1. Playing Games
The difference between the Doctor and the cyber-Doctor is that while Mr. Clever is playing chess, the Doctor is playing CHESS. Cyber-guy is focused on the game in front of him but the Doctor is aware of every move, every when, everywhere. The Doctors focus is unlimited. The cyber-Doctor lacks the imagination required to step outside of the perceived game into the actual one. There are interesting parallels between the chess game portrayed here and the one depicted in The Wedding of River Song. Gantoks only legal move was the queen but he had moved her 12 times and would die if he played her again. She had four million volts running through her. The queen was obviously meant to represent River Song and the many times she had been manipulated. In Nightmare in Silver the Doctor chooses to sacrifice the queen in a bid to save the children. The cyber-Doctor removes the queen from the board but he kisses her before setting her aside. That is a very un-cyberman way to act. I wonder if in that instant that was the Doctors reaction and the queen once again represented River Song. Is the Doctor, and consequently Steven Moffat, playing the long game? And does River Song still have a major part to play? I suspect she does. I think Mr. Moffat has been planting seeds from the Doctors debut in The Eleventh Hour onwards and he is getting ready to at least partially resolve the arc. Next weeks finale The Name of the Doctor should prove to be quite pivotal to the eleventh doctors story.