We trace Nightmare In Silver’s similarities and overlaps with Neil Gaiman’s previous work…
Warning: contains spoilers forNightmare In Silver (our spoiler-filled review of the episode ishere).
A singular joy of fandom, and a geeky one at that, is the administration.
Imagine Joss Whedon brings out, say, a Shakespeare adaptation starring a clutch of recurring collaborators.
Where do you file that?
Do you sort by theme, quality, popularity, or critical reception?
Where, in the history of your relationship with this persons work, does the new thing fit?
Thats what the next few hundred words are.
Where does it connect and overlap with whats gone before?
What Gaiman-stamps is it embossed with?
Where shall we file away this new thing weve been given?
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I told you it was amazing.
Hedgewicks is a vestige.
To sum up: its more Gaiman than Gaiman.
Get out of my head!
Gaimans countless depictions of dream worlds inThe SandmanorAnansi Boysare also variations on the all-inside-your-head theme.
More importantly though, its also a punch line.
Its a Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth kind of silliness.
Nightmare in Silvers characters are typical of Gaiman because of their marginality.
LikeThe Doctors Wifes patchwork people, the Captains platoon is a misfit bunch.
Traits are also shared betweenNightmare in Silvers characters and Gaimans previous creations.
There are children who wander off Coraline, Bod, and now Angie.
Later on, mention of the Cyber tombs recallsThe Tomb of the Cybermen, from the same year.
More fun for classicWhofans were the regeneration portraits of Doctors past that flashed up inside Elevens head.
Also of note are the parallels to be drawn between the Emperor/Porridge and the character of the Doctor.
Anybody here play chess?
If youre anything like me, those bells rang in the following order:Bill and Teds Bogus Journey!
No, wait, that Ingrid Bergman one!
No, wait again,IngmarBergman!
We all die in the end, does it matter how?
Not for nothing was Gaimans original episode title the elegiacThe Last Cyberman.
Theres no control out there.
I knew that TARDIS stood for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.
It was all part of what I knew, as a kid.
