The Black Archive, the series of critical monographs about individual Doctor Who serials, has reached its incredible 75th release, and celebrates with an examination of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) story, Silver Nemesis.
The book is by James Cooray Smith, a regular to the range, having written instalments on The Massacre, The Night of the Doctor, and The Underwater Menace.
Here’s the blurb for Silver Nemesis:
“This is my favourite kind of jazz, straight blowing.”
Doctor Who faced, rather than celebrated, its twenty-fifth birthday with a reduced episode count, an even further reduced budget and with a question mark hanging over its very existence. Silver Nemesis was the official anniversary story, a curious, thematically complex mix of Cybermen, sorcery, jazz and chess, with the Doctor facing off against fugitive Nazis against a backdrop of then contemporary England in all its opulence and decay.
The 75th Black Archive looks at the anniversary story’s uniquely troubled production circumstances, and how a creatively united production team overcame the odds to achieve significant creative renewal, and pointed the way to its as yet unimagined far future
James Cooray Smith is a freelance writer and critic whose credits include the New Statesman and Doctor Who Magazine. He researched and wrote the production information subtitles for several official BBC Doctor Who DVD and Blu-ray releases, and is the author of several well-received Black Archives.
Congratulations to Obverse Books for hitting this milestone! The Black Archive is a wonderful series and one I’ve been lucky enough to write for, so I really encourage everyone to check these books out.
