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

Click here for more audio dramas featuring the Seventh Doctor

Red Dawn review [Justin Richards]

The Doctor and Peri land on Mars and uncover the tombs of the Ice Warriors. But they aren't the only non-Martians on the planet: the US has sent a team for reasons the Doctor might have something to say about.

When and Where: Mars in the 2000s. For the Doctor and Peri, this takes place between Rulebook and The Eye of the Scorpion as the Doctor has promised Peri an alien world. For the Ice Warriors, it is between Cold War and before Frozen Time.

The Doctor's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "Your instruments aren't reliable. You're in better shape than the instruments say." / "We know that." / "You do?" / "Yeah. The instruments say we're dead."
• As somebody who didn't even remotely like anything about Perpugilliam Brown ("known as Peri") onscreen, bar her extraordinary death (which was sadly retconned, leaving no redeeming points), this story has opened my mind to the possibility that she might be salvageable, just as Big Finish proved Mel Bush to be. She exhibits botanical knowledge, which she rarely did on TV (similar to Mel and her computer skills), and she's intelligent, observant and even a little witty. Nicola Bryant's accent has improved as well, even if it does still noticeably wander at times.
• The Fifth Doctor and Peri are a fresh pairing ripe for adventures and a developing relationship. The Caves of Androzani was clearly intended to directly follow Planet of Fire (with Peri in the same clothes, referencing Sarn and asking the Doctor about his celery), but given how surprisingly good Peri was in this story I have no complaints about it.
• It's strange to say that the setting of an audio drama is one of the best things about it, but the journeying across the windy surface of Mars, the imagery of the organic shell of the Ice Warrior tombs and the sacrifice of Lord Zzaal under the rising Sun are all wonderfully done.

The Valeyard's Case:

• A Bad Quotation:
• "Save yourself, Doctor."
• Webster is a dull villain. His motives are good enough and certainly could have resulted in more plot, but he's ultimately a forgettably-written character with a forgettable performance. Tanya too is uninteresting despite the revelation that she is a human/Ice Warrior hybrid, which nonsensically allows her to have knowledge of the Martians' culture and technology. It's a twist that she doesn't react to in a realistic or relatable way.
• It was most likely done to differentiate the Ice Warriors given how difficult whispers can be to tell apart, but Commander Zzaal doesn't sound that much like an Ice Warrior bar the little hisses. It makes it difficult to image an Ice Warrior rather than a human delivering these lines. 

I'll Explain Later:

• Will Tanya be able to survive on Mars? Do the Ice Warriors speak English or will she lose her ability to speak to them once the TARDIS is gone?

Later's Arrived: 

• The reason that the Martians use the name "Ice Warriors", a term used by humans to describe them in The Ice Warriors, is that the Fifth Doctor referred to them by it and they adopted it as their own. Another explanation is offered in Lords of the Red Planet which makes more sense given that Iraxxa used the term in Empress of Mars, long before Red Dawn.

This Reminds Me...:

• The Doctor mentions that the yearometer is on the blink, which it has been since An Unearthly Child.
• The British Mars missions were seen in The Ambassadors of Death.
• The tombs are reminiscent of the Cybermen's on Telos seen in The Tomb of the Cybermen and Attack of the Cybermen.
• The Ice Warriors offer a treaty, much like the proposed human-Silurian treaty in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: This is a story that began promisingly but turned out to have a thinner plot than expected. NASA is done well, with the shuttle sequences being believable, and both Peri and the visual imagery stirred up by the dialogue, sound design and notably good music are the best things about it. The Ice Warriors aren't always done hugely well and their code of honour can be boring, but they make a decent appearance even if Zzaal's voice isn't quite Ice Warrior-y enough. Ultimately, Red Dawn is a good story deserving of a B.

The Main Range - The Fifth Doctor

The Land of the Dead  |  Red Dawn  |  Winter for the Adept

The Main Range - Peri Brown

Whispers of Terror  |  Red Dawn  |  The Eye of the Scorpion

'Empress of Mars' review [Mark Gatiss]

The Doctor and Bill are waited on by an Ice Warrior at a Victorian tea party on Mars.

After NASA finds a message on Mars reading "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN", the Doctor, Bill and Nardole head to the Red Planet in 1881 to investigate. There they find Colonel Godsacre and his Victorian soldiers, as well as their pet Ice Warrior in search of his queen.

Mark Gatiss is a regular contributor to Modern Who, writing 'The Unquiet Dead', 'The Idiot's Lantern', 'Victory of the Daleks', 'Cold War', 'The Crimson Horror', 'Robot of Sherwood' and, most recently, the much-maligned 'Sleep No More'. None of these are exactly classics and are, at best, divisive (with the possible exception of his first episode). He intended to write a sequel to 'Sleep No More', but (fortunately) he instead wrote another Ice Warrior episode. Was it any better than his last?

Spoiler Zone

The episode

With limited sets, the crew being separated from the TARDIS and the Doctor trying to unite two opposing sides, this episode shares a lot in common with Classic Who stories such as 'The Silurians' or 'Warriors of the Deep'. The Doctor as a peacemaker certainly echoes earlier Doctors such as Jon Pertwee or a less-bumbling Patrick Troughton. Bill is similarly in the role of a classic companion (minus the screams), largely taking a backseat but asking the usual questions. This isn't always a bad thing considering her large role in 'The Lie of the Land'. Nardole is rather gingerly removed from the episode. Was that necessary? Couldn't the Doctor and Bill have landed on Mars without him? It seems to have been done just to bring Missy in for the briefest of scenes.

Considering the Ice Warriors are an iconic Doctor Who villain (behind the Daleks and the Cybermen, of course) they've made very few appearances. Mark Gatiss makes the most of this by fleshing out the Ice Warriors a bit, giving us a bit of backstory, more of a clue of their hierarchy and weaponry, and leads into 'The Curse of Peladon' with contact between Mars and the Galactic Federation. The Ice Warrior weapons are a new, visually-interesting and gruesome way to die, and the faceless race are given a figurehead in the shape of the Ice Queen Iraxxa, Empress of Mars. She's played as a snarling villain with little subtlety, but shows some depth when she shows her respect for the ashamed coward Colonel Godsacre. Iraxxa's desire for Bill's opinion because she was a fellow woman amongst "noisy males" came across as unnecessary and a clumsy way of getting Bill involved in the negotiations.

The more charismatic villain of the episode is Captain Neville Catchlove. Whilst not a well-rounded character, he is less cartoonishly evil than Lord Sutcliffe of 'Thin Ice' and much more fun to watch. The Victorian soldiers each fulfil a particular trope, but the script and performance means that they feel much more alive than, say, the forgettable colonists of Gliese 581 D or the underdeveloped crew of Chasm Forge. The colloquialisms sometimes come across as a bit forced and awkward, but it's at least an attempt at world-building. It's also a shame that there's no real sense that the soldiers are in much danger. We're told that food is running low and so is morale, but there's no feel of the desperation that no doubt they should be experiencing.

All-in-all, 'Empress of Mars' was a decent episode reminiscent of not only Troughton and Pertwee's run, but also, unfortunately, Matt Smith's. The pre-credits sequence was self-satisfied and unneeded. The scene is far more suited to Eleventh, Amy and Rory, which isn't a good thing.

A good quotation

"That's why you helped him come home. To claim Mars in the name of Queen Victoria, to loot it of its riches, stake a claim. The red planet turned pink."

TARDIS crew and co.

• The Doctor: "The last thing I'm going to do is take sides." The Doctor isn't a hero, just a good man trying to do what's right. Some more conflict about whether he's helping the Ice Warriors or the humans would have been nice; the Doctor mentions that the humans are the invaders here, but this isn't really delivered on. As always, Capaldi is great in the role.
• Bill Potts: "We can stand together." Bill has spent six months on a dystopian Earth and tried to kill the Doctor. Where are the consequences of this? Bill's walking along making pop-culture references as though she didn't shoot the Doctor in last week's episode. We're reminded that she's a fan of science fiction.
• Nardole: "So, er... What did I miss?" An awful lot is the answer. After being a key part of the TARDIS crew since 'Oxygen', Nardole sits this one out.
• Missy: "But, Doctor, please tell me. Really, are you alright?" Missy helps get the TARDIS back to Mars to save the Doctor and Bill, then says she's happy to return to the vault and seems genuinely concerned for the Doctor's welfare. Is she really turning over a new leaf?

Plot holes and continuity

• What were the Doctor, Bill and Nardole doing at NASA?
• Why did the TARDIS disappear? Hostile Action Displacement System? It didn't seem to be in any real danger.

Click here for other series 10 reviews