Once again the TARDIS brings The Doctor and his Companion, Clara, to where they are needed versus where they want to be. Which happens to be a Russian submarine in 1983 near the North Pole. The TARDIS, sensing dangers gets the hell out while leaving The Doctor and Clara behind.
The submarine is sinking and there is danger on board. Of course. The crew on the submarine found something incased in ice. It’s 5000 years old and they think it’s a mammoth. Nope, Sorry. It’s an Ice Warrior and it’s not very nice. Someone lets it out and we find out that this particular Ice Warrior is Grand marshal Skaidak, the scariest of all Ice Warriors. Things seem like they’ll be fine, until some asshole electrocutes the thing.
Clara is sent for an unsuccessful mission to coax Skaidak out of his anger of being attacked (and realizing he is probably the last of his kind). Skaidak escapes his armor and goes on a rampage throughout the sub; killing people, absorbing knowledge. That sort of thing.
Skaidak is going to blow up the earth with nuclear weapons but the Doctor tells him, “you do that and I blow up this sub with my screwdriver.” Then Skaidak disappears into an alien beam and we’re left with several minutes of “omg is he really going to blow up the planet?!!” But he doesn’t and the episode….ends?
Oh and the TARDIS is rematrilazied at the SOUTH pole and the Doctor wants a lift. If I was that ship captain I’d say “hell no.”
Even though there isn’t supposed to be any sort of over arching storyline or theme for this season, the second half of season 7 seems to have a theme of “nostalgia” to it. Ever since the Christmas special there have been more references and connections to Classic Who, and even just the previous Doctors in New Who. From “bad guys” like the Great Intelligence to just little clues and references from the Doctor (Like him mentioning his granddaughter in the previous episode) “The Cold War” directly references previous episodes, with a classic villain and a notable one at that.
Personally, I’m getting a bit tired of this whole “no story” thing that is happening this season. “The Cold War” is basically a filler episode, like pretty much every episode this season (Ponds included) There is little, if not any, character development and we have so many questions but no answers! Or even hints. Some hints would be nice. While the episode was fun and there were some jokes, it could with any companion. No development at all, not even in the interaction between The Doctor and Clara.
Hopefully next week will be a bit more meaty.