YMMV / Doctor Who S33 E12 "Nightmare in Silver"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: If Artie is in the chess club, why does he fall for a fool's mate? On the one hand, he never said he was good at chess. On the other hand, he could have employed a practice used by many chess players when presented with a new chess-playing program of deliberately playing the fool's mate in order to quickly judge how good the program is.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Porridge is a oneshot character and pretty minor even here, but he's played by Warwick Davis and does a great job so the role is a popular one.
• He Really Can Act: Not that there was doubt, but Warwick Davis rarely gets the chance to play a character that isn't caked in make-up or where his height isn't a plot point. Neither are relevant to his performance as Porridge, so we get to see what a charming and engaging actor he truly is.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Doctor's threat to fry Mr. Clever by regenerating is retconned into being a bluff just a few episodes later — between the War Doctor and "Handy", he had no regenerations left. Then again, because he has no regenerations left, he could very well have been threatening to commit suicide, just like his old mentor, Azmael.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Matt Smith as Mr. Clever serves as this considering two years later in Terminator Genisys, Smith would play an avatar of Skynet in charge of an army of killer cyborgs and The Assimilator to boot.
  • Similarly, there was a deleted scene where the Doctor mockingly imitated Prince Philip. A few years later, Smith would play Philip for the first two seasons of The Crown.
  • A minor character named Missy is killed by the Cybermen in this episode. The following season, a different Missy would command a whole army of identical Cybermen.
• Narm Charm:
  • The entire episode takes place in a derelict amusement park. Much of the camp is intentional.
  • The heroes making their Last Stand in a "Comical Castle".
  • Mr. Clever's Evil Is Hammy makes a terrifically engaging dialogue with the Doctor.
• The Scrappy: Reception to Artie and particularly Angie has been negative because they blackmail Clara so they can be a Tagalong Kid; the former is bad at chess and the latter complains about everything.
• Shocking Moments: The sight of the new Cybermen, especially when they show off their Bullet Time abilities. They have seriously taken a level in badass.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Clara gets angry at the Doctor when it seems like Angie and Artie are in danger... when it was her that asked him to take them aboard the TARDIS in the first place, albeit while under duress herself. Ultimately, it's Angie and Artie's own fault for being in danger by pressuring Clara into taking them in the TARDIS, and then ignoring the Doctor's instructions.
• Vindicated by History: When this episode first debuted in 2013, it wasn't very well received like most of Series 7, as many reviewers found it to be a Contested Sequel to Neil Gaiman's previous episode and especially bogged down by Angie and Artie. Years later, this episode has become a favourite of many Eleventh Doctor fans due to Matt Smith's wide display of acting talent throughout the episode and for being one last carefree, nonsensical adventure with the Eleventh Doctor before things get serious. Not to mention it being a less, shall we say, controversial example of the "things get messy in the aftermath of a future Cyber-War" premise than the last arc of Series 12 for people who dislike the latter.

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