Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Average in every way

“Cold Blood” concludes the story which began in its predecessor “The Hungry Earth” and is infinitely more interesting in terms of the ideas it explores as the Doctor fails to broker a peace between the Silurians and humans due to hostility and death on both sides. Unfortunately though, despite a shock ending, it cannot do enough to elevate the overall story to anything better than average.

On the positive side, the second part is much better than the first, and definitely makes sense of some of the decisions which made the first part weak and insipid. Having Amy captured and Rory left behind on the surface, for example, is required to fully illustrate the goodness of Rory, who doesn’t harm the Silurian and indeed tries to save her. While this could have been done by Amy, having Rory be the best of humanity makes Rory’s death at the end even more poignant.

And yes: the big shock ending is the death of Rory. This is without doubt the best part of the episode and overall story as Rory saves the Doctor, gets absorbed by the time energy seeping from the crack in time and gets erased from history much to Amy and the Doctor’s distress (very well acted by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan). Why Amy forgets him while she remembered the clerics and the Weeping Angels in “Flesh and Stone” (31.05) is all rather hand-waved by the Doctor in a line about Rory being part of her personal history, and isn’t really all that believable. But, despite this rather too obvious plot-hole which gapes like the crack in time itself, Amy’s losing first the physical embodiment of Rory and then even the memory of him is suitably heart-breaking and devastating. I am left wishing though, that either Rory had been added to the TARDIS earlier or that his death had happened an episode later. After all, he died too in “Amy’s Choice” (31.07) and this seems too soon, too repetitive following as it does so closely after that episode.

The other shock ending is the revelation of the shrapnel the Doctor pulls out of the crack being a part of the TARDIS (although why he is able to simply stick his hand in without being absorbed by the time energy is just not explained at all — not even a mini hand-wave). It’s certainly an intriguing part of the season arc that has been building with the cracks in time and ramps up the tension and mystery around that.

Unfortunately, the ending is the best bit of the episode. There is much to admire perhaps in the idea of the story: the exploration of the Silurian race, the brokerage of a peace between them and humans (echoing previous attempts made by the Doctor to do so in Classic Who), the notion of ‘the best of humanity’ but the execution leaves much to be desired. I wasn’t a fan of the change in narrative style for this episode where the commander of the Silurians narrates events occasionally in voice-over as a retelling of history. It’s not particularly consistent with the first part and doesn’t add anything to the episode beyond forewarning of the losses the Doctor will suffer (something I’m not entirely sure was needed).

I’m also ambivalent about the idea put forward by the episode that the female of the species is far more deadly than the male. While on one hand I appreciate and even buy into the notion that females are the protectors of their species (for example, a tigress defending her cubs), on the other, given how the story evolves with the hostile actions of the females leading to the failure of the peace process, it all rather feels like the writer is subtly blaming womankind of the failures of humanity a la a patriarchal church organization blaming Eve for Adam eating the apple — there’s even a nonsensical piece of manipulation by Ambrose of her father despite her already learning her lesson in killing Alaya. Perhaps this wasn’t Chiball’s intention, and perhaps I’m reading far too much into it but it does leave me vaguely unsettled.

In conclusion

Indeed, perhaps this is the most accurate description that I have for my feelings about the episode and the story in its entirety: I’m unsettled, ambivalent. The story had potential but just didn’t live up to it. There wasn’t anything brilliant here for the most part; nothing that really stood out including the performances and the production values (beyond the make-up). Yes, the ending was great but this had more to do with the season story arc rather than the story with the Silurians. And in the end, “The Hungry Earth” and “Cold Blood” are nothing more than average.