View Poll Results: How would you rate Cold War?
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Thread: Rate and Discuss: Cold War
Results 26 to 50 of 62
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15th Apr 2013, 12:23 PM #26
Best episode of this season so far, by quite a long chalk. Tense, atmospheric and better paced. However, I agree about David Warner being wasted, as good as he was, and the resolution was a bit of a drab let-down.
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15th Apr 2013, 12:37 PM #27
Once again a story that barely stands up to a second watch, with so many peripheral flaws that become gaping. Still better than episode one, but now drops down to level pegging with the second.
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15th Apr 2013, 2:06 PM #28
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15th Apr 2013, 3:25 PM #29
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15th Apr 2013, 3:28 PM #30
That's what I thought too Alex- something to lighten the mood rather than a serious question.
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
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15th Apr 2013, 4:45 PM #31
Far less overuse of the sonic, which was good. All it seemed to do this episode was change colour and be used as a threat, which could have as easily be done with a Jammie Dodger for all we know - the screwdriver might not have been capable of carrying out the threat.
Did think it was going to go Fendahl or Fang Rock initially, with everyone/almost everyone dying, but that doesn't seem to happen in the new series.
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15th Apr 2013, 6:53 PM #32
Hate to admit it, but being Game of Thrones fans (as well as Americans perhaps), Liam Cunningham was the big guest star for us.
Jackson (who is 6) was fit to be tied during the scary parts where Skaldak was out of his suit and on the prowl. First he got in my lap to cower, then he jumped down to run to Mommy and then couldn't decide who he wanted to hide with. He wanted us to sit together so he could hide between us under a cover.
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15th Apr 2013, 7:00 PM #33
I found the HADS rather obvious and a terrible contrivance to write the TARDIS out. Couldn't they have flooded that part of the sub so they simply couldn't reach it or have the Captain insist on not abondonding the ship? There should have been another way than the bloody HADS!
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15th Apr 2013, 9:56 PM #34Close embrace
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7 out of 10 (I clicked 6 by mistake)
A vast improvement but there is something missing from the episodes in this second half.
The production values were excellent. I am really liking Clara and her relationship with the Doctor. The claustrophobic base under siege plot didn't have enough tension for me. Maybe because they only focused on a few characters and the ones picked off by Skullduc(?) remained nameless. The obligatory insubordinate second officer subplot suddenly petered out (ok, he was killed), when I was expecting it to have a bigger impact.
The contrivance of having a petty officer take it upon himself to defrost the Ice Warrior was pretty lame. And where was it stored? A freezer unit or just left in cargo? They have no idea what is in it, and how did they get it on board.
What was the point of knocking the TARDIS out of the action? If it dematerialsed itself everytime danger occured, the Doctor would have be stranded a long time ago. So why reactivate it and put himself and companion in a difficult situation? Which it did at the end. The South Pole?? Exactly how long would it take them to reach it from where they were. And why were they not frozen to death when they left the sub at the end in sub zero temparatures?
On the plus side, it was MArk Gatiss' best story since The Unquiet Dead.
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15th Apr 2013, 11:43 PM #35
I must admit, that's the only thing that bugged me, how the hell they got a huge block of ice on to a nuclear submarine. It's not exactly a cargo vessel is it?
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16th Apr 2013, 6:36 AM #36
And what was a nuclear sub doing drilling for oil anyway?
Si.
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16th Apr 2013, 12:16 PM #37
And where the hell IS Lord Lucan?
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16th Apr 2013, 12:29 PM #38
And therein lies the Gatiss conundrum. Victory started off as the best Dalek story ever, of every era, and then about 25 minutes in descended into the worst. His initial set up is often- nay, mostly- brilliant. Daleks fighting for the allies in WWII, an Ice Warrior on a Soviet submarine during the cold war. The unquiet dead was a great premise.
It always seems to degenerate into silliness though. I can't blame him for the poor direction of course, but the script and the resolution were his I'm sure.
How can you have a story set on a stranded, leaking submarine and not have a sense of claustrophobia? Clara was singing Duran Duran to suggest fear, but there was no real suspense at all, and any that was conveyed was done in such a cliched way that it was always going to be compared to much better examples.
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16th Apr 2013, 12:44 PM #39
I have to agree. I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy it that much second time around. What I keep coming back to is this:
These are the same 45 minutes that the plot of Blink once occupied.
What happened in Blink? It would take you 15 minutes to explain. We got to know characters, they were sent back in time, the Doctor was stranded, a riddle was unravelled, a monster was unveiled, there were twists, turns, sad bits, happy bits.
What happened in Cold War? An Ice Warrior broke free of his chains on a submarine, chased everyone and was then beamed off somewhere.
It just seems so much less sophisticated. Like somehow so much less actually happens.
Si.
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16th Apr 2013, 3:15 PM #40
Perhaps it is nothing, but this seems to be a theme in the last few episodes. In the first when he brought the motorcycle out and Clara asked why he didn't just materialize there he said that he didn't want to put the most powerful ship in the universe where someone could get their hands on it, or something to that effect. Then in 'Rings', again, they took a hoverbike or whatever into danger and left the TARDIS behind (I can't remember if something was said). In the Christmas special he had it hidden in the clouds, which may or may not be part of that theme... It isn't just that the TARDIS has been removed from danger in the plot, but that it has been done in a deliberate way within the plot.
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16th Apr 2013, 4:01 PM #41
Quite simply because it removes the flaw in the previous story where the viewer yells "Why not just take the TARDIS?".
No-one minded when they did it in "The Curse of Peladon".
Si.
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16th Apr 2013, 6:55 PM #42
Coming a bit late to the party....
Meh. Perennial safe pair of hands Gatiss delivers another average script. It felt in every way like an unused RTD one, and not quite fitting for the Moffat era. No 'Checkhov's Gun', it all rided on the Ice Warriors being a bit nice in the end.
Good stuff....
Matt Smith.
JL-C. A very expressive face, but I'm still not preferring her to Amy/Karen.
Some nice 'less is more' directing.
(Initially) Leaving the classic monster design alone.
Bad stuff...
The Ice Warrior's shell suit.
The drawn out 'Ultravox' gag, which often felt like it was gatecrashing events.
David Warner. You wait 30 years for him to get a part in DW, only for him to be given a very dull and unbelievable character.
The Tardis translation effect. I was never happy when this was brought to the fore with RTD, and this story was why I was always unsure about it. Can you imagine watching Curse Of Fenric where everyone talks in RP?
'HADS'. Smith fluffed/rushed the initial line (IMO), which left me saying 'Pardon?'.
A generous 7/10 from me, and I'm surprised to see the high scores it's attracting - although perhaps I'm not seeing as PS always seemed to enjoy the RTD era so much.“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.” - Gutle Schnaper Rothschild
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16th Apr 2013, 6:58 PM #43
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16th Apr 2013, 7:01 PM #44
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16th Apr 2013, 10:02 PM #45
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I was watching it again this afternoon and... best not watched in sunshine and in a horizontal position! I fell asleep...
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17th Apr 2013, 1:09 AM #46
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17th Apr 2013, 6:30 PM #47
An excellent review here by Frank Collins who is always well worth a read.
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
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18th Apr 2013, 6:43 AM #48
I really enjoyed this, probably the first time I can honestly say this in ages. It looked great, the Ice Warrior was easily recognisable as such and was just the sort of story that Doctor Who always did best - a base under seige story - in the way DW has always worked best, being obviously influenced by other stuff - in this case, a cross between Dalek, Alien and V (and so, Independence Day - which was already ripping off a classic sequence from V!) The biggest problem was that it was so rushed (a problem with almost every story these days), it only felt as if we were getting part of a story...this could easily have been a two-parter letting us see the Russians actually finding the Ice Warrior, etc.
Really good but could have been much better! Gattis best since the Unquiet Dead. 7/10
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18th Apr 2013, 2:50 PM #49
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Gatiss does have this ability to be really good or just a bit naff - nothing inbetween. Luckily...
I have to say, this is the first 11th Doctor story I'd want to watch again. It felt like a cross between Hinchcliffe, particularly The Ark In Space and one of the better Season 5 stories. The one odd thing about it I found was the unarmoured Skaldak, with those little arms - more meat on Kiera Knightley - managing to lift someone off the ground. Otherwise, atmospheric, scary and whoever thought that despite his appearance in Time Bandits, David Warner would ever be used as comic relief anywhere?
9/10
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18th Apr 2013, 8:25 PM #50
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