Icy Reception

Prerequisites: None needed.

Spoilers!
I think Cold War is one of the more underrated episodes of Series 7. It's nothing great, but it's a perfectly competent base-under-siege adventure, and it has a lot of aspects that really work. For starters, the setting and concept are absolutely inspired; having the entire story take place on a cramped Soviet-era submarine during the height of the Cold War is awesome, and that's taken full advantage of in the script. The camera work and direction are also quite good, and I noticed the lighting did a great job of emphasizing the more horror aspects on display. Apparently, this was pitched as 'The Hunt for Red October' meets 'Alien', and those two concepts blend really quite nicely. Cunningham gives a great performance as the captain, and Warner is as excellent as always. Really my only significant criticism is that the ending feels like a copout. I'd argue that having Skaldak's people rescue him at the end removes much of the tension from the ending, and there ceases to be any narrative threat once they arrive. Still, this was very fun.