August 10: "Thin Ice"

Three episodes in and I haven't even mentioned the slightly different font style for the episode titles that they've been using.  No, it does matter, come back!

Nah, it doesn't actually matter.  Just an observation.

Anyway, "Thin Ice" is by Sarah Dollard, who wrote last series's excellent "Face the Raven" and is back with this outstanding story.  It's not an adaptation of the unmade McCoy-era Ice Warrior story, though (sorry, Big Finish fans), but instead this time around we're back to the time of the last frost fair in London, in 1814.  This is when the Thames used to freeze over and people would hang out on the frozen river and have parties and fun.  And yes, they really did have an elephant out on the ice.  In some ways, despite only being 200 years ago, the idea of the Thames freezing over seems really alien -- Bill even comments on it, wondering if the TARDIS has landed in a parallel dimension.

And once again the Doctor and Bill steal the show, thanks to both their easy relationship and some sparkling dialogue.

BILL: Traveling to the past, there's got to be rules.  If I step on a butterfly, it could send ripples through time that mean I'm not even born in the first place and I could just disappear.
DOCTOR: Definitely.  I mean, that's what happened to Pete.
BILL: Pete?
DOCTOR: Your friend, Pete.  He was standing there a moment ago, but he stepped on a butterfly and now you don't even remember him.
BILL: Shut up!  I'm being serious!
DOCTOR: Yeah, so was Pete.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Thin Ice)

The Doctor slugs Lord Sutcliffe. ("Thin Ice") ©BBC

Seriously, Bill and the Doctor's interactions are so good, and they're so relaxed together, that I wouldn't be surprised if these two end up being considered one of the best Doctor-companion pairings ever.  And here they get to say Dollard's dialogue, which is full of sharp, insightful moments ("Regency England," Bill comments.  "Bit more black than they show in the movies."  "So was Jesus," the Doctor replies.  "History's a whitewash") and quieter, more significant ones.  The scene between the Doctor and Bill, where she asks him if he's ever killed anyone, is well done because you understand both sides, and crucially, both of them choose to underplay it.  We could have gotten Pearl Mackie shouting and raging at the Doctor, but she plays this much quieter, and consequently it's a lot more impactful.  It's also good how the script has her move on, so that we don't have to deal with a lot of outrage, as with Clara and the moon situation in "Kill the Moon" -- Bill focuses on the task at hand, which is good.  And then a later scene, where the Doctor tells Bill to let him do the talking because it's best not to get emotional, before slugging Lord Sutcliffe for being racist to Bill, is fabulous not just because it's great to see the Doctor punching racists in the face (although that's definitely part of it) but because it reveals to Bill the sort of man the Doctor is: it's not that he doesn't have time for outrage, as he claims, but rather that he doesn't have time for anything else.   And of course, that gorgeous speech that sums up the Doctor's philosophy: "Human progress isn't measured by industry, it's measured by the value you place on a life.  An unimportant life.  A life without privilege.  The boy who died on the river, that boy's value is your value.  That's what defines an age.  That's what defines a species."

The actual storyline of the episode is a good one: there's a creature living in the Thames that's eating people, except that someone has actually chained it down there.  That someone, it turns out, is one Lord Sutcliffe, who is harvesting the creature's waste as a fuel source which burns a thousand times longer than coal and hotter than they can measure.  We find this out slowly, as the story satisfyingly unpeels thanks to the Doctor and Bill's investigations.  And the villain isn't an alien or anyone deserving of any sympathy, but simply the racist, unfeeling Lord Sutcliffe, who doesn't care who dies (in fact, he encourages it) so long as the creature is kept fed so that it can keep producing fuel.  (Quick aside to note Bill's cheeky almost-swear: "No sh-" *immediate scene change*.)  This leads to another parallel to "Kill the Moon": as in that one, the Doctor declares that the choice of how to deal with the creature, to set it free or to leave it be, is not his to make, but rather Bill's, as a representative of humanity.  But unlike in "Kill the Moon", he doesn't leave Bill alone to make the choice but rather helps her after she decides to set the creature free.  It's a suitably action-packed finale to a story that's been both thoughtful and exciting.

I feel like I've doing a lot of raving about this story, but that's because "Thin Ice" deserves it.  This is a script with dialogue that sparkles and a storyline that unfolds at just the right pace, and everyone in this, on both sides of the camera, do their very best to make this work, and they definitely succeed.  This is easily one of the best stories (if not the best) of series 10, and possibly of Capaldi's whole run.