682 Silver Nemesis Part Two

EPISODE: Silver Nemesis Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 682
STORY NUMBER: 155
TRANSMITTED: Wednesday 30 November 1988
WRITER: Kevin Clarke
DIRECTOR: Chris Cloug
SCRIPT EDITOR: Andrew Cartmel
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Cybermen Box Set

The Nazis attack the Cybermen and the Cybermen return fire, wiping out the majority of the Nazi forces.

Back comes David Banks as the Cyber-Leader, previously in Earthshock, Five Doctors & Attack of the Cybermen while Mark Hardy returns as the Cyber-Lieutenant a role he performed in Earthshock & the Five Doctors. He missed Attack of the Cybermen, where Brian Orrell took his place as the Cyber-Lieutenant but Orrel return here too, albeit in the ranks.

The Cybermen have had a makeover here with new helmets (the "gun" on the top has gone from being a reflective trapezium to a moulded circular feature) and the chest unit & helmets are now chromed, over a darker bodysuit. Outdoors it's just about working but.....

The Cybermen have new guns here to go with their slightly redesigned forms: these have the correct noises but instead of the green halo video effect we now have a practical spark. And like all sparking weapons it looks rubbish.

The Doctor examines comet. A Cyberman is slain by one of Lady Peniforte's gold arrows which DeFlores observes deducing the Cyberman's weakness.

Oh dear these Cybermen are looking rather vulnerable. Yes the arrows are made of, or plated with, gold but even so.....

Lady Peniforte admires the Cybermen but they have scared Richard who falls to his knees in prayer and supplication.

Richard's line "and I shall look after the sick which reminds me I shall return to Briggs his money" is a tip of the hat by writer Kevin Clarke to his friend Ian Briggs, the writer of last season's Dragonfire & next season's Curse of Fenric.

The Doctor notices the gold tipped arrow too and realises that Lady Peniforte is nearby. She sees him. The Doctor takes the bow and leaves in the Tardis with Ace.

The Cyberleader passes a comment about lady Peniforte at this point: how does he know about her? I can understand the Nazis having researched the area but the Cybermen.... And come to think of it how did the Cybermen know about the comet and where it was going to land?

DeFlorres and Karl flee site thinking they have bow in case.

Everytime I see these two by themselves together for some reason I'm reminded of the Illinois Nazis in the Blues Brothers.

Lady Peniforte and Richard go into Windsor town centre and are astonished by it

High Street Arundel substituts for Windsor High Street.

I'm not 100% sure but based on numerous photos in script editor Andrew Cartmel's book Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89 I think that's Kate Eastrel, the producer's secretary in the queue for the bus in the high street!

The Cybermen move the comet into the warehouse and cut the statue free then moving it into their craft. The Tardis materialises in wood nearby.

The location the Tardis has materialised in , and all the Doctor & Ace loactions in the rest of the story, is found in Arundel Park Valley.

The Doctor explains to Ace how Valadium was created as Galifrey's ultimate defence in early times.

What another ancient Gallifreyan artifact? Not at all like the Hand of Omega in Remembrance of the Daleks then!

Ace attempts to tease some information out of the Doctor here he says "by Omega" and she says "and ?", he replies "and Rassilon" and she says again say "and ?". In Remembrance of the Daleks, when the Doctor was explaining about the Hand of Omega he dropped a small hint he may have been there. Ace is fishing for more information to confirm that hypothesis.

The Doctor explains that none of it should have left Gallifrey but some of it did.

I wonder how?

The Doctor launched the largest piece into space

With the arrow being retained by Lady Peniforte and the box being given to the crown for safe keeping.

The Doctor uses the bow to lead them to the Cybermen's valadium, the statue.

The Doctor knew exactly where it was, how does he know the Cybermen have moved it?

Lady Peniforte & Richard are attacked by skinheads

On London Road Arundel.

The Cybermen have hidden the Nemesis statue in a nearby crypt.

How do the Cybermen know about the Crypt?

The crypt is Arundel Park Tower, located in the park mentioned above.

Lighting the Cybermen in crypt highlights the problems with the Cybermen redesign: to see the bopdysuit in any detail they need to be lit at such a high level that all detail is lost on the and lense flare comes off the chromed surfaces.

Lady Peniforte & Richard leaves the Skinheads trussed up nearly naked with a pile of thewir clothes on fire. The Doctor uses Ace's radio to monitor the Cybermen transmissions and jams it with Ace's jazz tapes. Richard finds his grave, with a date of 2nd November 1657 on it.

19 years after he departed 1638. The date gives his age there as 51 so he's 38ish here.

Lady Peniforte reveals that the crypt the grace is in front of is hers.

< There's a safari park sign in front of the crypt indicating this scene is set within Windsor Safari Park which is now Legoland Windsor.

Lady Peniforte and Richard enter the crypt, and when the Cybermen aproach are driven away with gold arrows.

The Cybermen running away from the gold arrow is rather comical like it could explode on them and get in their chest units!

DeFlores realises they are on Lady Peniforte's former estate. The Doctor lures the gunmen away from the Cyber craft and Ace destroys it with nitro nine explosive.

Ah, so the gunmen are working for the Cybermen. That hasn't been clear onscreen before now.

Ace's rucksack is destroyed here but, since it was filmed with the intention of showing it first, it appears in the next story the Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

The Cybvermen kill the gunmen for their failure. The Doctor explains to Ace they were being tansformed into Cybermen and the Cybermen would do that to Ace too. Lady Peniforte & Richard open the tomb revealing the Nemesis statue but not, as expected, Lady Peniforte's bones. DeFlores & Karl go to negotiate with the Cybermen and offer to destroy Peniforte & gain the arrow for the Cybermen since they are not vulnerable to gold.

DeFlores alludes to the Cybermen being the giants in Wagner's ring.

The Doctor explains that Nemesis brings destruction whenever it comes near Earth. 1913 was the eve of 1st World War, In 1938 Hitler annexed Austria and in1963 Kennedy was assassinated.

The day before the first episode of Doctor Who aired.

DeFlores and Karl attack the crypt. Richard gives them the arrow and flees with Lady Peniforte. The Cybermen capture DeFlores and Karl but they discover that the bow is missing from it's box. Doctor works out that the source of the Cybermen's transmissions is hidden and finds a huge Cyber fleet .

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

That's not too bad at all, but there's very much a feeling that the Doctor & Ace spend the episode sitting out the main action and let the Cybermen, the Nazis and Lady Peniforte get on with it. They get to make another trip in the Tardis which so far this story has jumped from the Jazz club to (1) the cellar at Windsor Castle to (2) Lady Peniforte's house in 1638 to (3) Windsor Castle to (4) the landing site and (5) then to the parkland.

The Skinheads are a complete waste of time and space - what purpose do they serve plotwise apart from to give Richard & Lady Peniforte slightly more screen time? There's a similar occurrence in the next episode too.

But my real problem here surrounds the Valadium: an immensely powerful semi sentient ancient Gallifreyan article that Rassilon and Omega helped to create has ended up on Earth and now various parties have tried to get it? Just a tinsy bit Remembrance of the Daleks? Worse is to come too....

Episodes 2 & 3 of this story were, like The Five Doctors. shown outside of the UK first airing on 25th November 1988 on TVNZ in New Zealand as part of a compilation of all three episodes celebrating 25 years of Doctor Who.