The Ice Warriors ONE

The one where the Doctor becomes Britain's scientific adviser...

Opera! How refreshing and startling to have a female opera singer opening the episode over various pictures of snowy landscapes. The music is a Dudley Simpson composition, but this gives the story an instant icy blast, and makes it feel like a 1950s B-movie, replacing the theremin with a vocal. Love it! I also like the new way of presenting the story title and episodes ("ONE"!).

The first scene opens on a busy, bustling futuristic control room, with people dressed in crazy patterned clothes milling about a bunch of computers, but in a room which seems to have wood panelled walls. Simpson's music gallops over all of this, and at times is too high in the mix for us to hear what's being said. This is actually a complaint I have of the whole episode, as quite often what people are saying is either muffled or drowned out. Sound director Bryan Forgham seemed to be struggling with the fact director Derek Martinus keeps the characters on the move for a lot of the time.

I do like the costume design by Martin Baugh though. I mean, they're obviously very 1960s with their patterned swirls and two-tone zebra markings, some of them perhaps inspired by the programme's opening "howlaround" titles, others based upon a computer motherboard. But they're so very different and creative, giving this future century a Swinging Sixties vibe. As for the incredibly short skirts the ladies are wearing... maybe this is another indication that the costumes are designed by a man this time, rather than the usual ladies! Even Jamie comments on the ladies' legs, although Victoria isn't very impressed, calling it "disgusting" (despite the fact she was showing a good deal of thigh herself in The Tomb of the Cybermen!).

I've quickly taken against Leader Clent, who seems very abrupt and terribly patronising toward Miss Garrett (interesting that she's labelled as "Miss", instantly telling us that she's obviously unmarried, but available). Peter Barkworth was one of the finest character actors of his period, and gives Clent a huffy self-importance beautifully undermined by the fact he's hobbling around on a walking stick and has occasional lapses of strength. Mind you, this does allow him to use the fabulously named vibro-chair to recover. Not sure how it works, but I wouldn't mind a go myself.

The computer (voiced by Roy Skelton) sounds like a cross between a Dalek and a Cyberman, and is inappropriately difficult to comprehend at times, but I do like Jeremy Davies' set design, with the elegance of the central computer which turns on its base. In fact, everything about The Ice Warriors is designed beautifully.

The arrival of the TARDIS allows the three regulars to indulge in some broad comedy as it materialises upside down and on its side, sliding down an icy hillock. They have to clamber out of the police box prop, with the doors unusually opening outwards, treading on each other as they go and prompting various squeals, squeaks and contorted faces. It's lovely to see (Troughton can sell almost anything), but also a little silly. Mind you, I like silly sometimes.

This is the third consecutive nippy location they've landed in (first Telos's ice tombs, then the Himalayas, now Britain in the Second Ice Age) so if Jamie is as much a true Highlander as he claims, he's going to be particularly cold this time around. Inside Britannicus Base they find a Victorian house, inside which is the futuristic computer control room. When the Doctor hears that the pitch and tone of the computer is wrong, he can't help but get involved. The bit where Victoria warns that they shouldn't get involved, and the Doctor simply smiles: "Let's go in" is one of the most exciting lines in Doctor Who history. Truly: it sums up everything that is magical about Doctor Who. Against all better judgement and past experience, the Doctor will always want to get involved in things. "Going in" is how adventures begin!

The Doctor gets involved almost immediately, milling about the computer banks and essentially saves the base within 60 seconds of entering the room. This is marvellous textbook Doctor Who we're being given here by Brian Hayles, who's writing and characterisation seems to have improved tenfold since his disappointing The Celestial Toymaker. The Doctor is written well, and performed to perfection as always, with Troughton shining in everything he does (his crestfallen face when Clent refuses to believe his prediction was any more than guesswork is classic).

One odd thing I noticed (apart from the naughty boom mic in the corridor when they're wheeling in the Ice Warrior!) is that Clent seems to accept the Doctor and his friends very easily and quickly. As soon as he discovers he's a scientist and can replace the absent Penley (a case of the TARDIS taking the Doctor to a place where he was needed?), Clent forgets all matters of security and moves on. He easily accepts that the travellers are sanctifiers from Tibet, but doesn't wonder why they are unaware of the global ecological situation. Clent has to explain the international problem of glaciers and ionisation as if they are from another time or planet entirely, which of course they are - but he doesn't know that! Of course it's only really to inform the viewers, but it's a bit lazy of Hayles to have Clent info-dumping a load of facts which anybody who lived on Earth at the time (even if they're on retreat in Tibet) would have to already know.

I like the bit where Victoria turns her nose up at possibly being evacuated to the African Rehabilitation Centre. From her 19th century perspective, the Dark Continent would be a scary, unclean and undesirable place to go!

An awful lot happens in this episode, far more than has happened in any one installment of Season 5 so far I reckon. A mysterious man is discovered in the glacier (an "Ice Warrior", a phrase casually coined by Walters which seems to stick for the next 50 years!), scientist Penley abandons his friends in the base and befriends a scavenger, there's an avalanche (realised pretty well by mixing stock footage with well-edited effects in studio), and by the episode's end, the frozen figure has fully defrosted and is gurning into the camera (Varga has a very squishy mouth!). This awakening promises even more action in the next episode.

First broadcast: November 11th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The set and costume designs are refreshing and memorable, in more ways than one!
The Bad: The sound levels aren't great some of the time, with dialogue hard to discern, whether it's misplaced mics or excitable music.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: TWO...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: TWO; THREE; FOUR; FIVE; 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.