2013 Doctor Who episode
"Cold War" is the ordinal episode of the seventh series of the British science falsehood television series Doctor Who. It first aired on BBC Predispose on 13 April 2013, and was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.
In the episode, alien frustrate traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companionClara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) land on a Soviet submarine in 1983 during rendering Cold War, where the Ice Warrior Grand Marshal Skaldak breaks loose and plots revenge against humanity.
"Cold War" reintroduces say publicly Ice Warriors, who were last seen in the Third Dr. serial The Monster of Peladon (1974). Bringing back the monsters was Gatiss' idea, and he convinced executive producer Steven Moffat by coming up with new things to do with them. The Ice Warriors' costume was improved but not significantly redesigned, as the production team felt they were not well state enough. The episode was filmed in June 2012 on a submarine set, as the story is a closed "base-under-siege". "Cold War" was watched by 7.37 million viewers and received conventionally positive reviews from critics.
A Soviet submarine is sailing next to the North Pole in 1983 during the Cold War. Involved the submarine's cargo hold a sailor prematurely begins to dissolve a block of ice that Professor Grisenko believes contains a frozen mammoth, and is attacked by an Ice Warrior.
The submarine begins sinking as the Ice Warrior runs amok. Rendering TARDIS materialises inside the submarine and the Eleventh Doctor president Clara tumble out. The Doctor convinces Captain Zhukov to evasion the submarine to the side, landing it safely on a ridge and preventing it from imploding. During this the TARDIS dematerialises by itself. The Doctor encourages the crew to happen to peaceful to the escaped Ice Warrior, Grand Marshal Skaldak, but the ship's executive officer Stepashin knocks out Skaldak. Knowing renounce Skaldak will desire vengeance for being attacked, the Doctor presentday the crew chain Skaldak.
Clara volunteers to speak to Skaldak to try and calm him, relaying the Doctor's words make sure of Skaldak, though he knows that the Doctor is listening. Interpretation Doctor informs Skaldak he was encased in the ice mix 5000 years. Skaldak laments the loss of his daughter challenging his people; however, the Doctor tries to comfort him plonk the knowledge that the Ice Warriors still live, just arrange on Earth or Mars. Skaldak does not believe the Dr. and stops broadcasting his distress call to the other Apply Warriors. The Doctor surmises that, thinking himself to be representation last of his kind, Skaldak has nothing left to save over. He grabs and kills three members of the crew, including Stepashin.
Having learnt of the ongoing Cold War and rendering doctrine of mutually assured destruction from Stepashin, Skaldak plans undulation use the submarine's nuclear missiles to provoke a global thermonuclear war and destroy humanity as revenge for the humans offensive him – under the Martian code humanity as a taken as a whole has declared war on the Ice Warrior race by assaulting him. Reaching the bridge, he is able to connect himself to the submarine's missile guidance systems and activate the missiles. The Doctor and Clara are attempting to persuade Skaldak abolish show mercy when the submarine is rocked by a tractor beam from above: the Ice Warriors heard Skaldak's distress shout and haul the submarine to the surface. Skaldak is beamed aboard the Ice Warriors' spaceship and deactivates the missiles remotely. The Doctor discovers the TARDIS has relocated to the Southmost Pole.
The Ice Warriors were a well-known villain of description original Doctor Who series. They appeared alongside the Second Stretch (Patrick Troughton) in The Ice Warriors (1967) and The Seeds of Death (1969) and returned in the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) stories The Curse of Peladon (1972) and The Giant of Peladon (1974).[1] Showrunner Steven Moffat had originally been unsettled to bring back the Ice Warriors, worrying that they were seen as "the default condition for what people thought disregard as rubbish Doctor Who monsters — things that moved very, exceedingly slowly and spoke in a way that meant you couldn't hear a word they said."[2] Writer Mark Gatiss, however, was a fan of the Ice Warriors' stories and had antediluvian campaigning to bring them back.[1][2] In a phone conversation greet Moffat that was originally supposed to be about their county show Sherlock, Gatiss pitched new and "very clever ideas" of what to do with the Ice Warriors, and Moffat agreed.[3] What sold Moffat were the submarine setting and seeing what description Ice Warriors looked like underneath their suits.[4] Gatiss felt renounce the Ice Warriors had a lot of gaps in their timeline and had not been featured in a while, which allowed a lot of room to explore them.[5]
The submarine was Gatiss's idea; he felt that Doctor Who called out get to the bottom of be set on a submarine.[4] Executive producer Caroline Skinner described the story as "Letting a huge Ice Warrior loose utter the heart of a classic Hunt For Red October talk to submarine movie."[1] Gatiss chose the time period because he was "kind of obsessed" with the Cold War, and felt delay there were several times in the 1980s where the 1 was close.[4] Gatiss also described "Cold War" as a "love-letter" to the base-under-siege stories that were common during Troughton's time;[6] the episode even contains a reference to Troughton's The Krotons, which was the last time the TARDIS's HADS had bent mentioned.[7]
The read-through for "Cold War" took place on 6 June 2012, with filming beginning on 13 June.[8] For the grinder setting, the cast would be sprayed in between every take.[9] The scenes in which the characters are drenched in spa water were achieved by constantly pouring "gallons and gallons of water" on the cast. Actor Jenna-Louise Coleman found the experience games, while actor Matt Smith said that it made acting easier.[4] Coleman said, "The whole make-up process was reversed as they would damp us down in the morning and rub clear out mascara off!"[9] For the shots of the submarine in say publicly ocean, a model was used. It was suspended upside-down observe "shredded feathers" blown at it to give the effect locate being under the sea. It was the first story sediment Matt Smith's era to use model work, with Mike Vaudevillian and his team being specifically asked back to make picture sub.[4][10]
Unlike some other returning monsters, the Ice Warriors were classify heavily redesigned. Gatiss insisted upon keeping the fundamentals of picture original[5] and Moffat explained that the original design was party well known enough to put a new spin on essential parts, and so Skaldak's shell is just a "super-version of depiction original".[3] Of the original design, Millennium FX's Neill Gorton alleged, "My problem with the old ones is they had Toy hands and weird, spindly arms but a bulky body professor these strange saddlebag hips, almost feminine. They had fur attach out everywhere. So all of that together didn't suggest 'ice warriors.' They should be much beefier and stronger. We gave it more of a bodybuilder physique, changed the hands good turn styled the body to make it look more like armour-plating, even though it's reptilian."[11] The costume was made of tap down urethane rubber instead of the fibreglass like the original, bit it would damage less easily and be more comfortable term paper wear. The costume was made specially to fit Spencer Wilding.[11] Though only some of Skaldak's real appearance was shown on-screen, Gorton stated that they created a full animatronic body.[7]
"Cold War" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom bandage BBC One on 13 April 2013.[12] Overnight ratings showed delay 5.73 million viewers watched the episode live,[13] a 28.8% hearing share.[14] When timeshifted viewers were taken into account, the luminary rose to 7.37 million viewers, the fifth most-watched programme exert a pull on the week on BBC One.[15] In addition, "Cold War" conventional 1.65 million requests on the online BBC iPlayer during Apr, the fourth most-watched programme on the service for the month.[16] The episode also received an Appreciation Index of 84.[17]
The episode received generally positive reviews. Dan Martin of The Guardian wrote that "Cold War" was "easily the best of that new series so far, and Mark Gatiss's finest contribution yet." He praised the reinvention of the Ice Warrior and mat that the elements came together to form an episode defer was "tense, tightly wound, claustrophobic but also full of heart."[18]Zap2it's Geoff Berkshire said that "Cold War" was better than Gatiss' previous episodes "The Idiot's Lantern" and "Victory of the Daleks". He praised the guest cast, but wished "their characters esoteric a bit more meat to them."[19]Independent reviewer Neela Debnath described the story as "slick and intelligent" with "cinematic aesthetics keep from tone."[20]
Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times found an inconsistency with depiction TARDIS translation matrix, but overall was positive towards the interim, visual aspects, and story.[7]Daily Telegraph reviewer Gavin Fuller gave depiction episode four out of five stars, describing it as "finely crafted" and "thrilling." He praised the setting and the duologue, but felt that the Soviet characters were "perilously close be carried being ciphers."[21]Digital Spy's Morgan Jeffery awarded the episode five be the source of of five stars, saying that it was "fresh and exciting" but also had a "wonderfully old-school tone." He wrote put off it had "one of the best guest casts to conspiracy graced Doctor Who since the show returned in 2005" ride also praised the reintroduction of the Ice Warriors and rendering production values.[22] Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club gave "Cold War" a grade of A, highlighting the tense atmosphere, say publicly "bold new direction" taken with the Ice Warriors, the company performances, and Clara's importance.[23]
Russell Lewin of SFX gave "Cold War" four out of five stars, praising the set and turn as well as the Ice Warrior. On the other cavalier, Lewin noted that, as a base-under-siege story, it did arrange play with the narrative form or "go anywhere we couldn't have predicted," with the exception of the Ice Warrior heartrending out of its suit.[24]IGN's Mark Snow gave the episode a rating of 8.3 out of 10. Snow praised the introduction of the Ice Warriors and called Skaldak "the show's about memorable villain in a while, thanks to his stern, on occasion psychopathic approach to problem solving, and an environment that helped make the bulky, heavy creature design imposing rather than ludicrously naff." However, he felt that some of Skaldak's effects were "laughably rubbery" and that his motivations were "psychotically random."[25]Tor.com writer Emmet Asher-Perrin was more critical of the episode, pointing set free that little happened. She called the pacing "sloppy" and mix Skaldak to not be an interesting foe.[26]
In Doctor Who Magazine issue 460, Graham Kibble-White gave it a mixed review. Proceed complimented the fact that "the action kicks off early – very early – and then doesn't let up", and held the Ice Warrior redesign was "the best reinvention so off of an old Doctor Who foe", although he admitted of course thought it was "a shame to lose the tufts pay money for hair around the joints", saying they gave the Ice Warriors "a pleasing organic feel upon the shell." He complained perceive the reference to the Ice Warriors' code of honour, claiming it to have always been "damnably dull." Additionally, he unlikeable the revelation of Skaldak's true form, claiming it to outward show like "a not especially memorable CGI tortoise" and saying description BBC seems to have forgotten that "monsters are diminished when they're brought into the light", as well as worrying think about it it may have been "breaking a taboo for the show".[27]