The Ice Warriors FIVE

The one where Clent and Penley finally come face to face...

I love Doctor Who because it's exciting and escapist, adventurous and daft. I love it for its uniqueness, its joy and fun, and I love it because it's fearless, flexible and ferociously imaginative. But I also love it for the little things, the things others might scoff at or turn away from. Case in point: the way the caption "FIVE" is splendidly skew-whiff at the opening of this episode. It just made me smile with fondness for this rickety old show!

One thing that does frustrate me about Doctor Who sometimes though, are rubbish cliffhanger resolutions like this one (I also moaned about it last episode). At the end of episode 4, Varga had counted up to four and the atmospheric pressure reading had dropped to one-quarter. But in the reprise Varga only manages to reach three, and the reading drops to just halfway, before the Doctor is reprieved. Annoying, false jeopardy. Best I just move on...

This episode is a further exercise in treading water by writer Brian Hayles, who obviously knows perfectly well where he wants his story to go, but he can't let it get there just yet. It's a common problem with these longer Troughtons (and a good few Pertwees too) that there's a fab idea for a story, but not enough incident to fill 150 minutes. The better writers managed to use the longer running time to their advantage - I'm thinking of how David Whitaker and Don Houghton introduce major revelations or changes halfway through stories such as The Evil of the Daleks, The Enemy of the World and Inferno - but usually, hacks like Hayles just pad the plot out with captures and escapes, people being knocked unconscious or being imprisoned, just to plug the airtime.

The Doctor is reunited with Victoria for the first time since episode 1, but spends most of his time bickering with Varga (although I do like how Troughton gasps "Oh my word" and turns tail to leave as soon as he sees Varga!). Jamie is paralysed and transported across the icy wastes to Britannicus Base by Penley, interrupted along the way by a decidedly disinterested bear. But apart from the Scotsman's change of location, the three regulars have little to expedite.

The central moment of the episode is undoubtedly the much-awaited confrontation between Clent and Penley, and it's this sort of material that gets quality actors like Peter Sallis and Peter Barkworth to sign up to Doctor Who. When Clent discovers that Penley has returned to the base, he is visibly shaken by the prospect of facing the scientist again. They have such vastly differing world-views, and clearly Clent is intimidated by Penley's intellect and strength of will. Clent needs order and obedience, and Penley represents everything he sees as problematic with the world.

Barkworth imbues Clent with a seemingly deep-seated fear of Penley, and Sallis gives his character a stark fearlessness. The two actors spark off one another in their confrontation, and when Penley says: "Oh don't be a fool, Clent! You're not a man, you're just a machine's slave", you can see Clent is really rattled, offended, and hurt. His outrage spills over as he stabs back at Penley's ideals of free thinking ("Freedom to run away from responsibilities, from service, from moral judgement") and it all degenerates into a raucous fight until the hands-on Penley and Jamie are stunned (the third time this story that Jamie's been knocked cold - his brain must be spinning!).

We also see Clent finally recognising the limitations of being slave to a computer's judgements, as he realises that the reason it won't make a decision as to whether to use the ioniser or not is because of its own need for self-preservation. Using the ioniser would be suicide if it blew up the Warriors' engines, so instead it advises to merely wait. And waiting could mean being killed by the encroaching glacier, so Clent can see the pickle he's in. Nevertheless, he stands by his precious computer, and Miss Garrett stands by him.

Meanwhile, back in the Warriors' ship (where the door to the engine room hilariously fails to close properly!), the Doctor is doing something I could never condone: encouraging Victoria to cry. Deborah Watling is shrill at the best of times, but when she's pretending to be shrill, it's all the worse. It's an ill-advised scene, because Watling's wailing almost drowns out Troughton's subtler sotto voce delivery. The episode ends with Victoria hurling a stink bomb at Zondal, and the Ice Warrior and the Doctor arm-wrestling control of the switch which fires the sonic cannon.

I think I can guess what will - or rather, what won't - happen next week...

First broadcast: December 9th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Clent vs Penley = Barkworth vs Sallis. A powerful scene.
The Bad: Watling's cod wailing. The Ice Warriors' malfunctioning engine room door.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: SIX...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: ONE; TWO; THREE; FOUR; SIX

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-ice-warriors.html

The Ice Warriors is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Ice-Warriors-DVD/dp/B00CD492ZU.