C+Q - Thin Ice (2017)
We have [3] weeks to wait until Missy's next episode.
Thin Ice is probably my favourite episode of the three we've had so far, just narrowly higher on the list than The Pilot. As much as I've enjoyed this opening trilogy of adventures, they've been a little tedious to sit through. Series 10 is following the standard RTD formula: the opening three episodes form a present, future, past sequence and then we're back to present day Earth for a fourth adventure which digs deeper into the companion's home life. The formula is recreated here note-for-note, beat-for-beat, with no twists, no turns, and no attempts at experimentation. By reverting to a standard formula that existed before Moffat took over, Doctor Who feels like it's going through a routine on autopilot. I mean, for fuck's sake, Bill in Thin Ice repeats Martha's first reaction to the past in The Shakespeare Code almost word for word; reference the existence of slavery but have her fears waved away by the Doctor, reference stepping on butterflies in a conversation about the dangers of time travel. You can practically sing along. A show that can go anywhere and everywhere in all of time and space shouldn't be beholden to things like formulas, and yet here we are, going through the motions. In a way, I'm still waiting for Doctor Who to come back. The Pilot, Smile, and Thin Ice are all perfectly fun and enjoyable adventures but they feel like formalities. The show needs to establish a new companion and spend a few weeks stating the obvious so the new fans can catch up, and they've chosen to do it in the most mechanical and predictable way possible. These first three episodes feel like wrapping paper: it's completely necessary to go through them to get to the good stuff but they themselves aren't anything exciting or memorable.
That being said, I do love Thin Ice. While Smile was clearly bogged down by its desire to reiterate the show's basics, Thin Ice is a fun and well constructed adventure that only occasionally feels the need to tell us things about the Doctor that we already know, and even then it does so with much more skill. The "Have you ever killed anyone?" moment in Thin Ice is infinitely more interesting than the "Two hearts?" moment from Smile for example. Both moments repeat things about the character we already know, but "Have you ever killed anyone?" gives us some insight into Bill's reactions and allows us to get a better read of the Twelfth Doctor's current post-Clara state. It seems like his attitude towards death hasn't changed much since the scene on the beach at the end of Mummy on the Orient Express but the lasting influence of Clara has clearly improved his bedside manner. Speaking of which, Capaldi is fucking magnificent in this episode. From reading a story to a group of street kids to punching a racist in the face, everything the Doctor says and does here is perfect. He has a real twinkle in his eye at times that make him a kind and reassuring presence to have on screen. Not only is he effortlessly the Doctor, but he also embodies the mantle of 'Dr Who', the mythic pop culture hero for generations of children all across the world. He's just a delight to watch every week. Perhaps I'll be made to eat my own words this time next year but whoever is cast as the Thirteenth Doctor isn't going to be this good.
Sarah Dollard is an astoundingly good writer and it's a testament to her immense skill that she manages to make the third bullet point on RTD's mid-2000s Doctor Who to-do list seem fresh and engaging again. After Bill's characterisation took the week off last episode, this script finally gives Pearl Mackie some solid stuff to work with. Bill Potts is absolutely wonderful and she feels completely unique when compared to the other companions of Moffat's era. If there's any benefit to using such a boring formula to kick off the series, it's that the Doctor and Bill have had plenty of time to just walk and talk, building their relationship in the process. If Chris Chibnall doesn't at least try to keep Pearl Mackie and Sarah Dollard working on the show when the Moffat era ends, he's an idiot.
There's this one bit near the end of Thin Ice where Bill and the Doctor are both tied up and they have to manoeuvre themselves to get the sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's coat pocket and into his hands, exactly like the Doctor did with Clara in Deep Breath. Not only is this a fun callback to Clara's line "Next time make one that doesn't roll", setting up the fact that the current screwdriver has flat edges, it also demonstrates why I'm not too fond of moments like that as it was presented in Deep Breath. In Deep Breath, it's presented as something that the Doctor and Clara do all the time even though we've never seen them do it before. It hints at a deeper relationship without actually showing us that relationship form on screen (although regardless of that moment, I still think the Doctor and Clara's relationship is probably the most nuanced in the show's history). In Thin Ice on the other hand, the moment is presented as happening for the first time, so we're actually seeing how the Doctor and Bill are slowly learning to work well together. These first three episodes give us a good foundation for their relationship to be built on, and it's a foundation infinitely stronger than the one Clara were given in her first episodes, back when her character was entirely overshadowed by the Impossible Girl mystery.
Just like last week, the environments the Doctor and Bill are exploring look incredible, as does the entire episode with the exception of some CGI shots in the big finale. The costumes look great and everything feels authentic. I like the way that all of the episode's morals and messages about exploitation are internally consistent, expressed clearly, and explored in many different ways. This feels especially noteworthy after Smile, which just threw a bunch of conflicting political nonsense at us in the last five minutes without giving us enough time to unpack any of it. I also liked that the big creature for this episode wasn't an alien and wasn't a villain. You could almost argue that this was a pure historical. Almost.
So yeah, Thin Ice. It's a great episode, destined to become a surprising gem to be rediscovered during complete Series 10 marathons. Speaking of Series 10, the vault: this year's overarching plot. I'm glad we got that scene with Nardole at the end of this episode to reassure us that more interesting stuff is on the horizon. "What's behind this big door?" is about as simple as a mystery can be but it's certainly an effective one. We don't have enough to say for certain who it's going to be at this point, but the end of Thin Ice gives us enough to know that it's a 'who' rather than a 'what'. The two obvious guesses are the Master or the Doctor, and if it's the Master it could either be Simm or Gomez and if it's the Doctor it could either be Capaldi or his successor. Personally I want it to be Capaldi's successor because that's by far the most interesting of the four obvious possibilities but something tells me it'll be the John Simm incarnation of the Master. Not that I'd be disappointed if it is. The idea of an adventure featuring multiple incarnations of the Master is exactly the sort of high-concept storytelling I expect from Moffat's final year and once all this formulaic companion introduction bullshit is out of the way I'm sure he won't disappoint.
Next: Knock Knock