Doctor Who EP 7.12: Nightmare in Silver

I am so unbelievably close to watching the finale right now. As soon as I finish writing this post you can guess what I'll be doing and a review will come in the next day or so. Spoilers ahead folks.

the doctor vs mr clever oh yeah. caps from here

Episode Summary: What do you get when you put the Cybermen, Clara, two children, the Doctor, and the most hopeless army you've ever seen, together? A whole lot of trouble. Especially when the Doctor is attacked by cybermites and keeps switching between his identity as the Doctor and the Cybermen's Mr Clever.

This episode (penned by Neil Gaiman) was, enjoyable, but nothing compared to his triumph with The Doctor's Wife, arguably one of the best episodes of the last series. What's bothering me about series 7B is that there is simply not enough character development for Clara. I know I said this in the last post but I still don't know her. She meets with the Doctor every Wednesday, when the Doctor tells her to do something she does it (but this is mainly because the alternative is terrifying), she's a nanny, and she's the impossible girl! But where are her opinions? Her beliefs? How does she really feel about the Doctor and what he does? Does she want to know more? WHO ARE YOU CLARA? I just??? I'm hoping that this will be somewhat rectified in the finale.

u go clara. 4 for u.

Moving on to Nightmare in Silver, this new generation of Cybermen allowed them to attach cybermites to the flesh of humans (or time lords) and move in lightning speed - which only happened once - but overall they were quite brilliant. Usually, the Cybermen just sort of stomp around grabbing people to build up their army and attack the Doctor. However, the Doctor ended up being one of their first targets and it resulted in a battle between his cyber-identity, Mr Clever, and himself. The fight for survival moved backwards and forwards, as Mr Clever mocked him and flirted with Clara, and it was hard to tell who was who at times. But with a slap in the face or a neck-jerking twist, the Doctor was back in control of his body, but most importantly his mind, leaving Clara with the job of ordering the army and making sure the planet didn't get blown up. Nonetheless, the identity struggle was definitely my favourite part of the episode, partly because I so desperately want to see the Doctor break loose and turn dark and evil. Or start flirting with Clara. Yes. And by Clara I actually mean me.


Observation of things:

• The two kids, Angie and Artie, were a nice inclusion but they were very much placed into stereotypical roles of 'moody teenager' and 'oh wow I never thought space would be this interesting' ugh.
• The abandoned theme park would have been really interesting to explore.
• The Doctor jumping up and down with his golden ticket of entry made him look like he'd just arrived at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Bless.
• The Time Lord's invented chess. Who would've thought it?

Comment below or tweet me @faultystairs