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 | Reviews for Silver Nemesis |
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There are 4 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | Matt, London |
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| Date: | Wednesday 10 October 2007 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
Again this is a good book compared to the tv episode. Very impressive.
I wasnt impressed when I read Silver nemesis from start to finish all in one day because in my very own opinion, the televised episode had alot more to offer and the book has its own limitations and restrictions. Though, it is one of my favroutes as a whole and does deserve more credit than has been due. Sylvester Mccoy and Sophie Aldread had alot to offer in that episode and I do believe it was one of the better ones back then!
| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 28 September 2011 |
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| Rating: |  8 |
A perfectionist who loves the TV shows so much should always remember the Target writers all had a certain page count limit. For that case, a huge amount of Who tales have drastic cuts and barely any description that borders on the verge of a true full length novel. Often the novels just fall so short of being as good or better than the TV version that they are based on.
Silver Nemesis is on middle ground. While Im greatly pleased that Kevin's novel includes a lot of the untransmitted scenes in his novel, Im also at loss to explain how my favourite line in the TV version gets cut from the book entirely. "Dont thank them yet, you might live to regret it" along with Sylvester's grave look is one of my favourite scenes in the entire history of Doctor Who. Also, the scene of Lady Peinforte's amalgamation with the statue of Nemesis is described barely and far too briefly. But for once, these are the two only major shortfalls of this story.
We get a few tantalisingly short flashbacks to Aces past in Perivale which seem inherent in the seventh doctor novels, such as Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric, which are brilliant. Its nice to get at least a snippet of a background story for one or any of the characters. And the scene in the TV version where she fights the Cybermen is greatly expanded here, as she runs from several houses, barely escaping a nasty death by the Cybermen. The descriptions here are of a far more worthy amount, and add real meat to the climax of the tale.
My only other sadness would be the removal of the "Ace, duck, no DUCK!" scene too. Huh? That was a simply great scene that should have been kept in the novel, but its cut again. Also, maybe the descriptions of the cyber speech may just be too emotionally written for me, could have got away with just the Creature intoned emotionlessly, not all the emotional words we are given here. But maybe this is a race of Cybermen who all werent processed fully eh?!
But otherwise, this is a strong little novel, I particularly the way Richard is written, as a central and weak servant, but capable of moments of sheer bravery and force that are palpable even in written form. So not at all bad, this book. It just suffers the same as many other target books in being too rediculously short! Only Power and Evil of the Daleks escaped this and are the finest books in the genre. But considering the restraints, overall Kevin has done a sterling job here. This is one of the better Doctor Who novelisations, there is no doubt of that.
| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 8 April 2021 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Interestingly, "Silver Nemesis" has a plot similar to the one in "Remembrance of the Daleks" from earlier in this season. The Doctor has gone back to Earth to make sure that he properly deals with a superweapon he left behind, only now one of his oldest enemies is out to get it. But, whereas "Remembrance" has some tight parallel plotting, a central theme to keep the story on track, and background that makes most of it make sense, "Nemesis" is all strands and loose ends. How does De Flores know about Nemesis? How do the Cybermen know about Lady Peinforte? How does Lady Peinforte know how to make a magic potion that will transport her in time? How can such a concoction be so precise? In "Remembrance," every scene advances the story in some way. There are bits in "Nemesis" that are just silly. For instance, the mention that gold dust affects Cybermen's chest units in "Revenge of the Cybermen" now becomes the idea that by merely coming into contact with gold in any form will instantly kill Cybermen. The gold dust idea makes at least a bit of sense, but lodging a gold coin in a Cyberman's chest unit? In "Nemesis," there are too many throw-away scenes, such as the encounter with the skinheads and the ride in the rich American's car. In his novelization of his own TV script, Kevin Clarke does little to correct any of these errors. "Silver Nemesis" was a very weak story in broadcast, and it remains a weak story in novelization.
