The Russian prof was an awesome little character; a whole story in 42 minutes impressive.
And the initial Ice Warrior was damn cool.
Just as Stott says why the CGI bollox?
Doctor Who... Page 955
After 5000 years he had one hell of a hat head.
The last time I saw this it looked like it cost 7s 6d to make.
Has anything changed ?
Decimalisation?
Really excellent production and lighting design this week. Unfortunately that's where it ends.
The script was very poor and a lot balder than a usual Gatiss script. For example when the Doctor says there isn't time to explain something, the commander says: "Try me." Which is what you say if someone has said you wouldn't understand something.
Another example of poor writing was when Tomachenko the cabin boy decides to thaw out the ice warrior off his own bat to speed up the plot. From what I've heard about the Russian armed forces such IN-SUB-ordination would be punished extremely harshly, and since he had nothing to gain by doing it you have to put it down to laziness and lack of imagination.
A better choice would have been to have made the Tardis' materialising cause it. But these are minor issues when you don't have any characters or plot. Even by the reduced standards of the Moffat era this was tension free. It shouldn't have been.
When I saw the cast list of David Warner, Liam Cunningham and Tobias Menzies (Rome, Shadow Line ) I expected a fulll RADA blowout - in the end they were all wasted.
Sinking sub, ice warrior, nukes, angry Russians, trapped farts. It writes itself, right?
Apparently not.
I found it baffling that they spunked away David Warner so callously. I was convinced he was going to turn out to by The Master or something.
Quote: Nil Putters @ April 13 2013, 9:39 PM BSTDecimalisation?
Rounded up, 38p then ?
I thought it was a decent episode and, for once, I wasn't left scratching my head. It had shades of Dalek about it, but didn't seem to pack in quite as much as that episode did. I did find that the submarine crew were all a bit samey and superfluous, but the Captain had some gravitas about him even if he was terrible at making decisions.
I was disappointed that the Ice Warrior left it's armour as I felt it lost a bit of mystery then. My view was that the BBC didn't have enough faith in a design from nearly 50 years ago and thought CGI would give it more impact. I think it was a bit of an insult to the viewing public, to be honest, to think that they can't go without CGI. Sadly, I doubt this will ever change.
How come they could all still understand each other if the Tardis had gone?
Quote: zooo @ April 13 2013, 10:07 PM BSTHow come they could all still understand each other if the Tardis had gone?
It's linked interdimensionally into the Doctor's biopsychocommunication code.
Probably.
Heh.
Quote: Ben @ April 13 2013, 10:03 PM BSTI was disappointed that the Ice Warrior left it's armour as I felt it lost a bit of mystery then. My view was that the BBC didn't have enough faith in a design from nearly 50 years ago and thought CGI would give it more impact. I think it was a bit of an insult to the viewing public, to be honest, to think that they can't go without CGI. Sadly, I doubt this will ever change.
I think that was actually down to Gatiss. Apparently he'd been trying to get Moffat to do an Ice Warrior story for ages, but Moffat wasn't keen, thought they were the sort of lumbering baddie from old Who people take the mickey out of. Gatiss then said he'd talked about a new feature, something we hadn't seen from them before, and that's when Moffat became more interested. Personally, I like the fact that they slipped out of their suit. It is, after all, armour, rather than skin, or a fixed shell. Gives them an extra something. It's just a shame they decided on a cartoon head rather than a mask.
Quote: zooo @ April 13 2013, 10:07 PM BSTHow come they could all still understand each other if the Tardis had gone?
Because being inside it alters the brain, it doesn't just wear off.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 13 2013, 10:15 PM BSTBecause being inside it alters the brain, it doesn't just wear off.
Ahh thanks, knew there must be a reason. Not the sort of thing people are going to make a mistake about.
Quote: zooo @ April 13 2013, 10:18 PM BSTAhh thanks, knew there must be a reason. Not the sort of thing people are going to make a mistake about.
Except last week, when JLC couldn't understand the alien bazaar traders.
The Tardis didn't like her last week, thought she was a right bitch it did.