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Ice Cap Terror was a TV Comic story featuring the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon. It was significant to the continuity established by Polystyle in that it was the first time that the Second Doctor was seen addressing modern-day Earth via the mass media. The Doctor's televised broadcast to the world in the final panel established him as a well-known figure on mid-20th century Earth — something that would be continued throughout the remainder of the run.
Summary
Aliens landing at the South Pole announce to the world that they have twenty four hours until a bomb will blast the Earth off its axis. However during a show of strength, a smaller explosion releases Ice Apes from their lair, a fact the Doctor uses to pit one against the other to save the planet.
Plot
In the year 1970 a space craft from a distant galaxy, touches down near the South Pole. It is glowing with heat after entering the Earth's atmosphere, and as planned melts the ice around them, sinking their craft to a depth of one hundred feet before the shell of the vehicle cools off and the melting process stops. As the craft sinks deeper into the polar ice cap, the slush above it freezes solid again. The space suited aliens then plug themselves into the world television networks in order to inform the Earthlings of their demands, saying that unless the people of Earth do as their leader says an explosive device will be detonated at the South Pole, that will throw the planet off balance. To add strength to their demands the aliens explode a smaller device, which rocks the Earth violently. This they say should serve as a warning.
The devastating blast also jolts the Tardis as it whirls through time and space, shaking its mechanisms and forcing it to materialise nearby. In the deep crater below the mushroom cloud, strange underground caverns have been exposed by the explosion, caverns containing creatures that have never before been seen by Human eyes. Huge white, primitive Apes. The Doctor and Jamie are looking around with their binoculars, with the Doctor stating that he can't see any observers shelters, that usually if an air force is testing a large bomb, they have observers close to the explosion. Jamie suggests they tune the Tardis's television into the Earth's frequency and see if there's anything on the news about it, which they do. The alien is still broadcasting, saying that, Earth's government's have been told that they have twenty four hours before a larger device is detonated, which will hurl Earth off its axis. Using an advanced transmitting detector in the Tardis the Doctor pin points the position of the alien craft as being just half a mile away, telling Jamie that they must do something, before they leave the world's population to become slaves.
Dressed in warm clothing, the Doctor and Jamie set out following the detector, with the Doctor's intent being to damage the alien craft in some way that prevents it blasting the Earth off its axis. Deep in the crater they are headed through however huge, terrifying creatures stir from the underground caverns, that the Doctor identifies as Ice Apes [Glacies Simiae]. He tells Jamie that he'd heard they lived in underground tunnels and surmises that the explosion must have released them. In order to make their escape, the Tardis crew push two huge blocks of ice down the crater toward the Ice Apes. This said, after discovering the alien craft is one hundred feet below the ground they soon return, with the Doctor descending into the crater and Jamie joining him there after fetching three sticks of dynamite from the Tardis's Armoury.
Using the detector, the Doctor and Jamie are making their way through the tunnels, listening to the Ice Apes as they go, and sneaking by the cave chamber that they have made their home. The space travellers discover that the cave is a dead end but that they are only twelve feet from the alien space ship, and use the dynamite to not only blast a hole to extend the tunnel, but also to rip a further hole in the alien space vehicle. When the flying debris settles, the aliens leave their craft saying that those responsible for this damage can't be far away and that they will die for what they've done. This said, as the Doctor had planned, the aliens end up meeting the Ice Apes and a fierce battle commences, during which, despite the aliens possessing laser guns, the Ice Apes fight their way into the space ship to crush the last alien resistance. The Apes then return to their chamber victorious, as the Doctor and Jamie search for the bomb amid the wreckage of the space craft, and thereafter defuse it.
When the Doctor returns to the Tardis, he plugs himself into the world television networks and makes a special announcement, "You will not know who I am viewers... It matters little! What does matter is that the alien threat has been dealt with and Earth is safe".
Characters
References
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Notes
- Following TV Comic's negotiations with BBC Enterprises which resulted in the use of Jamie McCrimmon and Quarks in the comics, this story was originally to feature the Robot Yeti. However, following Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln's disappointment in TV Comic not seeking their permission in the use of Quarks in Invasion of the Quarks, the Yeti in Ice Cap Terror were replaced with Ice Apes. (DWCC 17)
- The fact that the Doctor addresses the whole world on television in this story informs the final episode of The War Games. This act can be read as one of the reasons why the Second Doctor claims to be "known on the Earth" in The War Games, when his televised run has him meeting only a handful of modern-day residents of Earth, most of which were UNIT soldiers.
Continuity
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