Doctor Who - Silver Nemesis (The Extended Version) [1988] [1963]

The plot is completely unbelievable - The doctor and Ace arrive on earth in the future (2 drinks in a pub costs 5.00 - nothing new now!) and there is a race against time between them, the cybermen, an evil medieval couple from Elizabethan times and a bunch of German mercenaries to get a silver nemesis that will give them unlimited power. The script is laughable and, as other reviewers have commented, the cybermen looked totally unthreatening considering they could be destroyed by a "Just William" catapult with gold coins. Doctor Who fans will know cybermen are allergic to radiation and gold, but surely not administered in this way.

The budget must have been thin on the ground too as the cyber fleet looked like it had been made out of lego.

This story marked the end of Doctor Who viewing for me. Sylvester McCoy took the role seriously, but too often were the plausibility of stories ruined by guest appearances from minor UK actors, including Ken Dodd.


They paid somebody to write this?   September 18, 2002
2 out of 6 found this review helpful

This story seems to have gone straight from the inital brainstorming session in the pub to shooting with none of the usual boring bits such as working out a plot or characters motivation.

What little storyline the story has is lifted straight from Rememberance of the Daleks. Whilst self plagiarism was rife in Doctor Who, nicking the plot of the last story but one is a bit silly.

To distract the viwer from the paucity of a plot, we have endless cameos and set pieces. Courtney Pine plays to drinkers sunning themselves in a pub garden (in November apparently). Somebody pretends to be the Queen whilst the Doctor breaks in to Windsor castle for no apparent reason. There are endless scenes of faffing around with a tedious American tourist and some posh RADA actors pretending to be skinheads. Why?

The other problem is that nobody ever stopped to think things through. The Doctor runs around the Berkshire countryside for no apparent reason. The Cybermen are killed with amazing ease. The conclusion doesn't make any sense.

On the plus side the cast is good, though Anton Diffring (playing a Nazi Officer for the millionth time) clearly has no more understanding of the plot than we do. The Nemesis itself is also well realised and it's conversations with Ace and the Doctor the only well scripted parts of the story.

As for the Cybermen, they seem to be in as an afterthought to get the viewers attention. They turn up, get killed, argue a bit, then the rest get killed.


One of the better examples of late '80s Who   December 8, 2003
Stephen Riley (Germany)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful

By the late '80s, Doctor Who had long since degenerated into little more than juvenile pantomime with silly stories, ultra-camp performances, awful dialogue and casting decisions that were nothing short of criminal (witness Bonnie Langford's tenure as the Doctor's assistant and guest appearences by the likes of Ken Dodd).

That said however, this was one of the better stories from the Sylvester McCoy era. While not on a par with the classic Pertwee and Tom Baker adventures, the fact that it was shot largely outdoors on location and its contemporary Earth setting made a welcome change from the usually wobbly cardboard "futuristic" sets that epitomised much of '80s "Who" and harks back to the show's glory days.
As others have pointed out, the plot is somewhat top-heavy with villains (no less than 3 competing factions, including the Cybermen) and as a result loses its way in places, but it is still streets ahead of monstrosities like "Paradise Towers", "The Happiness Patrol" and "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy".

The best part though is the one hour of "behind the scenes" material, which provides a fascinating insight into the making of "Doctor Who".

One major gripe I have with this tape though is the quality of the transfer - the picture seems very blurry. In fact I watched the 1975 Doctor Who story "The Android Invasion" immediately after watching this tape, and the quality of the picture of this earlier story was light years ahead of "Silver Nemesis".


I've never seen so many cybermen get destroyed before   September 16, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

The Silver Nemesis combines the struggle for total power between a 16th century Lady, a group of post-war Naxis and a large fleet of cybermen. The effect is a runaround story with the Nemesis constantly swapping hands until the Doctor finally manges to take take it back. The cybermen getting destroyed in batches shows their weakness but is there for "showing off" special effects. Adding elements of history, ambition, and the possible destruction of earth, this story, for the "25th Anniversary", marks the (possible?) end of the Cybermen. The moral is that total power brings death to all that seek it. One to deffinitly watch if your Doctor Who fans