The Hunt for Blue October

I do like the title "Cold War." I like that it's a metaphorical title because it features the return of the Ice Warriors (or one of them at least,) while at the same time being painfully literal as it plonks the Doctor and Clara on a Russian nuclear submarine in 1983.

"Cold War" by Mark Gatiss, directed by Douglas Mackinnon. Spoilers under the cut.

I also quite like the episode itself, although it's one of those that's fun at the time, not one to be watched over and over again as it's pretty simple in its structure. But its simplicity works for it, as it channels Alien with a locked-in environment and an alien creature taking out the crew one by one. Obviously the biggest bonus is that it isn't "The Rings of Akhaten." It's even mainly blue to make up for all that orange last week.

Lots of nice little touches along the way, not least of all in the casting. Never mind the potential nuclear apocalypse, I would have been more worried about having the original Matt Smith, and James Norton, the spare Matt Smith, in the same place at the same time. Fortunately they didn't really have to interact or the fabric of the universe could have been in jeopardy. Meanwhile this episode features Tobias Menzies, and one of the human characters will turn out to be a baddie who gives away the fact that the sub could destroy the world to save his own skin - yes, of course it's going to be him, some people have just got one of those faces. And of course I enjoyed the tease that David Warner might get decapitated again.

In the story's structure, I liked that the big threat was initially set up to be that Skaldak might succeed in calling other Martians to Earth, and that actually turned out to be what saves everyone. And the idea of seeing an Ice Warrior out of his armour for the first time ever is one of those ideas you wonder why nobody had earlier, especially since when you can't actually see Skaldak properly it makes him a lot quicker, less lumbering and therefore scarier. It's just a shame that when you finally do see him he turns out to be made out of leftover bits of the Merlin dragon.

You know, one thing I don't like about the new titles is that the cliffhanger sting is basically gone now. It's been taken out entirely from the end of the "next time" preview; and although it's still there at the end of the pre-credits teaser, it seems to be quieter than before and invariably gets drowned out by a sound effect.