The Ice Warriors are one of the most highly regarded monsters of the classic series of DOCTOR WHO . Created by Brian Hayles for the 1967 story The Ice Warriors they made three reappearances in 1969 , 1972 and 1974 . They are unique amongst the other all time classic monsters because every story they appeared in were written by their creator Hayles , unlike the Daleks , Cybermen and Sontarans . This meant the Ice Warriors had an internal continuity and consistency somewhat lacking in other recurring alien races seen in the show . With their reintroduction in NuWho from Mark Gattis this has all changed and one possibly suspects not for the better
This is a very traditional story , often described as " A base under siege " that came to prominence in Season five of Classic Who . Set upon a Soviet nuclear submarine in 1983 it's a reminder of the bad old days when the Cold War was in great danger of heating up in to thermo-nuclear conflict that would destroyed the human race . I can clearly remember those days with Nina's 99 Red Ballons , and Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes in the pop charts and TV movies like THE DAY AFTER and THREADS reminding everyone that the end might extremely nigh. Classic DOCTOR WHO made its own geo-political statement with Warriors Of The Deep from 1984 which - pardon the pun - didn't set the world alight . Certainly Cold War is a few notches up from Warriors and the story is an improvement on much of what we've seen in the Smith/Moffat era
However one can't help thinking there's something lacking with this story . It's never as bleak or as doomladen as the subject matter demands . As I said for those of us living in the 1980s World War Three occasionally seemed like a question of apocalypse when rather than apocalypse if and the mood isn't helped by David Warner's comedy character with an obsession of western music . Would a Soviet intellectual in his seventies be keen on synth pop anyway ? If this type of character is distracting then wait till Matt Smith doing his comedy zany prat falling routine turns up . Sorry guys but this type of story calls for a much more brooding Doctor in the role and we got that with Eccleston and to a lesser degree with Tennant when he reigned in his mockney geezer persona . Here the eleventh Doctor seems at odds with this type of story
Likewise both Clara and the Ice Warriors seem out of character . Clara seems entirely different from the character we've been introduced to since Asylum Of The Daleks and could be any type of cypher companion from the classic show and that's always the problem when episodes are written around the character - when a story becomes plot driven it feels like you're watching an entirely different character who merely exists to have exposition and plot turns explained to them by The Doctor . The Ice Warriors themselves could be any alien race and despite the gimmick - and that's all it is , a gimmick - of them being revealed outside their protective they could be any alien race and perhaps the production team should have made up their own alien race for the story
As it stands Cold War is one of the better stories from the Smith/Moffat era and is certainly head and shoulders above the previous two episodes - but that's not saying much . Certainly the episode would have worked much better as an Eccleston story and one can't help noticing that plot wise it's similar to Dalek from Season One. One also can't help noticing how much better Eccleston was as The Doctor
This is a very traditional story , often described as " A base under siege " that came to prominence in Season five of Classic Who . Set upon a Soviet nuclear submarine in 1983 it's a reminder of the bad old days when the Cold War was in great danger of heating up in to thermo-nuclear conflict that would destroyed the human race . I can clearly remember those days with Nina's 99 Red Ballons , and Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes in the pop charts and TV movies like THE DAY AFTER and THREADS reminding everyone that the end might extremely nigh. Classic DOCTOR WHO made its own geo-political statement with Warriors Of The Deep from 1984 which - pardon the pun - didn't set the world alight . Certainly Cold War is a few notches up from Warriors and the story is an improvement on much of what we've seen in the Smith/Moffat era
However one can't help thinking there's something lacking with this story . It's never as bleak or as doomladen as the subject matter demands . As I said for those of us living in the 1980s World War Three occasionally seemed like a question of apocalypse when rather than apocalypse if and the mood isn't helped by David Warner's comedy character with an obsession of western music . Would a Soviet intellectual in his seventies be keen on synth pop anyway ? If this type of character is distracting then wait till Matt Smith doing his comedy zany prat falling routine turns up . Sorry guys but this type of story calls for a much more brooding Doctor in the role and we got that with Eccleston and to a lesser degree with Tennant when he reigned in his mockney geezer persona . Here the eleventh Doctor seems at odds with this type of story
Likewise both Clara and the Ice Warriors seem out of character . Clara seems entirely different from the character we've been introduced to since Asylum Of The Daleks and could be any type of cypher companion from the classic show and that's always the problem when episodes are written around the character - when a story becomes plot driven it feels like you're watching an entirely different character who merely exists to have exposition and plot turns explained to them by The Doctor . The Ice Warriors themselves could be any alien race and despite the gimmick - and that's all it is , a gimmick - of them being revealed outside their protective they could be any alien race and perhaps the production team should have made up their own alien race for the story
As it stands Cold War is one of the better stories from the Smith/Moffat era and is certainly head and shoulders above the previous two episodes - but that's not saying much . Certainly the episode would have worked much better as an Eccleston story and one can't help noticing that plot wise it's similar to Dalek from Season One. One also can't help noticing how much better Eccleston was as The Doctor