1. The Biggest Flaw Doctor Who Consistently Has
Ok. Look. I get it: the TARDIS automatically translates everyone around you that you wouldn’t necessarily understand. There’s plenty of good jokes about this in the episode. And you know what? I like Liam Cunningham. Regularly great guy in Game of Thrones.
But, come on. They arrive in a Russian sub, and everyone on board is British. You couldn’t at least have someone in the cast fake it?
2. Half of Sherlock
This week’s episode is written by Mark Gatiss, who is Moffat’s other half on uber-popular show Sherlock, not to mention both an actor on Who and a member of the fantastic League of Gentleman. That said, as much as I enjoy Gatiss’ work, this perhaps wasn’t his strongest. Gatiss has written some fantastic scripts and given fantastic performances, but this week’s episode just seemed rather… well, “lazy” isn’t the word I want to use, but it’s certainly the first thing I think of.
The main issue I have with it is simply that it’s just rather paint by numbers. It features quite a few tropes played up extensively in a Red October meets Alien scenario, and surprisingly caps it off without a believable finale, just a hail mary pass that results in everyone smiling at one another. And that’s disappointing.
When you see Gatiss’ name, I think certain expectations crop up. As they should, really; you should expect a lot of awesome from him. This just isn’t one of those episodes.
3. But, That Said
The return of the Ice Warrior was still pretty cool. And, for me, rather unexpected since I don’t watch previews or read too much about what’s coming up if I can help it. The Ice Warrior is one of those old Who villains that had some recurrence but hadn’t been seen since the show came back, and while they’re certainly no Dalek or Cyberman or what have you, they were certainly overdue for a return. This was a pretty sleek way to do it, and to seemingly expand on the Ice Warrior mythology (with the peek under the helmet).
Truth be told, if this was a Davies season, I would expect the Ice Warrior army to return by the end. But it’s Moffat, and Moffat doesn’t focus on things like that, but rather the relationship of the companions to the Doctor. So don’t perhaps expect to see them again for some time.
Oh, and the scene where Oswin realizes that the Ice Warrior was no longer in his suit? By far the best moment of this episode. Classic horror movie stuff right there.
4. Who is the Show About?
One comment I’ve seen recurring is that Doctor Who doesn’t seem to have any focus anymore as to what type of show it is, and this episode would certainly be indicative of that. The show was supposed to be about the Doctor with help from some companions, but Moffat made it clear with the Ponds that they were the true focus. It wasn’t long into the Oswin storyline either that Moffat made it very clear that the Doctor’s relationship to her is key to the story of the season, rather than accidental luck in finding someone new to travel along with him. And while I enjoy Oswin’s role in the show quite a bit (and, really, don’t mind the heavy companion focus), some consistency would be nice, because between this episode and the last it doesn’t seem like Who knows who it wants to focus on, the Doctor or Oswin.
Granted, this episode was certainly more “traditional” of an approach to Who’s episodic storytelling, but with Gatiss and Moffat’s relationship as writers you’d imagine that there could have been a stronger effort made to keep this in line with bigger ideas of the show. Oswin is little more than a burden this episode, showing her lack of knowledge to be a hinderance in her survival and forcing the Doctor to spoon-feed a bunch of knowledge the viewers are all already intimately familiar with.
It’s just one of those things, you know? Remember it and all is well. Forget it just once and the pitchforks and torches are raised.
5. Vegas, Baby, Vegas!
I can’t be the only one who wants to see the Doctor actually end up in Vegas, right?
