Doctor Who: "Cold War"

[lizbee]

Well, that was a Gatiss script.



I was really excited about this episode, 'cos SUBMARINE!  RUSSIANS!  COLD WAR!  ICE WARRIOR!  I watched the first few episodes of The Americans, and I really enjoyed it and plan to catch up when I have more spare time, so I've been in the mood for some Cold War shenanigans BUT WITH ICE WARRIORS.

Then, as I woke up this morning, I remembered it was a Gatiss script, and that I should be adjusting my expectations accordingly.

Sadly, they weren't low enough.  No women: check.  Clumsy dialogue: check.  Minimal characterisation: check.  Fainting companion saving the day with an appeal to emotions: check.

Also, plot-wise, I thought this was much better when it was an episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. 

My main problem with Gatiss is that he does what everyone accuses Moffat of doing: he writes flat female characters who are either victims or objects (sometimes they multi-task and are both!), and he writes really generic companions.  At one point Clara reminded me very strongly of Mel, the ultimate generic companion.  Now, I love Mel quite a lot, but she suffers from having been created by men who weren't entirely sure if women were people, and then the script editing was taken over by Andrew Cartmel, who wasn't interested in exploring yet another middle class companion.  So she spends most of her serials being sidelined by Glitz, the Kangs, Ray and Ace.  And that was Clara's role here -- she asks a few questions to help the audience along, is literally the mouthpiece for the Doctor, she nearly faints with terror, and then she's saddened by death.  Which should have been a really great character moment for her, but it was, as I say, quite generic.  And, finally, she saves the day by reminding the Ice Warrior of his dead daughter, so, feelings.  That's what ladies do, right?

The Russians also didn't gel for me.  They didn't react like citizens of a totalitarian state.  Lines about American aggression felt rote.  Davos Seaworth was great, because he's great in everything, but even he couldn't save his character, who doesn't seem to operate from any principle, ideology or motivation beyond What Does The Plot Need Next?

Oh, and the Ice Warrior was very disappointing.

JUST SO I HAVE SOMETHING GOOD TO SAY!  I'd like to comment that I really liked the directing, which was far more interesting than the script, and also the Doctor's Vegas sunnies. 

Comments

[rj_anderson]

I can't remember why Clara lost consciousness, but I didn't at all get the impression that it was because she was some weak fainting woman. I was keeping in mind your comments on Twitter about Gatiss scripts and expecting her to be a victim or an accessory in this episode, so I was quite pleasantly surprised by the role she took in the plot and denouement.

Maybe I'm just blinded by the fact that I really, really like Clara and Jenna Louise-Coleman does a lovely job playing her? I will definitely admit to being blinded by my love for Unexpected David Warner, and also that the Duran Duran jokes made me grin all over my face.

(I did worry a lot about that Walkman being soaking wet the whole time, though. I would not have been putting those headphones anywhere near my ears, myself.)

All in all, by no means a great episode, but one I wouldn't mind watching again.

[lizbee]

I can't remember why Clara lost consciousness, but I didn't at all get the impression that it was because she was some weak fainting woman.

She loses consciousness first because the sub is sinking, and then she almost faints after the Ice Warrior escapes, and the Doctor pulls her out of the room. The first time was fine -- it was gorgeously filmed, and an effective bit of visual exposition -- but the second bit bugged me. It doesn't fit with what we've seen of Clara so far.

But I have to admit, I feel like we don't know much about Clara yet. She's not as vividly drawn as Oswin or Victorian!Clara, which is probably good, since she's the character we have for the long haul, so they can take their time with the characterisation. But I don't think this episode taught us much about her.

(I love JLC too, though. I kind of want her and Karen Gillan to have a sitcom. They're both hilarious.)

On the other hand, DAVID WARNER. I didn't care for his character, but if it was all just an elaborate ploy to get him to sing Ultravox, I guess that's okay.

[infiniteviking]

I couldn't figure out why Clara fainted the first time. I'd thought it she hit her head? Or something? It'd make sense for the sudden pressure increase to have blacked her out, and that would also have been Science!, but someone should have said something.

The second time was absurd, though. And yup, Clara's not fully alive as a character yet, though JLC does a brilliant job with what she's got.

But Unexpected Not-Sark-At-All David Warner gave me all the fuzzies and I'm torn between wanting him to be the next Doctor and wanting Clara and Eleven to adopt him and take him all over the universe.

[nostalgia]

I really felt the lack of Doctor-Clara Significant Interaction. What's their relationship supposed to be at this point? Why did he look horrified when she hugged him after chasing her across time and space so she could be his new BFF? Clara was indeed wicked generic this week, having to do all that Generic Companion stuff. It's like Gatiss knows what companions are for in narrative terms, but has no interest in their emotional importance. Basically I just really want some BFF action and I want it nao. Yes I am that easy to please.

[nonelvis]

Exactly. Her dialogue felt off to me, too, especially compared to "The Bells of St. John" -- less rapid-fire and snarky.

[bobcatmoran]

I figured the Doctor's horrified look upon being hugged was because that's Eleven's default setting to any unexpected hugs/kisses, especially from companions. He didn't do the flaily "argh, what do I do with my arms?" thing this time, though.

[jjpor]

No women: check.

Well yeah, because it was set on a nuclear submarine in 1983...

[lizbee]

Which setting was so generic, you could tell exactly the same story in the future.

[melyanna]

That's probably what I was most disappointed in, but I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up for a nuanced Cold War story. Just saying "mutually assured destruction!" a lot does not a Cold War story make.

[infiniteviking]

He could have fixed that by having a specific reason that the plot had to take place in that particular time, but... nope. Not even period-recognizable interactions. >.

[nonelvis]

I'm watching it again now on BBCA in the hopes I'll see what so many other people seem to be enjoying about this episode, but mostly it just sat there for me. Part of this may simply be that I like base-under-siege just fine, but it's never going to be my favorite trope -- and when you add Gatiss' flat writing style on top of that, it comes across for me as 40+ minutes of perfectly ordinary and unspecial television. Also, after Clara's active role in the last episode, I agree it was disappointing here to see her relegated to mostly sitting back while the menfolk did the important work.

[lizbee]

Yeah, exactly. "Flat" is a good way to describe Gatiss' writing.

[copracat]

Wow. I hadn't realised it but, looking this up on Wikipedia, I found out Gatiss has written pretty much all of my least favourite new Who stories. That's some impressive achievement. And there's another one of his to go this season. Spoilers are not making me happy.

Anyway, this one, it wasn't that it was bad so much as boring. Boooooring. Particularly since I just recently watched Last Resort which managed to do interesting peril on a sub almost every week for 13 weeks. What a waste of some great grizzly old actors.

[lizbee]

Yes, the boringness almost is the most offensive thing! Here we have an interesting alien, an interesting setting in an interesting place, and RUSSIANS! Who aren't just English people in a different uniform! (Not to say they're aliens, obviously, but there's, like, cultural differences. Which The Americans portrays really well.)

Gatiss has written the only New Who episode I ever switched off because I was bored - that one last year with the child and the dollhouse.

He also has a series of novels, the first of which I gave up on. Although I skipped far enough ahead to learn that the (bisexual) hero has to murder the female love interest 'cos she's A TRAITOR!!!!!

[copracat]

The best thing about the child and the dollhouse ep was the accompanying Confidential with the ridiculous awesome kid having a mad time with Karen and the Babes.

[lizbee]

There was also some good meta about its portrayal of a child with OCD, which was apparently quite good. But ... boring!

[danel4d]

Yeah... there were a lot of nice ideas in it, they just... sat there.

I mean, it could have been an excellent modern revisit to our classic base-under-siege tale... paranoid cold war peeps trapped with a monster, which is actually just another warrior as horribly trapped as they are. Only it doesn't really take off.

Lots of bits in it I liked! That the end is the Ice Warriors coming to collect him; the scene where Clara tries to point out she can't be a spy because she can't speak Russian before realising she must be speaking and understanding perfect Russian; the eccentric scientist. But it just doesn't come together. It's like he just grabbed a bunch of elements from base-under-siege and modern day and just dropped them on the page, not really doing anything with them.

At the end, I'm not asking "What would I change to improve this?". It's more... start over with the intriguing concept.

[kerravonsen]

It was very much a paint-by-numbers story, yes, but I was enjoying David Warner too much to worry about it all that much. And, yes, the directing was very good.

[significantowl]

so much yes. My expectations sank when I saw his name on the screen, but then I thought, "At least he can do good period feel sometimes!" But not so much this time.

I did like the Doctor telling Clara it wasn't a test - that's my one positive thing :)

[jae]

Ohhh, please do watch the rest of the episodes of "The Americans"! And then talk about it in your journal! I will link to you if you do. :)

Ahem. Sorry about the desperate stranger dropping by looking for fannish contact about her new show-love. ;)

-J