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jjporThere's a bit in what I may as well hold my hands up and admit is, somewhat inexplicably, one of my favourite films, The Hunt for Red October where Soviet submarine commander Captain Marko Ramius (played by pro-celebrity golfer/tax exile/domestic violence advocate Sean Connery) and his scumbag political commissar Putin (yes, really - this was at least a decade before Vladimir became famous in rl though, and if you're interested the character's played by that Peter Firth out of Spooks, who has played quite a few Soviets in his time) are having a cuppa tea. Only in glasses without any milk, because they're Russians, see. Well, actually Ramius seems to be the only Scots-Lithuanian in the entire Soviet submarine service, but that's neither here nor there.
In Tom Clancy novels and adaptations of same, Soviet political officers, along with KGB agents, Colombian drug-lords and Democrats, are always scumbags. You know, the equivalent of That One Nazi Crewman in any given U-boat film, or That One Overzealous Romulan in the Star Trek TOS episode "The Balance of Terror", which is basically just a U-boat film IN SPAACCE. And this is in spite of the fact that in the real life incident that The Hunt for Red October was kind of, sort of based on, in which iirc a Soviet warship's crew mutinied and tried to defect en masse to Sweden (they didn't make it), the mutiny was actually led by the ship's political officer and not the captain. I guess Tom Clancy novels and their film adaptations aren't really the place for such subtleties.
Anyway, Connery and Firth start the tea-drinking scene speaking Russian with subtitles, as they and Sam Neill, playing the submarine's first officer whose name escapes me right now (bad fan!) have been since the start of the film only a few minutes earlier. And then, the camera zooms in on Peter Firth's mouth as he continues to patter away in Russian, there's a bit of a weird shifty sort of sound and as the camera zooms out again...hey presto, he's speaking English, with an English accent. He's actually halfway through that Robert Oppenheimer quoting Vedic scripture thing about becoming death, the destroyer of worlds, appropriately enough. Connery's also speaking English, with a Sean Connery accent, exactly the same accent he had when he was speaking Russian, come to think of it. Anyway, the idea is that via this means we know for the rest of the film that they're really speaking Russian the whole while, even though, well, they're not.
And the above ramble probably isn't strictly relevant to tonight's Doctor Who episode "Cold War", except that the whole discussion between the Doctor and Clara and the Soviets about speaking Russian or not completely reminded me of it, except Doctor Who does it all so nonchalantly. It's no big deal. It was a wise move, I think, to just go with it and have everybody on the submarine sounding English (or Irish, in Liam Cunningham's case) without even an attempt at a dodgy comedy accent. And Cunningham had a suspiciously Ramius-esque beard, come to think of it. No way was that coincidental. Oh, and Tobias "Brutus out of Rome" Menzies was totally playing "That One True-Believer Crewman Who Rubs The More Cynical, Humane Captain Up The Wrong Way". As I said above, every submarine film (even the ones that are Star Trek episodes) has somebody like that. Except Crimson Tide, where the captain's the zealot, but that's because Crimson Tide's rubbish. ;D
Which is a very roundabout way of acknowledging that, as I've already seen people saying in a couple of places, this story really was as derivative as a very derivative thing, and not just of The Hunt for Red October and the whole subgenre of submarine films it is part of. The block of ice with something nasty lurking within was reminiscent not only of, well, "The Ice Warriors" but of the thing "The Ice Warriors" was probably inspired by, Howard Hawks' classic The Thing from Another World, based on John W. Campbell's story "Who Goes There?" and remade in the 80s to astonishing, gory, brilliant effect by John Carpenter as The Thing, a classic in its own right (if you haven't seen that yet, check it out - bring sick-bags). The whole bit with the disrobed Martian leading the crewmen a merry chase around the sub, occasionally popping up to "dismantle" one or two of them, was basically Alien, or possibly Aliens. Or possibly Alien 3. Well, all of them, to be honest. "It's in the walls!" as Cunningham's Capt Zhukov declared at one point. And the idea that Ice Warriors are really slimy spindly things living inside big butch suits of power armour - something certainly suggested by the physical difference between the bog-standard Warriors and their "Ice Lord" superiors in things like "The Seeds of Death" - well, there are other examples probably in the SF canon, but the way it was done here was pure Independence Day. You know, that bit where the alien strangles Lieutenant Commander Data with its slimy tentacle and then Jayne out of Firefly shoots it about a dozen times.
Except that I'm not sure whether they're actually called "walls" on a naval vessel, just like I had a pang of unease every time anybody referred to the submarine's control room or attack centre or whatever they call them in Russian as "the bridge". I'm pretty sure on a sub the bridge is the bit on top of the conning tower where they stand with binoculars etc when they're running on the surface, which for a nuclear submarine is pretty much only when they're leaving/entering port or surfacing through Arctic ice for photo ops. Could be wrong. Oh, and I bet you couldn't actually launch a missile submarine's missiles when it's lying on the bottom and expect to hit what you're aiming for, or indeed for them to make it to the surface from that far down; pretty sure they have to be at a certain depth/speed for that kind of thing.
Those are quibbles, though. The sort of thing you absorb from misspending part of your youth reading Tom Clancy novels. And to be honest, I'm not necessarily sure that being derivative is always a bad thing when it's being done as knowingly as it is here. Liam Cunningham's beard (which admittedly he probably needs for his continuing role in Game of Thrones) is the clue, I think. A bit like Victory of the Daleks, which apart from generally being a bit rubbish is actually sort of watchable if you skip through all the bits with the Doctor gushing over Winston bloody Churchill, and alsonicks from, er, homages all sorts of things, from "Power of the Daleks" to Where Eagles Dare. "Broadsword calling Danny Boy," indeed. You get the impression Mark Gatiss really loves all of this stuff, these old war and sf and horror movies (not to mention old Doctor Who) and kind of gets a kick out of referencing them as opposed to simply not having any ideas of his own. His script here was a lot better than "Victory of the Daleks", though. It was, in fact, dare we whisper it, probably Gatiss's most enjoyable, least annoying script for Who since...oh, "The Unquiet Dead", quite possibly. Up to the level of his Sherlock scripts, maybe.
It may be churlish to say so, but do you know what the key was, I think? No family stuff or father issues. The only hint of that kind of thing was poor Tobias Menzies' blood-spattered photo, found next to his body, proving that even hard-ass Communists are people too (and he was also playing that other stock character in such settings, The Guy In The Action Movie Who Tries To Do A Deal With The Terrorists And Ends Up Getting Killed By Them, as best exemplified by that coke-snorting yuppie dude in Die Hard).
I suppose one criticism would be that, a bit like Churchill's portrayal in VotD, with no hint of any political or historical context, apart from referencing the Cold War, the Soviets and the whole concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, the reasons for the conflict or indeed the idea that the Soviet Union (not to mention their opponents in the West) might have been Not Very Nice, was scarcely touched upon. It was just another bit of period window-dressing to get us into this scenario, a bit like the professor's Ultravox and Duran Duran tunes. I don't actually think that was necessarily a weakness in this instance, however. This was really an action story, told at blistering pace, with the Doctor, Clara and the viewers thrust into the situation and then left to deal with it. No time was wasted on explanations, extraneous character moments or moral debate - what there was of that was integrated pretty seamlessly into the on-going plot. Even the names of the Soviets, or just what the professor was doing there and why they had a Martian in a block of ice, were glossed over very hurriedly, but not in a way that left the viewer, I think, feeling confused or wanting more information. I think it worked very well within its 45 minutes, concentrating on the things that were necessary to tell a pretty tight, fast-moving story.
The complete opposite, then, of last week's story "The Rings of Akhaten", which I haven't posted a reaction to yet, but which I thought was... I hate using the word "meh" - am annoyed occasionally when I see others use it on't'interwebz, but...yeah, meh. It had some nice ideas, and some great character moments, but not much story to hang them on, with monsters that seemed mainly designed to look cool in trailers rather than actually to do anything. A bit like S5's "The Beast Below", really. I actually saw (but refused to click on) a link to a Daily Express article earlier this week that seemed to be claiming that NuWho was DOOMED - DOOMED - because of falling viewing figures (you know, that old story - so 2011!), and that "fans" had "branded" "Rings of Akhaten" the "worst episode ever". Which... I mean, you know, fandom being what it is, I'm sure that every single Who story since 1963 is somebody's worst ever, but... In spite of what I say above, even only counting NuWho, "Rings of Akhaten" doesn't even make my ten least-wanted list. It's not that bad, just not that good. "Curse of the Black Spot" territory, really. Imho, anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Ever since I first heard of this week's story, though, I have been fervently wishing only for one thing. That they weren't going to bring the Ice Warriors back and make them rubbish. I like the Ice Warriors. I like them a lot. The very last Virgin NA novel The Dying Days remains one of my most favourite things about Who ever, and still as far as I'm concerned Eight's finest hour. The fact that they didn't bring them back and make them rubbish wins this story a lot - a lot - of bonus points for me. Grand Marshall Skaldak was great, I thought. Nick Brigg's voice could have been a bit more sssibilant, I guess (except it was in some scenes, but not in others - I wonder if they were going for the Martians only hissing under certain circumstances, when in a non-Martian environment, as was done in their old series stories). I prefer the classic pincers to the Sontaran-style two-fingered hands thing he seemed to have going on, and I don't think the idea of their natural environment being low-temperature and heat being deadly to them was really brought out, but then again it must be freezing anyway in a sunken submarine with only battery power on the bed of the Arctic Ocean, so I'll let that go. But still, the costume design was excellent - honouring the original old series design while updating it to take modern day capabilities and budgets into account. And the explanation for why the old series Ice Warriors look so very much like men in suits - because they literally are "men" in suits - was very neat and sort of meta, I thought.
And Skaldak was everything an Ice Warrior should be - physically intimidating and powerful, brutal, ruthless, yet not without his own code of honour, and not without some redeeming qualities. Not a straight goodie or baddie, and eventually shying away from mass murder as much from his own moral qualms as from the Doctor's efforts to shame him and Clara's nice attempt to empathise with him. The sight of the Martian without his armour will prove controversial with some fans, no doubt, but I thought it made a lot of sense and it was, as I say above, at least somewhat implied by their portrayal in the old series, even if only by the costume designs as opposed to any actual intent on the part of the production team.
The submarine environment was very well evoked, I thought - a nice set, with dripping water, red lighting, poky corridors - again, derivative, but absolutely screamed "submarine movie". I understand real nuclear submarines, even 80s ones, are very well-appointed and quite brightly lit and even somewhat spacious compared to their Second World War equivalents, but you'd feel short-changed if they'd portrayed it like that, wouldn't you? I would, anyway. :D
Performances. David Warner - I love David Warner. He's been in a lot of old crap over the years, and a lot of very good stuff, and he's equally classy in both. His professor was a very likeable character, I thought, from his love of then-contemporary music to bucking up Clara and just generally being the "cool old guy" in the ensemble. I was convinced he was going to get killed, and very much relieved when he wasn't. Similarly, Liam Cunningham is one of those actors who is just reliably great in everything, who could read a telephone directory out and have you riveted. He brought a lot of humanity and character here to what was a pretty minimally-written role that could have been flat in the hands of a lesser actor. Tobias Menzies also did a lot with very little, bringing his rather clichéd character(s) to life. Menzies has that sort of Michael Kitchen-like quality of being incredibly understated and yet extremely compelling at the same time, and it worked well here with a character a lot of actors might have portrayed as some sort of slavering fanatic.
The boy Smith - good as usual, but didn't really have to do anything special within the terms of this story. He was actually better in last week's, which I was badmouthing above. Jenna-Louise Coleman continues to be great, imho. Very much liking her, and not really feeling the loss of the most excellent Ponds as much as I thought I maybe would. I thought her quiet little freak-out at the sight of the "dismantled" bodies was very well done, again very understated (and this episode did contain some pretty nasty stuff for a Gatiss script didn't it - channelling his League of Gentlemen-era self, perhaps). I think some fans probably aren't going to like her moment of stunned fear and uncertainty afterwards, perhaps considering it demeaning to the character. We don't like to see our NuWho companions so vulnerable, do we? But it was very well-played I thought, even unsettling. And it struck me as a very natural, human reaction, the moment when she realised just what stakes she was playing for, travelling with the Doctor, and she rallied magnificently in the climactic scene, reminding Skaldak of his lost daughter and then deciding that saving the world, "that's what we do."
So yeah, I honestly didn't expect that I would be being so positive about this story beforehand. I liked it, though. Don't get me wrong - I doubt it will be enshrined as an all-time classic of Who, but it was a pretty good return to form after last week's dip, and it didn't fumble any of the things I worried it would fumble. So yeah, thumbs (or pincers?) up! :D
And oh yeah, to cut a long story short, then while they're still drinking their tea, Sean Connery overpowers Peter Firth and straight-up kills him, right there, completely without warning. And he's meant to be the goodie... I'd sooner take my chances with Martians, quite honestly.
In Tom Clancy novels and adaptations of same, Soviet political officers, along with KGB agents, Colombian drug-lords and Democrats, are always scumbags. You know, the equivalent of That One Nazi Crewman in any given U-boat film, or That One Overzealous Romulan in the Star Trek TOS episode "The Balance of Terror", which is basically just a U-boat film IN SPAACCE. And this is in spite of the fact that in the real life incident that The Hunt for Red October was kind of, sort of based on, in which iirc a Soviet warship's crew mutinied and tried to defect en masse to Sweden (they didn't make it), the mutiny was actually led by the ship's political officer and not the captain. I guess Tom Clancy novels and their film adaptations aren't really the place for such subtleties.
Anyway, Connery and Firth start the tea-drinking scene speaking Russian with subtitles, as they and Sam Neill, playing the submarine's first officer whose name escapes me right now (bad fan!) have been since the start of the film only a few minutes earlier. And then, the camera zooms in on Peter Firth's mouth as he continues to patter away in Russian, there's a bit of a weird shifty sort of sound and as the camera zooms out again...hey presto, he's speaking English, with an English accent. He's actually halfway through that Robert Oppenheimer quoting Vedic scripture thing about becoming death, the destroyer of worlds, appropriately enough. Connery's also speaking English, with a Sean Connery accent, exactly the same accent he had when he was speaking Russian, come to think of it. Anyway, the idea is that via this means we know for the rest of the film that they're really speaking Russian the whole while, even though, well, they're not.
And the above ramble probably isn't strictly relevant to tonight's Doctor Who episode "Cold War", except that the whole discussion between the Doctor and Clara and the Soviets about speaking Russian or not completely reminded me of it, except Doctor Who does it all so nonchalantly. It's no big deal. It was a wise move, I think, to just go with it and have everybody on the submarine sounding English (or Irish, in Liam Cunningham's case) without even an attempt at a dodgy comedy accent. And Cunningham had a suspiciously Ramius-esque beard, come to think of it. No way was that coincidental. Oh, and Tobias "Brutus out of Rome" Menzies was totally playing "That One True-Believer Crewman Who Rubs The More Cynical, Humane Captain Up The Wrong Way". As I said above, every submarine film (even the ones that are Star Trek episodes) has somebody like that. Except Crimson Tide, where the captain's the zealot, but that's because Crimson Tide's rubbish. ;D
Which is a very roundabout way of acknowledging that, as I've already seen people saying in a couple of places, this story really was as derivative as a very derivative thing, and not just of The Hunt for Red October and the whole subgenre of submarine films it is part of. The block of ice with something nasty lurking within was reminiscent not only of, well, "The Ice Warriors" but of the thing "The Ice Warriors" was probably inspired by, Howard Hawks' classic The Thing from Another World, based on John W. Campbell's story "Who Goes There?" and remade in the 80s to astonishing, gory, brilliant effect by John Carpenter as The Thing, a classic in its own right (if you haven't seen that yet, check it out - bring sick-bags). The whole bit with the disrobed Martian leading the crewmen a merry chase around the sub, occasionally popping up to "dismantle" one or two of them, was basically Alien, or possibly Aliens. Or possibly Alien 3. Well, all of them, to be honest. "It's in the walls!" as Cunningham's Capt Zhukov declared at one point. And the idea that Ice Warriors are really slimy spindly things living inside big butch suits of power armour - something certainly suggested by the physical difference between the bog-standard Warriors and their "Ice Lord" superiors in things like "The Seeds of Death" - well, there are other examples probably in the SF canon, but the way it was done here was pure Independence Day. You know, that bit where the alien strangles Lieutenant Commander Data with its slimy tentacle and then Jayne out of Firefly shoots it about a dozen times.
Except that I'm not sure whether they're actually called "walls" on a naval vessel, just like I had a pang of unease every time anybody referred to the submarine's control room or attack centre or whatever they call them in Russian as "the bridge". I'm pretty sure on a sub the bridge is the bit on top of the conning tower where they stand with binoculars etc when they're running on the surface, which for a nuclear submarine is pretty much only when they're leaving/entering port or surfacing through Arctic ice for photo ops. Could be wrong. Oh, and I bet you couldn't actually launch a missile submarine's missiles when it's lying on the bottom and expect to hit what you're aiming for, or indeed for them to make it to the surface from that far down; pretty sure they have to be at a certain depth/speed for that kind of thing.
Those are quibbles, though. The sort of thing you absorb from misspending part of your youth reading Tom Clancy novels. And to be honest, I'm not necessarily sure that being derivative is always a bad thing when it's being done as knowingly as it is here. Liam Cunningham's beard (which admittedly he probably needs for his continuing role in Game of Thrones) is the clue, I think. A bit like Victory of the Daleks, which apart from generally being a bit rubbish is actually sort of watchable if you skip through all the bits with the Doctor gushing over Winston bloody Churchill, and also
It may be churlish to say so, but do you know what the key was, I think? No family stuff or father issues. The only hint of that kind of thing was poor Tobias Menzies' blood-spattered photo, found next to his body, proving that even hard-ass Communists are people too (and he was also playing that other stock character in such settings, The Guy In The Action Movie Who Tries To Do A Deal With The Terrorists And Ends Up Getting Killed By Them, as best exemplified by that coke-snorting yuppie dude in Die Hard).
I suppose one criticism would be that, a bit like Churchill's portrayal in VotD, with no hint of any political or historical context, apart from referencing the Cold War, the Soviets and the whole concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, the reasons for the conflict or indeed the idea that the Soviet Union (not to mention their opponents in the West) might have been Not Very Nice, was scarcely touched upon. It was just another bit of period window-dressing to get us into this scenario, a bit like the professor's Ultravox and Duran Duran tunes. I don't actually think that was necessarily a weakness in this instance, however. This was really an action story, told at blistering pace, with the Doctor, Clara and the viewers thrust into the situation and then left to deal with it. No time was wasted on explanations, extraneous character moments or moral debate - what there was of that was integrated pretty seamlessly into the on-going plot. Even the names of the Soviets, or just what the professor was doing there and why they had a Martian in a block of ice, were glossed over very hurriedly, but not in a way that left the viewer, I think, feeling confused or wanting more information. I think it worked very well within its 45 minutes, concentrating on the things that were necessary to tell a pretty tight, fast-moving story.
The complete opposite, then, of last week's story "The Rings of Akhaten", which I haven't posted a reaction to yet, but which I thought was... I hate using the word "meh" - am annoyed occasionally when I see others use it on't'interwebz, but...yeah, meh. It had some nice ideas, and some great character moments, but not much story to hang them on, with monsters that seemed mainly designed to look cool in trailers rather than actually to do anything. A bit like S5's "The Beast Below", really. I actually saw (but refused to click on) a link to a Daily Express article earlier this week that seemed to be claiming that NuWho was DOOMED - DOOMED - because of falling viewing figures (you know, that old story - so 2011!), and that "fans" had "branded" "Rings of Akhaten" the "worst episode ever". Which... I mean, you know, fandom being what it is, I'm sure that every single Who story since 1963 is somebody's worst ever, but... In spite of what I say above, even only counting NuWho, "Rings of Akhaten" doesn't even make my ten least-wanted list. It's not that bad, just not that good. "Curse of the Black Spot" territory, really. Imho, anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Ever since I first heard of this week's story, though, I have been fervently wishing only for one thing. That they weren't going to bring the Ice Warriors back and make them rubbish. I like the Ice Warriors. I like them a lot. The very last Virgin NA novel The Dying Days remains one of my most favourite things about Who ever, and still as far as I'm concerned Eight's finest hour. The fact that they didn't bring them back and make them rubbish wins this story a lot - a lot - of bonus points for me. Grand Marshall Skaldak was great, I thought. Nick Brigg's voice could have been a bit more sssibilant, I guess (except it was in some scenes, but not in others - I wonder if they were going for the Martians only hissing under certain circumstances, when in a non-Martian environment, as was done in their old series stories). I prefer the classic pincers to the Sontaran-style two-fingered hands thing he seemed to have going on, and I don't think the idea of their natural environment being low-temperature and heat being deadly to them was really brought out, but then again it must be freezing anyway in a sunken submarine with only battery power on the bed of the Arctic Ocean, so I'll let that go. But still, the costume design was excellent - honouring the original old series design while updating it to take modern day capabilities and budgets into account. And the explanation for why the old series Ice Warriors look so very much like men in suits - because they literally are "men" in suits - was very neat and sort of meta, I thought.
And Skaldak was everything an Ice Warrior should be - physically intimidating and powerful, brutal, ruthless, yet not without his own code of honour, and not without some redeeming qualities. Not a straight goodie or baddie, and eventually shying away from mass murder as much from his own moral qualms as from the Doctor's efforts to shame him and Clara's nice attempt to empathise with him. The sight of the Martian without his armour will prove controversial with some fans, no doubt, but I thought it made a lot of sense and it was, as I say above, at least somewhat implied by their portrayal in the old series, even if only by the costume designs as opposed to any actual intent on the part of the production team.
The submarine environment was very well evoked, I thought - a nice set, with dripping water, red lighting, poky corridors - again, derivative, but absolutely screamed "submarine movie". I understand real nuclear submarines, even 80s ones, are very well-appointed and quite brightly lit and even somewhat spacious compared to their Second World War equivalents, but you'd feel short-changed if they'd portrayed it like that, wouldn't you? I would, anyway. :D
Performances. David Warner - I love David Warner. He's been in a lot of old crap over the years, and a lot of very good stuff, and he's equally classy in both. His professor was a very likeable character, I thought, from his love of then-contemporary music to bucking up Clara and just generally being the "cool old guy" in the ensemble. I was convinced he was going to get killed, and very much relieved when he wasn't. Similarly, Liam Cunningham is one of those actors who is just reliably great in everything, who could read a telephone directory out and have you riveted. He brought a lot of humanity and character here to what was a pretty minimally-written role that could have been flat in the hands of a lesser actor. Tobias Menzies also did a lot with very little, bringing his rather clichéd character(s) to life. Menzies has that sort of Michael Kitchen-like quality of being incredibly understated and yet extremely compelling at the same time, and it worked well here with a character a lot of actors might have portrayed as some sort of slavering fanatic.
The boy Smith - good as usual, but didn't really have to do anything special within the terms of this story. He was actually better in last week's, which I was badmouthing above. Jenna-Louise Coleman continues to be great, imho. Very much liking her, and not really feeling the loss of the most excellent Ponds as much as I thought I maybe would. I thought her quiet little freak-out at the sight of the "dismantled" bodies was very well done, again very understated (and this episode did contain some pretty nasty stuff for a Gatiss script didn't it - channelling his League of Gentlemen-era self, perhaps). I think some fans probably aren't going to like her moment of stunned fear and uncertainty afterwards, perhaps considering it demeaning to the character. We don't like to see our NuWho companions so vulnerable, do we? But it was very well-played I thought, even unsettling. And it struck me as a very natural, human reaction, the moment when she realised just what stakes she was playing for, travelling with the Doctor, and she rallied magnificently in the climactic scene, reminding Skaldak of his lost daughter and then deciding that saving the world, "that's what we do."
So yeah, I honestly didn't expect that I would be being so positive about this story beforehand. I liked it, though. Don't get me wrong - I doubt it will be enshrined as an all-time classic of Who, but it was a pretty good return to form after last week's dip, and it didn't fumble any of the things I worried it would fumble. So yeah, thumbs (or pincers?) up! :D
And oh yeah, to cut a long story short, then while they're still drinking their tea, Sean Connery overpowers Peter Firth and straight-up kills him, right there, completely without warning. And he's meant to be the goodie... I'd sooner take my chances with Martians, quite honestly.
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Date: 2013-04-13 10:25 pm (UTC)I really did half-expect a rousing rendition of the Soviet national anthem in this episode like in that film.
I suppose one criticism would be that, a bit like Churchill's portrayal in VotD, with no hint of any political or historical context, apart from referencing the Cold War, the Soviets and the whole concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, the reasons for the conflict or indeed the idea that the Soviet Union (not to mention their opponents in the West) might have been Not Very Nice, was scarcely touched upon.
It was a bit strange. Maybe like many small-c communists the Doctor is a bit ashamed of the whole Soviet thing and was hoping nobody would mention it?
And the explanation for why the old series Ice Warriors look so very much like men in suits - because they literally are "men" in suits - was very neat and sort of meta, I thought.
It may show my age that I spent a lot of time thinking "Wasn't this in Independence Day?" with the open suit that has a THING inside.
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Date: 2013-04-14 12:07 am (UTC)Yeah, quite possibly. I mean, he was happy enough to pal around with Capt Sorin and pals in Curse of Fenric, and those boys gave every impression of being straight-up Stalinists - 1983 Liam Cunningham would, I guess, be pretty benign by comparison.
It was absolutely Independence Day - even down to the disgusting sticky organic residue gumming up the suit as it opened.