Doctor Who Series Blog – Cold War

When you decide to set an episode during the Cold War, why not have a crazed ice warrior onboard a nuclear submarine? Nothing could go wrong there, could it? After last week’s slightly less action-packed episode, this week’s instalment, Cold War, burst back with double the vitality and excitement.

This week we were on slightly more familiar territory, despite being thousands of feet under water. The T.A.R.D.I.S materialised on a soviet submarine during the height of the Cold War instead of the intended destination, Vegas. It turns out that nuclear weapons weren’t the only weapon of mass destruction on board; the submarine’s crew had picked up a life form frozen in a block of ice and, this being Doctor Who, it was never going to be a friendly force. When a particularly idiotic crewmember melts the ice with a blowtorch, the alien is free to cause havoc, especially when he realises there are nuclear weapons on board.

Saturday’s episode brought the Cold War brilliantly back to life. Beside the fact that nuclear submarines were a very real threat during the period, the setting really heightened the tension. Enclosed spaces are never a good thing at the best of times, but when they’re in the depths of the ocean it brings a very real sense of panic, even through a TV screen. Indeed, the terror continued with the revealing of the ice warrior, Skaldak. He appeared at first as a mobile lump of stone carved into a vaguely humanoid shape, but he soon abandoned this armour and became an incredibly fast, stealthy opponent who dropped from the ceiling onto his prey, not unlike Snakes on a Plane. The portrayal of Skaldak wonderfully reflected Cold War tensions, in that the Doctor couldn’t detect the hidden alien, and a game of smoke and mirrors ensued when the ship’s crew was ordered to find him.

Being thousands of years old, the Doctor can sometimes come across as a know-it-all, having seen and done everything in the universe. In this week’s episode though, his superiority was well and truly tested. Most episodes seem to follow a relatively simple structure of isolating a problem and then resolving it with a flash of sonic screwdriver and witty repartees. Cold War brought this assumption crashing down on us as for once, the Doctor didn’t have all the answers. The end of the episode saw Skaldak disappear onto his spaceship, still in control of the armed nuclear missiles and it was only through the Doctor pleading with him that Skaldak disarmed them. Oh, and the T.A.R.D.I.S took itself away from danger, leaving Clara and the Doctor rather lost at sea. It seems that a sonic screwdriver can open doors and flick switches, but averting a nuclear war isn’t one of its skills.

As the Doctor’s assistant, Clara is becoming a valuable asset to the team. For starters, she didn’t die in this episode, making a drastic change to the previous episodes we’ve seen her in. Perhaps she’s realised she doesn’t have life insurance? She also became an extension of the Doctor in this instalment; the Doctor couldn’t enter the room where Skaldak was being detained and instead, it was up to Clara to negotiate with a thoroughly ticked off alien warrior. Armed only with a torch and a headset, Clara had to repeat the Doctor’s words to him, which meant being in a very confined space with Skaldak. If it were me I would have hidden in a remote corner until help arrived. Luckily, Clara isn’t the cowardly sort, and she is quickly becoming independent, following her own instincts rather than blindly obeying the Doctor. Indeed, last week’s episode saw her put herself directly in danger, despite the Doctor ordering her to stay away. Give her a little bit of Timelord knowledge and she’d be well on her way to saving the universe.

After last week’s slightly more pedestrian episode, Cold War came back with a bang. It wonderfully drew upon Cold War themes and history to bring to life the same tensions mixed with some supernatural characters. I can only hope that the rest of the series builds on this and doesn’t get lax with the sense of adventure and awe the franchise is known for.