Cold War, in a nut-shell is pure Gatiss fan-boy brilliance. The entire episode just screams that the writer was a classic fan, which we all know Gatiss heavilly was. All of the characters in it help build up an emotional/comedy bond with them, be is the story of Grand Marshall Skaldak, who has an emotional connection with the loss of his relatives, or Professor Grisenko, who has an amazing love for Ultravox and Duran Duran, It makes the story feel human....even if it is deep under the sea!

Oh, Vienna...we start off with a brilliant Model of a Submarine, preparing to "blow up the world, again", when we are interrupted by the wonderful character of Professor Grisenko, played by actor David Warner. The Professor is a bubbly, Russian man who takes a certain shine to Clara, and her knowledge of the future, specifically his favourite band, Ultravox, without David Warner, I feel this episode wouldn't be half as good as it was, because he makes such a wonderful character that wouldn't be suited to any other actor.

Coming to the main villan of the episode itself, The Ice Warrior, Grand Marshall Skaldak, well - what a great re-introduction to a classic villan he was. With very little re-design yet such a drastic change to the voice, the balance was equal but understandable given that we have seen creatures undergo much more drastic changes. Yet at the same time, we had such a drastic change, because we didn't see the ''shell suit'', we saw the actual creature, which I loved (apart from those terrible hands which we saw grab the crew), it was controversial to show it, but it needed to happen some time... the same happened with the Daleks, we saw them inside once too, can't see how it is different, but each fan to their own opinion.

Murray Gold wasn't given a chance to shine on this episode, with possibly one new bit of music that I heard, but with quite a lot from previous series 7 episodes, some which I felt weren't suited, such as the final piece of music, first heard in A Town Called Mercy.

Overall, I am happy to watch this episode over and over again, but it is yet to be my favourite of the series, and it won't be for sometime...unless I get a brain transplant, but never the less, a brilliant episode which Mark Gatiss needs to be congratulated upon.


EDIT: - I do apologize for this being out so late, I was on holiday and couldn't complete the review on time... darn holidays, eh?