Rebounding to near where he left his timeline, the Doctor and his companions arrive near a Viking community that’s about to meet its gods…

Spoilers

The Fifth Doctor bounces backwards in his timeline for this second adventure, arriving between Kinda and The Visitation – but with knowledge of his own future, and, rather more to the point, the future of his companions. Sarah Grochala’s two-parter allows for some exploration of this theme against the background of a rerun of the main beats of the Ice Warriors’ initial story (found in the ice, learn from the Doctor about the fate of their species, decide to conquer Earth, defeated by the Time Lord) that takes some aspects of Viking society and its treatment of women as its basis. (You do have to wonder if the threat sending the Doctor through time is somehow linked to every bad guy being voiced by Nick Briggs… or would that be too meta?)

Grochala makes Adric something of an unsympathetic character at times – his reaction to the mid-story cliffhanger, for instance – but this is all part of the set-up for the final choice that both he and the Doctor have to make. The Doctor seems to be of the viewpoint that what he sees in the future is unchangeable and thus can’t act to prevent the events on the freighter… but the question lurks in the background: would he be reacting the same way to things now if he didn’t have that knowledge? Hopefully that’s something to be explored in the second set, out later this year.

Verdict: Expanding the themes of this saga means difficult choices for the Doctor. 7/10

Paul Simpson

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