Thin Ice

"Tell me how many people you've seen die."

Writer: Sarah Dollard
Format: TV
Broadcast: 29th April 2017
Series: 10.03

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Bill

Synopsis

Trying to get back to the university before Nardole notices he broke his oath, the Doctor accidentally lands himself and Bill in the past, at the final frost fair in 1814. He decides to enjoy the unexpected trip.

However, something sinister is lurking below the frozen Thames.

Verdict

Thin Ice was another solid episode to continue my rewatching of the tenth series. The standard has definitely been consistent which is a big positive and I liked that we now got to see Bill go into the past. With the setting being 1814 in London at the last frost fair, she was very concerned by her skin colour but something I really loved was that she noticed that the city was actually a bit more black than she had anticipated. The Doctor's comment in reply about Jesus was wonderful and I really did think Peter Capaldi was on top form as the Twelfth Doctor in this episode. I do think it was his best episode of the series thus far but one thing I wasn't too fond of, and my main problem with the adventure was the lack of concern shown by the Doctor when it came to dying. I can fully appreciate that he has seen so much death and Bill challenging him on the number of people he's seen die was good but for the Doctor to be more concerned about his sonic screwdriver on two occasions was a little off-putting. It didn't quite sit right with the character of the Doctor and whilst the Twelfth Doctor isn't the norm, he's still the same man. I really liked the frost fair setting and the Doctor and Bill getting conned by the young children and having the sonic screwdriver stolen was terrific. It didn't take long for him to get it back though and following Spider's death, the children were more than happy to help the Doctor discover the mystery of the lights beneath the ice. I thought the concept of a creature beneath the frozen Thames was very good and I liked that the Doctor wasn't convinced that it was alien. The scale of the creature was quite enormous though and the fact that it seemed to have shaped the iconic bending Thames of Central London was a nice touch. I do wonder what kind of chains could have kept it down though! Kitty was a very good little character and I liked that she seemed to lead the youngsters and they knew all about the man with the tattoo. His connection wasn't as strong as I thought it might be but I did think that Sutcliffe made a decent villain. He was driven on money and didn't have an ounce of compassion in him. All he wanted was profit and with the creature's excrement burning a thousand times longer than coal, even underwater, the profits could have been enormous. The Doctor quite easily put a stop to him though by reverting his planned explosion of the Thames into freeing the creature from its chains. It was quite a contrast to what he had planned and I loved the way it connected with the real life events that Bill later read online. I particularly liked how it was the Doctor who gave the young children the heirloom of the Sutcliffe fortune. That was a very nice touch. Nardole wasn't impressed with the Doctor which was quite humorous and we got our first proper development of the vault. Overall, a terrific little episode.

Rating: 8/10