Cybermen seriously when they are seriously frightened of a 17th century archer wielding a couple of gold-tipped arrows? Sure, the gold is poisonous to them, but he's only one man with an extremely limited supply of ammunition, how hard could it be for them to come up with a strategy for defeating him? Instead they back off and form an alliance with Del Flores that surely neither side seriously expects to work out.
I want to like Del Flores and find interesting things to say about him, he's played by a great actor in Anton Diffring and all, but honestly, there is absolutely nothing to say. He's a boring, one-note character with no spark about him at all.
It takes the Doctor a crazy amount of time to figure out that the reason he can't find the Cyber fleet on his scanner is because it is shrouded the Doctor Who version of Star Trek's cloaking device! Not that this shrouding technology hides them for long, once he's realised what he should be looking for.
As they prepare for the next phase of the Doctor's plan to fix everything, Ace admits that she is really scared. On the one hand it's a little jarring, because the episode is playing the threat so lightly it's hard to understand why this situation should bother her more than anything else she's been through so far, but on the other hand it's another strong character moment. It takes a lot for Ace to lower her defences enough to admit fear and maybe that's why she admits to it here, where she hasn't before. It's a sign of her growing trust in the Doctor that she is now willing to admit how she feels about walking recklessly into deadly danger. The Doctor promptly apologises and offers her an out, suggesting that she wait for him in the TARDIS, but of course she's not about to do that, she's sticking with him for better or for worse, no matter how scared she is. I can't read that little moment as touching on the Doctor's part, though, because although it comes across as sympathy and empathy for his protégée, this is Seven we're talking about, so it's pretty certain that he is manipulating her into manning up and sticking with the endgame. Manipulation is what he does, whether friend or foe. Not that his predecessors were above manipulating their friends at times, too, for that matter.
It's a bit silly, but I do enjoy the little by-play between the Doctor and Ace as they walk into a tomb full of enemies, both human and Cybermen, activate the validium statue and then escape with not only their lives but also the validium bow.
The direction of this serial isn't great, but the sets are fantastic, full of detail and interest, and the lighting is pretty good for the '80s, as well.
I like that Ace is completely aware throughout that the Doctor is deliberately keeping her in the dark about his plans and intentions, and although she trusts him enough to support him throughout anyway, she doesn't like that he is withholding information from her, and keeps questioning him and questioning him, trying to find out more about what's going on.
As entertaining as Lady Peinforte and her trusty sidekick Richard are, it is hard to take them seriously as villains when they are treated more as comic relief throughout their hitchhiking efforts and subsequent conversation with the rich American woman who picks them up are good examples of this. The scenes are highly entertaining to watch, but undermine Peinforte's credibility as a serious threat to the Doctor.
I do like, though, that Peinforte is so taken aback when Richard saves her life, acknowledging that she has always treated her badly and confused that he should remain loyal to her regardless. That's a nice character moment that allows her to be more than just a mahttp://randomness.deadly-nightshade.com/images/DW-7/DWoman hell-bent on power and also underscores Richard's true nature as a diamond in the rough, however shady his past.
There are so many wheels within wheels going on in this story, all that zipping back and fore in time that the Doctor does complexity for the sake of complexity, and a lot of his actions make no sense, or at best give the impression that he isn't thinking his plans through all that clearly, so that he has to keep doubling back on himself. I'm sure there must have been an easier way of achieving the same endgame.
That endgame takes place in a warehouse, where the Doctor has a lot of very precise calculations to work on and can't afford any distraction, but expects to be attacked by the Cybermen attack force at any moment. I love the way Ace so cheerfully promises to look after him she's a lot like Leela in that respect, acting as the Doctor's bodyguard whenever needed. She might have confessed to being afraid earlier, but now that she is committed to this fight she doesn't hesitate for a moment, carrying out a one-woman guerrilla war against the attacking Cybermen, armed with nothing more than a slingshot and a bag of gold coins and one by one she takes them all down, too. This is why 11-year-old me loved Ace so much.
I also love that the Doctor trusts Ace completely to be able to hold off the Cybermen long enough for him to finish setting the coordinates on that fake asteroid of his and get the statue primed for its mission.
The Doctor's timing is impeccable. The conclusion of the story is a bit rushed, but all the major players are finally brought together and then take each other out, one by one, as we always knew they would the Doctor doesn't need to shed blood personally, he can just manipulate his enemies to destroy each other for him. Rather more chillingly, he can also manipulate his enemies to destroy themselves, as he did with the Daleks in Remembrance of the Daleks, and as he does again here, with the Cybermen.
Lady Peinforte claims to know the Doctor's deepest, darkest secret, the secret of who he really is she claims that the validium statue told her, whispered secrets of Gallifrey and the old time, the time of chaos. It all sounds rather tantalising, but of course her threat to tell all comes to nothing in the end, and she ultimately commits suicide by validium and dies without revealing anything.
The story ends with the Doctor and Ace giving Richard a lift back to 1638 and then hanging out there for a while, playing chess in the gardens of Lady Peinforte's manor. Ace wins the game did the Doctor throw it, or is she just that good? Lady Peinforte has got her wondering, because the Doctor never did answer that question just who is he, really? He doesn't answer. With any luck, he never will.
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "Don't you find it embarrassing asking for autographs?"
ACE: "Not as embarrassing as forgetting what you set your alarm for."
DOCTOR: "Well, I probably arranged it centuries ago."
ACE: "Who'd want to kill us?"
DOCTOR: "I'm afraid there's an infinite number of possibilities."
ACE: "You mean the world's going to end and you've forgotten about it?"
DOCTOR: "I've been busy."
ACE: "How long have you known?"
DOCTOR: "Well, in strictly linear terms, as the chronometer flies, I've known since November the twenty third, 1638."
DOCTOR: "Well, if you were a lady who travelled "
ACE: "I am."
DOCTOR: "Yes, you're not always invited, but you are."
ACE: "We can't go nicking stuff in here."
DOCTOR: "It's only temporary."
ACE: "It's probably treason. I'm too young to go to the Tower."
DOCTOR: "Listen, Ace, do I have to remind you that the safety of the world is at stake?"
ACE: "It might make a difference if you'd let me know what was going on, Professor, but I suppose there's no time."
DOCTOR: "Precisely."
ACE: "Was that a bomb?"
DOCTOR: "No, that was the return to Earth of a comet called Nemesis that has been in orbit for exactly three hundred and fifty years."
ACE: "You're amazing, Professor, being able to tell all that just from the noise."
DOCTOR: "Wasn't difficult, really. It was me who launched it into space in the first place. This may qualify as the worst miscalculation since life crawled out of the seas on this sad planet."
ACE: "Nobody's perfect."
ACE: "How can a statue destroy the world?"
DOCTOR: "I'll tell you three hundred and fifty years ago."
PEINFORTE: "Thou art in all wise so useless, Richard."
RICHARD: "My lady is too kind."
SECURITY: "How did you get in here?"
DOCTOR: "I could tell you, but you won't believe me."
SECURITY: "Try me."
DOCTOR: "I travelled through time and space."
ACE: "I don't know anything about it."
DOCTOR: "She really doesn't. Allow me to explain, Ace."
DOCTOR: "Validium was created as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, back in early times."
ACE: "Created by Omega?"
DOCTOR: "Yes."
ACE: "And?"
DOCTOR: "Rassilon."
ACE: "And?"
DOCTOR: "And none of it should have left Gallifrey. But, as always with these things, some of it did."
ACE: "I'd feel a lot safer and happier inside the Tardis."
DOCTOR: "Well, the Cybermen might find the Tardis. This way, our validium leads us to their validium."
ACE: "Isn't that a bit old-fashioned?"
DOCTOR: "I'm an old-fashioned guy."
DOCTOR: "I don't suppose you've completely ignored my instructions and secretly prepared any Nitro Nine, have you?"
ACE: "What if I had?"
DOCTOR: "Naturally you wouldn't do anything so insanely dangerous as to carry it around with you, would you?"
ACE: "Of course not. I'm a good girl. I do what I'm told."
DOCTOR: "Excellent. Blow up that vehicle."
DOCTOR: "Hello, I'm the Doctor! I believe you want to kill me."
ACE: "Doctor."
DOCTOR: "Ace?"
ACE: "Look, let's be honest, right? I've never really bottled out of anything before, have I, but I'm really, really scared, Doctor."
DOCTOR: "Oh, Ace. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Why don't you go back to the Tardis? You'll be safe there, whatever happens."
ACE: "No chance, Doctor. No chance."
DOCTOR: "Everything depends on my final calculations. I can't get my figures wrong this time."
ACE: "It's okay, Professor. I promise not to interrupt you."
DOCTOR: "You are interrupting me."
ACE: "Sorry."
DOCTOR: "There's also another slight problem. The Cybermen could be here at any moment."
ACE: "Don't worry, Doctor. I'll look after you."
DOCTOR: "I trust you remember my strict instructions never to cause any further explosions?"
ACE: "I'm a better person as a result, Doctor."
DOCTOR: "Good. We're ready for anything."
PEINFORTE: "Doctor who? Have you never wondered where he came from, who he is?"
ACE: "Nobody knows who the Doctor is."
PEINFORTE: "I shall tell them of Gallifrey, tell them of the old time, the time of chaos."
DOCTOR: "Be my guest."
RICHARD: "How shall I live now, stranded, a stranger in this time?"
DOCTOR: "I know how you feel. However "
ACE: "He'll give you a lift."
DOCTOR: "Back to 1638?"
RICHARD: "It's possible?"
DOCTOR: "Anything's possible."
The Verdict
Overall and taken as a whole, this is one of those stories that could have been so much more than the sum of its parts, had it been given more depth and development. The serial skims over the surface of some big and complex ideas, but remains on the surface of those ideas, perhaps in keeping with its nature as a children's show. The plot is a bit of a mess, but it is nonetheless a lot of fun to watch, with some really good character development to enjoy.
Follows on from Remembrance of the Daleks and The Happiness Patrol
ACE: "Who'd want to kill us?"
DOCTOR: "I'm afraid there's an infinite number of possibilities."
Overview
Silver Nemesis began its three-episode run on 23 November 1988 it was Doctor Who's official silver anniversary serial, airing 25 years to the day after the broadcast of An Unearthly Child and the beginning of the ongoing saga of the enigmatic Doctor and his companions. I was 11 years old. I would have watched the serial, I know I would have, because we always did but I have no clear memory of watching it, unlike most of the stories that surround it. It's funny to consider why some childhood viewing experiences leave a lasting memory where others don't. In the case of Doctor Who, I suspect that the question of whether or not I retain clear memories 25 years later of watching particular serials as a child depends in many instances on whether or not we later came to own the novelisation or VHS or both with which to reinforce those memories. We had neither for Silver Nemesis, it seems. Or maybe the story just wasn't all that memorable.
Today, almost a quarter of a century after it first aired, Silver Nemesis has a mixed reputation, largely because it has such a rubbish plot. I rather enjoy it, though. I find that if I hand-wave the plot, the action and banter are thoroughly entertaining, and I love that Ace gets to fight off a squadron of Cybermen armed with a slingshot and a handful of gold coins wicked! Sorry, I can't help it: Seven and Ace were the Doctor and companion of my childhood, and something inside me reverts to that 11-year-old whenever they are on screen.
Plot-wise, Silver Nemesis bears more than a passing resemblance to Remembrance of the Daleks, in that it plays out as the continuation of events set in motion by the Doctor long ago, off-screen, so that the viewer hits the ground running by coming into a story already in progress as does Ace, whose subsequent need to have the plot explained to her as it goes along is the only thing that allows us to understand the story in the slightest. The Sylvester McCoy era was to Classic Who what the Moffat/Matt Smith era is to NuWho: an era that liked to play very intricate, manipulative, timey-wimey mind games that don't always hold together terribly well when you attempt to unravel them. It isn't to everyone's taste and they don't always pull it off, but the ambition and the attempt to explore the possibilities inherent in the backstory of Gallifrey, the nature of time travel and the darker elements of the Doctor's personality have to be applauded nonetheless.
Of course the biggest problem Silver Nemesis has is that the idea was too big to be pulled off in a three-episode serial made in 1988 on a budget of 50p, especially given how many characters and factions are squeezed onto the canvas. It's a shame because it's otherwise a fast-paced, lively and action-packed serial populated by entertaining characters, one or two exceptions aside.
The gist of the story, in a nutshell, is this: once upon a time on Gallifrey a very special kind of metal was invented, called validium living metal. Somehow and the Doctor is suspiciously cagey on this point, which reminds me that he was the one who brought the Hand of Omega to Earth, thus setting off the events of Remembrance a lump of that living metal ended up falling to 17th century Earth as a meteorite. There, re-shaped as a statue, a bow and an arrow, it sparked off a minor war. The Doctor intervened, as is his wont although just when he found time amid his well-documented other adventures is another matter and temporarily resolved the problem by sending the statue off into space in a rocket disguised as an asteroid but he got his sums wrong, so that the ever-decreasing orbit of that rocket brings it back to Earth in a surprisingly balmy-looking November 1988. Various factions, including the Cybermen, promptly attempt to claim control over the statue, as well as the bow and arrow that were left behind, because once the three are brought back together the living metal will be activated, and whoever controls it will wield unthinkable power.
Something like that, anyway. It all gets a bit messy, as the ideas are thrown out there but not really explored in any depth because there's a bit too much going on, but that's the upshot of it. That's just the plot, however, which is not really what this story is about no, what the story is about is the Machiavellian, manipulative nature of the Seventh Doctor, and the mystery of just who he really is.
In common with most Seventh Doctor stories, this serial plays strongly on his tendency to be far more pro-active than his predecessors; where previous Doctors tended to stumble into their adventures, reacting to the situations they found themselves in, Seven not only actively seeks out confrontations with his greatest enemies, but goes so far as to set them up although in this case he did it so long ago that he had forgotten all about it until his alarm went off (he's brilliant, but not infallible, after all). The Seventh Doctor is a mastermind, constantly playing games (usually chess) with friends and enemies alike, with the gung-ho Ace always at the ready to back him up, whether she fully understands what he's playing at or not. They make a great double act and have fabulous mentor-student chemistry but as this story reminds us, Ace has no idea who the Doctor really is, and although he loves to teach her and constantly encourages her to grow and learn and develop, there is only so much he is willing to tell her about his murky past back on Gallifrey, which is alluded to throughout this adventure.
Doctor Who? That was the theme of this the show's 25th anniversary serial and it appears that it will also be the running theme of the show's 50th anniversary season, as well. Fitting, perhaps just so long as the mystery ultimately remains unsolved, to intrigue another generation.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
I really like that our first glimpse of the Doctor and Ace in this serial sees them just chilling out at an open-air jazz concert (featuring a cameo appearance by Courtney Pine). Jazz might not be the kind of music one would expect to appeal to a teenage tearaway of the 1980s like Ace (although of course it doesn't do to stereotype), and the Doctor has never previously shown any interest either, but it's really nice to see him and his protégée just hanging out, enjoying one another's company it's so rare to catch a glimpse of who the Doctor is when he has some downtime to enjoy, between adventures. Not that it lasts long, of course.
It's a rather obvious blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual joke, but I do enjoy seeing the Doctor completely missing the significance of the front page headline of Ace's newspaper meteor approaching England mere seconds before his pocket alarm goes off to warn him of impending deadly danger, somewhere
En route back to the TARDIS to investigate the alarm, the Doctor and Ace are shot at by unknown assailants and narrowly escape with their lives. It's a good way to get the story off and running, emphasising the mortal danger now interrupting their casual afternoon of jazz appreciation, but this is one of those plot elements that suffers badly from underdevelopment, thrown in there to add a bit of excitement rather than adding to the plot in any meaningful way. It eventually transpires that the would-be assassins are human agents, partially converted by the Cybermen into mindless zombies, but their part in the story is very much by-the-way, almost incidental to the plot, receiving no focus whatsoever. The same could be said of the Cybermen in general, in fact. They are part of the story purely to add a 'monster of the week' element to draw in viewers, rather than playing any integral part in the plot. We are never told how they became involved or how they know about the validium, etc.; they simply show up out of the blue as just another obstacle to be overcome, with little or no development of their motivations or ambitions beyond the desire to control a powerful object that can be used as a weapon, evil for the sake of evil.
Continuity alert! The Doctor has built Ace a new tape deck after her old one got blown up by the Daleks in Remembrance of the Daleks. Being the Doctor, of course, this is no ordinary tape deck, but rather is one he can make use of himself in all kinds of hi-tech ways including as an interstellar scanner, no less! I kinda like that although he could have built himself such a scanner in any old style, including one a lot less cumbersome than a 1980s tape deck, he has kept it in keeping with Ace's expectations and desires, as a child of her time.
The main villain of this story is Lady Peinforte, who, for an English noblewoman from 1638, proves to be an impressively pro-active and forward-thinking individual. It was Lady Peinforte who found the validium when it fell to Earth in the first place and who fashioned it into a statue (in her own image), a bow and an arrow (for reasons unknown). With the Doctor having taken this treasure from her and launched it into space, she has devoted her life to reclaiming her prize and apparently somehow learned enough from it to be able to travel through time to 1988, once she knows that is when it will return to Earth. The Doctor reckons this is possible if she used the validium arrow plus some rudimentary knowledge of time travel that he dismisses as mostly black magic. Sounds like hokum to me.
Lady Peinforte's scoundrel sidekick Richard Maynarde, shaken to the core by their trip to the future, is also an engaging figure to follow through the story.
I do think that there should be far more public reaction to Lady Peinforte and Maynarde materialising out of thin air in the middle of a crowded cafeteria and then Peinforte then goes on to smash a window, you really would expect someone to call the police!
While searching through the junk-filled basement in what used to be Lady Peinforte's house, Ace finds a fez and puts it on the Eleventh Doctor would approve!
I like that when the Doctor takes Ace back to 1638 to investigate there, he is quick to cover up the corpse of Lady Peinforte's unfortunate mathematical advisor, so as not to upset her. Ace is made of pretty stern stuff and likes to think of herself as tough and streetwise, but she is very young and a lot more vulnerable than she generally cares to admit. She doesn't necessarily need to be shielded from this particular sight of death, but it's a nice little character touch that the Doctor thinks to make the gesture anyway.
Ace wants to know why the Doctor just launched something so dangerous into space and forgot about it. It's a good question that he glosses over, but the crux of this story hinges on the fact that the Doctor has screwed up. He admits that he was in a hurry and made mistakes when he dealt with the validium last time, but there is no getting away from the fact that people die in this story as a result of those mistakes. The Doctor is fallible, after all.
It can be it quite confusing to keep track of who has possession of which validium artefact when and why. I mean, Lady Peinforte has the arrow in 1638 and takes it with her to 1988, while the statue was launched into space by the Doctor in the 1630s and crashes back to Earth in 1988, that much is clear. But what is less clear is how the bow ends up in the possession of the neo-Nazi Del Flores (it belonged to Lady Peinforte, so why would she have left it behind when she time travelled?) and why the Cybermen, having claimed possession of the statue, move it into Lady Peinforte's empty crypt. It's all a bit woolly.
It amuses me immensely that Lady Peinforte's trusty sidekick Richard Maynarde is able to destroy Cybermen with a bow and arrow, where Del Flores's gun-wielding henchmen fail. The arrows are gold-tipped, of course, which is the secret of their success.
There's so much shooting and banging in this serial, you'd almost think it was a UNIT story!
I am very amused by the scenes of Lady Peinforte and Maynarde randomly strolling around Windsor in their 17th century outfits, with puzzled passers-by wondering what the fancy dress is all about. I am less amused by their confrontation with a pair of random local hoodlums, who are appallingly badly written and even more badly acted.
It amuses me that Ace is always so heavily laden with baggage. Most of the Doctor's companions tend to travel very light, exploring one alien landscape after another with nothing more than the clothes they stand up in and the contents of their pockets. Ace, on the other hand, likes to be prepared, so she lugs that rucksack around pretty much wherever she goes, and also has her tape-deck to carry around in this story.
This serial never seems entirely sure if it wants to be hard-hitting and dramatic or light-hearted and fun, and it suffers from that ambiguity, generally striking quite a light, whimsical tone that frequently undercuts the seriousness of the situation. Having said that, I do enjoy the lighter scenes, like the one where the Doctor and Ace are just lounging around in a field listening in on the tape deck scanner and then broadcasting jazz across the galaxy by way of a jamming signal. It's a nice little moment of time out for them both, in the middle of the adventure, and I enjoy seeing how relaxed they are in each other's company. Plus, Ace is wearing the Doctor's hat, which is cute.
I would be amused about the Doctor using a tape of jazz music to jam the communications of the Cyber fleet, except that cassette tapes do have strictly limited running times, which he seems to have completely forgotten about and when the tape runs out, so does the jamming signal.
There's something very timey-wimey about Lady Peinforte in 1988 taking Maynarde to see the tomb she had pre-ordered for him back in the 1630s. I do like the contrast between Maynarde being totally wigged out by the experience and Peinforte being utterly untroubled by their visit to her own tomb which is also timey-wimey, because as the events of this serial play out, it transpires that she never was buried in that tomb, yet it was built anyway.
I really like the little exchange between the Doctor and Ace over whether or not she's packing nitro-nine explosive. They both know that she is, but they play that little game anyway, and it's really cute. I do love Ace's enthusiasm for blowing things up she loves a good explosion even more than the Brigadier does! I'm not quite sure why she simply chucks her whole rucksack into the Cybermen's spaceship, though, instead of setting the explosives properly. Maybe she just didn't want to risk taking her time about it, with the Doctor having put himself in danger by creating a diversion for her.
The half-converted cyber-slaves are summarily executed for the crime of allowing the Doctor and Ace to destroy the Cyber vehicle, and Ace is distraught, blaming herself for their deaths. It's another strong character moment in this serial, allowing Ace to take responsibility for the consequences of her actions an action that was for the greater good, something the Doctor had asked her to do, but which she threw herself into and enjoyed without a second's hesitation or thought about what it might mean. It was something that needed to be done, but I like that the story allows her to see the collateral damage and react accordingly, and that this also gives an opportunity for the Doctor to give her comfort and reassurance the partially-converted men were effectively dead already, after all thus strengthening their bond.
How are we supposed to take the Cybermen seriously when they are seriously frightened of a 17th century archer wielding a couple of gold-tipped arrows? Sure, the gold is poisonous to them, but he's only one man with an extremely limited supply of ammunition, how hard could it be for them to come up with a strategy for defeating him? Instead they back off and form an alliance with Del Flores that surely neither side seriously expects to work out.
I want to like Del Flores and find interesting things to say about him, he's played by a great actor in Anton Diffring and all, but honestly, there is absolutely nothing to say. He's a boring, one-note character with no spark about him at all.
It takes the Doctor a crazy amount of time to figure out that the reason he can't find the Cyber fleet on his scanner is because it is shrouded the Doctor Who version of Star Trek's cloaking device! Not that this shrouding technology hides them for long, once he's realised what he should be looking for.
As they prepare for the next phase of the Doctor's plan to fix everything, Ace admits that she is really scared. On the one hand it's a little jarring, because the episode is playing the threat so lightly it's hard to understand why this situation should bother her more than anything else she's been through so far, but on the other hand it's another strong character moment. It takes a lot for Ace to lower her defences enough to admit fear and maybe that's why she admits to it here, where she hasn't before. It's a sign of her growing trust in the Doctor that she is now willing to admit how she feels about walking recklessly into deadly danger. The Doctor promptly apologises and offers her an out, suggesting that she wait for him in the TARDIS, but of course she's not about to do that, she's sticking with him for better or for worse, no matter how scared she is. I can't read that little moment as touching on the Doctor's part, though, because although it comes across as sympathy and empathy for his protégée, this is Seven we're talking about, so it's pretty certain that he is manipulating her into manning up and sticking with the endgame. Manipulation is what he does, whether friend or foe. Not that his predecessors were above manipulating their friends at times, too, for that matter.
It's a bit silly, but I do enjoy the little by-play between the Doctor and Ace as they walk into a tomb full of enemies, both human and Cybermen, activate the validium statue and then escape with not only their lives but also the validium bow.
The direction of this serial isn't great, but the sets are fantastic, full of detail and interest, and the lighting is pretty good for the '80s, as well.
I like that Ace is completely aware throughout that the Doctor is deliberately keeping her in the dark about his plans and intentions, and although she trusts him enough to support him throughout anyway, she doesn't like that he is withholding information from her, and keeps questioning him and questioning him, trying to find out more about what's going on.
As entertaining as Lady Peinforte and her trusty sidekick Richard are, it is hard to take them seriously as villains when they are treated more as comic relief throughout their hitchhiking efforts and subsequent conversation with the rich American woman who picks them up are good examples of this. The scenes are highly entertaining to watch, but undermine Peinforte's credibility as a serious threat to the Doctor.
I do like, though, that Peinforte is so taken aback when Richard saves her life, acknowledging that she has always treated her badly and confused that he should remain loyal to her regardless. That's a nice character moment that allows her to be more than just a mahttp://randomness.deadly-nightshade.com/images/DW-7/DWoman hell-bent on power and also underscores Richard's true nature as a diamond in the rough, however shady his past.
There are so many wheels within wheels going on in this story, all that zipping back and fore in time that the Doctor does complexity for the sake of complexity, and a lot of his actions make no sense, or at best give the impression that he isn't thinking his plans through all that clearly, so that he has to keep doubling back on himself. I'm sure there must have been an easier way of achieving the same endgame.
That endgame takes place in a warehouse, where the Doctor has a lot of very precise calculations to work on and can't afford any distraction, but expects to be attacked by the Cybermen attack force at any moment. I love the way Ace so cheerfully promises to look after him she's a lot like Leela in that respect, acting as the Doctor's bodyguard whenever needed. She might have confessed to being afraid earlier, but now that she is committed to this fight she doesn't hesitate for a moment, carrying out a one-woman guerrilla war against the attacking Cybermen, armed with nothing more than a slingshot and a bag of gold coins and one by one she takes them all down, too. This is why 11-year-old me loved Ace so much.
I also love that the Doctor trusts Ace completely to be able to hold off the Cybermen long enough for him to finish setting the coordinates on that fake asteroid of his and get the statue primed for its mission.
The Doctor's timing is impeccable. The conclusion of the story is a bit rushed, but all the major players are finally brought together and then take each other out, one by one, as we always knew they would the Doctor doesn't need to shed blood personally, he can just manipulate his enemies to destroy each other for him. Rather more chillingly, he can also manipulate his enemies to destroy themselves, as he did with the Daleks in Remembrance of the Daleks, and as he does again here, with the Cybermen.
Lady Peinforte claims to know the Doctor's deepest, darkest secret, the secret of who he really is she claims that the validium statue told her, whispered secrets of Gallifrey and the old time, the time of chaos. It all sounds rather tantalising, but of course her threat to tell all comes to nothing in the end, and she ultimately commits suicide by validium and dies without revealing anything.
The story ends with the Doctor and Ace giving Richard a lift back to 1638 and then hanging out there for a while, playing chess in the gardens of Lady Peinforte's manor. Ace wins the game did the Doctor throw it, or is she just that good? Lady Peinforte has got her wondering, because the Doctor never did answer that question just who is he, really? He doesn't answer. With any luck, he never will.
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "Don't you find it embarrassing asking for autographs?"
ACE: "Not as embarrassing as forgetting what you set your alarm for."
DOCTOR: "Well, I probably arranged it centuries ago."
ACE: "Who'd want to kill us?"
DOCTOR: "I'm afraid there's an infinite number of possibilities."
ACE: "You mean the world's going to end and you've forgotten about it?"
DOCTOR: "I've been busy."
ACE: "How long have you known?"
DOCTOR: "Well, in strictly linear terms, as the chronometer flies, I've known since November the twenty third, 1638."
DOCTOR: "Well, if you were a lady who travelled "
ACE: "I am."
DOCTOR: "Yes, you're not always invited, but you are."
ACE: "We can't go nicking stuff in here."
DOCTOR: "It's only temporary."
ACE: "It's probably treason. I'm too young to go to the Tower."
DOCTOR: "Listen, Ace, do I have to remind you that the safety of the world is at stake?"
ACE: "It might make a difference if you'd let me know what was going on, Professor, but I suppose there's no time."
DOCTOR: "Precisely."
ACE: "Was that a bomb?"
DOCTOR: "No, that was the return to Earth of a comet called Nemesis that has been in orbit for exactly three hundred and fifty years."
ACE: "You're amazing, Professor, being able to tell all that just from the noise."
DOCTOR: "Wasn't difficult, really. It was me who launched it into space in the first place. This may qualify as the worst miscalculation since life crawled out of the seas on this sad planet."
ACE: "Nobody's perfect."
ACE: "How can a statue destroy the world?"
DOCTOR: "I'll tell you three hundred and fifty years ago."
PEINFORTE: "Thou art in all wise so useless, Richard."
RICHARD: "My lady is too kind."
SECURITY: "How did you get in here?"
DOCTOR: "I could tell you, but you won't believe me."
SECURITY: "Try me."
DOCTOR: "I travelled through time and space."
ACE: "I don't know anything about it."
DOCTOR: "She really doesn't. Allow me to explain, Ace."
DOCTOR: "Validium was created as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, back in early times."
ACE: "Created by Omega?"
DOCTOR: "Yes."
ACE: "And?"
DOCTOR: "Rassilon."
ACE: "And?"
DOCTOR: "And none of it should have left Gallifrey. But, as always with these things, some of it did."
ACE: "I'd feel a lot safer and happier inside the Tardis."
DOCTOR: "Well, the Cybermen might find the Tardis. This way, our validium leads us to their validium."
ACE: "Isn't that a bit old-fashioned?"
DOCTOR: "I'm an old-fashioned guy."
DOCTOR: "I don't suppose you've completely ignored my instructions and secretly prepared any Nitro Nine, have you?"
ACE: "What if I had?"
DOCTOR: "Naturally you wouldn't do anything so insanely dangerous as to carry it around with you, would you?"
ACE: "Of course not. I'm a good girl. I do what I'm told."
DOCTOR: "Excellent. Blow up that vehicle."
DOCTOR: "Hello, I'm the Doctor! I believe you want to kill me."
ACE: "Doctor."
DOCTOR: "Ace?"
ACE: "Look, let's be honest, right? I've never really bottled out of anything before, have I, but I'm really, really scared, Doctor."
DOCTOR: "Oh, Ace. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Why don't you go back to the Tardis? You'll be safe there, whatever happens."
ACE: "No chance, Doctor. No chance."
DOCTOR: "Everything depends on my final calculations. I can't get my figures wrong this time."
ACE: "It's okay, Professor. I promise not to interrupt you."
DOCTOR: "You are interrupting me."
ACE: "Sorry."
DOCTOR: "There's also another slight problem. The Cybermen could be here at any moment."
ACE: "Don't worry, Doctor. I'll look after you."
DOCTOR: "I trust you remember my strict instructions never to cause any further explosions?"
ACE: "I'm a better person as a result, Doctor."
DOCTOR: "Good. We're ready for anything."
PEINFORTE: "Doctor who? Have you never wondered where he came from, who he is?"
ACE: "Nobody knows who the Doctor is."
PEINFORTE: "I shall tell them of Gallifrey, tell them of the old time, the time of chaos."
DOCTOR: "Be my guest."
RICHARD: "How shall I live now, stranded, a stranger in this time?"
DOCTOR: "I know how you feel. However "
ACE: "He'll give you a lift."
DOCTOR: "Back to 1638?"
RICHARD: "It's possible?"
DOCTOR: "Anything's possible."
The Verdict
Overall and taken as a whole, this is one of those stories that could have been so much more than the sum of its parts, had it been given more depth and development. The serial skims over the surface of some big and complex ideas, but remains on the surface of those ideas, perhaps in keeping with its nature as a children's show. The plot is a bit of a mess, but it is nonetheless a lot of fun to watch, with some really good character development to enjoy.