The Doctor takes one of his first companions Mary Shelley on board of the TARDIS. He promises her to see the wonders of the world, so where better than the Vienna World Fair?
But all the wonders of the world can muster are nothing when compared to the Silver Turk
, an automaton capable of playing the flute, the piano, and of playing chess, checkers and any other parlour game. When a Countess runs across the Doctor, claiming her husband is missing, something in all that intrigues the Doctor.
But underneath the robot's hood lies a horrible truth, and his silver nemeses have hidden more in this city than a chessplayer...
Also introducing the Eighth Doctor's new intro theme tune.
The Silver Turk contains examples of the following tropes:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: The Cybermen are from early in Mondas' history and still have the Sing-soNG voice, with more modern vocal stylings on top of that.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Mary pities Grahm in the end.
- Angrish: From a Cyberman, no less.
- Berserk Button: When Grahm the Cyberman finds out he's not the Last of His Kind he goes mental.
- Break the Haughty: Alfred loses more and more in his life. Towards the end he doesn't even realize he's not talking to a real person (but rather an evil puppet) when the head has come off.
- The Brute: Heinz is a typical grunting bouncer to Alfred.
- Body Horror: Grahm equips itself with an extra arm, taken from Brahm, and then later with any artificial limb it can get its (pun not intended) hands on.
- Broken Record: Drossel's puppets aren't capable of doing more than repeating the same phrases in a Creepy Monotone.
- Call-Back:
- The Doctor still insists he's
the Doctor, not the Monster. - Gemma and Samson are mentioned as "waiting for the Doctor" somewhere.
- The Doctor makes a mention of witnessing Mondas's demise and turn to Cybermen.
- Mary mentions bringing the Doctor back to life with lightning.
- After Bramh goes offline, Gramh announces "We shall begin again."
- The Doctor refers to Draconian Sazou.
- The Doctor still insists he's
- Chase Scene: Between Bratfisch' cab and the Black cab with no driver.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Alfred, for Mitzi. Even though she's happily married (well, at first).
- Cultural Translation: Probably why Bratfisch, a man in Vienna, sounds like a Cockney cab driver.
- The Dog Bites Back: Dr. Drossel finds his end at the many hands of Grahm.
- Evil Twin: Graham makes one of Mary, and several others.
- Eye Scream: The murder victims are all found with their eyes gouged out.
- Foreshadowing: The Doctor mentions Samson and Gemma a lot, but that he's got no idea where they went.
- Freak Out: Mary has a momentary one after too much horror, making her run off. Right into Grahm's arms.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The horses Ernst Bratfisch encountered had glowing blue eyes. He ran for his life.
- Icy Blue Eyes: The Doctor is described to have these.
- Immune to Bullets: Dr. Drossel.
- Karmic Jackpot: Alfred is a creepy obsessive who is so mad about his "turk" he's willing to hold people at gunpoint to get it back. Despite doing nothing to really make up for this, he gets a happy ending with the woman he loves, whose husband has been murdered.
- Kill It with Fire: At the end, the Doctor and Mary chuck all the cyber-puppets onto a fire. The stinger suggests they didn't actually get all of them.
- Lampshade Hanging:The Doctor: As a companion, that's your first thing to do when you get into trouble, and you'll do, is shout "Doctor". But not too often, it gets a bit weary.
- Large Ham: Drossel, right from the word go.
- Last of His Kind: Grahm thinks it's the last Cyberman alive anywhere. Obviously, it isn't.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:Doctor Drossel: You know an audience likes to be teased. Kept waiting.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Mary convinces Grahm the Cyberman to apply lightning to boot it and Brem, the Silver Turk, up to strength. It doesn't work with Brem, who's too far gone, but does boost Grahm up to 85% functionality.
- Marionette Master: Dr. Drossel.
- Meaningful Appearance: Mary's eyes are brown. Her doppelgänger's are blue.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mary and the Doctor separately clue Grahm in that he's on Earth, not Mondas, and that Brem is alive.
- The Nose Knows: The Doctor can smell potassium nitrate (gunpowder) in the air, and how many times a gun has been fired.
- Obfuscating Disability: Well, Grahm actually is disabled, what with having no legs, but he pretends to be incapable of speech in front of Drossel.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Cybermen in this story are a lot more... emotional than they should be. It's a sign of how badly damaged they are, as Grahm dies he miserably exclaims "There is no logic"
- Orcus on His Throne: Dr. Johan Drossel calmly waits for the Doctor to come to him, lounging in his chair.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Grahm dismisses the idea of religion as having no logical base.
- Perverse Puppet: Dr. Drossel has created several. And is the "creator" of the Silver Turk.
- Prayer of Malice: Alfred makes a prayer of forgiveness for his sins... and also for Drossel to burn alive.
- Precision F-Strike: An innocuous one were it not being said by a Cyberman."Go to HELL sir"
- Red Herring: The Silver Turk has nothing to do with the eye gouging murders.
- Running Gag: The TARDIS lands on the wrong date again.
- Self-Deprecation: The Doctor's sonic screwdriver gets smashed, and then later he mentions the TARDIS is full of them. Whelp.
- Skewed Priorities: Only two things matter to Alfred; his Turk and Mitzi, and he never shuts up about the former.
- The Slow Path: Mary contemplates this when she realizes she's half a century in the future, and what her husband would look like now.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The Ironic Nursery Tune of "Something's cooking tonight" is being sung (and played by bells in the Cut Apart scene]] as the story's first murder takes place.
- Special Edition Title: Starting with this one the Eighth Doctor has an orchestral theme, with an electric guitar and a weird high pitch whine thingy instead of his softer (non The Movie) intro.
- Standard Snippet: The Silver Turk plays several, among which the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.
- Talking the Monster to Death: The Doctor confuses Grahm because he consists of many parts, multiple people, several identities. It winds up killing Drossel, and falls apart.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Drossel is also one of Grahm's puppets.
- Tragic Villain: Grahm and Bram are Cybermen, but they're also living beings in pain, cut off from home and mutilated beyond recovery, who just want to survive. Mary Shelly finds Grahm pitiable, even sympathetic.
- Troll: Drossel makes a cyber-puppet of the Empress just to screw with Albert's already messed-up head.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Mary finds another Cyberman like the Silver Turk, and she has to explain to him what "Pain" means.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: After the End theme, Alfred and Mitzi are shown to still be going around on fairs, but with the Silver Doctor.
