Now, as it happens I do not recall ever reading the Target
novelization of this story, even though I can clearly remember it sitting on my
brother’s bookshelf. I’m not really sure why. I know that Brian Hayles had
twice had stories produced which were heavily rewritten – in the case of “The
Celestial Toymaker” and “The Smugglers”. However this story introduced his most
lasting contribution to Doctor Who – the eponymous Ice Warriors. Having grown
up with the Third Doctor I have clear memories of them in the two Peladon
stories. However, I think that I should also say that a couple of years ago I
watched “The Seeds of Death”. I made the mistake of watching it with two of the
non-we (my wife and eldest daughter), and had to put up with jibes about some
of the special effects, and the at times funereal pace of the story, without
really being able to come up with good responses – in my opinion at the time the
effects were rather, er, crappy, and the story was pretty slow. Or so it
seemed. Well, that was The Seeds of Death, which we’ll come to in due course.
For now, though, it’s The Ice Warriors, and this one must have had something
going for it or they would never have brought the eponymous warriors back for a
second story. Would they?
After Watching
We are now in the middle of the 5th season, the so-called
‘monster season’. And therein lies my problem with “The Ice Warriors”. If I was
watching this in a vacuum, if you like – or not as part of a developing season,
I have no doubt that I’d be happy to just accept it for what it is, and be able
to dwell on the positives, which undoubtedly exist. The trouble is I am
watching it as part of a developing season, and as a result this all feels
awfully familiar, even though I’ve never seen it before. Let’s have a look at
what I’m on about here, shall we?
The brusque and opinionated
leader who starts cracking up under the pressure?
Check.
He’s called Clent in this story, but he’s clearly conforming to a
type established in the first two Cyberman stories with Cutler and Hobson.
Having said that, though, Clent as a character is a cut above the previous two
mentioned since he’s played by the brilliant Peter Barkworth, about whom I’ll
say more later on.
The base under attack from
alien nasties? Check.
At first this looks rather similar to the set up in “The Tenth
Planet” – although it isn’t because it’s considerably further in the future.
The basic premise to the story isn’t a bad one at all – the Earth is in the
grip of another Ice Age, and the base is one of several in the line of the
advancing glaciers, using ‘ionisation’ technology to halt the advance and turn
it back. Some of the scenes outside the base are actually fairly impressive –
there’s copious amounts of ice and snow about, which makes you wonder whether
there wasn’t any in The Abominable Snowmen because they’d set it all aside for
this one.
Big, lumbering, alien
nasties who have better technology than the humans, but are rather stupid. Check
Even today Bernard Bresslaw’s Varga the Ice Warrior looks pretty
impressive. Fair play to Bernard Bresslaw, he’s certainly best known for
comedy, having taken a number of roles in Carry On films, and also in the 60s
TV sitcom “The Army Game”, but he brings more than just an impressive physical
presence to this role. The sibilant menace of his reptilian voice is somehow at
odds with his massive frame, yet it becomes all the more effective for that.
They’re all big lads, the actors playing the 4 Ice Warriors, but there is
something strange going on with some of their costumes. Bernard Bresslaw’s is
very impressive, and well proportioned, as is one of the others. But the other
two costumes – well, how should I put it? Either their heads are too big, or
their bodies are too small, or a bit of both, and they do look slightly
ridiculous, especially when the 4 are all together and you can’t avoid making
the comparison.
The Alien nasties have a
basic but fatal weakness. Check.
With the Tenth Planet Cybermen it was radiation, and with The
Moonbase Cybermen it was nail polish remover (and gravity). With the Ice
Warriors – well, it’s pretty obvious really when you think about it. Just turn
the central heating thermostat up.
The amazing piece of
technology which can be turned on the alien nasties to save the day. Check
They called it the Gravitron in “The Moonbase”. In this one it’s the
Ioniser. This is the machine that melts the glaciers by , er, ionising them.
Quite a bit of the story is held up waiting for Clent to discover whether he
can use the Ioniser against the Ice Warriors’ ship – if it has atomic engines
he can’t, if it doesn’t, then happy days.
Well, you can maybe see where I’m coming from now. There’s just so
much in this story that we’ve seen before. It’s a bit of a shame, considering
that what the story does, it actually does pretty well, and arguably better
than the predecessors that I’ve mentioned.
What Have We Learned?
In the future, before the
Earth gets burned to a crisp by solar flares, it’s going to be frozen to death
by a new Ice Age
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