Review: Doctor Who: Cold War
Cold War was written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Douglas Mackinnon, and stars Matt Smith as the Doctor, Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald, Nicholas Briggs as the voice of Skaldak, Liam Cunningham as Captain Zhukov, and David Warner as Professor Grisenko
From the BBC Website:
On a Russian submarine in 1983, a frozen alien warrior is waking up, just as the TARDIS materializes.
I would like to start off by apologizing for the lateness of this review, work has kept me busy all week. As I stated in my last review, I have always enjoyed Mark Gatiss’ Doctor Who work (excluding Victory of the Daleks), and I’ve always liked the Ice Warriors. Cold War did not disappoint. I enjoyed this story, and I really liked the new Ice Warrior armor design. Plus there was some great guest casting in this episode. David Warner (Star Trek, Time Bandits) is always good, I’ve always been of the opinion that he would make a great Doctor, and you can sort of see some of that when he is trying to comfort Clara.  As a matter of fact David Warner has played the Doctor twice in Big Finish’s Doctor Who Unbound series.
Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) as Captain Zhukov was excellent as well. And of course Nicholas Briggs as the voice of Skaldak, Mr. Briggs has done the voices for the Ice Warriors several time before in the Big Finish Doctor Who and Bernice Summerfield audio dramas.
*****Spoilers*****
I’m not sure why Professor Grisenko thinks the clearly bipedal form incased in ice only slightly larger than a human would by a mammoth. Also I’m not sure why the sailor with the blowtorch would think it would be a good idea to thaw out a specimen for scientific study on a submarine, instead of waiting to get it back to a proper facility.
I liked the idea that it’s not really the Ice Warriors that are susceptible to heat, but it’s their bio-armor that has problems. We also got to see an Ice Warrior fight both in and out of his armor, although we never got a really good look at Skaldak out of His armor. We do however get e good look at the head of an Ice Warrior, something that has never before been seen on screen. I am looking forward to the next time the Ice Warriors pop up in greater numbers. I’m still hoping for a third visit to Peladon.
I really enjoyed this episode. I think the only thing that might have made it better would have been a a little more time to build the suspense up, it felt a little rushed. I don’t think it would have justified a 2 parter, but an extended run time of say 60 to 65 minutes would have given some more time to build up the suspense and allowed the Doctor to explain some more about the Martians to the sub crew and Clara.
For those of you like me missing Doctor Who Confidential, here is a short behind the scenes clip from the BBC.
Check out our “Cold War†photo Album.
Next week’s episode is “Hideâ€Â. I usually try to avoid spoilers, and this one is no different, but I usually enjoy the creepy ones.  I’ll just have to wait and see.
