Doctor Who: Cold War

[usuallyhats]

Not a huge fan of this episode. It wasn't terrible or anything, just somewhat meh. Also, I really need a Clara icon, because of her face.

- I suppose there is at least a reason for the lack of women in this story, which is better than there being no women for no reason. Still not a fan though. Also, having got to the end, did it really need to be set in 1983? Aside from a few fairly surface cold war (oh ho I see what you did there)/mutually assured destruction references, Gatiss didn't really do anything with the setting that couldn't have been done with a future setting, which would have allowed for it to have some women in and also some people who aren't white, that would've been good too.

- TURN THE MUSIC DOWN. *sticks the subtitles on* (It was ok after that, to be fair.)

- "I'm always serious. With days off." ♥

- WHY ISN'T THE ICE WARRIOR HISSING WHEN HE TALKS THIS IS NOT OK.

- Jenna-Louise Coleman looks adorable in those headphones.

- ...oh good Lord, the Ice Warrior has manpain. (Couldn't the Ice Warrior have been female?)

- How is the Professor's walkman still working after getting dunked in water?

- This submarine doesn't feel particularly claustrophobic. Surely that is the point of setting things on submarines?

- On the plus side, it's not dragging or anything. Half an hour through already!

- Excellent sliding there by Mr Smith.

- Inevitably the Ice Warrior is pretty disappointing looking outside the suit.

- "My world is dead, but now there will be a second red planet. RED WITH THE BLOOD OF HUMANITY." AHAHAHA oh dear.

- The HADS! I thought it was probably the HADS. Maybe a slight copout, but also a TROUGHTON REFERENCE and therefore ok.

- Well, that... happened.

I now expect that I will have Janelle Monae's "Cold War" stuck in my head for the foreseeable future.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Pfft! Gatiss doesn't like women - thought you knew that by now?

To be honest, I don't much mind the lack of Ice Warrior hissing-while-talking - it tends to get a bit bloody annoying after 10 minutes.

I knew it was the HADS - I shouted that at the screen when the TARDIS disappeared...

[usuallyhats]

True, but it doesn't mean I've stopped WANTING him to be better! *clings to that time he wrote Jo and remembered that she was a trained UNIT operative and it was awesome*

Aw, I liked the hissing. It gives them more of a "controlled menace" thing than a "runs around killing" one.

*g* I think I would have been more grumbly at Eleven not immediately freaking out about the TARDIS's disappearance if I hadn't guessed straight away what it was!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because I listened to the Eight and Lucie two parter - two HOURS of hissing-while-talking is REALLY annoying...

Oh - I didn't even consider that Eleven didn't know...

[usuallyhats]

Yeah, I expect that could get a little wearing! I listened to that one in bits, so it didn't have the same effect on me...

[everlasting-day.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it well enough; nothing glaringly awful, pretty much your standard trad monster story, and quite a well-executed one for the most part (benefitting from a guest cast that was better than it deserved), but it brought precisely nothing new to the table at all. I don't know what it is but all of Gatiss' TV episodes seem to lack a particular sparkle - coming off the back of the rather wondrous, lovely, operatic Rings of Akhaten that stood out even more. I hope he never becomes showrunner, tbh.

Still, the ingredients for his next episode this series are all fabulous and I'll be upset if he messes it up.

[usuallyhats]

(benefitting from a guest cast that was better than it deserved)
Oh yes, definitely. It seems weird to say "I wasn't that keen, I wish it had been longer", but I think with more time to play with, the excellent guest cast could've had more to do, and raised the stakes by making us care more about their characters.

I don't know what it is but all of Gatiss' TV episodes seem to lack a particular sparkle
Yes, they mostly fall squarely into "I'm not sorry I watched that but have no particular desire to see it again" territory.

Still, the ingredients for his next episode this series are all fabulous and I'll be upset if he messes it up.
I have my fingers crossed that he'll pull a Chibnall and suddenly start writing stuff I really really love.

[ravenskyewalker.livejournal.com]

I'm probably a bad feminist for saying that I love good submarine adventures and the lack of women is to be expected in those. Oh, well, I can live with it (both the lack of women and my being bad).

Oh! However, for an episode written by Gatiss, and starring a race whose warriors have always been presented as male, note the Grand Marshal speaking of his daughter (a warrior herself?)

The Ice Warrior did hiss a bit, at first.

Ah, Jenna-Louise Coleman always looks adorable, to me. Those eyes.

However, one gets David Warner and proceeds to underuse him that much? Glad to see him, anyway!

[usuallyhats]

I like submarine adventures too! I just wish this one could've been set in the future and therefore had a mixed gender or all female crew: there wasn't really any reason why it couldn't.

Yep, but only so he could be angsty about her. :(

I wanted MORE HISSING. ALL THE HISSING. ;D

She does to me too! But particularly with the headphones on for some reason.

Hah, exactly! It was such a disappointingly thin part, woe.

[ghostpaw.livejournal.com]

I agree that it could have been so much better if they'd done it as a two-parter, upped the tension and the politicking between the captain and first mate, and made more use of Kindly Old Professor. The ending was all a bit rushed and suddenly fixed. The best bit, imo, was in the middle when they were hunting the Ice Warrior and it all went a bit 'Alien'. Definitely an object lesson in Never Show The Monster - the armour mostly in poor light, scary; the hands coming down and the glowy eyes in the dark, scary; the bit at the end where he takes his helmet off and is a poorly CGI'd gecko... disappointing.

I do hope "The Doctor talks at the Big Bad and threatens them ineffectually for a bit, then Clara comes and is compassionate at them and lo! they see the error of their ways and give in." doesn't become a thing. It's a bit Disney, y'know, give her some cute woodland animal companions while your at it. And I like Clara.

[usuallyhats]

It would really have benefited from more time to get to know the characters, make us care about them and make them more than just "the professor", "the captain" and "him off Rome".

Definitely an object lesson in Never Show The Monster - the armour mostly in poor light, scary; the hands coming down and the glowy eyes in the dark, scary; the bit at the end where he takes his helmet off and is a poorly CGI'd gecko... disappointing.
*g* yes, absolutely!

I read something somewhere that described what Clara does as being a bit like hostage negotiation - deliberately appealing to Skaldak's emotions because she thinks it'll work - which made me like it a lot more, as long as they don't fall into the trap of constantly going "we need some emotions here, quick, fetch Clara!" Again, more women would've helped, then Clara wouldn't be stuck having to be representative.

[the-smut-fairy.livejournal.com]

"This submarine doesn't feel particularly claustrophobic. Surely that is the point of setting things on submarines?"
Yeah, I got that, too. Felt waaay to spacious in there. I mean, there was room not only to stand up properly but to run around.

"..oh good Lord, the Ice Warrior has manpain."
At one point I turned to N and said: Oh gods, maybe an Ice Warrior ship will turn up at the end, its captain will lean out, wave and shout "Hi, Dad!"

"How is the Professor's walkman still working after getting dunked in water?"
OK, never question how and why something that belongs to an old-school Soviet scientist actually works. Really, for your own brain's sake, don't.
Now, a deeper mystery is how someone quite as dangerously subversive as this character (given his ability to get contraband foreign goods such as a Walkman and some tapes suspictiously quickly) ever managed to get onto something like a nuclear sub which is actually going somewhere and contains Trigger-Happy Party Boy.

Also, I can forgive this episode quite a lot because of its refreshing lack of silly fake accents, I have very little patience for those.

[usuallyhats]

And to go off and have conflabs in fairly empty spaces, too.

Ha! I think I might have forgiven that on "hurray, there's more than one woman in this story" grounds...

Righto! ;) Yes, that was a bit of a mystery...

Also, I can forgive this episode quite a lot because of its refreshing lack of silly fake accents, I have very little patience for those.
*nods* I felt like more could've been done with the fact that Clara and probably most of the audience assumed that the crew was English, but I'm glad they avoided the silly accent trap.