| SILVER NEMESIS by Kevin Clarke |
| Story 153 Synopsis: On Earth, in 1988, the Doctor's alarm goes off, alerting him to a planet being in danger. The planet turns out to be Earth, relating to the imminent arrival of a meteor, Nemesis. Lady Peinforte travels forward from 1638 with her manservant, Richard, and a special arrow. Meanwhile, a group of Nazis also arrive in the area with the matching bow. As parties converge on the landing site, a spaceship lands. The Cybermen also want the Nemesis, a statue of validium, a living metal. The Doctor takes the bow from the Nazis, who try to ally with the Cybermen. Peinforte loses the arrow, and it begins to awaken the statue. Eventually, the Doctor uses the bow to activate Nemesis, and sets a course for it to smash through the fleet of Cyber-warships in the atmosphere. The Nazis are killed by the Cybermen, but Ace uses gold coins to kill the Cybermen. Peinforte merges with the statue before it is launched. The Doctor and Ace take Richard back to his own time. |
| Review:- There is a famous axiom from recent years : Keep It Simple, Stupid. Sadly, this story fails to heed that advice, and descends to disaster instead. So, there's this statue, right, and it's made out of living metal, right, and some naughty cow, Lady Peinforte, has moulded said statue into a facsimile of her, rather egotistically, but the Doctor stopped her taking control of the statue, and sent it into orbit around Earth, knowing that it would return 350 year later. He then scarpered, and she started working out how to use sorcery to travel forward to the statue's return. Somehow, the Cybermen, and a group of Nazis, were clued in to the importance of the statue, and learned the date for its return. The Doctor set his watch alarm to remind him of the statue's return, but in a vague way. Then he took Ace to a jazz concert, and the rest is... but what nobody realises is that the Doctor is going to simply reprogram the statue to wipe out a fleet of Cyber-warships, whilst the Cybermen wipe out the Nazis, and Peinforte commits suicide. This is more than enough for three episodes, but the viewer gets extra nonsense with an American tourist, a couple of skinheads, and the Queen of England. The thinking is that the Cybermen were not in the original storyline, and they wouldn't be missed. Frankly, any half-witted alien invaders could have filled in here. Unlike several of their finer appearances, here they are unable to demonstrate their amazing powers, and seem to be generic and not very convincing, either. The Nazis are possibly the least interesting bunch ever shown in the series, or possibly in any fiction ever since 1945. De Flores is just not convincing as a fearsome maniac, and would struggle to pass himself as a cricket club chairman. Lady Peinforte and Richard are the most credible villains in the story (although he is merely a gentleman assistant - she is all evil), and it is a shame that a story which traverses such a large terrain should leave them forced to walk from place to place, whilst the other parties gad about as if they're deliberately rubbing salt in the wound. Ace gets little development, apart from supposedly empathising that there is evil in Lady Peinforte's house, carrying the ghetto blaster around, and flinging gold coins with her catapult (to ludicrous levels of accuracy and impact!). The Doctor - well, he never suggests fear at any stage, and even his supposed revelation on seeing a chameleon makes him seem a chancer - which his plans proves he clearly isn't. Villains who aren't villainous, heroes who aren't heroic, a plot that meanders for no good reason... this is one of the worst stories ever shown. |
| Disclaimer: I've seen the video, and read the book. |