As I might have previously mentioned, I am currently in rehearsal for a stage production of Xanadu which opens two weeks from tonight. I am completely emersed in 80's music and pop culture, which also happens to be exactly when I was a teenager so it's all very nostalgic for me. That being the case, today's episode - set in 1983 - fit my mood perfectly.

So let's talk about that.

Cold War

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Wow, it's been a lot time since the Ice Warriors have been on my screen. That was in The Curse of Peladon, near the end of the Third Doctor era which would have been more than nine months ago in my viewing. Cold War marks not just the first time the giant green Martian menaces have appeared in NuWho, but also the first time they have appeared in a story not written by their creator Brian Hayles. The really cool thing is, the monster design was extremely faithful to the original and done in a way that makes sense visually without being clunky or dated. So, bravo!

This story also features a major guest-starring role by genre legend David Warner. Frankly, I don't think you are actually a successful science fiction property until Mr. Warner has graced the set. He was in his early 70's at the time of filming, and was just as magnetic and charming as ever in the role of a Soviet scientist with a love for British New Wave music. His presence was worth it just for the scene in which he begs Clara, who he knows is from the future, to tell him whether or not Ultrovox breaks up.

The plot is pretty straightforward: the Doctor and Clara arrive on board a Soviet submarine in the Arctic right in the midst of the Able Archer exercises that very nearly sparked a nuclear Armageddon. Speaking as someone who lived through that era -- thank goodness for Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov keeping calm and ignoring a computer error that warned of a non-existent American nuclear launch. So anyway, the Doctor and Clara show up in the middle of a very tense situation, made exponentially more terrifying by the presence of an Ice Warrior who was found frozen in a block of ice and prematurely thawed by an impatient soldier. If that sounds familiar, yes, it is the same essential premise of Hayles' original story from way way back in the Second Doctor era.

During the course of the story, the Ice Warrior leaves his armor and we see, for the first time ever, what the Martian reptiles look like unsuited. The effects work is spectacular, giving lots of hints and flashes to build the mystery before the big payoff. In the end, of course, nuclear war is averted thanks to the Doctor playing upon the Warrior's code of honor. 

One nice bit of history in this one is the reference to the TARDIS' HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System). That hasn't cropped up since way, way, way back in the Krotons. This run of episodes is really making a lot of callbacks to the Second Doctor era, from the Great Intelligence to today's baddies, and I am loving it. 

Ok, I am exhausted. I really need to get to bed and get a decent night's sleep. Tomorrow I get a Gothic ghost story. That's almost always a good genre for this show.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Eleventh
Companion(s): Clara Oswald
Episode(s): Cold War
Steps Walked: 7,498 today, 3,273,314 total
Distance Walked: 4.08 miles today, 1,710.92 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 50 today, 6,414 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 929 total
Is Anything Cool?: Cold, yes. Cool, no.
Weight: 251.70 lbs (five day moving average), net change -55.60 lbs