The return of the Ice Warriors was definitely exciting news for long time fans, including myself, but probably not so interesting for the general public. Despite appearing four times in the "classic" series, the big green martians have never achieved the same level of popularity as the Daleks or the Cybermen. Part of the problem is that the bulky armour they wear makes them very slow moving for a race of supposed warriors. Also the concept of green men from Mars is one of the least original in the eneitre show. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of the writer, Mark Gatiss, and the work of the costume designer have come together to create a new and great looking warrior in a fairly solid story.
Grand Marshall Skaldak is a fantastic looking creature. The new armour ditches the large hips and lego hands that hampered the original, but maintains the turtle shell look and size that worked in the first place. It’s also great to finally be able to see inside the suit. The new voice is a slightly less successful change. While I can understand the production team wanting to get rid of the old whisper, the new voice occasionally sounds like a Judoon . The true form is slightly disappointing, but then, we fans have always had a better idea of what they’d look like in our heads. Anything else would be a disappointment. The personality takes the best elements from the original series. The decision to give him the daughter gives the Ice Warriors a bit more depth, as they’ve never been seen to have families before. It also makes me really want to see what a female ice warrior would be like.
The Cold War is an interesting period setting for an Ice Warrior to appear in. A war fought with espionage and missiles. It’s also nice that the story is set on a Russian submarine, not an English or American one. It makes a change from Gatiss’ usual Anglo-centric storytelling. Despite being created and televised during the Cold War, the original series of Doctor Who never really explored this topic. The closest it came was with the 1984 story Warriors of the Deep, but even then the writer set the story in an allegorical 2084 to give some distance. It must be difficult for a 21st century child to imagine what the cold war was like, so this episode may have been quite educational for them.
The Submarine set is a brilliantly designed, cramped and dripping with water. An atmospheric base ready for a siege. Mike Tucker's model work for the exterior of the Submarine is also fairly decent. The Doctor Who production may well come tor rely on these kinds of effects more often, now that the Mill are closing down.
As far as the characters go Professor Grishenko is the best written. His enthusiasm for Ultravox and Western culture gives him a little bit of personality.David Warner is the kind of actor who always enhances the quality of any part he plays. No matter how small.
It’s good that Grishenko gets some characterization because the rest of the submarine crew are fairly bland bunch. The Captain had no personality. Lieutenant Stephasim was a standard aggressive character who is suspicious of the Doctor and Clara and wants nuclear war. He has no redeeming features and the viewer feels no sympathy when he is killed off. His sole reason for being in this story is to provide conflict. I don’t even remember the names of the rest of the crew. They were just redshirts to be picked off by the alien intruder.None of the characters really developed as the story progressed. It also seems strange that it was the older members of the crew who were against using the missiles. Certainly by the late 80s, teenagers were rebelling against their communist elders by wearing jeans, a sign of Western decadence. The younger crewmembers like Stephasim were the hotheads.
The previous two episodes have been so Clara-centric that it felt strange that she was pushed into the background for this episode. Clara gets a lot less of a meaty role than in previous weeks. She seemed like a generic companion with her “pass the test dialogue”. I’m willing to give Gatiss the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was having difficulty working out what the new companion's personality was supposed to be. Jenna’s natural charisma makes it work though.
There's also little to say about the Doctor this week. The plot of this episode vaguely resembled that of Dalek, with the Doctor coming face to face with a surviving member of a race of old enemies. The problem is that an Ice Warrior is less of a personal threat to the Doctor than a Dalek would be. Despite the fact that the Doctor nearly destroyed the submarine to stop Skaldak, it never felt as thought he Doctor was being emotionally pushed. With such thin material to work with, it felt like Matt Smith was on auto pilot this week - which is always fun to watch, but the script could've challenged Matt a bit more.
Another returning element from the Troughton era was the HADS, the defence mechanism that shifts the Tardis away from trouble. I assumed, when the Tardis first dissapeared from the submarine, that Clara’s previous comment that the Tardis didn’t like her had been correct and that the Tardis was trying to move away from her. Instead it turned out just a transparent plot device to stop the Tardis from being a convenient get out clause. The fact that it was the HADS, from the Patrick Troughton story The Krotons made it popular for some fans, but in the end it's just technobabble. However, I still like the idea of the Doctor and Clara having trek from the North to South pole. Knowing Big Finish's reputation, I imagine they'll one day do a trilogy about this journey.
Grand Marshall Skaldak is a fantastic looking creature. The new armour ditches the large hips and lego hands that hampered the original, but maintains the turtle shell look and size that worked in the first place. It’s also great to finally be able to see inside the suit. The new voice is a slightly less successful change. While I can understand the production team wanting to get rid of the old whisper, the new voice occasionally sounds like a Judoon . The true form is slightly disappointing, but then, we fans have always had a better idea of what they’d look like in our heads. Anything else would be a disappointment. The personality takes the best elements from the original series. The decision to give him the daughter gives the Ice Warriors a bit more depth, as they’ve never been seen to have families before. It also makes me really want to see what a female ice warrior would be like.
The Cold War is an interesting period setting for an Ice Warrior to appear in. A war fought with espionage and missiles. It’s also nice that the story is set on a Russian submarine, not an English or American one. It makes a change from Gatiss’ usual Anglo-centric storytelling. Despite being created and televised during the Cold War, the original series of Doctor Who never really explored this topic. The closest it came was with the 1984 story Warriors of the Deep, but even then the writer set the story in an allegorical 2084 to give some distance. It must be difficult for a 21st century child to imagine what the cold war was like, so this episode may have been quite educational for them.
The Submarine set is a brilliantly designed, cramped and dripping with water. An atmospheric base ready for a siege. Mike Tucker's model work for the exterior of the Submarine is also fairly decent. The Doctor Who production may well come tor rely on these kinds of effects more often, now that the Mill are closing down.
As far as the characters go Professor Grishenko is the best written. His enthusiasm for Ultravox and Western culture gives him a little bit of personality.David Warner is the kind of actor who always enhances the quality of any part he plays. No matter how small.
It’s good that Grishenko gets some characterization because the rest of the submarine crew are fairly bland bunch. The Captain had no personality. Lieutenant Stephasim was a standard aggressive character who is suspicious of the Doctor and Clara and wants nuclear war. He has no redeeming features and the viewer feels no sympathy when he is killed off. His sole reason for being in this story is to provide conflict. I don’t even remember the names of the rest of the crew. They were just redshirts to be picked off by the alien intruder.None of the characters really developed as the story progressed. It also seems strange that it was the older members of the crew who were against using the missiles. Certainly by the late 80s, teenagers were rebelling against their communist elders by wearing jeans, a sign of Western decadence. The younger crewmembers like Stephasim were the hotheads.
The previous two episodes have been so Clara-centric that it felt strange that she was pushed into the background for this episode. Clara gets a lot less of a meaty role than in previous weeks. She seemed like a generic companion with her “pass the test dialogue”. I’m willing to give Gatiss the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was having difficulty working out what the new companion's personality was supposed to be. Jenna’s natural charisma makes it work though.
There's also little to say about the Doctor this week. The plot of this episode vaguely resembled that of Dalek, with the Doctor coming face to face with a surviving member of a race of old enemies. The problem is that an Ice Warrior is less of a personal threat to the Doctor than a Dalek would be. Despite the fact that the Doctor nearly destroyed the submarine to stop Skaldak, it never felt as thought he Doctor was being emotionally pushed. With such thin material to work with, it felt like Matt Smith was on auto pilot this week - which is always fun to watch, but the script could've challenged Matt a bit more.
Another returning element from the Troughton era was the HADS, the defence mechanism that shifts the Tardis away from trouble. I assumed, when the Tardis first dissapeared from the submarine, that Clara’s previous comment that the Tardis didn’t like her had been correct and that the Tardis was trying to move away from her. Instead it turned out just a transparent plot device to stop the Tardis from being a convenient get out clause. The fact that it was the HADS, from the Patrick Troughton story The Krotons made it popular for some fans, but in the end it's just technobabble. However, I still like the idea of the Doctor and Clara having trek from the North to South pole. Knowing Big Finish's reputation, I imagine they'll one day do a trilogy about this journey.
Compared to last week's ambitious episode, this was a well-made story with less ambition, and paper thin supporting characters. I preferred it when it was called Dalek.
6/10
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