Nightmare in Silver [TV/2013.5.11]

★☆☆☆☆

  Over the years, I've come to realise that it really shows when someone doesn't put in the work, when a writer has little to no faith in what they're creating and wings it tremendously. That is Nightmare in Silver in a nutshell, and it's especially hard for me to come out and admit what I think when it's (supposedly, although it feels very unlike his work) written by the normally superb Neil Gaiman. But seriously -- what happened here? Not only are the Cybermen haphazardly used and morphed into superpowered enemies which lack any sort of tension and terror, the Doctor, Clara and just about every other character are given the worst possible script with little breathing room for actors' personal interpretation. True, Matt Smith is given a challenging prospect of portraying both his Doctor and Mr. Clever (which he does predictably admirably, relishing the opportunity to play the villain -- something he's really good at and something his career would come to be defined by in the coming decade), but even then he gets some dodgy lines -- like that very last one in the TARDIS I'd rather not talk at length about. What about Jenna Coleman, and the dearth of thoughtful writing which plagues her in much of Series 7B? She's too good an actor to be bogged down completely by such a nonentity of a script, but her performance really suffers in the first half from the fact that Clara is written as a bog-standard companion. If this was 2013, I'd be quite upset about this. It's 2022, and I have the luxury of hindsight and knowing that Clara is given far better material in the coming few years, but it's still bothersome watching Clara and the Doctor be so void of anything interesting.

  And before you form the question inside your head, the less said about Angie and Artie, the better. What's the matter with Angie especially? I can't comprehend it. What's really bad about Nightmare in Silver is that every guest character isn't just not charming in any way, they're given the cheesiest and most wooden lines to actively make the viewing experience more painful. I am in awe, honestly, of how this episode is barely held together. I may consider narrative/story to be but one small part of a giant overall entity that is the finished work, but this doesn't hold up in practically any regard! When the Cybermen failing to grasp the viewers' imagination and attention completely is the least of your worries, you know you've mucked this one up. Probably one of the contenders for my 10 least favourite new series adventures, this -- I've got barely anything to praise it for.