Silver Nemesis

"The life and death of everything in existence is in my hands."

Writer: Kevin Clarke

Format: Novel

Released: November 1989

Series: Target 143

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

'It's all over, Ace. I've lost, I can only surrender. The Cybermen will have the Nemesis.'

Launched into space 350 years ago, a meteor is returning to Earth. Inside it waits Nemesis, a silver statue made of the living metal validium, the most dangerous substance in the universe. Evil powers await the statue's return: the neo-Nazi de Flore and his stormtroopers: Lady Peinforte, who lost Nemesis in 1638; and the advance party of a Cyberman invasion force. But only one person has the power to activate Nemesis: the statue's creator, the Doctor. 

Verdict

Silver Nemesis was an excellent novelisation of the televised serial of the same name! I've always been a huge fan of this story and reading it in prose for the first time was a real joy. It certainly passed the time on the train to football as life returns to some sort of normality, and I liked how we got such a strong adventure to celebrate Doctor Who's 25th anniversary. It felt a lot more fleshed out in the book which was really positive and I think it's a good thing that the Cybermen don't arrive until around the fifty-page mark. They aren't needed for the start and it helps us to establish the other factions that are on the hunt for Nemesis. Lady Peinforte along with Richard make for a tremendous pairing and I think the former is a magnificent villain. She has previous with the Doctor which I'm not always a massive fan of when that occurs off screen, but her reaction and acceptance to the fact the Doctor can change his face was brilliant. She's just such a solid character and the way she treats Richard only to then question his loyalty towards the end is fantastic. I think the journey of taking Richard 350 years into his future is excellent and whilst that aspect isn't quite as good as on screen, it's still portrayed so well. I really liked the audacity of having neo-Nazis in the story and their reverence of Hitler is still startling today. The importance of the Nemesis is excellent and I like how the Doctor is to blame for its return after getting calculations wrong when he sent it into orbit back in 1638. Having the Cybermen as the third party interested in the Nemesis is really strong and I thought the fear factor invoked in them through Ace was sublime. She had a strong story and it's so much fun when she and the Doctor share an understanding about her definitely not having any nitro-nine in her backpack. That's tremendous. It really becomes clear in the prose format that the Cyber Leader is, expectedly, the dominant Cyberman alongside the lieutenant and him being the final one is just logical. The Doctor challenging him about emotions when it almost seems like he displayed hatred was really well done. I was a big fan of the pace and chapter length of this book which helped with how the story flowed and I particularly enjoyed the action-packed nature of Chapter 9 and Ace taking out the Cybermen with their gold vulnerability. That was the only issue with the Cybermen here was they were so susceptible to attack and Peinforte getting the better of them with golden arrows made them look weak, but that also helped in making her look strong. I like the idea of Nemesis requiring the statue along with the bow and arrow to be complete and the lack of those three components being together made for a good plot development. The Doctor being the Nemesis's creator was an intriguing aspect and getting a hint about who the Doctor really is was a fine way to conclude the book. Ace knew she didn't know everything about the Doctor and she was okay with that because nobody did, or so she thought. Peinforte knew about him but she wasn't able to reveal the secrets she had. The Cyber Leader's disintegration of Karl and de Flores after they willingly became metallic was excellent before the gold got the better of him again. Overall, this was just a tremendous read! 

Rating: 10/10