Regarding the TARDIS translations:
Has it ever been addressed what happens when the Doctor/Companion is talking to two people who speak different languages? If he’s directly addressing one of them does the other person understand?
Everybody usually understands everybody and no-one questions it.
What got me is when the Doctor told Clara that time was in flux and could be rewritten. This contradicts other episodes where he’s stated that any history that’s been recorded is a fixed point in time and cannot be changed.
You might have hinted at what you were linking to.
You think the Ice Warrior was speaking English? Or Russian?
The TARDIS Translation Matrix didn’t seem inclined to translate the barking alien from last week’s episode.
I liked it too, but I really expected a tie-in to the Stanislav Petrov incident
Stanislav Petrov - Wikipedia (it was the right year, after all)
The Doctor has frequently said that time can be rewritten. He made a very similar comment to Martha when they were in Shakespeare’s time and she stated that the world couldn’t end then. My understanding was that certain events were a fixed point in time, and part of being a Time Lord is knowing which things can and can’t be rewritten. Not all events are fixed. Like in the Fires of Pompeii, the Doctor said he couldn’t stop the eruption because that was a fixed point, but he was able to save one particular family (at Donna’s urging) without disrupting things.
They’re obviously making it up as they go along. If you destroy the Earth in the past, fixed points in the Earth’s future can’t come to pass.
In other words: “Look! Monsters! Run!”
Any time-travel narrative has to fudge the issue of whether it’s possible to change the past or not.
If you were 100% consistent about ALWAYS being able to change the past, then your hero could never be defeated, so there’s nothing at stake and no dramatic tension is possible. He can just keep on going back to two minutes before the disaster he’s trying to prevent (each time with a little more knowledge of what to do) until finally he wins.
If you were 100% consistent about NEVER being able to change the past, then there’s no point in sending your hero back in time anyway. All he can do is observe, and where’s the excitement in an adventure story like that?
So, no matter how much sophistry any science fiction or fantasy writer tries to pile around it, his answer to the question “Can your characters change the past?” must always be “Sometimes”.
(The problems created by the “ALWAYS change” option above were best illustrated in the 2004 movie Primer. Late in the film, the two central characters start to betray each other and each makes secret trips back in time which the other is not aware of. This makes the point that, once time travel is possible, absolutely everything is provisional. You can go back in time to prevent JFK’s assassination and that’s fine, but there’s no guarantee someone else won’t go back a few minutes earlier and kill him “again” before you even get there. Then you could reverse that change, he could reverse yours and so on ad infinitum. Nothing can ever be certain again.)
As demonstrated my the two eminent temporal researchers, Messrs. Preston and Logan.
Bogus.
Yawn.
In a case of “careful what you wish for” I wanted less focus on the Clara mystery arc, and got it. And promptly wished for something more interesting. Even a bunch of great actors couldn’t get me invested in this one.
Thought this was a solid MOTW episode, though my passing knowledge of Russian (the language) and Soviet (the history) made me wince a bit at a bunch of Sovyetskiye speaking Britsh-accented English. Also, that was one spacious, clean, well-lit submarine. Bitching aside, I did enjoy it. 
Also, did I recognize the younger Russian guy (I forget his name; he was the one who wanted to form an “alliance” with the Ice Warrior) from somewhere? He looked awfully familiar, but it’s possible he’s a That Guy.
One thing I liked about this episode was when the Doctor told Clara to stay where she was and not follow, she fucking listened! Finally, someone who understands directions.
Rome.
And, as of this Sunday, Game of Thrones.
(I watched GoT before DW this week. It was weird watching Davos order Edmure Tully around)
Ah yes, grown-up Augustus/Octavian. He’s got quite a distinctive face for me to recognize him after not seeing Rome for a few years!
Though not distictive enough, apparently, since the actor was the guy who played Brutus.