Doctor Who “Cold Blood” Review
Doctor Who Cold Blood
It’s almost difficult for me to judge this episode fairly, as it hits on a number of tropes in fiction which annoy me. Single-minded military characters, whose answer to everything is to simply kill, even when there is no threat or reason, bother me. As do humans who panic and ruin a good thing by acting so stupid, even when they know better. Also, deaths caused by pointlessly sacrificing one’s life to save a character who is about to save themselves.
But beyond that, this was a very exciting episode that had me on the edge of my seat, pardon the cliché.
The Doctor’s explanation about fixed points in time almost had me believing that the Silurians might actually come out of hibernation, especially since the Cracks in Time leave an easy out for erasing the events later if they don’t line up with future episodes.
The fact that the Doctor is a little more proactive in this episode is satisfying. This season he’s become a bit more of a “reactor” running and escaping as opposed to standing and fighting. Sure, he does plenty of escaping in this episode, but he also manages to solve all the problems at the end in rapid succession, while still walking away with a vital clue as to the mystery of the Cracks in Time.
The death and/or erasing of Rory was kind of a downer. If he had to go, I would have preferred a little more emphasis on him this time. But, again, the nature of the Crack makes me think that he could be brought back in some way later. But I suppose this way we won’t have to deal with any guilt or sadness from Amy.
The Silurians made for compelling enemies, especially after they introduced a few more characters. Usually, these types of stories work best when you agree with both sides. However, the “bad guys” in both groups kind of made it to where I wasn’t rooting for anyone at first. But the kindly elder of the Silurians, along with Moe and his son’s reactions to Ambrose’s actions salvaged things for me.
The hopeful ending (for humanity and the Silurians at least) helped smooth over the rough patches, while the twist for the Doctor is very intriguing.
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A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
Pros
Cons
Great drama and nail-biting action.
A few very unlikable characters
Rating
2 Comments
Way back when the Silurians made their first appearance (during my favorite Doctor’s run – Jon Pertwee), they were an interesting villain. In that first story, there was a more understanding leader who was willing to work with the humans and share the Earth after the Doctor made the point that their time had passed. That leader was killed by a much more militant and younger Silurian. Of course, UNIT just wanted to blow them all up and wipe their hands of any idea to share the planet with them and that really irritated the Doctor.
I haven’t seen this episode yet, but it looks like they are revisiting some of those ideas from that original story and I like that link to continuity. The Sea Devils were an aquatic off-shoot of the Silurians and were painted as much worse in some ways because they didn’t even entertain the idea of the sharing. When the Silurians made their second appearance in Peter Davidson’s era, they teamed up with the Sea Devils to kill some people. I would like to think that an advanced race of reptilians would be able to understand reason and if people were willing to share, they would be too.
Thanks for the detailed backstory. It filled in a few gaps.