This is the "official" 25th Anniversary story. The production team rearranged the originally intended running order of the season so that Silver Nemesis would commence broadcast on the actual anniversary date of 23rd November, 1988. The story title was going to be called simply "Nemesis" but the "Silver" was added for the occasion.
Daleks had already been used to launch the season, so the Cybermen - second most popular monsters and often described as being 'silver giants' - were the obvious choice for the story.
Changing the story order led to minor continuity issues, such as Ace being seen to wear one of Flowerchild's earrings, which she won't be seen to pick up until the following story.
Oddly, the team did not look to an established writer on the series, as they had with the 20th Anniversary. Instead they went with a writer new to the series, in what would become his only contribution - Kevin Clarke.
Clarke claimed not to have any particular ideas for storylines when invited in to meet with JNT and Andrew Cartmel. He just winged it. One notion he had was that the Doctor would prove to be God.
As far as this story goes, we have an ancient and powerfully destructive Gallifreyan artefact which was in the Doctor's possession, but has been left at the Earth. There are three groups of villains out to get hold of this artefact for their own nefarious ends, one of which comprises a bunch of Nazis. There are suggestions that the Doctor is no ordinary Time Lord, an issue which he happily skirts, leaving Ace wondering. There is reference to one of the Doctor's earlier incarnations. One of Ace's belongings gets an upgrade.
The main villains are seemingly wiped out for good after the Doctor tricks them into using the artefact, after going out of his way to ensure that they get hold of it.
No - not a repeat screening Remembrance of the Daleks, though you will certainly get a sense of deja vu watching this. When you consider that they only had space for four stories in these seasons, you'd really think that they would try not to repeat themselves too much (especially considering this was broadcast only three weeks after the Dalek story.
It's pretty much a retread, albeit an inferior retread.
Instead of the Hand of Omega, we have a living metal called validium, which was created as a defence for Gallifrey. The implication is that the Doctor took it with him when he first went on the run from his people. As with the Hand, it's terribly hard to square this with what we've always known about the Doctor. In the 17th Century the validium fell into the hands of a woman named Lady Peinforte, who fashioned it into a likeness of herself posing as Nemesis, goddess of retribution. The statue only has critical mass when complete with its bow and arrow, but these were removed before the Doctor launched it into Earth orbit in a rocky shell. This orbit takes it close to the Earth every 25 years, which coincides with a period of great upheaval.
It is actually hard to tie the statue to momentous events if you go back beyond the couple mentioned here.
Lady Peinforte (who derives her name from a form of torture / execution where the prisoner has a heavy wooden board placed on them, atop which are then placed other heavy items to slowly crush them - peine forte et dure) does not recognise the Doctor but her description of the one she encountered suggests the Troughton incarnation.
Over the centuries the bow has moved about and ended up in the possession of a Nazi named De Flores, who has been living in exile in South America since 1945. Peinforte has the arrow.
The Cybermen then turn up seeking to grab statue, bow and arrow when the Nemesis comet's decaying orbit finally brings it back down to earth - on the very spot from which it was launched, which is handy.
For their appearance, the Cybermen helmets were given a special silver coating. Unfortunately this oxidised very quickly, turning them a golden colour.
The setting is Windsor. JNT wanted to film at Windsor Castle, and hoped to bag a genuine Royal for the story as a massive publicity gimmick. Prince Edward was showing signs of theatrical leanings at this time, and had recently been instrumental in organising the It's A Royal Knockout charity event. He would later join Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Company for a time.
We don't know exactly how far up the court ladder JNT's approach went - it has been claimed the Queen herself vetoed it - and no filming was allowed at Windsor either. The director chose Arundel Castle instead, and an appearance from a QEII lookalike was arranged.
The TARDIS materialises as a group of tourists are being shown round. This group includes Nicholas Courtney and a number of writers and directors. Clarke is there, and is also seen on the street as Lady Peinforte and Richard walk down it.
There is another link to the origins of the series. Playing the old 17th Century mathematician is Leslie French. He was Verity Lambert's first choice to play the Doctor back in 1963.
Anton Differing accepted the role of De Flores purely so that he could be in England for Wimbledon fortnight. He was on oxygen off camera, and died soon afterwards.
Once again in the McCoy era, music plays an intrinsic part in the plot. We see the Doctor and Ace watching jazz musician Courtney Pine, and later Ace's enhanced ghetto-blaster is used to block the Cyberman signals with jazz music.
Next time: the greatest show in the galaxy visits the greatest show in the galaxy...
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