A story featuring the Ice Warriors on their home planet of Mars seems like an obvious idea for a Doctor Who story yet the television series has never attempted it before now. A story was briefly in line for the Patrick Troughton years but was never made as the budget couldn't match up with the ideas. When the Doctor finally did land on the red planet in Waters of Mars, the martians themselves were only mentioned in dialogue. Finally, in 2017, Mark Gatiss has given the fans what he wanted, but on top of this he's added a a group of Victorian soldiers.
The reason for the Victorians being on Mars is that they were brought in a space ship by a surviving Ice Warrior who they nicknamed Faraday. The Ice Warrior has given the Victorians access to a large cannon which the they think they are using to dig away for rocks, but the Ice Warriors has been using them to open up the entrance to an Ice Warrior Hive and awaken the Empress. It's a similar setup to Tomb of the Cybermen. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat are such big fans of those old episodes that it's no surprise that this kind of reference was in it.
Fortunately, unlike in Tomb, the aliens don't just go back to sleep again. With the Ice Warriors' freedom, tensions mount between the two races and escalate into a battle with the Doctor and Bill trying to broker peace but just getting caught up in the middle of things. Eventually two peacemakers on both sides, the Captain and Faraday, make themselves known.
The Victorians themselves are decent enough characters. Catchlove is the war-maker of the team and is a bit snooty. The Colonel, Godsacre, is a character burdened with the guilt of having survived a hanging. With a backstory like that, you just know he is going to redeem himself by the end of the story. The rest soldiers are straightforward so we do not feel too bad when they are being killed off by the Ice Warriors.
The Ice Warriors themselves are impressive. The design from Cold War was already pretty good and here there are more of them. The Doctor says they are bonded to their armour which contradicts the idea that they could get out of the suit in Cold War, but I like this better. I didn't so much like the way their armaments kill people by compressing them into tiny footballs. It looked a bit odd.
The Ice Empress is also a pretty good addition to the Ice Warrior lore. Her voice is somewhat reminiscent of the Racnoss from The Runaway Bride and her armour is a really good design. It is disappointing that she is easily taken hostage by Catchlove and has to be rescued by Godsacre. You would think that with her bulky armour and her strength she might have overpowered a thin skinned human.
The story concludes with the surviving Victorians soldiers pledging themselves to serve the Ice Warriors which seems like an odd decision, given the number of their friends that had been killed. The Doctor then helps the Ice Warriors by making them establish contact with another alien species, hinting that this is a prequel to the events of The Curse of Peladon. It was great to see that the alien they contacted was Alpha Centauri. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they got Ysanne Churchman to do the voice. It wasn't an entirely necessary cameo but it was a nice treat for the fans.
The characterization of the Doctor was much better this week. There was no weird scene of him mocking his companion or grinning or laughing like a lunatic when he crashes a a vehicle. Unusually the Doctor is more more on the sidelines this week with Godacre getting to the heroic character who saves the day. This isn't actually a problem since Capaldi still manages to make the Doctor stand out. Besides, it's actually nice that the supporting characters get to be more important. Most recently the Modern Series has swung too far in the other direction.
Bill is also well characterized but like the Doctor, she is a bit sidelined this week. Although she does get to talk to the Ice Empress, she doesn't really contribute anything lasting. It is odd that her race was not an issue given that the humans in this story were Victorian, but she was at least disgusted by the Victorian attitude . Nevertheless, Pearl Mackie remains a joy to watch in this episode.
Sadly, Nardole is only at the beginning of the episode and at the very end. Matt Lucas is still enjoyable in the role though. The reason for his absence is because the Tardis was inexplicably drawn off course from Mars by some external force. He is forced to recruit Missy and they both go back. The final scene of the Doctor surprised that Missy came back was interesting. It is not clear whether Missy was the one who sent the Tardis off course in the first place, but it would not surprise me.
Wayne Yip's direction is quite decent. The colour and photography of the episode is good with the green of the ice warriors contrasted with the reds and oranges of Mars. Yip also does a good job in making there look like there are more Ice Warriors than there probably were on set. Murray Gold did a decent job with the soundtrack even if it didn't stand out.
By the end of the episode we have been left with interesting questions. What was responsible for drawing the Tardis from Mars back to Earth? Will Missy stay free of the vault? Hopefully the former will be answered but I imagine that the second definitely will.
Empress of Mars is less ambitious than the Monk trilogy but unlike those episodes, this one does at least succeed at what it is trying to accomplish. If Mark Gatiss does come back then he will hopefully continue in this vein, otherwise this would be a script to finish on.
8/10
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