History Recap / DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver

* EasilyDetachableRobotParts: A Cyberman uses its detached head to fool a soldier.

* AbortedArc: Even though the final shot suggests that the new, evolved Cybermen could become a threat again, they haven't been seen since this episode. Identical Cybermen would be seen for the rest of the Moffat era, presumably from earlier periods in their history, but none were as powerful as the ones here.

* AbortedArc: Even though the final shot suggests that the new, evolved Cybermen could become a threat again, they haven't been seen since this episode.

The one where the Doctor slaps himself.

* TheBusCameBack: The proper return of the Mondasian Cybermen since 1988. [[note]]By WordOfGod, the technology is a merger of Cybus and Mondas-based Cybermen, though the story uses a lot of elements and inspirations from the 1960s incarnations, and appears to follow the Cyber-Wars mentioned in later, but pre-Cybus, seasons[[/note]] Previous appearances going back to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]" have been confirmed to be Mondasian Cybermen by WordOfGod, but the costumes weren't updated (or just had the Cybus logo removed). These ones have updated costumes.

* AmusementParkOfDoom: Hedgewick's World of Wonders is an abandoned amusement park full of Cybermen who want to use you for spare parts.

* AxeCrazy: The Cyber-Planner, in contrast to the regular emotionless footsoldiers, is ''insane'' and about thrice as hammy as the Doctor.

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: Played with throughout the episode; while the Doctor and Mr. Clever are fighting for the Doctor's mind much of the actual battle is done in the real world through a game of chess.
* BehindTheBlack: At the beginning, when the TARDIS lands at the Spacey Zoomer ride and they all look out, they should be looking ''directly'' at a part of the room that ''clearly'' does not look like the Moon. So why do the kids think that's where they are?

* BrickJoke: Clara is forced to sign a requisition form just to get the EarthShatteringKaboom controller out of the soldiers' hands. Then Mr. Clever manages to snatch it and destroy it, and how do the soldiers handle the news?

** During the BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, the Doctor skims through the images of all his previous incarnations, while in the background, there appears to be the same Circular Gallifreyan lettering [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar inscribed on his crib]], depicting his ''true'' name.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: The reason the emperor has been in hiding for such a long time is because he doesn't like the heavy responsibility of being the emperor. At the end he casually offers the role to an underling who turns it down, which he concedes is the right choice.

* CranialProcessingUnit: Zig-zagged. The stun gloves work by application to the back of a Cyberman head, but a Cyberman is shown to be able to purposefully detach its head without loss of function. It's probably wifi.

** In the opening scene, Angie and Artie are convinced they're on the Moon, even though the obvious signs that they aren't are literally on the walls off-camera. They also didn't seem to find anything odd about being able to ''breathe'' on the Moon.

* FlashStep: Employed by one Cyberman to kidnap the noxious Angie Maitland in a BulletTime scene. Notably, this is the only instance of such and we haven't seen Cybermen move at such SuperSpeed since. Let's do that [[WasntThatFun again]] sometime, okay??

* HopeSpot: The characters electrify the moat to make sure the Cybermen can't get to the Doctor, and it works... until the first one [[AdaptiveAbility adapts to it]].

** The Doctor using a climatic chess game to stump an almighty enemy while his ''real'' plans come to fruition in the background is lifted directly from ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]''.

** It continues the running references in season 7 to ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'', such as the Eighth Doctor's adventures.

* JekyllAndHyde: The Cyberplanner is essentially an EvilCounterpart of the Doctor who shares a body with him, taking over periodically before the Doctor is able to regain control.
* KindRestraints: The Doctor insists on being tied to a chair in front of the chess board (they're to leave his hands free to play chess).

* LanternJawOfJustice: Creator/WarwickDavis' is called attention to. It's one of the features that reveals his true identity.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Impossible girl. [[ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma A mystery wrapped in an enigma]] squeezed into [[DistractedByTheSexy a skirt that's just a little bit too...]] ''[[ShipTease tight]]''....
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Playing with a trope; Porridge admits that he feels worse for the person who had to press the button to destroy a galaxy than the billions and trillions who lived in it, ''because'' they had to live with that kind of guilt.

** The Doctor used to be immune to the cyber conversion on account of being alien... up until this episode, where they're improved the process to work on ''any'' lifeform.

** The Cybermen take this trope up a notch with their AdaptiveAbility by being able to shrug off methods that would have killed them left and right. In particular, the electrified moat only briefly stops one until it adapts, and the gun that ''vapourized'' one Cyberman only gets off two more shots before they're completely immune.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The local military contingent is the [[PunishmentDetail "Punishment Brigade"]], [[ReassignedToAntarctica a group of failures and insubordinate soldiers sent there so they won't cause any harm]].

** As he did with Rory, Eleven takes a cheap shot at Clara's nose. It also counts as HypocriticalHumour, since Eleven's nose isn't petite (it's possible he's lashing out about all the chin jokes).
** The Doctor and Clara reminding the soldiers that they are ''not'' going to blow up the planet.

* ShipSinking: Attempted and subverted. Clara doesn't believe the Doctor would ''ever'' fall in love with her, and even if he did, he would rather die than admit it. Later events would reveal he already was in love with her. That and her earlier comments on the subject.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: The Doctor, Artie, Porridge, and Mr. Clever play chess, and all of them are very clever. Artie falls for a Fool's Mate, so he's not as smart as the others, but he's also much younger so cut him some slack.

** The Cybermen took ''many'' over the millennia. They went from being somewhat slow-moving cyborgs that had several methods of taking them down to graduating into {{Lightning Bruiser}}s by means of SuperSpeed, require special guns to even damage them, can now convert races other than human (Time Lords included), and a ''very'' quick AdaptiveAbility. They've also stopped saying "[[RoarBeforeBeating Delete!]]" It seems these Cyberman don't bother with giving advanced warnings, preferring to simply grab people and convert them as quickly as possible, since it's far more ''efficient''. The upgrade is so severe, the Cybermen, a planetful of which were getting [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday mowed down by only four Daleks once upon a time]], appear capable of matching the Daleks in the Time War. Most frightening of all, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking they stopped talking in those high-pitched electronic voices and have gone to a]] [[EvilSoundsDeep Deep Baritone]]! It has gotten to the point where if a ''single Cyberman'' is seen, military units have standing orders to kill it on sight, and failing that, flat-out destroy the planet they are on, regardless of any people that may also be on said planet at the time.
** Clara takes command of the Punishment Platoon and enforces her authority over both the scared and the insubordinate. That's quite a step up from babysister or governess.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Webley will become a cyborg working for the Cybermen.

** The infamous gold allergy. Most of the Cybermen have evolved beyond it, but the Cybermites' operating system ''still'' contains this glitch buried deep within the source code. This causes the tech to be temporarily scrambled by gold until the Cyber-Planner manages to install a software patch.

* YouAreInCommandNow: A non-fatal version. The Doctor, having used the psychic paper to con his way into authority over the local military contingent, makes Clara their commander so they won't immediately destroy the planet. It becomes the fatal version pretty quickly.

* ArmourPiercingSlap: Used twice to revert the Doctor to full control of himself.

* CostumeEvolution: After seven years of using the design introduced in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen "Rise of the Cybermen"]], this story marks another redesign of the silver Cyborgs, removing the bulkiness of the Cybus design while introducing a greater level of detail. According to writer Creator/NeilGaiman, the redesign was intended to modernize the versions seen in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase "The Moonbase"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen "The Tomb of the Cybermen"]] before being "completely side-tracked by a mad, strange romp."

-->'''The Doctor:''' If anyone is listening to this, those children are under my protection.

* FlashStep: Employed by one Cyberman to kidnap the noxious Angie Maitland in a BulletTime scene. Notably, this is the only instance of such and we haven't seen Cybermen move at such SuperSpeed since. Let's do that [[CrazyAwesome again]] sometime, okay??

* ContinuityNod: This being a Creator/NeilGaiman [[BigNameFan episode]], there are quite a lot of references to old stories:

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Film/{{Poltergeist}} They're baaaack...]]'']]

** ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'':

* AbsenceOfEvidence: Mr Clever notes the Doctor's efforts to remove data on himself from history. He then points out that the Cyberiad can reconstruct who he is from the gaps he's left. The Doctor concedes he'd better do something about that.

* SplitPersonalityMakeover: There is no physical tell-tale indicating whether Mr Clever or the Doctor is in control, apart from the fact that the camera angle is oriented to the side of his face with or without the Cyberman implants (and Mr Clever ChewingTheScenery even more than the Doctor usually does). The camera angle also focuses on the implants-free side when Mr Clever tries pretending to be the Doctor to trick Clara.

** Averted when we a Cyberman is seen walking into water, a common example of this trope for robots, but all it does is slow it down before it {{No Sell}}s it.

** During the BattleInTheCentreOfTheMind, the Doctor skims through the images of all his previous incarnations, while in the background, there appears to be the same Circular Gallifreyan lettering [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar inscribed on his crib]], depicting his ''true'' name.

* BattleInTheCentreOfTheMind: Played with throughout the episode; while the Doctor and Mr. Clever are fighting for the Doctor's mind much of the actual battle is done in the real world through a game of chess.

The one with two bratty kids.

* SplitPersonalityMakeover: There is no physical tell-tale indicating whether Mr Clever or the Doctor is in control, apart from the fact that the camera angle is oriented to the side of his face with or without the Cyberman implants (and Mr Clever ChewingTheScenery even more the Doctor usually does). The camera angle also focuses on the implants-free side when Mr Clever tries pretending to be the Doctor to trick Clara.

Webley has an empty Cyber-suit in his home, which he uses as a parlour trick when he gets people to play chess with it. Inside is actually a little person nicknamed "Porridge" (Creator/WarwickDavis!) who quickly befriends Clara. Just as the whole gang is about to head back home, the Doctor realises that things are ''very wrong'' on this planet, and goes off to investigate, telling the kids to stay put. They don't, of course, and while Angie, Artie and Webley get kidnapped and put into a "walking coma" by the quickly revived Cyberman, the Doctor is infected by Cybermites (like Cybermats, only quite tiny) and turned into a ''magnificently'' LargeHam in the process. The Cybermen were only looking for clever young children, like Angie and Artie, but a ''Time Lord'' is infinitely more useful. And they really didn't expect to find one here... after all, the Doctor has been deleting himself from history across the universe.

* AlmostKiss: The HeldGaze, the PuppyDogEyes, the InterruptedDeclarationOfLove when Clara slaps the Doctor across the face because it's an OutOfCharacterAlert...

* AbortedArc: Even though TheStinger suggests that the new, evolved Cybermen could survive after all, they haven't been seen since this episode.

* AbortedArc: Despite TheStinger suggesting that the new, evolved Cybermen could survive after all, they haven't been seen since this episode.