Silver Nemesis, this weeks cap addition, must’ve seemed like a good idea at the time. Take Doctor Who on a Special Day, throw in the Cybermen as the Big Bad, and high minded hilarity ensues.
Problem with the Cybermen though is that they don’t really work well as henchmen. They need to be the main driver in the story and not be alongside or subservient to another Big Bad. It didn’t work in The Next Doctor alongside Miss Hartigan and it sure as heck doesn’t work in Silver Nemesis when 80’s Neo-Nazis and Elizabethan characters and Cartmelian Doctor Darkening are thrown into the mix.
Maybe, maybe, is the story had been allowed to breathe into a fourth episode (a now common Tour complaint for McCoy 3-parters) it could’ve worked. As it is it’s a jumble, one which hopefully rambles along fast enough to keep the unwary at bay. Tonally it tries to be more Remembrance of the Daleks than the odder-balls on either side, but it’s also indicative of the overall shift from the daffiness of Season 24 and the consistency of Season 26.
The caps added today are pure addition for the Tour. Who knows what next weeks will be?
