Structurally, Series Ten has played it safe, following the present-future-past triptych of other companion introductions. Bill has seen the present and the future. Now she gets to see the past.
This episode's writer, Sarah Dollard, earned great acclaim writing Face the Raven. This time around she shows us a new era for televised Doctor Who; the regency era. More specifically, we get to see a London Frost Fair.
In Dollard's tale, the Frost Fair is connected to a creature lurking beneath the depths of the Thames
This creature is being exploited by the evil Lord Sutcliffe, who uses the Fair to lure humans to the Thames so the creature can eat them. The creatures' waste matter is then refined into fuel. This premise is similar to The Beast Below only this time around the human villain, Lord Sutcliffe, actually gets comeuppance for his actions, unlike Hawthorne of The Beast Below who was allowed to get away scot free after feeding humans to a Star Whale. Another improvement over a previous story is that there are no double standards regarding the victims of the beast. Although the Thames beast is not intentionally evil, it cannot distinguish between adult or child victims and eats them both for its own survival. There is no sense in this story, unlike The Beast Below, where sparing children over adults is seen as more acceptable. Both are reprehensible and Sarah Dollard has succeeded where Steven Moffat introduced skewy morality.
Although the plot was average, the character development of the Doctor and Bill was where this episode really excelled. Bill gets to see a darker side to her travels as she actually sees someone die as well as facing some racism from the aristocracy. She also has her first confrontational argument with the Doctor. Unlike in Series 8, this argument is over in a minute and the Doctor gets a chanceto show that deep down he really does care about urchins. The Doctor gets a cheesy speech but it is all but forgotten about and we can move on to a decent climax.
Pearl Mackie continues to impress as she portrays the serious side to Bill Potts. She sells the grieving of Bill when Spider dies and successfully shows anger when she is facing off against the Doctor. In turn, Peter Capaldi can switch from funny Doctor to angry Doctor in almost a blink of an eye.
Doctor Who is meant to be watched by children yet child characters tend to get a mixed response from viewers of the show. I would say this gang of street urchins include Spider, Dot, Harriet, Dowell and Perry are less annoying than some kids that have been on the show. Their resourcefulness and cunning is emphasized over trying to make them too sweet. Dot may be cute but it belies her thieving persona. I am glad the production team were bold enough to let Spider die. As with the plot being similar to Beast Below, these kids feel similar to the ones from The Empty Child. It makes you woner how much of the splot was Dollard;'s and how much was suggested by Steven.
As is usual for these kinds of productions, the historical setting is well presented. Michael Pickwoad can be recommended for his really good job at doing the set for the Frost Fair and it is all very well directed by Bill Anderson. This episode also proves that costume designer, Hayley Nebauer can do a fantastic job. The first episode was on modern day Earth and the second only had a few humans at the end. With the Regency period, Nebauer can show off her talents. Bill gets a lovely feathered hat and the villain gets a glorious blue coat, showing his wealth. The music by Murray Gold is perhaps less interesting this week, but since everything else excells, this is not a problem.
With so much of the story focused on Bill and the Doctor, Nardole gets relegated to a couple of scenes at the very end with more hints as to the occupant of the vault. We get more of a hint that Nardole is not too happy with being the Doctor's servant. When the thing inside starts knocking, we get a glimpse of Nardole's mettle when he tells off the thing in the vault. One wonders if he willbe so brave when the thing is actually released. The evidence so far suggests that this thing will be Missy or the Master.
Thin Ice is unlikely to go down as a classic story. There are just a few too many recycled elements to make it stand out above other adventures. Nevertheless it does accomplish the task of settling Bill in rather well. Now that she has settled in we will hopefully go to more interesting locations. I for one it will be very interested in seeing where she, the Doctor and Nardole go next.
7/10
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