Nightmare In Silver: Stalemate

Previous Episode: Nightmare In Silver: Closed For Business

Next Episode: Nightmare In Silver: Mr Clever

Game version played under: 2.2

There, next to the plant at the back

You are blooded. You have faced the Cybermen and left them shattered and smoking in your wake. Nothing can stop you. Push on.

From the Play Episode screen you can see that your next mission is again on Hedgewick's World of Wonders, but this time you seem to be in the Punishment Platton's barracks. Is that a cuddly Dalek in the background? A mascot perhaps. Again this is a TV story, and you have the chance to win both Green and Red Time Fragments.

In my case my team consisted of the Eleventh Doctor at Rank 1, Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint both at Lv. 2. This early on you would probably have exactly the same unless you've rolled for characters in the store.

The episode starts with the appearance of a single Red Cyberman, the Doctor shouts to get down and the battle begins. With a bit of targeting you soon establish that Blue is strong against Red enemies, so the Eleventh Doctor will be effective here. You won't see any Green or Black gems on this level so making matches should be simple.

The first Cyberman is well armoured but weak and I soon finished him off, only for the Doctor to declare that the Cybermen were upgrading, and you'd better be careful. Pah! I scoff at their upgradability. Another Red Cyberman attacks, but this chap has the Lock power. What does that do? Best to you kill him before you find out. I tried, and even had the Doctor's Cunning ability to help, but 2 rounds later the Lock power was unleashed.

Lock has two forms but it will be a while before you come across the other. In this version, random gems are locked in place for a number of turns. This is annoying and stops you from moving said gems, either directly or by dragging others through them. Nothing to panic about, just take a few extra moments to plan your move. The gems' colours are still visible, and if they form part of a pattern then they still contribute to a combination. As well as boosting damage this also causes them to vanish from the board, being replaced with unlocked gems.

I soon had #2 beaten, and I laughed at his shouts of Delete as he bit the dust. The wingnuts were at last learning, and they then sent 3 Green Cybermen into the fray, including our old friend the chess player. Now the Eleventh Doctor is at a disadvantage against these, but luckily Red is strong against Green so it was Jenny Flint's time to shine. Two of these blighters had Lock and they each attack on a different schedule. One attacks each turn, one every other turn and the last every third. This offset attack routine can be nasty. In this combination, if they were to survive long enough, every 6th turn you get hit by by all three at once. If you fail to spot this coming up it can be painful.

In my case I soon had them whittled down by one, and Jenny Flint then started to Smoulder for the first time. This let me convert Blue gems to Red, which Jenny then used to blast the last two off the board. Lovely.

Wave #4 then charged into the fray and I had 2 Red Cybermen to deal with. With impeccable timing the Doctor's Cunning came to fruition and they didn't last long. As they died a Time Crystal fell.

It's a start

Lastly, the Boss shows up, none other than the Eleventh Doctor himself. This is him in his partial cyber-state, the self-styled Mr Clever. He looks like a less curvy, yet more modestly dressed Seven of Nine. Mr Clever is Green and has the Grab power. This allows the enemy to steal all the Gems of one colour from the board, which are then replaced by other colours. Sometimes this can actually help if you have an unhelpful board in front of you. In this match Mr Clever stole all the Blue gems, which wasn't very clever as they are weak against Green. He should have taken the Red.

By this time Madame Vastra's Riposte was ready, and with back up from the others he was soon sent packing. Victory!

Time to check the booty, which in my case was a single Time Crystal. The experience gained wasn't enough to get anyone levelled but it all counts. However I did get 2 Achievements rung up which is always welcome. I got No More Green I for beating 10 Green Enemies, and Exterminate I for using ally abilities 5 times. I already had Time Tot for making 25 gem combos.

Nightmare In Silver: Stalemate is an unspectacular episode but you are introduced to two new powers and you take on tougher opponents. A nice escalation in your introduction to the game.

Neil Gaiman - taken by Manfred Werner

Now to the actual television episode Nightmare In Silver (NIS). My first feeling after watching this episode was one of disappointment, but after recently re-watching it I thought it was good. The first watch problem was that my expectations were high, as this was the second Doctor Who episode written by Neil Gaiman.

His first was The Doctor's Wife, a quality episode, perhaps my favourite Eleventh Doctor story. I was hoping for something equally original, written by a man who obviously 'gets' and loves the show. NIS is a significant episode as regards Cyber-lore but I wouldn't call it original, and I'm not keen on the direction the Cybermen have taken.

The new Cybermen look great. Sleek, lithe and lethal. This race has always improved itself and it's the basis of their origin, both the original Mondas and the new Lumic versions (what?). My problem is that after NIS they have become too much like the Borg. The Cybermites are like big Nanoprobes, assimilating victims and joining their minds to the Cyberiad, which is basically the Borg hive mind. Borg and Cybermen are of course both Cyborgs, and this similarity was used to good effect in the Doctor Who/Star Trek cross over Assimilation2, which by the way is a good read.

The Borg are a great sci-fi creation, body horror at its best. They came after the Cybermen but have probably eclipsed them in geekdom fame. Making the Cybermen more like them rather than more distinct from them is not a good move.

One last moan. The Cybermen can now disconnect parts of their bodies which is handy (sorry) and the Borg can't do that, but the need for the human brain is the one thing stopping the Cybermen becoming robots. If they can now remove their heads and then walk about and fight, then it can't be that vital. I think NIS is an upgrade too far.

Now I've got that off my chest, I think the NIS story is good. I want to live in a reality where Warwick Davis is the Emperor of the Universe. Matt Smith is given a Smeagol/Gollum scene to show off in and he does it well. I've always enjoyed 'base under siege' stories and this one ticks that box near enough. I was also pleased to see gold used to temporarily foil Mr Clever. It's nice to see that weakness back, and with a bit more of a logical explanation.

I also liked the odd ball collection of misfits that was the Punishment Platoon. They were a more engaging military unit than some of the efficient, faceless, ray-gun fodder that we've seen in the show recently. I do think that the self confidence Clara showed when the Doctor put her in charge was so fearless that it bordered on insanity. She's full of herself that one.

So overall NIS didn't live up to Neil Gaiman's debut, but that was hard to beat. I'm nervous of what's happened to the Cybermen, whether that's Steven Moffat's plan or Mr Gaiman's. Still I have faith in both of them so there's a good chance I could be proven wrong. I hope I am, and that it isn't the last we've seen of Neil Gaiman on Doctor Who.