Doctor Who’s penultimate episode of the season airs Saturday. It’s entitled “Nightmare in Silver” and features Neil Gaiman’s version of an arch-nemesis of the Doctor, the Cybermen.
There have been minor appearances of the Cybermen in recent years, such as the cameo in “A Good Man Goes to War” when the Doctor blows up the fleet of the Cybermen after they don’t answer Rory’s question about Amy’s whereabouts quickly enough. “Nightmare in Silver,” on the other hand, marks the first time we’ve seen the Cybermen as a prominent force since the 2011 episode “Closing Time” that featured new father Craig, played by James Cordon, and his baby, Stormageddon! Before then, the last time was the 2008 Christmas special, “The Next Doctor,” which co-stared David Morrissey.
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Judging by the photos, there are what could be considered “traditional” Cybermen with full, metal suits and squared-off head gear. There also seem to be half-conversions that only involve metal attached to part of the face. It will be interesting to see what is scarier the traditional or partial versions. The only time there has been a detailed, partial conversion was in the spin-off Torchwood where Ianto kept his partially converted girlfriend, Lisa, a secret.
Guest stars this time out include Warrick Davies, who viewers probably best know from his roles in the Harry Potter films as Professor Flitwick and Griphook the goblin. Also guest starring is Tamzin Outhwaite, who plays a captain of army forces doing maneuvers in the area. Rounding out the guest actors is Jason Watkins, who plays Mr. Webley, the man who owns the amusement park that the Doctor and fellow travelers are visiting.
In an interview with The Radio Times, Neil Gaiman was asked to summarize the premise of the episode.
The Doctor has been talked by Clara into taking the two kids she looks after, Artie and Angie, for an excursion, a day out, and he decides to take them to Hedgewick’s World, the biggest, best and most wonderful amusement park in the galaxy, a quarter of a million years in the future, because he has a golden ticket, and it gets four people in for free, gets you free ice creams and it gets you to the front of any line, which is great because the lines for the Spacey Zoomer can go on for weeks. And that’s where it starts.
This will be the second time Gaiman has written a Doctor who episode. The first time was last year’s “The Doctor’s Wife.”