Cold Vengeance

The Tenth Doctor Adventures #2.3

Released: 23 November 2017

Listened: 11/16/22

The Tenth Doctor met Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and (eventually) Zygons, but he missed out on Ice Warriors. Matt Fitton aims to fix that. And these aren’t the noble, federation-joining Ice Warriors of the future, but angry, vindictive Ice Warriors. In large part, it’s a classic “base under siege” story, which doesn’t fit as well in Series 2 as the goofier stories, except it’s a lot like “Tooth and Claw” in that the Doctor and Rose are both overconfident, which means they don’t listen to the people around them, and that causes trouble. The Ice Warriors aren’t too big on listening either, which leads to the whole problem of generations of war and revenge that can’t end because nobody knows how to stop anymore. As often in Matt Fitton stories, the relationships between the characters are the important bits, between the Doctor and Rose, and between Brona and Callum Volta, mother-and-son space pirates. And even with Lorna, the recycling collector who nobody listens to until it’s too late. This one’s a bit darker than the other stories in the set, but it sets up future sets nicely…if there ever are any.