DOCTOR WHO – Mr. Harvey feels the Cold (War)

Season 7, Episode 9 “Cold War”

At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet submarine makes its way beneath the ice of the Arctic Circle. While the crew runs drills in preparation for the day they may fire their nuclear missiles, something below lies dormant in a block of ice… Something that will wake.

Something the Doctor knows, all too well.

And another classic monster returns. “Cold War” sees the return of the Ice Warriors to Doctor Who, after, goodness, almost 40 years. Originally intended to replace the Daleks as a recurring alien threat (Terry Nation was trying to export the Daleks to the US), they first appeared in 1967’s “The Ice Warriors”, facing off against Patrick Troughton’s 2nd Doctor. They would return 5 times over the next 7 years, although only three more major stories would feature them, and while they never became the major threat they were originally planned to be, they joined the pantheon of classic Original Series Monsters, with their unique reptilian hiss and armored look.

We’ve seen a handful of monsters from the Original Series return for the new series, and let’s be honest, some have been handled better than others. On the good side, we have “Dalek” and “The Snowmen”, seeing the return of, well, the Daleks, hence the name, and the Great Intelligence. On the bad? Welllll, there we have “Rise of the Cybermen/The Age Of Steel” (Really? Alternate universe Cybermen?), and aside from the first appearance of Clara and some great dialogue, “The Asylum of the Daleks”. Then there’s the so-so, with the Sontarans returning in “The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky”, but at least we got Strax out their return, so there’s that.  Overall, there have been good episodes with each of our classic baddies since the show’s return, but look at that list.

Daleks. Cybermen. Sontarans. Those were classic aliens. The Great Intelligence had a few appearances back in the day, so there isn’t a huge amount of continuity to get tangled up in, and aside from wanting to see the Yeti again, it’s been a well-handled addition to the show. The Ice Warriors are a little more complicated. In the course of their Original Series appearances, they went from enemies to allies, to enemies again, and if one counts the audio books and novels, they’ve continued that trend all the way to today. So what do we have here?

Well, it’s interesting. Mark Gatiss, who wrote the episode, specifically designed it to evoke those classic 2nd Doctor episodes the Ice Warriors came from, and overall, he succeeded. The Troughton years were full of outposts and bases and laboratories under attack from without and within, and being trapped in a submarine with an angry alien? Pretty effective way to have nowhere to run. (Of course one must recognize the influence of Alien here too, because it’s a pretty big influence.) Sure, it’s not something a lot of modern audiences may notice, but it’s there for the fans of the Original Series, as are some nice little continuity references, like the H.A.D.S., and the Doctor’s somewhat conflicted response to seeing the Ice Warrior Skaldak for the first time.

But is it any good?

Overall, it is. From recreating in miniature that paranoid time in the 80’s where we all thought some idiot would push The Button, to the redesign of the Ice Warriors, to the casting and the story, there is certainly a lot to like here. Our biggest problems come from this season’s aversion to 2-part episodes, because here is another that might have benefited from more time. It’s a tough call, story-wise, as the pace of events plays out quite nicely once the Doctor and Clara arrive, but we don’t get something that this episode really needs, and that’s time with the characters.

It’s a pretty slick transition, cutting from Skaldak breaking out of the ice to the sub sinking, clearly from damage he has done. As an editor, I applaud it, but it’s the moments we don’t have here to know the crew just a little better, that I wish we’d had instead. What we get is archetypes mostly… the pragmatic Career Soldier of Liam Cunninham’s Cptain Zhukov. The Young Hothead and Party Toady of Tobias Menzies’ Lieutenant Stepashin. The Eccentric Scientist of David Warner’s Professor Grisenko. And a whole bunch of young, expendable submariners. It’s enough, but only because the actors are good enough to give weight to the obvious history of disagreement between Zhukov and Stepashin, or the disdain Grisenko has for Stepashin’s militant outlook. If Cunninham or Menzies were any less talented, I doubt we’d have that, and luckily we have David Warner, who’s Ultravox-obsessed scientist is one of the real joys of the episode. And yes, Professor, although they split up several times over the years, the original members are back together and still making awesome New Wave music.

It is the great talents of our supporting cast that give us some really good moments here too. The exchange between the Doctor and Zhukov about Skaldak “smelling” the soldier in Zhukov leads to his wonderful response: “And he wouldn’t smell it on you, Doctor?” Soldiers recognizing soldiers, yes? It’s been a while since we’ve touched on the fact that the Doctor has been a soldier himself, and it’s a good thing to be reminded of that, especially as we move towards to “Fields of Trenzalore”. Actually, pretty much everything Cunningham’s Zhukov does is pretty intelligent here, with none of the stereotypical idiot commander that pops up in a lot of science fiction. In fact, if you think about it, he’s basically the Brigadier, isn’t he? I don’t ever want to see them recast Lethbridge-Stewart, but if they were to commit that sin? Cast Liam Cunningham.

Tobias Menzies gets the unenviable task of being that officer nobody likes, so by the book and in love with the party line that he can’t open his mind to the reality in front of him. Stepashin has shown up in story after story, under many different names and faces, and often his fate is just what happens here. He does get the good moment of trying to ally himself with Skaldak, and whether it’s a serious grab for power or just a way to try and survive, it’s what we expect from such a character. Luckily we don’t go down the route of having him actually betray his captain and crew, but since he’s really the closest thing to an actual villain here, you could see him doing it.

David Warner. David Warner is always a joy to behold, bringing style and class to many a film that doesn’t deserve his talents (Waxwork), and so many others that do (Time After Time, The Omen, Time Bandits and so many more). He’s been in so many great genre films, and appeared in so many classic series like Star Trek and Batman: The Animated Series, it’s actually a little surprising that he hasn’t appeared on Doctor Who until now.

Now, those who follow the audio book series Doctor Who Unbound know that he has been in two stories where he’s played the Doctor himself, appearing with Nicholas Courtney in some of his final performances as the Brigadier, and there’s something quite awesome about having “another” Doctor in this episode, even if there really isn’t any reference to it that I can find. Here he’s funny and eccentric, although not to any kind of extreme, being more of a foil to Stepashin’s rigid worldview.  It’s his interactions with Clara that are the best moments for him here though, where he is both funny and kind, and goes out of his way to reassure and comfort her when she’s shaken by the deaths of the crew. He’s fatherly, isn’t he? Makes you wonder if Professor Grisenko has children of his own… something again, that would have benefited from more time. Still, he steals every scene he’s in, and if they ever decide to go back to an older Doctor, well, we could do far worse than the wonderful Warner.

And what about our Ice Warrior? First of all, the redesign is excellent, keeping the feel of the original and improving it at the same time. Did you know the original versions had fur? Yeah, that’s gone, as is the infamous “Lego hands” and the skinny arms. The earlier take also seemed more shell-like, whereas here we have something that is very much armor, and the menace of Skaldak is the greater for it. The revealed face, well, the CGI is a wee bit off there for me, although I appreciate the design of the more reptilian face and head, and I applaud the choice to never actually reveal the “naked” creature entirely.

But it’s the character of Skaldak, brought to life by actor Spencer Wilding and Who voice master Nicholas Briggs, who would make or break this episode, and overall, it’s quite effective. The idea of an enemy who is operating under a specific code of conduct, however alien to ours, is a good one, and aside from the occasional kill to kill moment, Skaldak is doing just that. He’s 5000 years and a planet away from home, facing beings who have attacked him, and he comes from a race that has made war into an art form… how else would he behave? Sure there are moments where he is killing people, but it’s the other moments, where he is talking and displaying a fierce cunning and devotion to the ways of his people that make Skaldak a quite effective adversary here. And it’s the moments when he hesitates too, because here is a soldier who fights other soldiers, not civilians, not the innocent, and we get enough of a sense of why he’s such a legend to believe that he would show mercy.

Jenna-Louise Coleman gets to give us some nice Clara moments here, in what is not a “Who is Clara Oswald?” episode, and that’s perfectly fine. Yes. I want the explanation as much as anyone, but I do like Clara on her own, mystery aside, and just caught up in the excitement and danger of traveling with the Doctor. Of course her best moments are when she goes to talk to Skaldak, being both afraid and very brave, and her reaction to finding the eviscerated bodies of some of the crew. She’s shell-shocked in the later scene, and you know what? She should be. Death is often the result of saving the world — or worlds, for that matter — and I think anyone who has lived what at least seems (for now) an ordinary life should be shocked, shouldn’t they? Other than that, she’s her usual bold and funny self, and if we leave aside the mystery part of the character, is continuing to shape up to be a good Companion to the Doctor.

And of course, our Time Lord. Matt Smith gets a lot to do here, and again shows that rapid-fire delivery and mood-change-on-a-dime that I enjoy so much in his portrayal of the Doctor. From his entrance into the chaos that is the dying sub, to his impassioned pleas to Skaldak’s, erm, not humanity of course, but whatever you’d call the Ice Warrior equivalent, he’s by parts funny and angry and sad and even a little bit giddy about the chance of seeing an Ice Warrior without its armor. Smith also has a job here that could have been a mess, and that’s the Info Dump portion of our program, where not only does the Doctor need to bring the other characters up to speed on who and what they’re facing, but also the audience, because, again, it’s been 40 years since the Ice Warriors made their appearance. I particularly liked the sense of history he implied with such simple lines like:

“Ah. It never rains, but it pours.”

“It’s an Ice Warrior, a native of the planet Mars. And we go way back. Way back.”

“What did you say?”

“Oh no.”

That doesn’t scan as good on the page as it does when Smith says it I’m afraid, it’s all in the tone. In fact his tone this episode is particularly interesting, especially when talking about Skaldak… it’s clear that he has a respect for the history and culture of the Martians, even if you knows the danger they represent. Good stuff.

And hey! The sonic screwdriver actually has a good use here, up against a foe who uses sonic weaponry. Of course it continues to be the get-out-of-jail-free card, but at least it seems to have a related use here. Now if we can just have an episode without it…

So there we are. Better than last week, not as good as it could have been, but better than a lot of this season’s offerings. One thing I do think we have to recognize is that we have had some truly stellar episodes these last few years, and comparing this sort of story with some of those will leave it wanting. That said, stories like this and some of the others I have been, erm, less than thrilled with? Still beats the hell out of a lot of the stories from the first season.

So what did you think? Good? Bad? Happy with where things are going?

Next up we have “Hide”, with Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine, also from Luther scribe Neil Cross. The trailer implies a little more Clara mystery on top of the investigation of a haunting… of course, in Who, odds are good it’s not an actual ghost, but we shall see, won’t we?

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