The Season 25 Collection- Silver Nemesis

 

I’ve never rated this story very highly, so though this is the second time I’ve owned it that is only because it was packaged with other content. Last time it came out with `Revenge of the Cybermen` , now with the Collection you get the entire season whether you like it all or not! The fact that there seem to be more different editions of this story than any other suggests the original needed more work. I wondered if time would be kind to this peculiar adventure and I have to say its not quite as bad as I recall. The latest Special Edition is an improvement simply in that it makes the narrative more coherent though nothing can hide the fact that this is quite similar to the plot of `Remembrance of the Daleks` and that many of the developments seem unnecessary.

 

Bold new effects certainly spice up the visuals so you now see the Cyber shuttle gliding over trees, the green reflecting on the metallic underside of the vehicle. The battles always packed a punch but now there’s a scale to match when we glimpse a fleet of Cyber battle ships above Earth. While an impressive addition they also help the story seem like it means more than being about a few characters wandering around Windsor.

For all the talk of its power, the strange mixture of a statue and a bow and an arrow seems plucked from mythical fiction with little regard for logic. However carefully you watch proceedings  the origins of this living metal statue are unclear, it’s power vague. At the end when Lady Pienforte runs about screaming before jumping into the casket to somehow merge with it the viewer is left wondering what is going on?  Also the Doctor’s absent minded vigilantism sits uneasily with a character who previously only used this sort of action as the last resort. It worked in `Remembrance` but stretches credulity when wheeled out again so soon. Stashing away artefacts like this one and the Hand of Omega in places where they might be discovered feels like he’s making adventures for himself or maybe giving himself an excuse to strike proactively.

While `Remembrance’ engages with both contemporary and Sixties related issues a little, `Silver Nemesis` has no context beyond its own action. Nobody here takes the Doctor to task over what he is trying to do, nor that he harbours exactly the sort of plan the Cybermen themselves might consider. The Doctor is happy for Ace to blow things up while declining to tell her as much as she (and for that matter the viewer) needs to know. Lady Pienforte is not given a lot of depth despite her screen time and its only thanks to Fiona Walker’s zeal that the character comes to life.

However there are plenty of Doctor Who stories with unlikely premises; the real issue with `Silver Nemesis` as a production is that it never hangs together properly. Maybe it’s a resource issue, possibly an editing one- and this Edition does work better than previous ones- but the shifts are too odd. One moment the Doctor and Ace are listening to jazz, the next two converted humans are trying to kill them while the jazz continues unabated. Later Lady Peinforte  and Richard are walking the streets of the town in their period regalia and nobody is even noticing except two skinheads somewhat out of time and place themselves in posh 1988 Windsor. Everyone is chasing after this weapon but how do they know about it? How even is Lady Peinforte able to move forward in time so effortlessly? The story also suffers even more than others this season from characters moving from one place to another then back again several times. Yes, the battles are well staged but why do the Nazis start firing at the Cybermen when they already have the bow? Instead they leave it somewhere allowing the Doctor to nab it.

It feels as if three story ideas somehow became entangled. There’s the idea of a Fourth Reich rising on the back of an ancient alien power, another is of a seventeenth century visionary travelling forward in time to claim an alien artefact. The third is the Cyberman and the Doctor racing to find the statue. Any one of these, if properly developed, would have made a good three parter, but when all these ingredients are added into the mix together it becomes incoherent and unlikely. It occurred to me that this may be the origin of the idea that you spice up any story by inserting the Cybermen regardless of how suitable they are, something that the modern series has continued.

I suppose many actors would struggle with this material but it doesn’t help that the performances are uneven, some members of the cast take it all deadly seriously, others don’t. Strangely one of the most enjoyable is Dolores Gray, whose scene amounts to an extended cameo but who absolutely gets the tone required. The scene in the car as she fails to fully understand the Jacobeans’ references is delightful. Leslie French, in another small role, similarly nails it. Fiona Walker and Gerald Murphy are an enjoyable double act, it’s a shame her last scene requires her to be so silly.

Writer Kevin Clarke’s explanation has always been  that he thought of this story on the spot moments before having to explain it to the producers and that isn’t an inspiring foundation. It feels like a story that has been written backwards without due editing so that it contains a lot of different things but none of them really go very well together. Director Chris Clough certainly flatters the material. The location work is well choreographed, the old hangar and shadowy chapel ideal locations especially that high gantry. Clough uses the space well; the battle outside between Cybermen and Nazis enjoys a sense of scale and some meaty explosions. 

Oddly the story reminds me of recent Doctor Who, looking good, straining at the leash with ideas yet never quite reconciling them into a coherent narrative. `Silver Nemesis` is enjoyable enough but you sense it is never going to fully work however many special editions are made of it.

Making of Doctor Who 1988 US documentary

There is not that much behind the scenes footage from classic Doctor Who in a way that we have with the modern series so this 1988 US New Jersey network documentary is an invaluable record of production from a different era. Deceptively casual and introduced by someone sporting a business suit, the forty five minute programme successfully covers each aspect of the production of `Silver Nemesis` . Cameras have access to location work at Greenwich and Arundel and there are also a range of interviews which explain roles and show how things are done. It’s all achieved without the usual American showbiz approach, instead opting for a matter of fact trip through each stage from script writing, rehearsals and filming. 

While you expect to see the likes of Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, John Nathan -Turner and Kevin Clarke, we also meet a number of the crew who explain their work. There’s lots of footage particularly at Greenwich of setting up and filming the battle between soldiers and Cybermen. It make you more appreciative of the work that everyone puts into a show even if in this case an asbestos scare lost the production several days rehearsal time. Its another time of course; communication is via walkie talkies and its hard to imagine this location was altered a decade later to become what we now know as the O2 Arena.

There is a value in documentaries like this which are more informative than basic studio floor footage. A few of the interviews from which excerpts are included are also presented in full and it’s interesting to see John Nathan Turner talking more specifically and in more detail about his role that he would usually do at conventions. What you come away with after watching the documentary and the full-length interviews are that Doctor Who was probably the hardest show to make back then with so many constituent parts. As Andrew Cartmel says in his own interview elsewhere on this Collection, how could the BBC have looked at the output of these last two seasons and feel it wasn’t worthy of continuing the series?