Doctor Who: Nightmare in Silver Review – Pondering 8 Moves Neil Gaiman Made

By Mary Ogle /

5. Exchanging Currency

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The quest for control is a kind of greed. The need to categorize, contain, manage, when taken to the extreme, is a form of madness. How fitting that gold, at least until the next upgrade, is a cyberman weakness. Maybe it€™s not just the old code that contributes to that but also the human parts. Artie pays for a chance to play chess against a cyberman with a sandwich. Angie is rewarded with an imperial penny after she cleverly figures out a clue to how the chess game works. The coin also enables her to guess Porridge€™s true identity as the emperor. The sandwich, of course, is much more valuable than the penny at this point. Food nourishes you. Currency is not limited to money; it is general acceptance or circulation as in the currency of ideas. The Doctor has removed himself from circulation €“ voided his currency. He deleted his history. Yet according to the cyber-doctor he left holes that could still be exploited. Perhaps he is not as well hidden as he once thought.