Doctor Who – Thin Ice

The Lost Stories- ‘Thin Ice’

By Mark Platt, directed by Ken Bentley
Story #1.3
Release date: 2011, April

Ace is eager to see Earth in the swinging 60’s but is disappointed to find that the TARDIS has landed in the middle of gloomy Moscow during the Cold War rather than London in its hey day. The Doctor is acting more secretive than usual and appears to be talking to himself. Both the Doctor and Ace are expected and soon become part of a heist of galactic proportions. The KGB is on their tails, an armored motorcycle gang is tracking their every move and a platoon of Ice Warriors is stranded on Earth and desperate to recover a very special lost treasure. Reluctantly, the Doctor removes himself from the action to allow Ace to pass her final test. If she fails, it’s bad news for the time line and for Earth, but the Doctor has faith in her abilities. Is his faith misplaced?

Even though Doctor Who had been cancelled after Survival in 1989, stories for series 27 had been commissioned by Andrew Cartmell and plans were afoot to send off Ace, introduce a new companion and also feature the return an old monster, the Ice Warriors. Strangely, Mission to Magnus by Philip Martin would have also involved the Martians and it too was scrapped back in 1985. Perhaps the Ice Warriors are just bad luck?

Markus Creevy arrives in Moscow, 1967 with a valise full of rock albums and a sly grin. His girlfriend Raina Kerenskaya has been waiting for him and is also playing a vital part in his caper. Not much is known about Creevy’s job or who he is working for, but it is obviously very dangerous. This puts some strain on Raina who must hold back the news that she is pregnant with Markus’ child. The Doctor and Ace stumble about past security checkpoints acting like they know what is going on only to find that Markus is working with a stranded Ice Lord named Hhessh who has hired Creevy to break into a vault containing lost relics of the War Lord Sezhyr, a sword, breast plate and helmet along with several egg-shaped power cells.

The Ice Warriors are more than just blokes in turtle-shaped armor, they are bonded to their armor via cybernetic implants. This means that Sezhyr’s personality and memories are stored within his helm. The KGB have attempted numerous experiments with the technology to no avail, as all subjects experience an explosive change in metabolism.

The heist is a bit of a shambles, but they manage. During a high speed chase through the streets of Moscow and across a frozen river to the safety of the TARDIS, they are ‘rescued’ by an Ice Warrior tractor beam and hauled off into space. Raina is mesmerized by Sezhyr’s helmet and places it over her head only to have her personality lost entirely. Additionally, the change in her metabolism prompts an early child birth. The Doctor is eager to help Raina through her birth and the Ice Warriors in their return to Mars, but is coerced into retreating into his TARDIS, abandoning Ace to the consequences.

Throughout this adventure, the Doctor has psychic conversations with a Time Lord about Ace’s induction into the Academy on Gallifrey. Apparently, all of the tests and developmental treatment of the last two years were to get her ready for her formal education on an alien world. Unfortunately, this demands that the Doctor leave Ace to deal with the situation just as it gets out of control. Now merged with the War Lord’s psyche, Raina becomes Sezhyr and becomes overwhelmed with bloodlust. The Martian Empire is a shambles and she is determined to bring about a revival, starting with the domination of the planet Earth.

Thin Ice (also known as Ice Time) is an enjoyable audio adventure that fits perfectly with the 1989 series. The music, dialogue and characterizations are spot on. Both McCoy and Aldred have slid back into their roles with consummate ease, which cannot be said for many of McCoy’s audios that he shares with Aldred. Ace is a tricky character as she is among a select few companions who actually had an arc. She was being tested by the Doctor for a reason, and the pay off is within Thin Ice, but in the other audios this is side-stepped and Ace just kind of flounders as a character.

In this story, Ace has a much stronger purpose and her interaction with the Doctor reads like an organic extension of what we had already seen in Curse of Fenric, Ghost Light and Survival. Weirdly, the story sidesteps the planned ending of Ace leaving for Gallifrey and instead concludes with an uneasy alliance and more adventures ahead. It’s not as out of the ordinary as I had expected it to be, but given the strong lead in, it feels strange.

The guest cast is incredible, with newcomer Beth Chalmers excelling as Raina/Sezhyr, a part that is daunting to say the least. Ricky Groves is also lots of fun as the London con man Creevy and I look forward to seeing him return in Crime of the Century as an old man. Apparently he was only available for a short period of time and had to record all of his sequences in quick order. But he comes back. Yes, the baby Raine and her father return in the next adventure, set in London of 1998.

Beth Chalmers as Raine Creevey

The unique idea of introducing the companion as a baby then jumping forward in time to get her on board the TARDIS strikes me as one that Steven Moffat could never pass up (though in that case it would somehow turn out to be River Song or a relative of Amy’s or Rory’s).

There are some sore points to Thin Ice, such as the way the story starts off strong then staggers through parts three and four. The period setting is brilliant and the Ice Warriors are treated very well (though I cannot figure out why they keep eating fish fingers).

There is a tendency to treat the Ice Warriors as stock monsters (Seeds of Death) or as sophisticated aliens that teeter on the edge of becoming Klingons in the ST:TNG vein (Curse of Peladon/Monster of Peladon). This story straddles both options and they come across as real characters who can be deadly monsters. Cool. I hear that the Ice Warriors are due for a return in Matt Smith’s new series and I hope that Nicholas Briggs can be the voice of sanity to Moffat on how to treat them.

The story line of Ace’s test is a bit of a strain and I still cannot figure out the Martian motorcycle gang or how they got from Moscow to London… or what they were doing in either.

This story gets a lot of flack from fans and I very reluctantly purchased the entire series hoping that I was the exception to the rule and could find some redeeming qualities. It’s a mixed experience as I can see why someone would be let down (there was a lot of anticipation of this series) and the result is less than perfect. Even so, it feels like a late 1980’s Doctor Who adventure and that is a good thing.

Doctor Who The Lost Stories- ‘Thin Ice’ can be ordered directly from Big Finish or online retailers such as Mike’s Comics.

Doctor Who on the docket- Dragonfire and The Happiness Patrol

The Ace Adventures box set arrived in the post today and I have to admit that I’m a bit over-eager to dive in. There have been much better DVD releases (and worse) and many stories that I adore, but this is a bit of a personal fave for me as it marked the period where I rediscovered Doctor Who and connected with it in a unique way.

On this blog I have cited the importance of the Hartnell stories, the inventiveness of Troughton’s era and the comic book-like insanity of Pertwee’s turn at the wheel. No one can argue that Tom Baker’s tenure as the Doctor was important as was his successor Peter Davison whose youthful exuberance attracted a new fanbase, especially in the US. But it was when Colin Baker scared away the remaining fans and Sylvester McCoy arrived that things got really interesting.

McCoy is a love him or hate him Doctor, I have to admit. A classically trained actor, he is also a former children’s entertainer and his diminutive size and odd facial expressions make him appear comical and so strange that he might really be an alien. His arrival shook up the program and challenged the notion of what made Doctor Who what it was.

The stories of his first season in 1987 have been judged as the worst ever seen, but you have to give the BBC props for innovation. At the very least, Colin Baker could look at Delta and the Bannermen and admit that there is no way he could have been in that one!

Dragonfire was a game changer of sorts as it introduced Ace, a companion that would go on to become one of the most beloved characters of the 1980’s Who. A street kid transported to another planet and yet living a boring life as a waitress, she has plenty of personality and loads of determination. In her first outing she contrasts Melanie’s screaming female with a wide-eyed wonder of the unknown. She is daring, brash and reluctantly naive and inexperienced. An ideal companion as the Doctor embarked on two years’ worth of stellar stories.

There are loads of problems in Dragonfire, an eerie hunt after a monster is made rather light-hearted due to intense lighting and the cuddly nature of the ‘monster’ who could barely move in any case. Edward Peel as Kane steals the show as the devilish and maniacal villain, so icy cold and cunning that he is a worthy adversary for the Doctor.  The whimsical ‘treasure hunt’ plot is delightful and turns sour when the true nature of the planet is revealed and things get rather grim.

Ace, the Doctor, Sabalom Glitz and Mel go treasure hunting

The weird biomechanoid holds many mysteries

The Ace Adventures Box Set also contains Happiness Patrol, a story that divides the few remaining fans that actually hold an opinion on the McCoy era. A bizarre artistic statement on the state of the UK under Margaret Thatcher, it also showcases one of my personal favorite monsters, the Candyman. I know he gets a lot of stick, but its his resemblance to a children’s program host that makes him work for me. He’s just far too silly to be taken seriously, yet he is also a blood-thirsty maniac.

The Happiness Patrol was screen in omnibus format in the US along with Remembrance of the Daleks which I thought was perfect. Both stories were equally superb yet entirely unique. Each got heavy handed at times with their messages and Fifi was dreadful, but there’s always some component that trips up Doctor Who, even at its best (killer clams, magma beasts, cute giant rats, giggling actors off-screen). Even so I admire what the team was attempting here and felt that it was a far stronger story than Remembrance which was rather straight forward.

The new era of Doctor Who appeared to be a pastel-colored kids show with a goofy lead actor and his androgynous assistant. Yet under that veneer, lurked the lotus eaters of Time and the Rani, the cannibals of Paradise Towers, the killer bees of Delta and the Bannermen and… the shocking conclusion to Dragonfire. In the case of Happiness Patrol, it was a candy floss affair mixed with pulp science fiction tidied up with a message about the dangers of tyranny and the dangers of denying sadness. Series 24 and 25 shocks and entertains while making the audience think about some pretty heavy ideas without reverting to gore or horror tactics (that would come later in the final season, which I also like a lot). There’s a cleverness and ingenuity in this period that I don’t think gets enough respect.

The Happiness Patrol also included a stirring moment when the Doctor literally philosophizes an assassin out of his job.

Great stuff and very iconic of the era.

The Doctor confronts the Candyman

Ace joins up with the Happiness Patrol?

This box set holds many elements that would later crop up in the BBC Wales revival of Doctor Who, but it is important to see how they were done here (and done right). Just the right amount of attention is given to Ace (she never threatens to take over the program) and the absurdity of the drama and action is incredibly over the top yet also taken very seriously.

Wish me luck as I take a trip back in time to 1987 and beyond…

Sophie Aldred