Poll: 7x08 Cold War review and discussion
- Thread starter Lonemagpie
- Start date
Yes, this episode rocked! Well, I would say it's cool, but that might come off as a pun.
Ice Warriors have always interested me, and this episode sure didn't disappoint. It updated the Ice Warriors while staying faithful to the original design and didn't come off as cheesy. Definitely not an easy combination, but they pulled it off here. Hell, they even managed to make the clamp hands they had in the classic era seem plausible despite the fact this Ice Warrior didn't even have them. Skaldak himself was also a great character who I hope returns in some capacity again.
The story itself is somewhat by the numbers, standard stranded people being picked off one by one. Although the setting of a Soviet submarine makes this seem fresh, and all the movie Soviet tropes are a delight to watch in this sci-fi story.
David Warner was rather underused, although his character was amusing, a source of comic relief that wasn't distracting. But at times it seeme he was just shoved off to the side. Maybe that was intentional, convey that his character is an outsider among the sub's crew. But still, the guy is a great actor and the character was great when he was used, it's just a shame they didn't get more use out of him.
Nitpick: the captain has four stripes on his uniform, which means he is an O7 captain. However, my understading is that submarines usually have an officer with a lower rank for its captain, like a Commander or even a Lt. Commander. Or are things different in Russia (or were different in Soviet Russia)?
But yeah, amazing episode. Doctor Who is on a roll this year.
Ice Warriors have always interested me, and this episode sure didn't disappoint. It updated the Ice Warriors while staying faithful to the original design and didn't come off as cheesy. Definitely not an easy combination, but they pulled it off here. Hell, they even managed to make the clamp hands they had in the classic era seem plausible despite the fact this Ice Warrior didn't even have them. Skaldak himself was also a great character who I hope returns in some capacity again.
The story itself is somewhat by the numbers, standard stranded people being picked off one by one. Although the setting of a Soviet submarine makes this seem fresh, and all the movie Soviet tropes are a delight to watch in this sci-fi story.
David Warner was rather underused, although his character was amusing, a source of comic relief that wasn't distracting. But at times it seeme he was just shoved off to the side. Maybe that was intentional, convey that his character is an outsider among the sub's crew. But still, the guy is a great actor and the character was great when he was used, it's just a shame they didn't get more use out of him.
Nitpick: the captain has four stripes on his uniform, which means he is an O7 captain. However, my understading is that submarines usually have an officer with a lower rank for its captain, like a Commander or even a Lt. Commander. Or are things different in Russia (or were different in Soviet Russia)?
But yeah, amazing episode. Doctor Who is on a roll this year.
Another nitpick: there's a difference between a nuclear-powered submarine, and a nuclear-weaponed sub.The latter are always the former, but you'd send the former to drill for oil and dig up mammoths, not the latter. They need to be in the right position to launch (so heading off to the South Pole on your own decision is going to get the captain court-martialed unless the USSR branch of UNIT speak up for him).
And the Prof must have been in the KGB to have a walkman and cheek the military the way he did: which isn't actually a problem, the KGB were in the vanguard of reform in the early 1980s, as they knew the reality because they were trusted with western info, not the propaganda (they just didn't expect reform to go as far as it did...).
Oh, and aside from the idiot who thawed out the ice block, it wasn't an ice block, more an ice box that the Ice Warrior could punch its way out of, which makes no sense at all.
And... but I don't care, I liked it!
And the Prof must have been in the KGB to have a walkman and cheek the military the way he did: which isn't actually a problem, the KGB were in the vanguard of reform in the early 1980s, as they knew the reality because they were trusted with western info, not the propaganda (they just didn't expect reform to go as far as it did...).
Oh, and aside from the idiot who thawed out the ice block, it wasn't an ice block, more an ice box that the Ice Warrior could punch its way out of, which makes no sense at all.
And... but I don't care, I liked it!
Do you think RTD would've offed the professor?
Well, they were actually training in case of the need to launch weapons (I was going to say drilling, which is more accurate, but training doesn't include drilling for oil). Why they have a scientist and chose to dig up something in the ice is less than clear, though.
No but it probably wouyld have been revealed that the Professor and the Captain were a couple
Well, to nitpick your nitpick a little
, the USSR initially did build a diesel-powered class of submarine carriying ICBMs (the Golf-class).Also, i'm pretty sure, this sub isn't going anywhere soon (or anytime), AFAIK sowiet and russian subs use soidium-cooled reactors which are permanently in need of heating the sodium to an liquid state, when the reactor is shut down and there is no external source to heat the sodium, it solidifies and the reactor is permanently destroyed.
Also, when surfacing through ice, the turret-mounted diving planes need to be put in a vertical position to prevent damage to them, so they are most likely nonfunctional too.
David Warner has played an alternate version of the Third Doctor in a mirror universe set of Audios where 3 didn't crash into his exile until 1999 after U.N.I.T. had solved most of the monster problems from the last 20 years with nuclear weapons.
An Actor who has already been the Doctor, waking around as an odd ball called "The Professor" and we're not supposed to think that he is again an alternate mirror universe version of the Doctor at play in the TV Show again after last week when Grandfather was most certainly a mirror version of One who failed? Next week the villain is going to be an alternate of Tom Baker!
An Actor who has already been the Doctor, waking around as an odd ball called "The Professor" and we're not supposed to think that he is again an alternate mirror universe version of the Doctor at play in the TV Show again after last week when Grandfather was most certainly a mirror version of One who failed? Next week the villain is going to be an alternate of Tom Baker!
Not a top notch episode but a pretty solid one. Scary monster, claustrophobic environment, alien-esque scares. All very tense. Then at the end the Doctor is in a desparate place but luckily the monster has a sense of compassion and honour.
Ice Warrior was a good update. We never see all of him outside the suit? But probably for the best, to avoid unconvincing CG.
Nice to see Brutus from Rome getting work.
Ice Warrior was a good update. We never see all of him outside the suit? But probably for the best, to avoid unconvincing CG.
Nice to see Brutus from Rome getting work.
Another nitpick: how does the TARDIS translator translate everyone if the TARDIS is quite literally on the opposite end of the world?
The insect guys in Planet of the Dead weren't translated and the Doctor had the sonic screwdriver with him there.
In Planet of the Dead, the Doctor says to Christina that he can speak all languages.
The TARDIS doesn't translate, it uses it's telepathic field to slave the Doctors polyglottery into the immediate area... Think about how many thousands, maybe millions of conversations are being translated inside the TARDIS' proximity?
Now ask yourself if the TARDIS is keeping real time logs of any of these conversations and monitoring content and context that it shouldn't be able to FIND the badies before they strike in line with how the Machine on Person of Interest works.
We heard a Dalek speaking German once when Martha tred to blow up the world.
The TARDIS doesn't translate, it uses it's telepathic field to slave the Doctors polyglottery into the immediate area... Think about how many thousands, maybe millions of conversations are being translated inside the TARDIS' proximity?
Now ask yourself if the TARDIS is keeping real time logs of any of these conversations and monitoring content and context that it shouldn't be able to FIND the badies before they strike in line with how the Machine on Person of Interest works.
We heard a Dalek speaking German once when Martha tred to blow up the world.