Holistic Review: Some plot threads (Lady Peinforte and Richard) work better than others (boring neo-Nazis), and overall, the comedy elements are the most memorable.
Silver Nemesis takes a lot of flak from fans for having a very similar plot to Remembrance of the Daleks (which even Ace acknowledges at the end of the story). Personally, this has never bothered me; maybe it's because I'm not the biggest fan of Remembrance, but I never even noticed the similarity until it was pointed out to me. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of Silver Nemesis, either, but between the two, I know which one I'd watch first: this one has a livelier plot, more interesting characters, some great rapport between the Doctor and Ace, and it's an episode shorter. All in all, it's just more fun. (I should mention that I'll be discussing the extended version of this story that's available on VHS... as with Fenric, I might as well review the material if it's available, and besides, it's the only version I happen to have to hand!)
The main reason for that, I am quite convinced, is the amazing duo of Lady Peinforte and Richard. As villains go, Lady Peinforte is a knockout: she's a seventeenth-century noblewoman, which is unusual enough; and she's also well-versed in poisons and black magic, which are both period-appropriate, and make me think that she would have been awesome in an adventure set entirely in the 1600s. What's really interesting about her is that, possibly as a result of her earlier meeting with the Doctor (which exposed her, somehow, to all sorts of information about the Time Lords, including this mysterious secret of the Doctor's), she is entirely open to new ideas, and barely bats an eyelash when she arrives in the twentieth century. While Richard quails in fear and confusion next to her, Lady Peinforte calmly assesses everything she sees and comes up with, on the whole, entirely accurate explanations. This is not a woman who lets fear touch her. I love that her answer to hitchhiking is to stand in the middle of the street and command cars to stop! Fiona Walker gives a fantastic performance, making Lady Peinforte seem regal, scheming, unscrupulous and - when the script calls for it - completely batty. She's also got a great costume, appropriately black, and I really like her little red ringlets. Among her great lines: "Are you so very feeble?", "Come back, you fool, you'll break the aura!", her frantic hand-waving "Fie!!!" before she throws a chair through the pub window, and her amusing oath of "Oh! Glorious evil!" Both she and Gerard Murphy, who plays Richard, deliver their seventeenth-century lines with total believability, making it sound natural rather than like a second-rate Shakespearean performance, so clearly the two of them were very well-cast. I love the moment when the two of them arrive in a twentieth-century pub, wailing most frightfully!
Richard is an equally compelling character, being a "hardened criminal" with a heart of pure gold. He claims to have done all sorts of wicked deeds, but I wonder how much of that is exaggeration. True, he does egg Lady Peinforte on in killing the old astronomer, but then seems to lose the courage of his convictions when he's called upon to drink the resulting brew. And in the face of terrifying future developments and man-eating llamas, it's only his complete and unselfish devotion to Lady Peinforte's well-being that keeps him going. You can tell that underneath - and not even very deep down - Richard is a truly good man. By the end, having destroyed the last remaining Cyberman with one of Lady Peinforte's gold-tipped arrows, you get the sense that he's turned a corner in his life, and once he's back home in 1638, he's probably going to live an honest life. And of course I personally was delighted to see that Richard and I share a last name, plus or minus a stray E. These two characters are not only great in their own right, but they make a fantastic comedy double-act, and are almost entirely responsible for lightening the tone of the script and helping the story to bounce along merrily.
The other main contributors to the jolliness of the plot are our two regulars, the Doctor and Ace. This is quite a good story for Sylvester McCoy, whose Doctor becomes more manipulative than ever in this story. Silver Nemesis is definitely a major player in deepening the mystery of the Doctor - between his emerging manipulative tendencies and the deep dark secret that Lady Peinforte threatens to reveal, you get the feeling that he's been pulling a lot of different strings behind a lot of different curtains. McCoy really seems to take to this darker side of the Doctor, and delivers a restrained performance with lots of knowing looks and cryptic smiles. He and Sophie Aldred sparkle in their scenes together, and you can tell that the two of them thoroughly enjoy working together. I love the way he slaps her hand away from the poisoned gold arrow; the awesome slight-of-hand when he passes Ace the bow right in front of the Cybermen; and his response to "Professor, are you losing your marbles?" is to take a handful of marbles out of his pocket and pour it into Ace's hands! Then we have the "Ace! Duck!" scene, which I've never understood at all, but it's funny. I've always thought his pronunciation of "shrouded" sounded a little muddy, though!
Ace likewise gets lots to do in a story that reveals her taste for jazz and her impressive ability with a slingshot. She's unerringly accurate, even from across a warehouse! And what a clever move, taking out one Cyberman and letting the other two do each other in. Her bravery in racing around the warehouse and slingshotting the Cybermen one by one is awesome - between Ace's gung-ho nature and her close relationship with the Doctor, this story is a great example of why she's such a superb companion. I must also mention how impressed I am with Sophie Aldred for being willing to film on that gantry - it would've taken some major fear-conquering to get me up on a thing like that! I love that Ace so immediately responds to implications that she's afraid... reverse psychology works great on that one. (But what is it about this particular situation that makes Ace so scared? Surely she's already been in much worse.) Aldred has a great worried look on her face when she asks the Doctor (re: the Cybermen's goons) "Who are they?", and I love her "ha, right" expression when the Doctor says "Welcome home!" She also gives a great delivery to Ace's reluctant "Yeah." when the Doctor reminds her that there are more important things to worry about than playing her tape, and I also like "I'm a good girl, I do what I'm told." And look! There's a mysterious spiral earring on her jacket! Why, wherever did that come from? I don't quite understand, though, why Ace's response to "Blow up that ship" is to throw her entire rucksack into it, instead of just a few cans of nitro-nine!
Leslie French is superb as the dotty old mathematician, who comes across as charmingly sweet. He sounds so sad for the poor asteroid when he tells Lady Peinforte "Its trajectory, however, is decaying." He's clearly a very brilliant academic, too, so what a shame that they kill him - it sounds like he would have revolutionized the world! A nice touch by Clarke, I think. Equally delightful is Dolores Grey as Southern belle Mrs. Remington, who serves no useful purpose in the plot whatsoever, but is fantastic comic relief. She plays wonderfully off both Lady Peinforte and Richard, graciously taking their oddities in stride and never quite cottoning onto the fact that they're from several centuries ago! Chris Chering and Symond Lawes are entertaining as the skinheads, although they don't get a ton to do. We've also got a guest appearance by Courtney Pine, which I suppose is nice, but to be honest I've never known who he is, and I've never liked jazz enough to bother learning.
The neo-Nazis, alas, are thoroughly boring. I'd practically forgotten what role they had to play in the plot, aside from the fact that they too were after the Nemesis, and on this viewing, I can see why. They're just totally dull. Anton Diffring plays de Flores well enough, I suppose, but he doesn't deliver his lines with much energy or even much menace - just a quiet certainty that they're going to win. Metin Yenal as his second-in-command Karl is equally forgettable. I guess it's a shame that this plot strand didn't really go anywhere, because I'm sure Nazis could have been a really interesting addition, but I just never found them all that engaging or even frightening. Like Lady Peinforte, their only real purpose seems to have been bringing the bow into the picture, but where Lady Peinforte is thoroughly entertaining, the group of neo-Nazis is not at all.
It's the last appearance of my favorite glass-jawed Cybermen, and although I'm no real Cyberman fan, it is nice to see them here. It's appropriate that they should be in the silver-anniversary story, and their unveiling at the end of episode 1 is a definite surprise. David Banks is, as always, a fantastic Cyber Leader. It's kind of funny (and appropriate) that the Leader doesn't really understand the concept of madness; all Lady Peinforte has to do is misplace her quill pen and he'll have her committed to an asylum. I like that their technology seems consistent - their communications device here looks much like the device they used in Earthshock. The Cybermen are well-used here, being a convincing threat and giving Ace and Lady Peinforte lots of targets to bring down with gold!
Overall I'm impressed with Kevin Clarke's scripting. He's written some really interesting characters and scripted some great cuts between scenes (like the Cyberleader calling Lady Peinforte "a simple savage accompanied by a terrified peasant"; cut to the two skinheads hanging from a tree in their boxers, having clearly been overpowered!). I particularly like the way he includes some very natural exposition, as the Doctor clearly wants to show the neo-Nazis that he is not intimidated by them, by deliberately turning his back on them and ignoring them in order to loudly explain the situation to Ace. Very nicely done! One thing that's never been clear to me, though, is what exactly these different factions plan to do with the statue. I get that it's a weapon of some sort, but how does that give them power? Do they plan to hold the world / universe hostage or something? A couple of lines to that effect would have been most welcome. Likewise, what does the Cyber Leader think that launching the Nemesis will accomplish? He does ask the Doctor to cancel its offensive capabilities first, so is he just trying to get it to their fleet where they will then reprogram it? And I wonder about the whole every-25-years deal... it's a cool idea, and it ties nicely into the silver-anniversary theme, but it seems like a bit of a stretch (particularly the "Hitler annexes Austria" bit... you have to wonder if (a) this pattern would hold for the 25-year intervals before 1913, and (b) if you could come up with equally wicked events for any series of 25 years.)
Kudos to the stunt folks, who get a lot of work to do throughout! I don't know if it's stuntpeople or actually McCoy and Aldred who do that dive off the bridge (knowing them - and Sophie in particular - I suspect the latter), but it looks great. With all the battle scenes in this story, they contributed a lot. I am a little amused, though, by the soldier who croaks "Ehhhhhhhhhhh" just before falling off a wall!
Chris Clough does a great job directing. I love the cut from de Flores firing an arrow at a parrot to Lady Peinforte firing an arrow at a pigeon, the cool shots off the gantry, and the very nice shot of the Cyberman plummeting to the ground and exploding. They also find some fantastic filming locations: the gorgeous green valley where the TARDIS lands, the fallen tree covered in dead ivy, and Lady Peinforte's elegant tomb.
I'll also give Keff McCulloch credit here - this is actually a pretty good score, particularly the seventeenth-century musical elements. There's not a single moment here that gets on my nerves, and at times it even sounds Ayresian. So, well done! This is a fairly rare occurrence!
Some nice effects here, too - even though they look a little dated now, I like the swirling-energy effect used to represent the time vortex that sweeps Lady Peinforte and Richard to the twentieth century, and the activation of the Nemesis statue. There's a nice subtle effect as the Nemesis meteor starts to activate, and a few rocks on top of it seem to fall off by themselves. I'd love to know how they did the effect of the clouds moving behind Lady Peinforte's tomb as the Nemesis statue awakens. The only one that doesn't reeeeeeally work for me is that old "computers doing things that computers never do" chestnut, which rears its head when the neo-Nazis determine the meteor's landing location in Windsor and the whole computer screen instantly starts flashing the information. The folks in charge of explosions get a lot of opportunities to show off their skills, too: the explosion when the asteroid hits, the impressively massive explosion of the Cyberman ship, and the exploding Cyberman that falls off the gantry. I also like the shower of sparks as the Cybermen pepper a car with bullets, and the way the Nemesis almost seems to swell up when it merges with Lady Peinforte.
I also remember when the NJN documentary on the making of this story débuted on PBS. The commercials for it must have been very misleading, because I assumed it would be about Doctor Who as a whole, and I remember telling some other kids in my bowling league at the time that if they liked monsters, they should watch PBS when the documentary was airing. I was distinctly disappointed when it turned out just to be a "making-of" (although I seriously doubt any of those kids actually tuned in)... but it also occurs to me that this must have aired before Silver Nemesis, because I remember seeing the scene of the Doctor saying "I do hope we're not too late!" as he and Ace go running and jumping through the field in front of the Greenwich Gas Works. (Which means that I must have realized during season 25 that it was also new Doctor Who... why wasn't I more excited about that?)
Minor points:
Lady Peinforte: "You're sure the potion is well mixed?"
Richard: "On my life, ma'am." (pauses, reconsiders) "I guarantee it."
Ace: "Who does this house belong to, anyway?"
Doctor: "A lady."
Richard: "What means yon fellow? Why speaks he to his hand?"
Lady Peinforte: "He summons guards!"
Ace: "We didn't actually cover the royal residential areas on the school trip."
Lady Peinforte: "See how my poison is as deadly as ever, Richard!"
Richard: (on his knees praying, and totally not paying attention) "And I shall look after the sick, which reminds me, I return to Briggs his money..."
Doctor: "Are we having fun?"
Ace: "Yeah!"
Lady Peinforte: "Not for nothing did I design my own tomb. 'Death is but a door.' I always knew I'd cheat it!"
Lady Peinforte: "I understand not."
Richard: "What's not to understand?"
Lady Peinforte: "Always I have treated you badly. I have done you no service, shown you no kindness, and yet you risk your life to save me. Why so?"
Richard: "Shall I not?"
Lady Peinforte: "I do not live in the world of what should. But you're a good man, Richard, and I... am evil."
Doctor: "And I trust you remember my strict instructions never to cause any further explosions?"
Ace: (folding hands primly) "I'm a better person as a result, Doctor."
Mrs Remington: "Folks from the South are never in a hurry. As a matter of fact, I'm here on a visit checking out my roots."
Richard: (perplexed) "'Tis wise with crops this time of year, ma'am."
Mrs Remington: "Well, my, my family came from around here. I traced them all the way back to the 1600s!"
Lady Peinforte: (leaning in conspiratorially; apropos of nothing) "All things will soon be mine."
Mrs Remington: (agreeably) "I guess they will, honey."
Lady Peinforte: "The secret of the heavens."
Mrs Remington: "Virginia is heaven, if you ask me! My family owns a little land there. They used to own a little land around here, too. The Remingtons, of Remington Grange."
Lady Peinforte: "I know them! Thieves and swindlers all."
Mrs Remington: "You study history?"
Lady Peinforte: "Dorothea Remington did bribe away my cook."
Mrs Remington: "Oh... well now, let me see. Yes, there was a Dorothea. She died in sixteen..."
Lady Peinforte: "Twenty-one. 'Twas a slow poison..."
Mrs Remington: "This is unbelievable!"
Lady Peinforte: "Many found it so."
The plot is a bit of a runaround, but it's fun. As a Doctor Who story, it's not totally engaging, and there's a fair amount of dead wood, but Lady Peinforte and Richard, along with the two regulars, make it much more watchable.