The Doctor's Greatest Adventures Week: The Ice Warriors

Howdydoodlydoo readers and welcome to Day 1 of The Doctor's Greatest Adventures Week.  To start us off we will follow the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton of Hamlet, Doctor Who, The Scars of Dracula, The Omen and Knights of God) Victoria (Deborah Watling of H.G. Wells' Invisible Man, That'll Be the Day, Arthur of the Britons and Take Me High), and Jamie (Frazer Hines of Smugglers' Cove, Emergency-Ward 10, Smuggler's Bay, Coronation Street and Emmerdale)  as they make their way to a future timeline in Britain as the are attempting to fend of an alarming glacier set to blanket all of England.  But is this occurring in nature or is there a sinister power behind this, creating a platform for an impeding invasion?  This is Ice Warriors.

Go-go technicians... OF THE FUTURE!

Varga: It's spoiled.  They are free. And now, to bring them back to life.









In the far future, the Brittanicus Base is attempting to slow glaciers threatening to engulf all of Great Britain by using an ionizer cannon. An excess of carbon dioxide has created this travesty and serval citizens have been evacuated to Africa to safety.   Senior control tech Jan Garret (Wendy Gifford of The Brides of Fu Manchu, Doctor Who, Harriet's Back in Town and Nobody's House) and her staff are fighting tooth and nail to halt the glacier which seems to no avail.  With Lead scientist Clent (Peter Barkworth of Manhunt, Where Eagles Dare, Patton and Wilde) insisting they can stop this new Ice Age, Garret can barely rally her staff to staying before they must abandon the base.  

Must be a fault in the stabilizer.

Head archaeologist Arden is doing core samples of the glacier for readings and measurements when he and his team discover an enormous man embedded in the ice, set to thaw him out when an avalanche due to its instability, sweeps down slaying one of Arden's men.  The remaining expedition scoops up the ice man and head back to base.  Moments later the TARDIS lands outside the base itself and the Doctor and his companions go and investigate.  Upon arrival the Doctor assists in repair and improvement of the ionizer to give Brittanicus Base a fighting chance against the glacier.   An emergency meeting of the staff takes place as the Doctor sits in, Jamie and Victoria go and observe the ice man only to be attacked by him, knocking Jamie for a loop and abducting Victoria.

The crises compile as Jamie with the help of Arden look for Victoria and the Doctor and the scientists must find a solution to the glacier.  Can the the predicament be averted?  Who is the mysterious stranger in the ice?  What are his plans for Victoria?  How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

This is the first appearance of the Martian people known as the Ice Warriors.  A brutish, clever and warrior race that hails from Mars long before life was created on Earth.  Their latest episode hails from the current Doctor Who series Cold War episode.   The first episode in this six-parter was watched by over 6.7 million viewers in 1967.

It was very common the whole "base under siege" story arc in Troughton's era and while some younger viewers may feel it is a bit drawn out, to me it is a classic sci-fi way to go.  Controlled environment and isolation from back up, making our staff having to put their heads together and outwit the enemy.  Give me than over a space-fighter dog fight any day of the week.

I warned you two, Timelord gas is not to be taken lightly.