·
Ask Mark Gatiss to write a base under siege
story and you get what you’d expect – a solid, incredibly traditional episode
of Doctor Who. It’s not exciting, but taken on its own terms, this is a
perfectly good story that continues series seven’s pretty consistent run of
episodes (for my money, it has yet to have given us a bad story).
·
Clara is less prominent here than she was in
“Akhaten” – Gatiss’s traditionalism means he’s rarely going to come up with a
particularly plot driving role for the companion, but there are some solid
character notes for Clara throught the episode nonetheless. Gatiss writes a
traditional companion, but does usually give them good material. Clara reacts
with fear to her first truly unpleasant adventure, as the danger of TARDIS
travel first becomes clear to her. But it’s a fear that Clara visibly wants to
hide, and keep under control: the foundations for “let me be brave” are laid
out here. Also notable is her self assessment: Clara asks the Doctor if she did
well enough when interrogating Skaldak, and later quietly asses her own performance
to assure herself she didn’t do anything wrong: once again, we get early hints
of Clara’s determination to be as good at travelling in time and space as
possible, whatever the consequences.
·
The episode’s main thematic content comes in its
exploration of Skaldak, and the differing value system he represents, as a war
hero in his own society, and a dangerous war criminal by the standards of our
society. The parallels between these themes and the Cold War tensions explored
by the tension are nicely made and delved into. The episode is continuing the
season (and the era’s) exploration of soldiers, bringing up the “Doctor as
Soldier” theme that will be key to the 50th anniversary when the
Captain accuses the Doctor of being easily read as a soldier by Skaldak. It’s
all tightly constructed, and builds to a reasonably satisfying conclusion, but
“Cold War” never quite pushes these themes far enough or into interesting
enough places to stand out as anything more than the standard episode it’s
aiming to be.
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