Central Premise Recycled From: “Warriors of the Deep” crossed with “Dalek”, and obviously “The Ice Warriors”.
Moffat
Autorecycling: None, and
indeed the story seems to have been engineered deliberately so as to
exclude the usual tropes: setting it on a Russian submarine precludes
the presence of children and Time Travelers' Wives, making the
antagonist a lone Ice Warrior rules out Gentlemen-lite hordes or
Weeping Angel creeping unknowns. The script mercifully refrains from
repeated catchprases and speeches about how wonderful libraries are.
All that leaves is a villain who turns out to be Just Misunderstood,
and song-based technology.
Recycling
Other People: Has all the
hallmarks of the Troughton-era Base Under Siege stories, albeit with
fewer weird psychosexual undertones. Also
“The Horror of Fang Rock” (base under siege at sea, with an alien
that's pretty good at hiding and picking people off one by one). “The
Krotons” (HADS). Gatiss
indulges his fondness for eccentric old
professors (see
“Nightshade” among others),
and has characters named “Zhukov” and “Onegin” (presumably
there's a ship's doctor named Zhivago somewhere aboard).
“The
Curse of Fenric” (sympathetic Soviets).
“The War of the Worlds” (the Ice Warrior's hand coming up behind
Stepashin's head). “World War Three” (world on brink of nuclear
annihilation thanks to an interfering alien). “The
Unquiet Dead” (time is in flux, and the fact that Clara is alive in
the 2010s does not preclude her dying in the 1980s). “Alien” and
sequels, though that practically goes without saying. “Battlefield”
(the Doctor's antiwar rant). “The Sea Devils” (submarine invaded
by prehistoric lizard-creature).
Evil
Household Objects: Not
exactly, but there's a treacherous walkman.
Doctor
Who!: Again not exactly,
though Zhukov does ask “who are you?”
Outfits!:
The Doctor dons aviator
glasses for a visit to Las Vegas.
Small
Child!: No, but then, where
would you fit one on a submarine?
Murray
Gold's Top Ten: Rather banal
this week.
Clara Dies Due To: Nothing, though she does get knocked out for a while.
Clara's
Job of the Week: To channel the spirit of Deborah Watling for
forty-five minutes.
“Run,
you clever boy, and remember”: Nope.
Topical
Reference to Puzzle Future Generations: Lots
of Eighties references, so we can puzzle them right now. “Daddy,
what's an Ultravox, and why are you and Mummy laughing?”
Gratuitous
Plot Hole of the Week: That's
an awfully big and spacious submarine they're on, and
why's it got ventilator shafts?
Continuity
Frakup of the Week: Strangely
it's actually not a frakup, but a correction, in that the Ice
Warriors were always meant to be cyborg-type creatures with really
technological armour. However, since they haven't up till now, it
comes across as a frakup. It's been pointed out that the Doctor
saying he's never seen an Ice Warrior out of its armour renders
certain New Adventures uncanonical, but I'm not sure most of the
audience is bothered.
Nostalgia
UK: We're back in the
Eighties again, when everything was bigger. At least the choice of
Ultravox and Duran Duran
for period stylings means we miss out the “Ghost Town”
embarrassment of last week.
Item
Most Likely to Wind Up as a Toy: Foregone
conclusion. Suffice it to say we're not going to be getting little
plastic David Warners.
