Doctor Who : Cold War

After destroying a planet with the potential possiblities of Clara's mothers life that was ended too soon what could the Doctor possibly do to trump that adventure?

From the rings of a parasite planet to the underwater adventure on a Soviet Submarine.

How will Clara cope?

***SPOILER***

The Doctor and Clara stumble on a submarine under seige from something being transported to Moscow in a block of ice, something that has been frozen for 5,000 years. The submarine is sinking fast, and as I've mentioned, its a Soviet submarine.

But what has woken from the ice?

Well it has to be a Ice Warrior. And not only any old Ice Warrior but one of the most brutal of the warrior race. He also believes he's the last of his kind which makes him extra dangerous.

The crew knock him out (albeit luckily and probably accidentally) and tie him up, he then leaves the iconic armor and goes on the hunt.

The conclusion see's the Ice Warrior about to destroy the planet but getting saved by his race before he could press the big red button (seriously why is every evil button red? Historically it might be correct but for a change can't we have a big green button of doom and destruction?!) thus saving the world.

After two episodes which I felt had rather weak stories this week was one of the best I've ever watched. It was compacted and claustrophobic like a base under siege story should be (especially one set on a sunken, leaking submarine!)

There was humor but even the Doctor admitted it was there to lighten the mood when everyone was scared. Plus it brought back a classic alien race with a simple story (like Dalek) to let new viewers into the history of said race without over saturating us all with information dumps and too much action.With only one Ice Warrior around it meant the Doctor could tell us about them but at the same time as the Ice Warrior was out lurking about we saw the terror one could cause on its own... WITHOUT ITS ARMOR.

All in all I thought it was a wonderful episode. It was well written and full of wonderfully acted parts. I loved David Warner, his obsession with Ultravox and Duran, Duran made me giggle, but even with the comedy aspect his character had a wonderful interaction with Clara giving her the confidence she needed but also letting her tell us how she felt without having to put a brave face on. He was such a wonderful character. The actor who played the Captain was also really brilliant, believably in charge and also a good comparison to the Ice Warrior (after all both are Warriors).

My favorite character was played by one of my favorite actors though, Tobias Menzies, who really should be in more. But that is just a fan girl reaction (I tagged him in this post as well because I love him so much!) and he was dead half way through the episode. Bah!

It was nice to have a lack of sonic screwdriver and TARDIS in the episode and also nice that it wasn't just the Doctor being overly smart, in fact if Clara hadn't distracted the Ice Warrior the Doctor would have lost (IMO) it was only the timing of his rescue that saved them from either being blown up by the Doctor or having the Ice Warrior destroy the world!

The Doctor didn't win!

I liked the fact the Ice Warrior came out of his armor. It made him scarier as instead of having this giant bulk of metal stamping about the place he was sneaking and could get to you without you knowing. It gave them an extra side. Was it needed? Well I don't think the taking the helmet off bit was needed no but I thought it gave them a little more rounding. After all who knows were a Ice Warrior is sneaking about?!

Overall this episode is probably up there in a top 10 if I could ever get one sorted out (future blog in the lines!) Mark Gatiss did a brilliant job.

And who knew that posh English sounding Russians could be sexier then posh English sounding Englishmen or Russian speaking Russians?




But then again it was Tobias Menzies!