#10 (5.11 - 5.16): The Ice Warriors.

The Doctor's attempt to negotiate doesn't go well...

6 episodes Approx. 147 minutes. Written by: Brian Hayles. Directed by: Derek Martinus. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS materializes in a future in which advancing glaciers threaten to create a new Ice Age. Humanity is keeping the ice at bay through a network of stations using Ionisers to melt the ice and halt its advance. But at Brittanicus Base, all is not well. The chief scientist, Penley (Peter Sallis), has left the project over disputes with its leader, Clent (Peter Barkworth), and Clent lacks the expertise to keep the machine working properly. If the base fails, the entire worldwide effort will be doomed.

Which makes the timing less than ideal when would-be archaeologist Arden (George Waring) discovers a warrior encased in ice. He believes he has found a preserved Viking corpse - but when he returns it to the base and begins thawing it, the scientists discover that it is actually an alien, an Ice Warrior from the planet Mars. The warrior, named Varga (Bernard Bresslaw) has been trapped in the ice for centuries, but he is alive - As is his crew!

Varga takes Victoria hostage and retreats back to his ship, along with equipment to wake up the others.  Soon, the Warriors and the scientists find themselves in a stalemate. Varga cannot escape Earth without mercury within the base, and the scientists don't dare use the Ioniser for fear that it might ignite the ship's engines and cause a nuclear catastrophe. The Doctor hopes to solve this through negotiation. Varga has another solution: Total annihilation!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Though his disdainful reaction to "the great computer" ties in with the technophobic themes of much of the story, he isn't idiotically opposed to technology. He acknowledges the computer as a useful tool, even urging Clent to use it to verify his own expertise in the first episode. But he hates having his judgment made subservient to the machine's. When he leaves the base to confront the Ice Warriors, he expresses hope of being able to reason with them, despite the violence they've already inflicted. Even so, his optimism doesn't stop him from preparing a surprise for his own self-defense. He's hopeful that the aliens will be reasonable, but he's ready for them to be monsters.

Jamie: His attraction to Victoria is made explicit late in Episode One. He responds appreciatively to the revealing outfits of the women in the base, and idly asks Victoria if she would ever consider dressing like that - almost certainly baiting the proper young woman to get the exact reaction he does. When she is kidnapped by Varga, he insists that he has to go after her, not even pretending to listen to Clent's insistence that she is a lesser priority to their main task.

Victoria: Her reputation as a mindless screamer continues to be largely undeserved. Not that she doesn't scream - But as in Tomb of the Cybermen, she does so as a tactic as often as not, as when she screams during an escape attempt through an ice cave in order to bring the ice crashing down on a pursuer. She is certainly frightened, but she responds to a terrifying situation with courage.

Penley: This is a story that has aged less well than some of its counterparts.  In a decade where individualism was clearly seen as the greatest virtue, it is clear that we are meant to see Penley as the most admirable guest character... However, Clent is quite right when he accuses him of being a moral coward. On an assignment whose failure would spell the deaths of millions, Penley abandons his post - To all appearances, for no reason other than a bruised ego!  When this is directly pointed out to him, he effectively says that it's not his problem.  Our guest hero, ladies and gentlemen!

Clent: That said, Brian Hayles' script refreshingly avoids turning Clent into a one-dimensional cartoon character.  He is an overbearing ass, but he's given several moments that show that he's not only that. In Episode Four, he tries to be conciliatory toward Arden, who is blaming himself for having brought the Ice Warrior back to the base. His manner is awkward and halting, showing his unease at giving compliments or lending comfort. But he makes the effort, and that and similar moments make him a far fuller character than might have been the case.

Ice Warriors: The costume may have been notoriously uncomfortable (and it looks it!), but it's visually striking and the slow movements of the warriors make them feel genuinely alien. As in The Power of the Daleks, the story gains mileage from putting the antagonists in a position of weakness. If Clent and his scientists succeed in melting the ice, then the warriors have no hope of escaping Earth, which puts them in a desperate situation from the moment they wake. It doesn't make them less malevolent, and it's made clear early on that they kill ruthlessly when there is no actual need to do so... But their desperation makes their motives plausible, and creates a parallel with the similar desperation of the humans.


THOUGHTS

The Ice Warriors is unmistakably Sixties, from the outfits worn by the scientists in the base to the ridiculously technophobic themes running through the narrative. It so unapologetically a sixties artifact that it's actually rather charming.

It's a decent story, but not as good as the ones preceding it. The first four episodes do a solid job of establishing the different threads.  The advancing glaciers, the Ice Warriors themselves, and Penley's retreat from his duties complement each other even as these strands converge. It takes a little too much time to do it, though.  A subplot with Penley's scavenger friend, the almost fanatically anti-scientist Storr (Angus Lennie), doesn't particularly advance the story, and largely just repeats themes that were better established elsewhere.  There are far too many scenes of Clent deferring to the computer (we got the point in the first episode, thanks).  All of this results in the feel of a good four parter than has been stretched to fill six parts.

There's also at least one genuinely great scene. On learning that the Ionizer can, at full power, melt rock, the Ice Warriors exult about its power as a weapon. The scientists protest that it is no weapon, but a tool. "I see it differently," the warlike alien replies. And at the end, Penley proves the Warriors correct precisely by using the machine as a weapon, exultantly declaring that the Ionizer "can destroy rock" as he turns it against the enemy.  Is it a tool?  Is it a weapon?  Depending on its application, it is clear that it can be both.

Victoria is captured by an Ice Warrior!

THE MISSING EPISODES

Episodes Two and Three of The Ice Warriors were among the earlier missing episode animations. They are not as effective as many of the later efforts, with limited animation and often blocky movements.  Still, it's good enough to allow the visual element for the missing episodes, complete with some enjoyable bits of physical business from the Doctor. That it looks primitive next to more recent efforts does not change how grateful I am that the BBC chose to start down the road of animation.  Without this and The Reign of Terror, we would never have gotten to far more accomplished presentations such as The Macra Terror.

Overall, The Ice Warriors is very much an artifact of its time. Time hasn't touched the basic storytelling of The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Abominable Snowmen, both of which still compel; but this story has to be viewed in part through the lens of the late 1960s. With that in mind, it remains a good "B" science fiction piece, even if it doesn't rise to the heights of its immediate predecessors.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Story: The Abominable Snowmen
Next Story: The Enemy of the World


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