The Ice Warriors (TV story)

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The Ice Warriors was the third story of Season 5 of Doctor Who. It also marks the first appearance of recurring villains the Ice Warriors.

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on Earth at the time of a new ice age and the travellers make their way into a base where scientists commanded by Leader Clent are using an ioniser device to combat the advance of a glacier.

A giant humanoid creature, termed an Ice Warrior by one of the scientists, has been found buried in the glacier nearby. When thawed, it revives and is revealed to be Varga, captain of a Martian spacecraft that landed on Earth centuries ago and is still in the glacier. Varga sets about freeing his comrades and formulating a plan to conquer the Earth - Mars itself now being dead.

The scientists meanwhile realise that continued use of the ioniser could cause the alien ship's engines to explode. Their trusted computer is unable to advise them without further information, and it seems that disaster is imminent. The disaffected scientist Penley, supported by the Doctor, eventually decides to risk activating the ioniser. There is only a minor explosion, which destroys the Martians and, at the same time, checks the ice flow.

Plot

to be added

Cast

Crew

References

  • Brittanicus Base is run by Britain.
  • Earth's population has taken over all farmland on Earth, food production has shifted to artificial means.

Timeline

  • Varga has been frozen in the ice for thousands of years.
  • Clent states that thousands of years of history is under the glacier.

Story Notes

  • A real live bear was used in specially shot film inserts (as opposed to stock footage).
  • Miss Garrett's entire costume unexpectedly changes between the fifth and sixth episodes.

Influences

  • Archeological discoveries of the time, notably the Sutton Hoo dig, influenced the idea of a buried body proving to be an alien, with the Ice Warrior's space helmet being mistaken for a ancient helmet.
  • Notions about Mars, current in 1967 but now known to be false, also inform the programme, such as the nitrogen atmosphere of Mars which causes the Ice Warriors breathing difficulties on Earth.
  • The theories of a "nuclear winter" and "a New Ice Age" are the basis for the setting of the story. The disputes between the scientists seems to represent the debate amongst scientists over the validity of these theories. The idea of weather manipulation had appeared in The Moonbase and would also reappear in The Enemy of the World, which followed from this story, and in the next Ice Warriors story, The Seeds of Death.

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 6.7 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 7.1 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 7.4 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 7.3 million viewers
  • Episode 5 - 8.0 million viewers
  • Episode 6 - 7.5 million viewers

Myths

  • The base computer is called ECCO. (This name was invented by writer Brian Hayles for his later novelisation of the story.)

Filming Locations

Production errors

  • Varga's head design changes after he wakes up.
  • The TARDIS lands on its side in episode 1, but it's the correct way up in episode 6.
  • When they leave the TARDIS, they push the doors outwards - usually people are seen to pull the doors inwards to exit the TARDIS.
  • At the end of Episode Four, the Doctor says he never answers questions until he's "addressed properly." In the reprise at the beginning of this one, he says, "properly introduced."

Continuity

  • The Doctor is wearing his fur coat from the previous story, DW: The Abominable Snowmen. Jamie also suggests at first that the Doctor has landed further up the mountain in Tibet, because the environment is still icy (ironically, no ice appeared on screen in The Abominable Snowmen).
  • The crew have to climb out of the TARDIS because it is lying on its side. The Doctor has to enter the TARDIS under similarly awkward circumstances in DW: Time-Flight.
  • The Ice Warriors next appear in DW: The Seeds of Death.
  • NA: Happy Endings references the events of this story.
  • This episode marks the last time that the TARDIS doors open outwards in the original series. They do so again after the TARDIS's redesign in /* DW: The Eleventh Hour */

Timeline

DVD, Video and Other Releases

  • This was released on video with a Mini-reconstruction of the two missing episodes (episodes 2 and 3).

It is rumored that Episodes 2 and 3 of this story will be animated and released with the rest of the surviving episodes on DVD in 2010. Steve Roberts has announced there are no current plans to release these stories, with animation or otherwise.

Novelisation

Ice Warriors novel.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors

See also

External links

Template:Season 5

v • e
Ice Warrior stories
For the purposes of this list, an "Ice Warrior story" is one in which one living, authentic Ice Warrior plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story.
Television
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Prose
Comics
Video games
Complete list of appearances
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