**Spoilers** Series 7, Episode 8 - "The Cold War"

pixelburp

Setting a base-under-siege story on a nuclear submarine seems so obvious, yet it's surprising how it's never really been done (well, not on Who anyway); bringing back the Ice Warriors could also be exciting - they were kinda like the Silurians, in that 'misunderstood monster' mould, , and that always make for more interesting drama.
Only possible minus point is that Mark Gatiss' doesn't have the best track record with his Who stories. In fact, he's tended to have been the weakest link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8y4PJ3a0lI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA3Q_2CLxfU

pixelburp

Well I thought that was very enjoyable, definitely the strongest of the three so far this (half) season. They made good use of the Ice Warriors and how they were more than just a snarling monster; the resolution was neat & natural, for once

Was also nice to see the Doctor that never was (or kinda was, if you listen to the audiplays), David Warner.

Strong FX work this week too, the submarine shots looked great

Manach

Shoulder Pads, 80s Music and rampant paranoia - God I so miss the 80s.
Overall, a very enjoyable episode, good casting and nice character development of Clara. The FX a little shaky but overall did not distract and hopefully there might be some more Ice Warriors in latter shows.

Killer_banana

Miles better than the last two weeks. Enjoyable story and a story that called for it to be slightly cinematic rather than the other way round which I feel they've been doing lately.

FloatingVoter

Nice one, David Warner as a Duran Duran head stole the show. Nice to see Liam Cunningham as grumpy as ever.

Das Kitty

Awh yuss! That was great! My favourite of the 3 so far.

Neither the Tardis nor the sonic being used as a Deus Ex Machina for once. I was happy that they only used prosthetic arms for the unshellsuited Ice Warrior.

One thing that bugged me a little was Clara's reaction to seeing two guys dismembered. She seemed to get over it pretty quickly.

I do love seeing the sorts of things the Doctor stores in his pockets though


Next week looks like a cracker.

Wibbs

Yea I liked this. Very good.

flazio

I wonder how did they get from

one pole to the other?

Flying Bison?

Das Kitty

flazio wrote: »

I wonder how did they get from

one pole to the other?

Flying Bison?

I don't know, but I can guarantee that somewhere someone is at this moment writing a smutty fanfic about it.

pixelburp

Das Kitty wrote: »

One thing that bugged me a little was Clara's reaction to seeing two guys dismembered. She seemed to get over it pretty quickly.

Not to mention possibly the world's fastest autopsy; they were attacked off-screen & within moments of hearing the screams the Doc had arrived at the scene. Clearly those Ice Warriors have nimble fingers!

Btw, when watching this, was anyone else having trouble looking at Liam Cunningham and not thinking of Ser Davos? Kept half-expecting him to start rattling off about Stannis in a Yorkshire accent

Das Kitty

Ah, the Onion Knight!

We may have made some poor impersonations of him during the opening scene...

Jenna's accent still has a hint of the dales about it. It's nice.

The Ice Warriors really missed their calling as surgeons.

ebbsy

A good episode, but I was always waiting for it to really take off, some people are comparing it to "Dalek", but this is definitely not in the same bracket.

This series ain't hitting the heights for me yet.

Downside for me was the tardis disappearing. I thought they could have done something better than, "I'll tell you later", followed up at the end of the ep with, "If it gets attacked it runs away"

Couldn't have just said that at the start? The "Tell you later" device just took me out of the episode, wondering where it had gone.

BlitzKrieg

oddly enough the next episode has that odd 80's look to it also (or am I just projecting poltergeist the movie on to the scenes) so perhaps we'll see an odd nod of continuity and have the next episode occur on their way to get the tardis in the south pole (very wishful thinking)


Aside from that, very old style feel to this episode, from the costume to the modelwork and prosthetic arms and it all felt wonderful. Though I did feel somewhat cheated by the need to keep things PG so the monster running loose setting didnt have as much bite to it as I'd like. Also killing off the only dissenting voice first made for it far too direct. As someone mentioned Dalek earlier, that is a great comparison as you have the middle point in that story being the rich american asshat who continued to make things worse for everyone through most of the story.

BuffyBot

I liked the settingm even if the story was a bit so-so for me. Nice to see the Ice Warriors backthough

Busi_Girl08

Wasn't a bad episode, but I was a bit disappointed with

the cliched "let's reason with the big baddy seconds before they push the big red button" ending. [spoiler/]

ixoy

Really enjoyed this one and the updated Ice Warriors were pleasing faithful to the original.
The sonic screw driver use was kept to an appreciable minimum and the Doctor talking his way out of situations was spot on, especially as the Ice Warriors have never been evil - just very military minded.

flazio wrote:

I wonder how did they get from Spoiler: one pole to the other?

Flying Bison?

Yep. Or should that be yip yip

alastair_doom

Deleted User wrote: »

Couldn't have just said that at the start? The "Tell you later" device just took me out of the episode, wondering where it had gone.

I think something more might come of it.... Watching last weeks episode and this weeks, the Doctor is coming across alot creepier than usual... it feels like hes leaving Clara in harms way just to see how shes reacts.

For example, last week he literally disappeared just as the kid appeared, and got her to give up something precious for the space bike thingy. He also comes across as quite sly when returning the ring at the end.

This week, Tardis disappears leaving them stranded (and perhaps he cant think of an excuse straight away), and he leaves her alone at one point with only the old man. Also, hes smiling first when she volunteers to go and talk to the Martian.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Also killing off the only dissenting voice first made for it far too direct.

At the start I saw the "one descenting voice" and thought: hes going to be an idiot and sell everyone out to survive. TBH its been done a lot before, and I was surprised and impressed when they killed him off. Actually felt like a red herring in the plot.

pixelburp

alastair_doom wrote: »

At the start I saw the "one descenting voice" and thought: hes going to be an idiot and sell everyone out to survive. TBH its been done a lot before, and I was surprised and impressed when they killed him off. Actually felt like a red herring in the plot.

I think Gatiss deserves praise for subverting a lot of the tropes that have cropped into Dr. Who & shows of this ilk. Brutus (I'm too lazy to google the actor's name, I just remember him from Rome!) seemed intentionally written as the war-monger who, as you say, would either sell the crew our for survival / glory or else put everyone in jeopardy by escalating things needlessly. Nope, in fact he was killed off straight away. David Warner seemed like he was written as the paternal sage, sacrificing himself to save Clara after imparting wisdom, but in fact lived to the end. Even Clara herself subverted the companion template: she had no problem taking orders from the Doctor when interrogating Skaldak, hell she didn't even disobey the Doc when he told her to stay put (iirc the Doctor looked shocked at the idea Clara didn't come running after)

As for the idea of the two of them being stuck in 1983, I think that'd be a potentially great idea to continue - it'd make a nice miniature arc if we followed them for a few episodes, sans-TARDIS.

On another note; I thought the submarine FX looked fantastic, and no wonder: turns out it was all model-work. Awesomely old-school

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cweHoRqlAo4

fonzie01

Not a bad episode at all. But kind of needed a cliffhanger and a part 2, it was all over just as i was getting into it. Never mind, it had a retro feel of classic Who, and on a few different moments, David Warner had a distinct look of Hartnell, give him a wig and Hartnells outfit and theres the first Doctor for the 50th

RonnieT

Deleted User wrote: »

Downside for me was the tardis disappearing. I thought they could have done something better than, "I'll tell you later", followed up at the end of the ep with, "If it gets attacked it runs away"

Couldn't have just said that at the start? The "Tell you later" device just took me out of the episode, wondering where it had gone.

I agree with this a lot; there didn't seem to be a mention of the fact the Tardis had inexplicably disappeared, which simply doesn't make sense - it felt the issue was just ignored until the end of the episode.

The other point which confused me... the Ice Warrior accepted the 'dishonour' of exiting its armour while it was chained up. Fair enough, desperate times calls for desperate measures, it was trapped and helpless and thus did the 'unthinkable' and stepped out of the armour.

But after a few minutes riffing on Alien... the fecking armour can suddenly snap the chains holding it like they were cheap plastic and start stomping about the submarine again

amen

A nice episode.

I wonder was the Tardis disappearing part of a bigger story arch?

I think there is some significance to the contents of his pockets (or may be a nod to other doctors).

Did Dr #2 not carry a ball of string with him?

Seem to remember Susan playing with a doll like the one in his pocket.

I might be a bit crazy but I though the face in the Dr Who opening credits this week looked like Dr #6 ?

DirtyBollox

i think the random junk in his pockets is slowly introducing all the random stuff the older doctors used to have in their pockets. It seems to be getting back to its roots or heading back there anyway.