Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "Cold War"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS

Much as last week, the trailers gave the  impression that we seem to be continuing with a modified rerun of Series 5, so would this be the equivalent of "Victory of the Daleks"? More on that question as progress...

Joining the 60s/Second Doctor revival along with the Great Intelligence are the Ice Warriors and fittingly they've chosen that most Second Doctorish of settings, the "base under siege" story. As has been so far proven with the Great Intelligence that although these ideas are best part of 45 years old, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I really enjoyed this particular setting, I was born in 1983 and I remember the Cold War as it was stumbling its way to its eventual thaw with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It's easy to forget what a knife edge the world was on. The Doctor's explanation of the events to Clara initially brought me up short, come on, everyone remembers this, I thought, but then it came to me that not only is Clara only 24, born in 1989 but also the target audience of young teenagers wouldn't necessarily be aware either. Gatiss did well to remind me that more than a few viewers are probably of a post millennial vintage and not 30 something's like myself. It was also a handy refresher of the "fixed moments in time" idea, I've got a sneaky suspicion we'll be seeing more of that this series! However while he was handily explaining the new (the TARDIS translation also got a refresher) we got the return of the TARDIS H.A.D.S (standing for "Hostile Action Displacement System) which has not seen in action since the Second Doctor adventure "The Krotons". Mark Gatiss very firmly nailing his fan colours to the wall there.

Gatiss, also being a horror aficionado knows that the best thing to do with your monster is to show as little of it as possible and let your audiences imagination do the rest. But he does this in a surprising way, breathing fresh life into the Ice Warriors by revealing a previously unseen ability and bringing new richness to this alien culture. The only slight complaint I heard among my fan chums was the lack of hissed "ssssss" sounds, so prevalent in their first incarnation. I wasn't too put out by it myself though, much like the early Cybermen their speech, although creepy made them hard to understand at times, especially on a watching on a wonky third generation VHS copy! Mind you adding to the culture does open the opportunity for pitfalls I do hope that they don't end up being Doctor Who's equivalent to the Klingons, all obsessed with personal honour and unnecessary shouting. However I feel that Gatiss was being reigned back slightly, in sure in an ideal world he would have ramped up the gore and tension but this is on at 6pm with the whole family watching. That scene of Skaldak clutching and stroking the head of Lieutenant Stepashin as he desperately negotiates for his life was plenty scary by itself.

As a lover of that Arnold Schwarzenegger magnum opus Predator I had more than a few reminders of it in this story, the crew being picked off one by one by being yanked into the ceiling, the unnatural speed and most of all the crackling, creaking hissing. If I have one criticism of the story it is that it seemed to lack that last killer blow that moves a story from good to great, whether he was restrained by the time slot or just didn't quite know how to resolve the story in the time remaining we may never know but as with Gatiss' previous efforts the wait for this viewer at least for him to deliver a truly great Doctor Who script goes on. Despite the criticism I've leveled at his writing what Gatiss really gets right is character, Matt Smith reigns in the Doctors goofy side for this weeks outing however his reaction to Skaldak behind him prompted a few giggles. If this episode was a homage to the Second Doctor's time then Matt Smith's performance was equal to Patrick Troughton's Doctor. Of all of his previous incarnations it's the Second Doctor I can see most here, whether running around corridors, accidentally breaking bits off the sub or passionately pleading for Skaldak to show mercy. Jenna-Louise Coleman is great as always confronted with her first really hairy situation travelling with the Doctor she copes admirably, combining a believable mix of terror and sheer curiosity. Steven Moffat has described these three episodes as an opening trio of stories and I feel that now we've really got to know her.

Mention must also be made of the guest cast, David Warner's pop music obsessed Professor was lovely I loved that all he really wanted to know about the future was if Ultravox had split up! And I really enjoyed Liam Cunnigham's Captain Zhukov pragmatic, noble and reigning in the blood thirst of his young second in command. I thought it was an interesting choice to set the action on a Soviet sub, it would have been all too easy to make it a British boat, its nice the soviets aren't mustache twirling villains, they're just men doing a job. So back to my opening question is this Series 5 take two? Well no, instead we a got a new take on Series 1's "Dalek", much as Rose was instrumental in breaking through to whatever passes for compassion in a Dalek, Clara uses the same methodology on Skaldak, citing his choice to show her and Gisenko mercy. While Dalek is a much superior story to Cold War, this is by itself a fine effort and probably Gatiss best Doctor Who script to date however I'm most interested to see if he can finally deliever that killer script later in this series.