I really love Mark Gatiss. Most of his Who scripts are lovely, and his Sherlock scripts are superb. I think the Ice Warriors are a pretty cool villain from the classic series. But I’m sort of at a loss to understand what I was supposed to get out of “Cold War” this week. Am I the only one?
The pacing of this episode is just plain sloppy. We’re thrust into the middle of a dilemma that we’re given seconds to adjust to, regardless of the title card giving us place and time—and frankly, if you need to start the episode by giving that information, that may be a clue that you’ve given the shorthand just a little too much. How often do Doctor Who episodes begin with a text introduction to the locale? Um… never? Because this is a show about time travel where the main character is a time traveler and it’s his job to key us in. Because it makes for good storytelling.
So little happens in “Cold War” that you find yourself waiting for the episode to justify its premise. I’m all for closed sets, and everyone looking wet and uncomfortable was admittedly impressive, but let’s see, the plot was essentially: Doctor and Clara end up on a Soviet submarine in 1983. The Soviets found an Ice Warrior and made him mad by attacking him. Ice Warrior is furious and lonely. He tries to kill everyone in the world. Doctor sort of convinces him not to, but mostly his own Ice Warrior people come and pick him up. The End. (Of the Cold War. Not really.)
That’s it. That is literally all that happens. Tobias Menzias (who is known elsewhere for playing amazing characters like, oh, Brutus on Rome) is cast as a traitor whose treacherousness leads to nothing but the Ice Warrior knowing where to find a nuke, so no interesting development there. Liam Cunningham has been on practically everything for the past decade plus, and can currently be found on Game of Thrones as Davos Seaworth, but he does nothing in this episode besides be non-offensive and level-headed. David Warner is surprisingly adorable as a crew member who is really into pop music and loves Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Good choice, David Warner. What are you doing here?
It was nice to see the Russians painted as something other than Awful Commie Villain #1 here, but X-Men: First Class did practically the exact same thing in their film using only five minutes of footage. If you’ve got 45 minutes to tell that side of the story, it would be great to go more in-depth with the entire crew of characters that you’ve bothered to create, instead of allowing a short-sighted alien to be their stand-in for the whole episode.
The CGI for Ice Warrior Skaldak is goofy no matter how you cut it, but bad special effects aside, his story doesn’t play. If some kind of metaphor is being chipped away at here (he’s an Ice Warrior in the middle of a Cold War after all, and is considering pressing the button that all of humanity was holding their breath about at the time), it can’t change the fact that the Skaldak fails to be either empathetic or practically interesting as a foe. He’s displaced out of time, but we only get the briefest monologue on how he feels about that, and he immediately jumps to conclusions because his people don’t pick him up the instant he sends his distress signal. After five thousand years. Real together guy, totally the sort you would expect everyone to be terrified of. His killing spree doesn’t really make him more scary or sympathy-garnering, and he doesn’t have the same historical weight attached to him that that the Daleks or Cybermen have earned, so there’s nothing to get excited about.
Clara’s character development is nil on this one. We see her speak up when it counts, but other than that, it’s your standard “brave companion” schtick. She talks to the big bad warrior, but she actually allows the Doctor to tell her what to say. As my viewing buddy noted, that’s something a Davies companion would have never stood for. Heck, I’m sure Amy Pond would have had something to say about it, too. Sure, Clara is learning the ropes, but we don’t know her that well yet. Instead of personality flashing through, what we received was a conversation where she literally asks David Warner if she fulfilled her episodic function well enough. ‘I did what the Doctor asked and that was helpful, right? I’m earning my keep on this show?’
Even the Doctor himself fails to be interesting. After last week’s emotional tour-de-force, we’re left with him giving muddied explanations at the last minute and shrugging his shoulders when things don’t go to plan. Matt Smith seems bored to act the part here—he doesn’t come off as more than vaguely worried at any point in the episode. When the Doctor is stuck in these claustrophobic situations, most of the drama usually comes from people either keeping secrets, or fighting against him, but that doesn’t happen here. He’s got nothing to work with. I found myself longing for an closed set tale more like“Midnight” or even “42”—there was true immediacy there, some solid humor, and a good sci-fi concept.
Honestly, when “Cold War” completed, I literally shouted at my TV screen, “That’s it?!” And I think that sums up the experience quite eloquently.
On the list of possible clues/cool shout outs:
- David Warner’s character bringing up Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” makes me think Bad Wolf. Since we know Rose is back for the 50th anniversary, is Bad Wolf cropping up again? Was she the woman in the flower shop who gave Clara the Doctor’s number? Because I can think of no other reason to have Clara singing the song, even if it is out of nervousness.
- The screwdriver has a red setting! This is the first we’ve seen of the infamous red glow that shows up on River’s screwdriver in Season 4’s “Silence in the Library”/“Forest of the Dead.” So that’s awesome.
- The TARDIS’ Hostile Action Displacement System is a cute shout out to a 2nd Doctor serial called “The Krotons.” The suggestion has been that each of these episodes leading up the the 50th anniversary is meant to embody a classic doctor type of adventure—“The Rings of Akhaten” reminds us of the First Doctor when Eleven brings up his granddaughter Susan and fights a god called “grandfather,” and this episode features the Ice Warriors, which were created in Troughton’s era. Which means that next week’s episode should please Third Doctor fans… fingers crossed on that one, for sure.
Emmet Asher-Perrin just sort of wishes that armor had never come off. You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
I think that Clara sang “Hungry Like the Wolf” at the end as reminder of Skaldak’s daughter singing beside him. This gives him the empathy needed to spare humanity. So it is Clara who saves the Earth.
That’s how I saw it, anyway.
I agree completely. I was so excited when I saw who had written the episode, then was aghast at the pacing and dialogue and lack of anything to make the episode special. The only thing I liked was Liam Cunningham because he made a wooden part seem human. Even David Warner though could not with his because his presence in the script was just so meaningless. The pacing of the button pushing moment at the end was beyond horrible – you could practically see them counting off beats to wait even though they were obviously bored and wanted it over with. It made no sense! What were they thinking?
Although I have yet to see this episodes (or even read this synopsis), I find that IMHO the 80’s have been quite an era that is not re-visited that often in Who (it’s like it’s this era that has that weird time distortion thing that prevents us from seeing the Ponds again). From what I’ve seen of the episode so far, it’s nice to see some of the trademarks of that decade represented here (the Cold War! New Wave music!). As an 80’s brat, I’d love to visit this era more often (maybe with the totally awesome Ace in tow?).
See, I think you nailed the analysis of this week’s episode, but what’s funny is that I think last week’s episode suffered some of the same problems. We need more dialogue and guest character development, and less Docsplaining.
I did like the inclusion of bootleg music, and the various reactions to it.
viewing 1 – fell asleep; viewing 2 – left the room for an hour; viewing 3 – came in at about 30 minutes and picked up where i’d fallen asleep. intermittently wished for the return of amy pond. clara’s tenure is not off to a good start.
cannot believe they made this episode. something spectacular must be in the offing. dougray scott better kill it next week.
I agree, this episode was pretty lackluster. I thought the sub interior looked great but was disappointed when I found it to be the best thing about the episode. I was really hoping for a pschological thriller of some sort.
I think the Duran Duran song was just there to remind us “Hey! It’s the 80’s!” as if Cold War Soviets didn’t do the trick.
As far as Clara’s characterization goes, I think that part of the point of this episode is that the Doctor still isn’t seeing Clara for herself. Clara lets the Doctor speak through her, which other modern companions would not have done – but the Doctor would not have tried to make previous companions act as his puppet.
Clara asks if she did okay only after the Doctor has dismissed her, told her to stay behind. Faced with the rejection of the person she is most dependant on, she seeks affermation elsewhere.
One of the earliest conditions that Clara placed on the Doctor was that if he wanted her to travel with him, he would need to see her as herself, no matter who she reminds the Doctor of.
And the Doctor isn’t seeing her for herself yet.
Any companion, in running away with the Doctor, finds themself in an oddly dependant position, vulnerable to mistreatment or misunderstanding. Clara figures out the emotional connection that gets Skaldak to pause long enough for the Martian ship to find him. But the Doctor isn’t seeing her, or her acomplishments, and is quickly distracted by the next crisis. He doesn’t know how to respond to her hug – a friendly one of combined relief and celebration.
The final scene is Clara walking away, laughing, with the Russians, the other humans, while the Doctor, alone, salutes the Martian ship.
Clara seems off balance as a companion, because the Doctor isn’t (yet?) seeing her as a companion in her own right, rather than someone to bring along as he figures out the mystery she embodies.
I agree with the pacing. It felt like they were russian (pun intended) to the end without really telling us anything. It was like we needed another 25-30 minutes for the story to be told.
Not one of my favorites so far since I was expecting more with the Ice Warriors.
Honestly, I’m surprised by the “hate” on Tor.com for this episode. For me, it was truly one of the finest episodes of this series. Very “Classic Who” feel – base siege, Troughton-esque episode. To me, this was akin to Series one’s “Dalek,” not as good mind you, but I thought still brilliant nonetheless.
To each their own, I guess.
@9 It’s not so much hate but disappointment. It’s been around 45 years since the Ice Warriors had been on screen and we all expected something more out of it. My opinion might change if I see the other Ice Warrior episodes.