Thin Ice review [Marc Platt]

Martian relics have found their way into the hands of Russian scientists in 1967, and so have the Doctor and Ace. Caught up in the planning of a robbery with Londoner Markus Creevy and Russian Raina Kerenskaya, the two come face-to-face with the Ice Warriors.

When and Where: Moscow, November 1967. For the Doctor and Ace, this is between Survival and Crime of the Century, which is just under twenty-two years later for the Creevys. For the Ice Warriors, this is between Empress of Mars and Cold War.

The Doctor's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "You always used to call me 'professor'." / "Kids' stuff. Things change." / "I liked it."
• "Come on, professor. We've still got work to do."
• Choosing to introduce a companion's parents and her own birth the story before her first real appearance is a wonderful idea that makes this one of the best companion introductions, certainly of Classic Who. Markus is a cheeky and likeable man who we'll be seeing again and who was meant to be a recurring character in the classic show much as the Brigadier was. Raina too is well-performed by Beth Chalmers and proves to be one of the more interesting characters, having a believable and sweet secret romance with Markus. Doctor Who doesn't have a great track record of accents (Ray's Welsh accent in Delta and the Bannermen, Peri's American) but Ricky Groves and Beth Chalmers do an excellent job, as do all the Russians.
• Ace sympathises with Lord Hhessh, having been taken from her planet against her will when she had to live on Svartos. They have a nice relationship, which is the sort of thing not really seen between Ace and any aliens on the show (with the exception of Kara). It helps that Hhessh is played by Nicholas Briggs with a voice far superior than was used in Red Dawn for Lord Zzaal.
  
• The Doctor is his manipulative self, secretly training Ace to become a Time Lady and keeping the fact that his people are testing her from her.

The Valeyard's Case:

• A Bad Quotation:
• "Groovy, baby."
• Had this story been produced for the television, it was to be Ace's departure. Big Finish chooses, rather than to have Thin Ice take place post-Hex, to have it take place shortly after Survival, meaning that Ace remains with the Doctor rather than going to Gallifrey. This is disappointing. Ace has appeared in around forty audio dramas and, just as the Sixth Doctor was refreshed by travelling with Evelyn and Flip, it would have been nice to finally see Ace leave and to have the Doctor travel alone with Raine. Ace staying gets in the way of what could be an engaging new relationship between the two and will relegate Raine to a tag-along rather than the companion that she would have and should have been. This could have been the start of a brand new era for the Seventh Doctor, but it wasn't so.
• A powerful relic searched for and fought over by a number of factions and starring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and one of the big Doctor Who monsters. This could be used to describe Remembrance of the Daleks, Silver Nemesis and now Thin Ice. The heist element adds some refreshment, but it can't disguise that it's the second story to follow on the successful formula of Remembrance without much success.
• Each of the cliff-hangers are lacklustre. Hhessh saying that Ace needs to die in an unthreatening way that could only be resolved with ridiculous ease (which it is), the Doctor saying that a tractor beam is pulling them in... They fail to make any sort of impression or cause any degree of excitement or anticipation. The Time Lord telling Ace that she was being tested to join the Academy would have been a great cliff-hanger if we didn't already know that this was the case.
  
• Ace getting angry at the Doctor because she feels she can't trust him. We've already seen this, in Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric. Unfortunately, this means that Ace's statement that she will never trust the Doctor again just feels like something we've heard before and adds nothing new to their relationship.
• There's far too much percussion in this story. Not only is it unlike the classic series' soundtrack, but it can get rather irritating at times. The music at times is reminiscent of that of Attack of the Cybermen.

I'll Explain Later:

• If the Doctor can communicate with the Time Lords telepathically as he does in this story, why hasn't it been done before?

This Reminds Me...:

• "This is a kindness," Hhessh says. This is the catchphrase of the Handbots seen in The Girl Who Waited.
• "Who are you calling small?" Ace says, as she did to a Dalek in Remembrance of the Daleks before beating it up with her enhanced baseball bat.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: Thin Ice would have been the first episode of season 27 and would have made for a sedate opener notable only for Ace's quiet departure. The audio drama doesn't have that, meaning it's all-round average and largely unmemorable. The bottom line is that, despite some great performances for Markus and Raina, there isn't enough plot for four parts (perhaps making it even more authentic as a Classic Who story than it intended). It goes through the motions and from plot point to plot point, but it's slow and a boring listen. It's atrocious, and that earns it an F.

The Lost Stories (Series 2)

The Destroyers  |  Thin Ice  |  Crime of the Century

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