Doctor Who Series 10 Episode 3 - Thin Ice - Review
Starring: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Nicholas Burns & Asiatu Koroma
Written By: Sarah Dollard
Directed By: Bill Anderson
The
third episode in to Series 10, Thin Ice takes us back
to a snow-covered Victorian London. It's a tried and tested formula
for the first three episodes of a series to go from present day, to
the future and then back to the past. But it works so well, not only
as a jumping on point for new viewers, but for showing practically
everywhere Doctor Who can take us – the past, present and
future. Sarah Dollard returns as this week's writer, after doing such
a great job with Series 9's Face The Raven, and the
trailers for this one have looked pretty good. So how did the final
product turn out?
The
TARDIS brings the Doctor and Bill to London in 1814 – the last of
the frost fairs on a frozen River Thames. The two decide to explore
and enjoy the attractions, but not all is as it seems at the fair.
Mysterious lights are appearing under the ice, and whenever they
appear, someone is dragged into the waters underneath. The Doctor and
Bill's investigation leads them to discover that several orphan
children have been paid to attract more people onto the ice. Whoever
it is paying the children, they're deliberately feeding the creature
under the ice – a gigantic ice snake.
What
really hits you within moments of going into Thin Ice,
is that it recaptures the look and feel of the historical period
beautifully. It looks absolutely stunning, and it wasn't until I
watched some of the behind the scenes material that I learnt the
majority of the stuff on the frozen Thames was actually filmed in a
studio. I honestly had no idea, it had me completely convinced that
it was outdoor work, and the design work done on the cold foggy mist
and things like the huge bridge set-piece are astounding. There's an
air of magic about everything, and my reaction to it mirrors Bill's
as she takes everything in. Her first steps onto the frozen Thames
and the sheer look of joy on her face, is just so brilliant to watch.
Both she and the Doctor also look the part in their period costume,
and Peter Capaldi's Doctor suits the Victorian gentlemen's get-up so
well. With the number of references that have previously been made in
Doctor Who about the last of the great frost fairs, this feels
like something the production team have wanted to do for a while, and
it's such a shame that a reference to the Doctor once getting Stevie
Wonder to sing for River Song at this same frost fair was eventually
cut. That's a reference I'd have appreciated for once! This setting
really feels like it has no boundaries, and that the whole of
Victorian London is there for the Doctor and Bill to explore.
Everything from the stalls and entertainment on the ice, the glimpses
of a London backdrop, underwater in the Thames itself, Lord
Sutcliffe's house, the docks – it all feels so alive!
Something
else that's hard to miss within Thin Ice is its strong
political themes, specifically those to do with racism and slavery.
With the image of having something that everyone refers to as a
“creature” being kept down in chains below everyone else, it's
hard to miss it. The way they addressed these topics was very nicely
done, although it faced a little bit of backlash I want to just
briefly respond to. A certain minority responded to this episode
addressing racism by saying Doctor Who should stop being
political, or that they're not watching anymore because it's
pandering to Social Justice Warriors (SJWs). If you're among this
crowd, then have you and I been watching the same show? Go back and
watch stories like 1972's The Curse Of Peladon –
Doctor Who has gone political long before this and it's
supposed to! As for the show pandering to SJWs – you're
watching Doctor Who! The Doctor is practically the biggest SJW
that's ever lived! Besides, how can you call yourself a rational decent
person and still say you're against societal justice? Anyway I'm
going off topic – to see Thin Ice tackle stuff like
racism and slavery this directly in a family show like Doctor Who,
is a step in the right direction. It had been briefly brought up
before with Martha in episodes like The Shakespeare Code,
but never with this much emphasis. Within minutes of stepping out of
the TARDIS, Bill is worried about her skin colour in the time they've
arrived in, and how slavery is still present. Yet later she is
surprised when she sees such diversity around the frost fair:
“Regency England – bit more black than they show in the
movies”, to which the Doctor responds “So was Jesus,
history's a whitewash”. It is true that we have a tendency in
popular culture to think that minorities seemed to just disappear
between the time where slavery was abolished, and the start of the
civil rights movements. Lord Sutcliffe is also important in this
regard, and while his characterization is sadly clunky, over-the-top
and flat-footed, people like him did exist and some still do
today. That punch the Doctor delivers to him, which everyone is quite
rightly raving about, is definitely satisfying and also quite a funny
moment after all the Doctor's talk about tact and diplomacy. And for
everyone saying the punch was out of character or undeserved: 1) Go
back and watch The Seeds Of Doom – the Doctor has
served far worse than that, and 2) There's very little reasoning to
be had with people like Lord Sutcliffe.
Another
accomplishment for Thin Ice is its mastery over its own
tone throughout its run-time. Over the course of forty-five minutes,
Thin Ice puts you through a surprising range of
emotions. At the start, everything feels magical and wonderful to
see, like I've said. But it isn't afraid to take a darker and more
brutal tone when it wants or needs to. It doesn't hold our hand when
it comes to scenes like the orphan kid Spider's death, as the fish
drag him under the ice to be devoured. Its execution isn't exactly
horrific, but that's proper gnarly and grim stuff when you think
about it. Then when the Doctor and Bill meet the orphan kids being
paid by Lord Sutcliffe, the episode temporarily resumes its fun and
magical tone, with the Doctor even reading a story to the younger
kids in what is quite a sweet scene. Once Lord Sutcliffe is actually
introduced however, we take a more serious turn again, not to mention
a killer line of dialogue with “I preferred you when you were an
alien. At least that explained the lack of humanity”. But then
just as the episode comes to an end, we resume with the light-hearted
tone, with the Doctor and Bill's last moments before leaving and the
eventual fate of the orphan kids feeling like a warm, fuzzy hug. It's
not inconsistent with its tone, but just has great range instead.
The
darker or more serious moments do allow for some really great scenes
between the Doctor and Bill as they get to know each other even more.
One aspect they find time to touch upon at the start is the
implications of time travel to the past, as done through the whole
“Pete” thing, which was very entertaining. But more importantly,
and as I'd hoped to see from Thin Ice, Bill gets to see
the darker and less fun side of travelling with the Doctor. In fact
in the scene where Spider gets taken under the ice, the Doctor seems
to know that there's nothing he can do for him anymore, and seems
more concerned with getting his sonic screwdriver back safe. Bill
insists that the Doctor must do something to save him, but the Doctor
knows he can't, and I was so glad to see and hear him say that there
was a death that he could do nothing about. After what the
abomination Hell Bent did to the value of death in this
show, I'll have more of this to try and make up for it please! Peter
Capaldi himself is on form as the Doctor, and he becomes lost in the
role when it comes to moments like the aforementioned scene of the
Doctor reading to the orphans. His “two thousand years old” speech
and in particular his speech to Lord Sutcliffe, are further
highlights, the latter of which is up there with his anti-war speech
from The Zygon Inversion. His speech to Lord Sutcliffe
is also I think the moment where Bill falls in love with the Doctor,
and you can see that just from the look in her eyes alone. In just
her third episode, Pearl Mackie as Bill is just such a brilliant
companion, and already I can say that she's my favourite since Donna.
I've honestly felt more towards her in three episodes than I suppose
I ever did for Amy or Clara. There's just so much good stuff to take
away from this episode!
While
I do really love Thin Ice, and it's certainly my
favourite episode of Series 10 so far, it does have a couple of issues
that could have been better ironed out. I've already mentioned the
problems with Lord Sutcliffe, but also the concept of some huge and
possibly alien creature being exploited by human beings is pretty
much copied and pasted from The Beast Below, and the
Torchwood episode, Meat. This isn't a huge
problem, but after The Pilot featured a villain that
was basically an amalgamation of previous bad guys, and Smile
took its main premise directly from The Happiness Patrol,
I hope this borrowing isn't going to become a running trend. I'm also
a bit doubtful on how you could keep the presence of a sea snake that
massive under the Thames a secret for that long. I assume that its
presence was what was making London cold enough to freeze over the
Thames, but it was never that clearly explained, nor was the question
of why those fish were providing food for it. The Doctor says they
were in a symbiotic relationship, but what do the fish get out of it?
But even with these questions still lingering, I'll admit I did like
how the start and end of this episode tied into both The Pilot
and Smile. Ending last week's episode with the
Doctor and Bill discovering the elephant on the ice was a really nice
way of linking the two episodes together, and having them return to
the university to find Nardole bringing their tea, was another great
link back to the end of The Pilot. We also end on a
rather ominous note of Nardole hearing knocking coming from inside
the Vault, and while I'm loving the simplicity of just having a
locked door for the series arc, I am also intrigued to find out who
or what exactly is behind them.
Overall
I really, really loved Thin Ice. I went in expecting to
like it, but didn't expect to come away liking it just this much.
Easily my favourite instalment of the series so far, Sarah Dollard
tells the story she's created in a compact, succinct way over
forty-five minutes. It isn't afraid to take a more serious edge when
required and features some of the most effective political commentary
since The Zygon Inversion. All the while it's set
against a beautiful location that brings the colour, fun and wonder
of the time to life, whilst rounding off a fairly strong set of
opening episodes for Series 10.
Thin Ice
9/10