The Ice Warriors
Encyclopedia
The Ice Warriors is a serial in the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 11 to December 16, 1967. This serial marked the debut of the Ice Warrior
s.
. Leader Clent is convinced they will be able to avert a new Ice Age but the group knows they are only a few hours away from being forced to abandon the base. Tensions rise when Penley, a maverick scientist who has defected from the team, is mentioned. The remaining senior scientist, Arden, is out on the glacier searching for archaeological finds, where he discovers an armoured man within a block of ice. Arden and his colleagues ignore appeals to return to Base and help Clent control the Ioniser, intent instead on digging the ice man from the glacier. Two scavengers observe their actions: the anti-technology Storr and Penley, who both live in the tundra away from technology. When one of Arden’s team is killed in an avalanche, the other two head back to base with the ice man. Storr too is injured in the avalanche, breaking his arm.
The TARDIS
arrives outside the base. The Second Doctor
, Jamie
and Victoria
go inside, where the Doctor offers to help with the Ioniser. His action saves the Ioniser and coupled with his scientific analysis of the current ice age – that it has been caused by a severe drop in the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere following the wholesale extermination of plant life – Clent is persuaded of his usefulness, despite initial misgivings.
Arden and Walters reach the base with their prize, and Arden sets up a device to melt the ice around the man. The Doctor examines the frozen man; as the creature’s helmet incorporates electronic parts, they determine that the "ice warrior", who has been entombed since the last ice age, is an alien being. Minutes later, an emergency meeting distracts the staff; no-one notices that the ice block has completely melted, with the creature showing signs of life.
The creature becomes mobile, knocks Jamie unconscious and takes Victoria as a hostage.
The ioniser planning meeting is interrupted by the Doctor’s news about the warrior. He concludes that if the creature is indeed alien then there could be a spaceship under the glacier which could be powered by atomic systems; using the ioniser in that area could cause a massive explosion that would destroy the Base. The crew are discussing this when Jamie bursts in and reports the creature has come to life and taken Victoria. An alert is issued throughout the base, but only Arden and Jamie can be spared for a search party.
The creature identifies itself to Victoria as Varga, an Ice Warrior
from the planet Mars
, who has indeed been frozen for millennia. He insists Victoria help him find his ship and crew; with the extra troops he can decide whether to return home or stay and conquer the Earth. Varga steals power packs from the medi-centre to revive his crew.
Penley has meanwhile helped Storr back to their hideout, where Storr’s injuries are determined so bad that Penley needs to go back to the Base to steal some medical supplies. He sees Varga and Victoria in the medi-centre and follows them as they leave the Base. They encounter Clent before leaving, and Varga leaves him unconscious and badly wounded. Penley tries to revive Clent and is found doing so by the Doctor, who has worked out he is the errant scientist. Penley, once sure the Doctor is dealing with Clent, leaves the Base, despite’s the Doctor’s protests that he is needed to help with the Ioniser. When Jamie and Arden return from their search, the Doctor persuades them that with the prospect of more than one creature buried in the glacier they should play for time. They postpone the next phase of the search until morning.
Meanwhile, in the glacier, Varga finds four of his frozen comrades and prepares to revive them.
Varga begins the process of reviving them, which takes all night. His lieutenant, Zondal, is given the task of creating defensive structures in their ice cave while the other Ice Warriors set about finding their missing craft and digging it out of the ice. Varga is observed by Penley, who is back tracking in the snow having used the medicine on his friend Storr. When Penley returns to Storr he is surprised to find a visitor, Miss Garrett, who implores him to rejoin the crew of the Base at this critical time. When other approaches fail, she tries to take him at gunpoint but Storr intervenes. Miss Garrett is sent away with Penley’s advice to “check the Omega Factor”. The Doctor tests the new data in simulation mode and proves that the Ioniser can be used more effectively.
Back at the Base, Jamie and Arden are sent into the glacier, ostensibly to find the alien spacecraft rather than Victoria. They discover the Ice Warriors’ cave excavation and report this back to Base. Minutes later, they are ambushed and gunned down by the Ice Warriors, who leave them for dead. Penley investigates and finds Arden has indeed died, but Jamie is still alive. Penley decides to take him back to his home. Storr decides to speak to the Ice Warriors himself, convinced they might be potential allies. Penley heads after him, warning of their ruthlessness.
Having failed to contact Arden, the Base personnel assume something bad has happened. Moments later, the video link comes alive, operated by Victoria, who tells them of the danger of the Ice Warriors. She is probed by Clent about the propulsion system of their ship. Zondal, concerned that Victoria will reveal their location, trains the ship's weapons on Victoria.
Varga stops Zondal, in order to eavesdrop on Victoria's conversation and learn the Base's primary concern, and to use it as a weapon against them. An Ice Warrior is sent to capture Victoria again and use her as bait. The Doctor decides to go to the spaceship and rescue Victoria. Before leaving, he takes with him a phial of ammonium sulfate
, which he deduces will be noxious to aliens from a nitrogen
based atmosphere such as Mars. However, Victoria flees ever deeper into the icy caves. When the Ice Warrior, Turoc, finds her he is caught in an avalanche and crushed – with Victoria alive but trapped in his dead claw.
An examination of the engines of the Martian craft reveal them to be functional but low on fuel. When the Ice Warriors encounter Storr they ignore his offers of help, especially so when he denounces scientists at the very time they want technical aid. Storr is killed but Victoria, who he brought from the ice caves, is permitted to live.
Meanwhile Penley has found the Doctor and taken him to Jamie. He determines Jamie’s paralysis is temporary and heads off to the Martian craft. Once there he offers himself as an envoy, leaving his communicator active so Clent can hear, and is allowed to enter the airlock. Varga, suspicious of the Doctor's claims, reduces the pressure in the airlock to zero until the Doctor explains his motives.
Seconds away from death, the Doctor agrees to Varga's demands. With the glacier threatening to crush the spacecraft, the Doctor succeeds in getting Victoria released to him. He is less successful in persuading Varga that the Ioniser is anything but a weapon that could be used against the Martians. The last thing the Doctor is able to establish before Varga takes the communicator is that Clent needs to use the Ioniser at some point, regardless of consequences. The Doctor is marched to the core of the spacecraft, where he spots an ion propulsion system. Varga decides to attack the Base before the Ioniser can be used, and orders his Warriors to prepare a sonic cannon.
Penley has brought Jamie to Base on a motorised sled. Clent gives Penley a frosty reception, and they end up bickering. Clent says he has decided to adopt the Doctor’s advice and use the Ioniser, even if the computer seems unconvinced of the merits of such a proposal. The Doctor and Penley’s new formula for ionisation has been tested in other Bases with great success and is scheduled for use in Britannicus in a few hours time.
Zondal has been given the task of arming the sonic cannon. With Varga and his other Warriors, Isbur and Rintan, focussed on this attack, the Doctor and Victoria use the opportunity to release the chemical solution in Zondal’s face. The Warrior collapses, but his hand activates the sonic cannon as he falls.
The sonic blast triggered by Zondal only glances the Base, causing minor damage. Varga uses the communicator to call Clent, threatening to fire again unless the humans surrender. Clent knows the Base dome cannot survive another sonic blast and suggests a peace meeting between the two sides. The Ice Warriors confront the humans in the Ioniser room. The talks fail when a demented technician, Walters, tries to shoot the Martians. Varga dismantles the Ioniser reactor to get the mercury isotopes
he needs for his ship, not caring how this will affect the humans and the Dome. Without the ioniser, the glaciers begin to move forward.
The Doctor and Victoria adjust the Martian sonic cannon so it will harm the Ice Warriors and not the humans. Similarly, Penley, who was not in the Ioniser Room, alters the temperature and atmosphere controls in the Base so it becomes uncomfortable for the Martians. The Doctor fires the sonic cannon, forcing Varga and his men to retreat from the Base. He fuses the sonic cannon before he and Victoria flee the ship. The Doctor revives the Base staff, who were rendered unconscious by the sonic blast, and works with Penley to recalibrate the Ioniser. The computer calculates a fifty-percent chance that the Ionizer will explode when trained on a spacecraft with an ion engine
; Penley tells Clent to work without the advice of the computer. When the computer overloads, Penley takes charge and starts the Ioniser.
The Martian craft begins to power up, but does not get far before it is destroyed by the Ioniser. The ship explodes without starting a chain reaction, which solves both the problem of the Ice Warriors and the glacier. Their work done, the TARDIS crew slip away as some green shoots emerge through the melting snow.
(1969), The Curse of Peladon
(1972), and The Monster of Peladon
(1974). They were also mentioned in "The Waters of Mars
" (2009).
published a novelisation by Brian Hayles
of this serial. Hayles named the computer system ECCO.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 11 to December 16, 1967. This serial marked the debut of the Ice Warrior
Ice Warrior
The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors where they encountered the Second Doctor and his...
s.
Plot
In the distant future at Brittanicus Base, senior control technician Jan Garrett and her staff struggle to control an ioniser which they are using to slow the progress of glaciers rolling over BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. Leader Clent is convinced they will be able to avert a new Ice Age but the group knows they are only a few hours away from being forced to abandon the base. Tensions rise when Penley, a maverick scientist who has defected from the team, is mentioned. The remaining senior scientist, Arden, is out on the glacier searching for archaeological finds, where he discovers an armoured man within a block of ice. Arden and his colleagues ignore appeals to return to Base and help Clent control the Ioniser, intent instead on digging the ice man from the glacier. Two scavengers observe their actions: the anti-technology Storr and Penley, who both live in the tundra away from technology. When one of Arden’s team is killed in an avalanche, the other two head back to base with the ice man. Storr too is injured in the avalanche, breaking his arm.
The TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
arrives outside the base. The Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
, Jamie
Jamie McCrimmon
James Robert "Jamie" McCrimmon is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A piper of the Clan McLaren who lived in 18th century Scotland, he was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1966...
and Victoria
Victoria Waterfield
Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A native of Victorian England, she was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1967 to 1968.-Character history:Victoria first...
go inside, where the Doctor offers to help with the Ioniser. His action saves the Ioniser and coupled with his scientific analysis of the current ice age – that it has been caused by a severe drop in the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere following the wholesale extermination of plant life – Clent is persuaded of his usefulness, despite initial misgivings.
Arden and Walters reach the base with their prize, and Arden sets up a device to melt the ice around the man. The Doctor examines the frozen man; as the creature’s helmet incorporates electronic parts, they determine that the "ice warrior", who has been entombed since the last ice age, is an alien being. Minutes later, an emergency meeting distracts the staff; no-one notices that the ice block has completely melted, with the creature showing signs of life.
The creature becomes mobile, knocks Jamie unconscious and takes Victoria as a hostage.
The ioniser planning meeting is interrupted by the Doctor’s news about the warrior. He concludes that if the creature is indeed alien then there could be a spaceship under the glacier which could be powered by atomic systems; using the ioniser in that area could cause a massive explosion that would destroy the Base. The crew are discussing this when Jamie bursts in and reports the creature has come to life and taken Victoria. An alert is issued throughout the base, but only Arden and Jamie can be spared for a search party.
The creature identifies itself to Victoria as Varga, an Ice Warrior
Ice Warrior
The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors where they encountered the Second Doctor and his...
from the planet Mars
Mars (Doctor Who)
Mars, the fourth planet in our solar system, has been featured in the Doctor Who fictional universe on a number of occasions. In the various Doctor Who serials which feature the Ice Warriors, mention is made that Mars is their homeworld....
, who has indeed been frozen for millennia. He insists Victoria help him find his ship and crew; with the extra troops he can decide whether to return home or stay and conquer the Earth. Varga steals power packs from the medi-centre to revive his crew.
Penley has meanwhile helped Storr back to their hideout, where Storr’s injuries are determined so bad that Penley needs to go back to the Base to steal some medical supplies. He sees Varga and Victoria in the medi-centre and follows them as they leave the Base. They encounter Clent before leaving, and Varga leaves him unconscious and badly wounded. Penley tries to revive Clent and is found doing so by the Doctor, who has worked out he is the errant scientist. Penley, once sure the Doctor is dealing with Clent, leaves the Base, despite’s the Doctor’s protests that he is needed to help with the Ioniser. When Jamie and Arden return from their search, the Doctor persuades them that with the prospect of more than one creature buried in the glacier they should play for time. They postpone the next phase of the search until morning.
Meanwhile, in the glacier, Varga finds four of his frozen comrades and prepares to revive them.
Varga begins the process of reviving them, which takes all night. His lieutenant, Zondal, is given the task of creating defensive structures in their ice cave while the other Ice Warriors set about finding their missing craft and digging it out of the ice. Varga is observed by Penley, who is back tracking in the snow having used the medicine on his friend Storr. When Penley returns to Storr he is surprised to find a visitor, Miss Garrett, who implores him to rejoin the crew of the Base at this critical time. When other approaches fail, she tries to take him at gunpoint but Storr intervenes. Miss Garrett is sent away with Penley’s advice to “check the Omega Factor”. The Doctor tests the new data in simulation mode and proves that the Ioniser can be used more effectively.
Back at the Base, Jamie and Arden are sent into the glacier, ostensibly to find the alien spacecraft rather than Victoria. They discover the Ice Warriors’ cave excavation and report this back to Base. Minutes later, they are ambushed and gunned down by the Ice Warriors, who leave them for dead. Penley investigates and finds Arden has indeed died, but Jamie is still alive. Penley decides to take him back to his home. Storr decides to speak to the Ice Warriors himself, convinced they might be potential allies. Penley heads after him, warning of their ruthlessness.
Having failed to contact Arden, the Base personnel assume something bad has happened. Moments later, the video link comes alive, operated by Victoria, who tells them of the danger of the Ice Warriors. She is probed by Clent about the propulsion system of their ship. Zondal, concerned that Victoria will reveal their location, trains the ship's weapons on Victoria.
Varga stops Zondal, in order to eavesdrop on Victoria's conversation and learn the Base's primary concern, and to use it as a weapon against them. An Ice Warrior is sent to capture Victoria again and use her as bait. The Doctor decides to go to the spaceship and rescue Victoria. Before leaving, he takes with him a phial of ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate , 2SO4, is an inorganic salt with a number of commercial uses. The most common use is as a soil fertilizer. It contains 21% nitrogen as ammonium cations, and 24% sulfur as sulfate anions...
, which he deduces will be noxious to aliens from a nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
based atmosphere such as Mars. However, Victoria flees ever deeper into the icy caves. When the Ice Warrior, Turoc, finds her he is caught in an avalanche and crushed – with Victoria alive but trapped in his dead claw.
An examination of the engines of the Martian craft reveal them to be functional but low on fuel. When the Ice Warriors encounter Storr they ignore his offers of help, especially so when he denounces scientists at the very time they want technical aid. Storr is killed but Victoria, who he brought from the ice caves, is permitted to live.
Meanwhile Penley has found the Doctor and taken him to Jamie. He determines Jamie’s paralysis is temporary and heads off to the Martian craft. Once there he offers himself as an envoy, leaving his communicator active so Clent can hear, and is allowed to enter the airlock. Varga, suspicious of the Doctor's claims, reduces the pressure in the airlock to zero until the Doctor explains his motives.
Seconds away from death, the Doctor agrees to Varga's demands. With the glacier threatening to crush the spacecraft, the Doctor succeeds in getting Victoria released to him. He is less successful in persuading Varga that the Ioniser is anything but a weapon that could be used against the Martians. The last thing the Doctor is able to establish before Varga takes the communicator is that Clent needs to use the Ioniser at some point, regardless of consequences. The Doctor is marched to the core of the spacecraft, where he spots an ion propulsion system. Varga decides to attack the Base before the Ioniser can be used, and orders his Warriors to prepare a sonic cannon.
Penley has brought Jamie to Base on a motorised sled. Clent gives Penley a frosty reception, and they end up bickering. Clent says he has decided to adopt the Doctor’s advice and use the Ioniser, even if the computer seems unconvinced of the merits of such a proposal. The Doctor and Penley’s new formula for ionisation has been tested in other Bases with great success and is scheduled for use in Britannicus in a few hours time.
Zondal has been given the task of arming the sonic cannon. With Varga and his other Warriors, Isbur and Rintan, focussed on this attack, the Doctor and Victoria use the opportunity to release the chemical solution in Zondal’s face. The Warrior collapses, but his hand activates the sonic cannon as he falls.
The sonic blast triggered by Zondal only glances the Base, causing minor damage. Varga uses the communicator to call Clent, threatening to fire again unless the humans surrender. Clent knows the Base dome cannot survive another sonic blast and suggests a peace meeting between the two sides. The Ice Warriors confront the humans in the Ioniser room. The talks fail when a demented technician, Walters, tries to shoot the Martians. Varga dismantles the Ioniser reactor to get the mercury isotopes
Isotopes of mercury
There are seven stable isotopes of mercury with 202Hg being the most abundant . The longest-lived radioisotopes are 194Hg with a half-life of 444 years, and 203Hg with a half-life of 46.612 days. Most of the remaining radioisotopes have half-lives that are less than a day...
he needs for his ship, not caring how this will affect the humans and the Dome. Without the ioniser, the glaciers begin to move forward.
The Doctor and Victoria adjust the Martian sonic cannon so it will harm the Ice Warriors and not the humans. Similarly, Penley, who was not in the Ioniser Room, alters the temperature and atmosphere controls in the Base so it becomes uncomfortable for the Martians. The Doctor fires the sonic cannon, forcing Varga and his men to retreat from the Base. He fuses the sonic cannon before he and Victoria flee the ship. The Doctor revives the Base staff, who were rendered unconscious by the sonic blast, and works with Penley to recalibrate the Ioniser. The computer calculates a fifty-percent chance that the Ionizer will explode when trained on a spacecraft with an ion engine
Ion thruster
An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions. Ion thrusters are categorized by how they accelerate the ions, using either electrostatic or electromagnetic force. Electrostatic ion thrusters use the Coulomb force and...
; Penley tells Clent to work without the advice of the computer. When the computer overloads, Penley takes charge and starts the Ioniser.
The Martian craft begins to power up, but does not get far before it is destroyed by the Ioniser. The ship explodes without starting a chain reaction, which solves both the problem of the Ice Warriors and the glacier. Their work done, the TARDIS crew slip away as some green shoots emerge through the melting snow.
Continuity
This was the first appearance of the Ice Warriors, who would appear in three more stories: The Seeds of DeathThe Seeds of Death
The Seeds of Death is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 25 January to 1 March 1969...
(1969), The Curse of Peladon
The Curse of Peladon
The Curse of Peladon is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 29 January to 19 February 1972.-Synopsis:...
(1972), and The Monster of Peladon
The Monster of Peladon
The Monster of Peladon is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 23 March to 27 April 1974.-Synopsis:...
(1974). They were also mentioned in "The Waters of Mars
The Waters of Mars
"The Waters of Mars" is the second 2009 special of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 15 November 2009. It aired on BBC America on 19 December 2009 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 11 January 2010 and in the US on 2 February 2010...
" (2009).
Production
- Deborah Watling was unable to attend the complete recording of the final episode. Consequently, Victoria is asked (off-screen) to return to the TARDIS halfway through the episode.
- All save episodes two and three of The Ice Warriors still exist in the BBC Archives. The four existing episodes were all found in BBC Enterprises' Villiers House property, in August 1988. They were only discovered as the company was in the process of moving out of the building.
- Unusually, the word "episode" was dropped from each episode number in this serial.
In print
In March of 1976, Target BooksTarget Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
published a novelisation by Brian Hayles
Brian Hayles
Brian Hayles was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. His body of work as a writer for television and film, most notably for the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, lasted from 1962 to 1978....
of this serial. Hayles named the computer system ECCO.
VHS and CD releases
- A VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
was released in 1998. It included a audio CD featuring the soundtracks of episodes Two and Three - A two-disc CD set from BBC Audiobooks, Frazer Hines reads Brian Hayles novelisation of the story, unabridged. The second disc features the soundtrack from the television serial, with the addition of narration by Frazer Hines. The recordings also include an interview with Frazer Hines, as well as the soundtrack from the BBC's televised trailer for the next serial, The Enemy of the WorldThe Enemy of the WorldThe Enemy of the World is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968...
.