Doctor Who The Empress of Mars Review

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Bill Potts, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Series 10, Doctor Who The Empres of Mars, Doctor Who The Empress of Mars, female Ice Warrior, Ice Warriors, Iraxxea, Mark Gatiss, Mars, Matt Lucas, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Nardole, Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor, Victorian Soldiers, Wayne Yip

Doctor Who The Empress of Mars

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

Not all is quite as it sss sseeems when the TARDIS arrives on Mars and the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole gets caught up in the middle of an uncanny conflict between Ice Warriors and Victorian soldiers! It appears that the Earth has somehow invaded Mars. As the Martian forces in the hive awakens, their Ice Queen Iraxxa prepares to lead them to war. Now the Doctor faces an impossible choice. It is the humans, and not the Ice Warriors that are the aggressors this time around, so which side will the Time Lord choose to be on?

The Empress of Mars is written by Mark Gatiss, the writer of several Doctor Who episodes: including The Unquiet Dead (2005), The Idiot’s Lantern (2006), Victory of the Daleks (2010), two episode from 2013’s seventh season, Cold War and The Crimson Horror, along with Robot of Sherwood (2014) from series eight, and 2015‘s Sleep No More. Now, with The Empress of Mars, Mark Gatiss makes a welcome return for series ten with a story which also features the classic Doctor Who monsters – The Ice Warriors!

Stylishly directed by Wayne Yip (The Lie of the Land), The Empress of Mars sees the Doctor Peter Capaldi), Bill (Pearl Mackie), and Nardole (Matt Lucas) gate crash NASA as the Mars probe Valkyrie relays an image from the red planet showing the words “God Save The Queen” etched on the barren Martian surface beneath the polar ice cap. Taking the TARDIS to Mars, in 1881 to investigate, the Doctor and Nardole become separated from Bill when she falls down an underground shaft, but when Nardole returns to the TARDIS to fetch rope the time machine inexplicably dematerialises with him inside. Marooned on Mars, the Doctor and Bill soon discover a group of Victorian soldiers Goodsacre (Anthony Calf), Catchlove (Ferdinand Kingsley), Seargant Major Peach (Glenn Speers), Jackdaw (Ian Beattle), Vincey (Bayo Gbadamosi) and Coolidge), who, along with their servile Ice Warrior survivor Friday (Richard Ashton), are busy excavating on the desolate red planet.

The Ice Warrior “Friday” was so named by the soldiers who found him and his crashed spaceship the middle of the South African veldt on 19^th century Earth because he reminded Colonel Godsacre and Captain Catchlove of Man Friday in Robinson Crusoe. Friday is really a lone guardian, appointed after a brutal civil war when his Ice Queen ordered her warriors into hibernation, he was to guard the Ice Warriors hive and reawaken them when it was safe to rebuild their world. But disaster struck and his ship crashed on Earth instead. Feigning submission and grief at his species apparent demise, Friday promised the soldiers the riches of his homeworld if they helped him return to Mars, and tricked them into using technology from his ship to mine the plant. But when “The Gargantua” cannon breaches the Ice Queen’s Tomb it doesn’t take long before Empress Iraxxa (Adele Lynch).is revived and a disastrous initial meeting with the soldiers causes her to awaken the dormant army of Ice Warriors for battle, and the soon Doctor is faced with the daunting prospect of mediating between the invading Victorian Soldiers and the reptilian Martian warriors as conflict erupts.

Mark Gatiss’ love of the Ice Warriors shines through every aspect of his script for The Empress of Mars. Along with subtle nods to the creatures past, Gatiss continues to explore new facets of their society and culture – though perhaps not quite as successfully he did in Cold War. Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie, once again shine in their respective roles, this is a comparatively Nardole-lite episode for Matt Lucas though, but he still plays one particularly significant role in the plot when the TARDIS starts “playing up” and prevents him returning to Mars. Nevertheless, the regular’s performances complement each other perfectly, and this TARDIS trio is now rapidly becoming one of my all time favourites.

The majority of the supporting cast of characters that make up the Victorian soldiers are also good, if a little clichéd, however it is their duplicitously subservient Ice Warrior, Friday, played by Richard Ashton that really stands out – especially in the scenes with the Doctor and Bill. Michelle Gomez also briefly returns in this episode as Missy, the Doctor’s arch Time Lady nemesis and Queen of Evil, when Nardole seeks her help in piloting the TARDIS back to Mars. Having been confined in the Vault she now apparently seeks redemption for her crimes against the universe, Missy’s actions in The Empress of Mars would seem to offer some validity to her new moral stance, and once again Michelle Gomez’s brilliant understated performance proves as utterly compelling as ever.

The Ice Warriors are amongst the classic pantheon of Doctor Who monsters. Ever since the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) originally encountered them in The Ice Warriors (1967) and The Seeds of Death (1969), they went on to return in the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) stories The Curse of Peladon (1972) and The Monster of Peladon (1974), The Waters of Mars (2009) implied the Ice Warriors had discovered a horrifying force beneath the surface of the Red Planet, and the 11^th Doctor (Matt Smith) was confronted by Grand Marshal Skaldac when the redesigned Ice Warriors made a triumphant return in Cold War (2013).

It’s astonishing to think that in the fifty years since their debut story, we’ve never actually seen the Ice Warriors on their homeworld. Now at last The Empress of Mars finally shows us the Ice Warriors on Mars. Although initially a little bit of a slow burn to begin with, the episode soon kicks into high gear once the Ice Warriors awaken en mass, and they also utilize new and rather gruesome way of killing. Of course, aside from the impressive regular Ice Warriors, there’s also a notable addition to legacy of the Ice Warriors, and indeed the series’ mythology overall, in The Empress of Mars, in that it features the first appearance in the programmes history of the species female Queen, the Empress Iraxxa, played by Adele Lynch. Iraxxa provides a whole new dimension to these classic monsters, and Lynch’s performance is quite good – if a little bit over-the-top at times. Pearl Mackie also continues to impress and show great versatility as Bill really steps up as the Doctor’s companion in this episode, getting some fantastic scenes and verbal exchanges with Empress Iraxxa.

In a fleeting, glimpse-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, we see a portrait of Queen Victoria in the soldier’s underground camp on Mars – or at least the version of her played by Pauline Collins in the 2006 episode Tooth and Claw. Unsurprisingly for the return of the Ice Warriors in The Empress of Mars, Mark Gatiss has pepped his script with fun references to the classic series, but there is one surprise guest appearance few could’ve expected – the return of Alpha Centauri!

Yes, it may only be for a short greeting on a screen, but the wonderful addition of Alpha Centauri – a friend of the Doctor’s and ambassador of the Galactic Federation who originally appeared in the previous classic series Ice Warrior stories The Curse of Peladon (1972) and The Monster of Peladon (1974) which starred Jon Pertwee as the 3^rd Doctor – is a great callback to the classic series that many fans are sure to adore. Its something made all the more special as well because Alpha Centauri’s original voice actor Yasanne Chruchman also returns to deliver the characters dialogue for this scene.

The Empress of Mars races towards a thrilling conclusion, with bloodshed seemingly unavoidable and Iraxxa being held at knifepoint by Captain Catchlove, the disgraced Captain Goodsacre attempts to atone for his past act of desertion by killing Catchlove and offering to die honourably before the Ice Queen in the hope she will spare his men. Impressed by the human’s actions, Iraxxa orders her Ice Warriors to stand down, and accepts the Doctor’s offer to help them send out a signal requesting assistance to help them leave Mars – a signal which is quickly answered by Alpha Centauri from the Galactic Federation. Leaving the Ice Warriors to prepare for their new role in the universe, the Doctor and Bill help Goodsacre leave the message on the surface that will be seen by both the rescue ship coming for the Ice Warriors and the  Valkyrie probe in the present day, and when Nardole returns in the TARDIS to retrieve them the Doctor and Bill are more than a little shocked when they discover Missy onboard…

The Ice Warriors return in The Empress of Mars is without doubt one of the most fan-pleasing moments of series ten so far, so its perhaps no surprise that it also feels like a very old school classic Doctor Who story in many respects. The madcap premise of this bizarre sci-fi mashup of Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Zulu, along with a good pinch of Steampunk thrown in for good measure, makes for a highly atmospheric and entertaining episode. The drama builds from the moment Iraxxa’s sarcophagus is discovered, and the subsequent clash between the Victorian Soldiers and the Ice Warriors presents an extremely interesting dilemma for the Doctor.

Most of the action takes place underground, but there are some nice establishing shots on the surface of Mars, the scene where the hive is activated are superb, and later the way the Ice Warriors emerge from the ground to attack is also very effective. With its great opening set-up, strong performances from Capaldi, Mackie, Lucas, along with the surprise addition of Michelle Gomez as Missy, and of course Alpha Centauri’s special guest appearance, this episode is a fantastic return for the Ice Warriors. Sure, Mark Gatiss’ script is a tad self-indulgent at times, but ultimately The Empress of Mars is still one of the major highlights of series ten!

Check out the Next Time trailer for The Eaters of Light.

Images Belong BBC

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Aliens / Vampirella #1 Review

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Alien, Aliens, Aliens / Vampirella #1, comics, Corinna Bechko, Dark Horse, Dynamite Comics, Horror, In LIGHT Studios, Javier Garcia-Miranda, Mars, Sci-Fi, Vampirella, Vampires, Xenomorph

Aliens / Vampirella #1

Review by Paul Bowler

When it comes to attention grabbing comic book titles, Aliens / Vampirella #1 with its eye catching cover by Gabriel Hardman, instantly screams out to be read if you are a fan of either Vampirella or the Aliens franchise. Humans have set up a base on Mars, where they have discovered an ancient mystery underground. Vampirella has been sent to help the crew investigate, but it soon becomes apparent monstrous creatures await them in the shadows deep below the surface, horrors that should never have been disturbed…

Aliens / Vampirella #1, is a brand new six part series from Dynamite, by writer Corinna Bechko, featuring art by Javier Garcia-Miranda, and colors by In LIGHT Studios, certainly has a very interesting premise.

There is a lot of potential here; the tantalizing idea of having a character like Vampirella squaring off against the acid-blooded Xenomorphs on Mars is certainly appealing. Corinna Bechko gets things off to a good start with a fittingly blood-drenched, acid-splattering, flashback that quickly established past events. From here, the pace slows somewhat as we flash-forward to Vamperilla’s arrival on Mars, where she meets the crew of Mars Base One, and learns that the base they’ve found beneath the surface could well be tens of thousands of years old.

The familiar themes of the Aliens franchise are all present and correct, there’s a group of humans on a distant world, lots of dark spooky corridors to wander down, and even a chamber full of rather gooey looking eggs. Yes, you know the drill. While it ticks all the boxes, this issue first doesn’t really do anything new with these tried-and-trusted themes. Sure, it sets the scene well enough, but even the crew seem indistinguishable from what we’ve seen many times before, and Vampirella gets no real chance to put her abilities to much use either.

Javier Garcia-Miranda’s art is really good, all the characters are well rendered, and Vampirella looks stunning. However, it’s the flashback at the beginning where Javier Garcia-Miranda’s art really stands out, as we witness the full savagery of the Xenomorph in action. The detail in these pages is phenomenal, and the raw power and brutality of Alien is captured perfectly. Once we flash-forward to the Mars base its all cool metallic corridors, with some wandering around, before Vampirella and the team descends into the underground base where dark shadows, long-dead corpses encased in the walls, and a slimy Alien egg chamber await them. Colorist In LIGHT Studios really shines here in these underground scenes, where the blackness is punctuated by flickering torch beams, and cool blue and green hues heighten the tension even further

Fortunately, after a rather mundane mid-section, this first issue gradually builds to a blood-splattered climax. Corinna Bechko uses some ingenious plot twists here, particularly an unsettling face hugger experience / vision that provides us with further clues about what happened, and the closing moments are both shockingly visceral and violent.

Vampirella fighting the Xenomorphs is an uncanny mash-up of themes and ideas. The Aliens franchise has always had strong female lead characters, so Vampirella is a perfect choice to battle the Xenomorphs. Although Aliens / Vampirella #1 gets a bit bogged down with too much exposition initially, it does begin to measure up to the potential of its premise towards the end of the issue. Corinna Bechko and Javier Garcia-Miranda have done a great job with issue #1, but future issues of this Dynamite mini-series will need to be a bit less formulaic where the Aliens are concerned and make a lot more use of Vampirella if it is to really impress.

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Doctor Who Cold War : Review

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Clara, Cold War, David Warner, Doctor Who, Douglas Mackinnon, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Ice Warriors, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Liam Cunningham, Mark Gatiss, Mars, Matt Smith, Professor Grisenko, Skaldak, Submarine, TARDIS, The Doctor

Cold War

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Ice Warriors are amongst the most popular monsters ever seen in Doctor Who. Ever since they first battled the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) in The Ice Warriors (1967) and The Seeds of Death (1969), and then later the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) in The Curse of Peladon (1972) and The Monster of Peladon (1974), fans have been eagerly awaiting the day when the Martian warriors from Mars would return to menace the Doctor again. Now at long last the Ice Warriors are back, in a fantastic story by Mark Gatiss, to face the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and his new assistant Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) in the eagerly anticipated episode – Cold War.

When the Doctor and Clara’s trip to Vegas doesn’t go according to plan they suddenly find themselves on a Soviet submarine which is rapidly sinking to the bottom of the ocean at the North Pole. After the TARDIS Hostile Action Displacement System causes the ship to dematerialise, leaving them stranded, the Doctor realises they have arrived during the cold war in 1983, at the height of the tensions between the worlds two power blocks. The submarine and her crew are returning from a top secret expedition to the North Pole where they discovered a creature frozen in the ice; an Ice Warriors that he been dormant for over five thousand years. Now it has escaped and is making its way though the submarine, where it confronts the Doctor, but a crewmember sneaks up behind the Ice Warrior and disabled it with a cattle prod.

Now that the Ice Warrior is chained up the Doctor explains that the Ice Warrior is Grand Marshal Skaldak, one of the greatest warriors of the Martian race. Clara volunteers to negotiate with the Skaldic, but she is horrified when it becomes apparent that the Martian has escaped from its armoured shell, and is now prowling the ship in its natural form! Later when Skaldak attacks Professor Grisenko and Clara, the Doctor and Captain Zhukov rush to help them. But the Martian has used the tense standoff to summon his armour, and once he is back inside it, the Ice Warrior storms the bridge and takes control of the submarines nuclear missiles. Skaldak knows his distress call will never be answered, his people are no more, but he can still avenge his race and bring this planets cold war to a final end…

Clara Oswald’s first adventure into the past is fraught with danger as she has to learn to cope quickly as events begin to spiral out of control on the submarine. This is another important episode for Clara as it helps to clarify her role as the new companion, by placing her in situations that reinforce the programmes basic concepts, such as the TARDIS translation matrix. In fact, this is the third time that writer Mark Gatiss has penned a new companions first adventure in Earth’s past – the first being Rose in The Unquiet Dead (2005), and then Amy in Victory of the Daleks (2010). There are plenty of chances for Jenna-Louise Coleman to shine as Clara has to cope with being stuck on the submarine and running for her life to escape from the Ice Warrior after it emerges from its armour. There are no clues this episode about the ongoing mystery of Clara Oswald’s origins, although there are some great character moments for her. One of Clara’s best scenes is where she becomes trapped with the Ice Warrior, it’s highly reminiscent of Robert Shearman’s 2005 episode Dalek, and it’s a great tension filled moment that has quite an unexpected payoff at the episodes climax.

The submarine sets for Cold War are really dark and claustrophobic, with steam billowing from pipes and water streaming everywhere, director Douglas Mackinnon really builds up the tension as the vessel sinks and the Ice Warrior goes on the rampage. It really is remarkable how the cast and crew managed to film in such conditions, the sets are so convincing, and with all the water and steam gushing through the fractured hull it looks incredibly realistic.

Right from the moment we catch sight of the Ice Warrior frozen in a block of ice, there is a brooding sense of anticipation until it breaks free attacks the crew. The new look Ice Warrior retains many of the classic element of the original monsters design, but with a few slight changes, namely having three fingered hands instead of its predecessors clam-like pincers. What is really remarkable about Skaldak is how fast he moves. The old Ice Warriors were slow and lumbering, but Skaldak (Spencer Wilding) seems to power through the submarine, stomping through the flooded corridors and killing anyone that gets in his way. It goes to show just how successful the original design of the Ice Warrior really was, the creature’s sonic weaponry is still present here, their distinctive rasping voice – provided by Nicholas Briggs – is slightly deeper, but the reptilian hisses are the same. The biggest change is how Grand Marshal Skaldak is capable emerging from his armour, revealing his true form, something that even the Doctor has never seen before. There are some really creepy moments as Skaldak prowls the ship (particularly when he dismembers some of the crew to study human anatomy) once he is outside his cybernetic armour, although we only see his clawed hands, his face is revealed during the closing moments on the Bridge as the Doctor  and Clara try to stop him firing the nuclear missiles..

Mark Gatiss has crafted a superb story, drawing on such classic sci-fi influences as The Thing From Another World and Alien, while setting it on board the cramped environment of the Soviet submarine. Cold War is a clear homage to the classic base under siege stories from the 2^nd Doctor’s era, where the Ice Warriors first appeared in 1967, and Mark Gatiss has done a fantastic job with this thrilling episode for the Ice Warriors return.

I like how Mark Gattis has taken the opportunity to give a greater scope to the Ice Warriors and their culture. The first Ice Warrior the Doctor encountered (Varga) had been entombed in a glacier for thousands of years, later he stopped them from invading Earth and altering the planets atmosphere with deadly seed pods, before encountering them in the distant future on the planet Peladon, and the 10^th Doctor (David Tennant) also mentioned them in The Waters of Mars (2009). There are huge gaps in the mythology of the Ice Warriors which Mark Gatiss hints at here: mentioning different castes and factions, a code of honour, and aspects of their ancient civilization. There is also a very touching moment when Skaldak remembers his family. The space ship at the end that rescues Skaldak is magnificent; there is a wealth of potential here for the Ice Warriors to return in force, so let’s hope they do soon, preferably with Mark Gatiss scripting their next story.

Matt Smith has some great moments as the Doctor in Cold War. He spends most of the episode struggling to contain the threat posed by the Ice Warrior, while also briefing his new companion on the tense political situation they are faced with, knowing that if Skaldak launches the submarines missiles it will start a war that will destroy the world. We lean that Skaldak was a great hero of the Martian race, a powerful warrior, and Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Doctor continues to impress as he tries to persuade the Ice Warrior not to unleash the nuclear warheads and start a war.

David Warner is also exceptional good as the elderly Professor Grisenko; a great character who steals every scene he’s in as he walks the corridors of the submarine, singing pop songs from the 80’s. The grizzled Captain Zhukov is played by Liam Cunningham, and his Lt Stephashin (Tobias Menzies), along with crewmembers Piotr (Josh O’Connor), Onegin (James Norton), and Belevich (Charle Norton) are all a great bunch of characters that makes Cold War a really fun episode filled with some cracking dialogue and brilliant action scenes.

It’s great to see the Ice Warriors back for Doctor Who’s 50^th Anniversary year. Cold War is a brilliant episode by Mark Gatiss, the Ice Warriors scaly armoured form has received a fantastic update for the iconic monsters return, and together with terrific performances by Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman this is one of the best episodes of season seven.