{"id":8165,"date":"2012-06-23T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T12:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=8165"},"modified":"2016-09-14T20:35:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T00:35:49","slug":"doctor-who-silver-nemesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/06\/doctor-who-silver-nemesis.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>\"\"Although the secrets of the Doctor \u2013 his origins, his name, etc. \u2013 were in a sense part of the show\u2019s fabric from the very beginning, the episode \u201cSilver Nemesis<\/a>\"\"\u201d from the Sylvester McCoy era marks something of a turning point, as an episode in which these become a central focus perhaps more so than ever before. The Doctor is not simply mysterious and reticent \u2013 he does in fact have secrets<\/em>. And this episode aired, rather appropriately, 25 years to the day from when \u201cAn Unearthy Child<\/a>\"\"\u201d aired and the Doctor Who phenomenon began.<\/p>\n

There are spoilers in what follows.<\/p>\n

The episode focuses on a statue which the Doctor had sent into space, and supposedly he had botched the trajectory and it was now returning to Earth as a result of an error. In fact, we learn that the status is made of living metal, and was created by Rassilon and Omega, as a powerful Gallifreyan weapon. Eventually we learn that the statue, now known as Nemesis, is in fact controlled by the Doctor \u2013 it actually longs for its freedom, but the Doctor refuses to grant it, even though he says he hopes not to need her again, because \u201cthings are still imperfect.\u201d Nemesis destroys the Cybermen\u2019s fleet, as the Doctor had planned all along. And so this episode shares a significant amount of continuity with \u201cRemembrance of the Daleks<\/a>\"\".\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the episode, Lady Painford who had come into possession of Nemesis says that she has learned the Doctor\u2019s secrets from it, and threatens to reveal them. \u201cDoctor Who?\u201d \u2013 the statue had told her, and told her about the \u201ctime of chaos\u201d on Gallifrey. The Doctor seems as though he will let himself be blackmailed when she threatens to reveal the secrets \u2013 but as he foresaw, her potential audience, the Cybermen, do not care about a time lord\u2019s secrets.<\/p>\n

The episode ends with Ace asking the Doctor \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it might seem as though nothing is in fact revealed in the episode (as has seemed to be characteristic of most of the show\u2019s history), perhaps there are some clues, not about things that the show\u2019s creators had in mind all along, but of things that they decided to add to the show\u2019s mythology by this point, if not earlier. The Doctor\u2019s control of the statue, and his possession of the living metal and of the Hand of Omega, even while he said that it had been Rassilon and Omega that were responsible for these objects, suggests that the Doctor might have been around in the early days of the time lords. Indeed, I\u2019ve sometimes wondered whether, in addition to being now the last of the time lords, it will not turn out that he is also the first \u2013 the Alpha and the Omega, one might say, even if he is not the <\/em>Omega.<\/p>\n

In \u201cDoctor Who and The Silurians<\/a>\"\"\u201d the Doctor in fact said \u201cYou know, I\u2019m beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life \u2014 and that covers several thousand years.\u201d And in this episode, the reference to things still being imperfect sounds like it envisages the Doctor already having his \u201cGod complex\u201d and being about perfecting the universe.<\/p>\n

It must also be mentioned that the episode \u201cSilver Nemesis<\/a>\"\"\u201d was the first time the Doctor wore a fez<\/a> and carried a mop:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The focus of the latest seasons on the Doctor\u2019s identity is very much in keeping with the tone set in this episode \u2013 and that seems intentional.<\/p>\n

We also learn that the Doctor likes jazz.<\/p>\n

The episode includes some interesting religious elements in addition to those implicit and around the margins of what has already been mentioned. Lady Painford apparently managed to travel from her own time to 1988 by using \u201cblack magic.\u201d Much like in \u201cThe Daemons,\u201d the episode\u2019s view of magic is ambivalent.<\/p>\n

There is also interesting symbolism in Lady Painford\u2019s tomb, where there is an inscription that says \u201cDeath is but a Door.\u201d And we see her companion Richard praying and seeking to bargain with God.<\/p>\n

If you are a fan of recent Doctor Who, with its focus on the time lord\u2019s secrets and identity, then this is an older episode you will definitely want to watch if you haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the secrets of the Doctor \u2013 his origins, his name, etc. \u2013 were in a sense part of the show\u2019s fabric from the very beginning, the episode \u201cSilver Nemesis\u201d from the Sylvester McCoy era marks something of a turning point, as an episode in which these become a central focus perhaps more so than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,80],"tags":[2765,3405,3729,7123,7680,8002,8372,8617,9970,11003,12155,13592],"class_list":["post-8165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-who-science-fiction","category-religion","tag-doctor-who","tag-fez","tag-gallifrey","tag-matt-smith","tag-mop","tag-nemesis","tag-omega","tag-painford","tag-rassilon","tag-secrets","tag-sylvester-mccoy","tag-weapon"],"yoast_head":"\nDoctor Who: Silver Nemesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although the secrets of the Doctor - his origins, his name, etc. - were in a sense part of the show's fabric from the very beginning, the episode "Silver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/06\/doctor-who-silver-nemesis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although the secrets of the Doctor - his origins, his name, etc. - were in a sense part of the show's fabric from the very beginning, the episode "Silver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/06\/doctor-who-silver-nemesis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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