From Doctor Who Magazine #130-133
A Review by Finn Clark 7/12/04
A Cold Day in Hell isn't actually bad, but it's formulaic and uninspiring. The Doctor meets the Ice Warriors! Yes, but what else? No, that's the whole story. Frobisher gets written out, but even that's done ponderously. In fairness it's not thrown in as an afterthought; from the first page you can see the story building up towards it. Unfortunately it's done to the sound of grinding gears as predictable and dull motivations are churned out. This should have been so much better. I love Frobisher, but DWM fumbled every major turning point for the character: his departure, the monomorphia...
The references to Peri are curious. Of course in real life 'twas simply an attempt to deal with the changeover from last month's issue of DWM starring the 6th Doctor, Peri and Frobisher. Unable to show the departure of either Colin or Nicola (though ironically the TV show didn't show us a proper goodbye for those characters either), a few lines of dialogue is the best Simon Furman could do:
"But a holiday won't help me forget about Peri overnight."However bearing in mind The Age of Chaos, it seems clear that the 6th Doctor and Frobisher stayed in touch with Peri and her family on Krontep after Trial of a Time Lord. Clearly Peri and Frobisher were close, but perhaps the 7th Doctor didn't feel comfortable returning to see her in his new body? One wonders how many friends he must forget whenever he regenerates..."I can see that, Frobisher. The same goes for me. But Peri is happy with Ycarnos, and she wouldn't want us to be sad."
The script is clumsy and fannish. There's too much talking, too much continuity and an entire B-plot (Frobisher and his new friends) that doesn't go anywhere because the Doctor solved the problem first. Admittedly this is a factor in Frobisher's decision to stay behind, but I'd be feeling more charitable about that if Frobisher's departure had been allowed any emotional resonance in the first place. What's more, too much happens between episodes, to be implied or told to us later in flashback.
(For more information on What Frobisher Did Next, check out Where Nobody Knows Your Name (DWM 329). He's married and running a pub. For what it's worth, Peladon continuity references mean that we know fairly closely the year in which he settled down.)
It looks great, of course. This was John Ridgway's last story as regular DWM artist, again with Tim Perkins on inks, though he would return later for one-off stories. (He ended up doing 143 pages of Sylvester McCoy comic strip, which is more McCoy pages than anyone except Lee Sullivan.) Look for Ridgway's signature on the final page. He enjoyed working for DWM and we're lucky to have had him. He also contributes the one "wow, cool!" moment in this story: a terrifying image of Olla the heat vampire (aka. a Dreilyn) flash-frying an Ice Warrior's brain.
Oh yes, Olla. As Frobisher left, Olla arrived... though her tenure would be considerably shorter than his. To learn more, read Redemption! (DWM 134), the one-parter that came next. I actually think Olla had potential and could have been fun if she'd been allowed to stay longer, though obviously everything about the strip suffered when the quality of the artwork nosedived after Ridgway's departure.
I've been harsh on this story, but it's not unenjoyable. It's 32 pages of Ice Warrior action. The story's structural flaws are less glaring if you whisk through in fifteen minutes, rather than taking it piecemeal in eight-page chunks in four monthly instalments. It looks nice and it's "good enough". However I'm becoming increasingly hostile to mindlessly churned-out Who that doesn't pull its weight and is merely "good enough".