This story definitely struggles a fair bit for feeling a bit unpolished. I also really don't like the performances put in by the child actors in this episode. They've been given the brief of annoying phone-addicted teenager (to be fair, they do a convincing job of) - which is unfortunately just annoying!

The only good takeaway for me from this episode is the characterisation of the cybermen - all too often writers fall into the trap of just writing the cybermen as robots that love to shoot and yell DELETE, effectively written as bargain bin Daleks. To write the cybermen well, they really need to be scary. The best way to do this is like in World Enough and Time, where you really lean into the body horror of the cybermen to make them scary. The characterisation here in Nightmare also works in a way - I like playing into the computer hivemind to upgrade and overcome obstacles. I just wish the rest of the episode was well written and performed enough to carry this characterisation further.

There are also moments in this episode that seem a bit more ickier and questionable with the recent allegations that have been raised about Neil Gaiman - the line about Clara being in a skirt that's a little too tight is the most egregious one. All in all, this is one of my least favourite episodes, for the cardinal sin of being annoying - definitely one I would skip on a rewatch.

this is the first good cyberman episode ive sat through. not really sure why it was rated so low. i found this one fun and exciting

The expectation gap on watching this story for the first time was pretty monumental, as Neil Gaiman had done such a stellar job with his first story. The idea of this being anything other than spectacular didn’t feel likely, for this to be bad was very disappointing. In the context of this series it’s especially disappointing because there had not been many hits.

I understand there were issues behind the scenes, and this was not exactly what Gaiman wrote. In the first third there are some interesting Gaimanisms, but as soon as the Cyberman is running around at high speed it does feel as if the story has lost the plot. It feels odd to have these new speedy Cybermen debut just a few episodes following the speedy Ice Warriors. Why can’t monsters creek and lumber?

The Artie and Angie stuff is not paid off to a good enough extent to justify their presence. They were brought in last episode, so they could be in this episode, then they add very little.

It’s a strong cast, Porridge is good. Bless Matt Smith with the entire production on his shoulders - 20 solid minutes of screen time is him shouting at himself. There is no phoning it in, he is working his socks off.

The design of Hedgewicks World is uninspiring, it doesn’t hold a candle visually to The Doctor’s Wife.

Not a fan of this. The story was a bit all over the place. Wasn't a fan of the portrayal of the Cybermen, it was supposed to make them scary again but that couldn't have been further from the truth and as much as I love Matt Smith, I've got to agree that he wasn't very convincing in the split personality scenes either.

Really surprised this came from Neil Gaiman.

No, no, no, no, no, no!!! Absolutely not, leave, now. This truly is a nightmare in silver.

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.