The problem sometimes with Doctor Who is that it has instances where it has to repeat certain tropes to get certain results. In the case of new companions, they need to have a compelling intro episode (the premiere), a fun look into the universe they’ve been drafted into (last weeks episode, sorry about no review was away, 4/5 Nerds!), and then a humbling episode where they realize things aren’t as simple as they thought. That was “Thin Ice” and though it was compelling in some ways, it was very by-the-numbers.
Case-and-point, the Tardis decided to not take them back to 2017 London, but rather 1814 London, because there just so happened to be a need for them to be there. Standard Doctor Who stuff. Oh, and there’s a monster that needs to be saved from abuse from a business-minded villain…typical…oh, the Doctor did something the companion doesn’t like and now they’re depending answers….get the point?
The problem here is that while Bill doesn’t know all this stuff about the Doctor, most fans do. Now yes, new fans may not, but with the internet age it’s not hard to look up. Heck, BBC did a marathon of Doctor Who leading up to the season premiere. The point is, it can get old hearing the Doctor questioned when he’s already given answers for every question imaginable about who or what he is. Now yes, he can think of fun ways to put twists on them. For example, the “value of a life” speech by Capaldi was very good, and very true to who the Doctor is.
Doctor Who S10 Ep3 “Thin Ice” – The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Bill (Pearl Mackie) ©2017 BBC
Both the Doctor and Bill had some good moment here, and Capaldi’s decision to make Bill choose to save the lock-less monster was good, as it was very reminiscent of “Kill the Moon” where he made Clara do a similar thing. But again…it was similar to something the Doctor had done before.
Also, while the environment of 1814 London was cool, we only got certain looks at it, the setting was more fun than most of the story, and that’s kind of sad.
The really good bit though was the ending scene where we learned that there is someone IN the vault under the school…and they want out!
In the end, “Thin Ice” was a very standard episode, let’s hope that since this kind of story is out of the way, they can get back to more powerful stories.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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