Beneath the Ice (TV Story)

Hilary Salmon

***Beneath the Ice*** was the third serial of Season 52 of *Doctor Who*. It was written by Sarah Dollard, directed by Charles Palmer and starred Damien Molony as the Fourteenth Doctor & Joana Borja as Felicity Wilson.

## Synopsis

The Doctor takes Felicity to the past, at the final frost fair in 1814. However, something sinister is lurking below the frozen Thames.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Damien Molony
* Felicity Wilson - Joana Borja
* Sutcliffe - Nicholas Burns
* Kitty - Asiatu Koroma
* Pie-Man - Peter Singh
* Overseer - Simon Ludders
* Dowell - Tomi May
* Spider - Austin Taylor
* Dottie - Ellie Shenker
* Harriet - Kishaina Thiruselvan
* Perry - Badger Skelton

## References

### Culture

* The Doctor refers to the whitewashing in history when Felicity mentions that there were more black people present than shown in movies, specifically mentioning Jesus Christ as an example.
* A frost fair is being held at the frozen River Thames. The frost fair has many activities and performances, notably an elephant, wrestling, sword swallowing, skittles, cartwheel performers, magicians, ring toss, M. G. Clark Printing Co., souvenir shops, bookshops, strongmen, pubs, The Nelson Arms, The City of Moscow and "try your luck" stalls.
* A map for 19th century London is displayed on the TARDIS scanner.
* The Doctor reads *Struwwelpeter* out loud for the street urchins.
* The Doctor shows Bill the British Newspaper Archives when trying to find information about the frost fair-incident.

### Biology

* Felicity refers to the melanin in her skin.

### Technology

* Spider steals the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which Bill calls a "magic wand". When pressed by Felicity, the Doctor admits it's a screwdriver in "a very broad sense", and that it's sonic because it "makes a noise".
* A detonator is wired up to explosive barrels.
* The Doctor's sonic screwdriver works underwater.
* The Doctor and Felicity wear diving suits.

### Science

* Felicity thinks they have travelled to a parallel world.
* The Doctor says only real wrestling is in zero gravity with tentacles and magic spells.
* In Sutcliffe's mansion, the Doctor plays with an Orrery.

### Currency

* The frost fair costs only sixpence to take part.

### Food and beverages

* A bypasser accidentally drops a basket of fruits and vegetables on the Thames.
* A seller is selling chestnuts just above the stairs to the fair.
* Food stalls at the fair include: Shish kebab, shish squid, shish chicken, ox cheek, Lapland Mutton, sheep heart, fish pie, meat pie, chicken pie, Gingerbread and Gin stalls.
* The Doctor steals fish pies from a con-artist.
* Sutcliffe has a bowl of nectarines, pears, clementines, grapes and apples.
* At Sutcliffe's mansion, the street urchins are given a traditional Christmas dinner, consisting of turkey, salad, potatoes, gravy, broccoli, red cabbage, a Christmas pudding and glasses of milk.
* The Doctor's favourite thing to eat at the Frost Fair is a piece of tube-like offal on a skewer.

### Species

* Lure fish were swimming in the River Thames, luring people out on the thin areas of the ice with their green light bulbs and trap them underneath for the serpent to feed on.
* The Doctor mentions fireflies and glow worms.
* The excrement from the sea serpent is used as fuel by Sutcliffe's people.

### People

* The Doctor jokes with Felicity about an imaginary person called "Pete" who stepped on a butterfly and got erased from history.
* The Doctor likes good con artists.
* Watermen are in charge of keeping order at the frost fair.
* Felicity says she was a skittles champion two years in a row.
* Sutcliffe is racist and sexist.
* Sutcliffe has hired dredgers.
* Sutcliffe is low in iron.
* The workplace has a dredger-in-chief overlooking the work.
* Sutcliffe has a manservant.
* The Doctor refer to the sea serpent as "Tiny", "the loch-less monster" and the "not-so-little mermaid".

### Locations

* The TARDIS lands on the Blackfriars Bridge next to New Lime Wharf. The fair stretches from Blackfriars to London Bridge.
* The Doctor and Felicity are heading towards Freezeland Street.
* Kitty worries that the Doctor will take her and the other urchins to the Magistrate.
* Sutcliffe has a workhouse upriver where his men work with the serpent's excrement.
* The Doctor questions whether the chief dredger checked that no one followed the transport carts all the way to Hampton. He says he checks all the way to the steel mill.
* Felicity worries the serpent will eat people off the South Bank and half of London and that they've doomed Greenland after freeing it.
* According to the psychic paper, the Doctor works for the Palace. The Doctor says he hasn't heard that one in a while.

## Continuity

* When thinking they are in the present day of 2016, Bill speculates that they have travelled to a parallel world. (TV: *Inferno**,*** *Blood Heat, Knight Falls)*
* The Doctor once again notes humanity's habit of overlooking or forgetting the bizarre. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)
* The Doctor mentions how sometimes the options available are limited, and begins to say something about choices, alluding to the explanation he provided to Heather. (TV: *Mummy on the Orient Express*)
* Bill questions if the Doctor cares about people dying; Richard had similarly questioned the Doctor's detached nature. (TV: *The Dawn of Cyberman*)
* The Doctor once again defers to his human companion's judgement as to whether to allow a creature to live or die. (TV: *The Beast Below*, *Kill the Moon*)

## Home video releases

### DVD

* This story along with the other stories in Season 52 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Fifty-Second Season* in 2016.

### Blu-ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 52 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Fifty-Second Season* on Blu-ray in 2016.