Cyber-Chess

Prerequisites: Nothing specific, although there are a few references to The Impossible Girl arc.

Spoilers!
Apparently, Neil Gaiman ran into some assorted difficulties with this script, with the first draft allegedly being lost on a plane, and him not being able to communicate his ideas with the director. Unfortunately, it absolutely shows. It's almost unbelievable that Nightmare in Silver was written by the same writer who did The Doctor's Wife. Still, there are some genuinely good ideas on display here. Showing an emperor of the universe in hiding is fun, having the Doctor battle a Cyberplanner in his mind is cool, and having Clara be forced to grapple with leading a squad of inexperienced soldiers is a fine idea. The issue is that none of these concepts are utilized fully. Porridge frankly doesn't have enough characterization for me to care about him, Smith's performance as Mr. Clever is a little uneven, and nothing interesting happens with the soldiers. Plus, this is some of the worst child acting I've seen on this show, combined with some of the worst dialogue given to children I've seen on this show. This is just a poor episode. I don't dislike it nearly as much as others, but it's in the running for the worst Smith-era story.