Skaldak

Skaldak
Species:	Ice Warrior
Place of origin:	Mars
Appearance:	Cold War
Main actor:	Spencer Wilding
Main voice actor:	Nicholas Briggs

Grand Marshall Skaldak was an Ice Warrior who met the Doctor twice, once in his eleventh incarnation. The Eleventh Doctor referred to him as "sovereign of the Tharseesian Caste" and "vanquisher of the Phobos Heresy." The Doctor also claimed that his foes honoured him so much they carved his name into their flesh just before they died.

He commanded a fleet called the Nix-Thassis, with his daughter beside him.

Eventually, he wound up frozen in the ice at the Earth's North Pole around 3000 BC. 5,000 years later, in 1983, Soviet scientist, Professor Grisenko, found him.

Impatient enough to wait until returning to Moscow, a crew member of the submarine Grisenko was serving aboard thawed Skaldak. Disoriented from the sudden awakening, he went on a brief rampage that sent the submarine to the bottom of the ocean. After an encounter with the Doctor and the submarine's crew during which he was knocked out and captured, he learned of how long he spent in the ice, sending him into a state of grief. This was exacerbated when he attempted to contact his fellow Ice Warriors, but they didn't respond.

Feeling he had nothing left to lose, he left his armour to learn more about the submarine and the humans. As soon as he learned about the nuclear missiles on board, he decided to fire them and wipe out humanity as payback for attacking him.

However, just as he was about to fire them, another encounter with the Doctor made him hesitate, and his companion Clara Oswald appealed to the memory of his daughter to make him stop.

Shortly, fellow Ice Warriors arrive to rescue him, and he left on their spaceship, and deactivated the warheads as a final show of mercy before he left Earth. (TV: Cold War)

Behind the scenes

• Skaldak is the first, and, to date, the only Ice Warrior to be seen on-screen outside of his armor.