The Ice Warriors
In this serial, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) arrive on Earth during a new ice age.
After making its way into a base led by a man called Clent (Peter Barkworth), the crew discovers a humanoid being in the ice that plots to revive its race and take over the planet.
Leader Clent is convinced they can avert a new Ice Age, but the group knows they are only a few hours away from being forced to abandon the base.
The remaining senior scientist, Arden, is on the glacier searching for archaeological finds, where he discovers an armoured man within a block of ice.
An emergency meeting distracts the staff; no one notices that the ice block has melted, with the creature showing signs of life.
The creature identifies itself to Victoria as Varga, an Ice Warrior from the planet Mars, who has been frozen for millennia.
In the glacier Varga finds four frozen comrades, revives them, and assigns them to create defenses and dig their craft out of the ice.
When Penley returns to Storr, he is surprised to find a visitor, Miss Garrett, who implores him to rejoin the crew of the base.
The Doctor and Victoria release the chemical solution at Zondal, who collapses, but his hand activates the sonic cannon as he falls.
The ship explodes without starting a chain reaction, which solves the problem of the Ice Warriors and the glacier.
[6] ^† Episode is missing The Ice Warriors has received mostly positive reviews, with some criticism aimed at its length.
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial a favourable review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), writing, "A great minimalist tundra landscape, fine performances from Peter Barkworth and Peter Sallis, and the eerie hissing voices of the Ice Warriors themselves, help turn a standard 'don't trust the machines' storyline into something special.
"[9] In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker praised the Ice Warriors' technical achievements and the "excellent" guest cast, writing that there was "very little to fault".
They noted that the story "fails to give the viewer any real sense of where all the various settings are in relation to one other", but said that it was "a minor irritation".
While he was positive towards the scientific dialogue, he felt that the message about the computer was less effective today, and called the climax "disappointingly shambolic".
He called it a "success" despite "boring/bewildering story elements", concerning how Clent spends six episodes deliberating and "flawed" motives and reasoning behind the Ice Warriors' plan.
The animated characters don't move smoothly, they have a tendency to bob around when walking and are pretty stiff in general.
"[13] The programming committee of the public German TV broadcaster ZDF refused unanimously to buy the series after watching The Ice Warriors for a test.
[14] In March 1976, Target Books published a novelisation by Brian Hayles of this serial with a cover illustration by Chris Achilleos.
It included an audio CD featuring the full-length soundtracks of missing episodes Two and Three which were covered on the VHS by an abridged Tele-snaps/soundtrack reconstruction.
A two-disc CD set from BBC Audiobooks features the soundtrack from the television serial, with the addition of narration by Frazer Hines.
The recordings 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 World.
