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Dr Who: The Era of Monsters

12 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Paul Bowler in All, Dr Who (Classic Series)

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2nd Doctor, Anneke Wills, Ben, Cybermen, Daleks, Deborah Whatling, Doctor Who, Evil of the Daleks, Frazer Hines, Fury From The Deep, Ice Warriors, Jamie, Michael Craze, Patrick Troughton, Polly, Power of the Dalek, The Abominable Snowmen, The Dominators, The Enemy of the World, The Faceless Ones, The Highlanders, The Ice Warriors, The Invasion, The Krotons, The Macra Terror, The Mind Robber, The Moonbase, The Seeds of Death, The Space Pirates, The Underwater Menace, The War Games, The Web of Fear, The Wheel In Space, Tomb of the Cybermen, Victoria, Yeti, Zoe

Dr Who: The Era of Monsters

By Paul Bowler

 2nd Doctor Polly Ben (Moonbase)

When William Hartnell transformed into Patrick Troughton during the final episode of The Tenth Planet (1966), a nation held its breath as a new Doctor emerged from a gleaming halo of light to whisk his companions Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) away to the planet Vulcan, and their first encounter with the Doctor’s ach enemies – the Daleks! If any had doubted that the popular character actor, who was a master at utilising costumes and make up to great effect (gaining him many staring roles during the 50’s & 60’s), would be able to make the transition of Doctor Who’s leading actor a success; their doubts must have been quickly dispelled as they became enthralled by the new Doctor who emerged from the TARDIS in Power of the Daleks.

As Doctor Who’s fourth season continued apace, Patrick Troughton’s impish “cosmic hobo” would become imprinted on the minds of children and adults for generations to come, battling evil and tyranny from every dark corner of the universe. This “renewed” Doctor was strikingly different to Hartnell’s grandfatherly wanderer of the fourth dimension; Troughton was more like a chaotic Charlie Chaplin. He may have acted like a bumbling fool who happily played his recorder, with his crumpled frock coat, baggy trousers, and a penchant for outrageous hats, but the fearsome intellect within was never far from the surface and nearly always one step ahead of his enemies.

During the next story, The Highlanders (1966/67), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) joined the TARDIS crew after the battle of Culloden, and together with the Doctor, Ben, and Polly the young Scott would soon visit Atlantis in The Underwater Menace (1967), face the Cybermen in The Moonbase (1967), and battle giant crabs in The Macra Terror (1967) before returning to Earth to confront the shape-shifting menace of the Chameleons in The Faceless Ones (1967).

Evil of the Daleks

After Polly and Ben decide to remain on Earth the Doctor and Jamie discover that the TARDIS has been stolen. They trace the TARDIS to Edward Satterfield’s (John Bailey) old antique shop, where they are transported back to 1867 where the Daleks are holding Waterfield’s daughter, Victoria (Deborah Watling), hostage to ensure his compliance as they manipulate Theodore Maxtible‘s (Marius Goring) experiments for their own ends. The Daleks force the Doctor to implant the human factor into three Dalek test subjects, but he ultimately turns the Daleks master plan against them by unleashing a Dalek Civil War on Skaro that destroys the Daleks and their Emperor.

Season Four had seen Doctor Who reborn with the glorious concept of regeneration. As Evil of the Daleks (1967) left the Daleks utterly defeated, the masterstroke of recasting Patrick Troughton as the Doctor had proved to be an unqualified success. Behind the scenes though big changes were afoot, as producer Innes Lloyd paved the way for his successor, Peter Bryant, while story editor Victor Pemberton (a position also held by Bryant for part of Season Five) left to be replaced by freelance writer Derrick Sherwin – who also brought his assistant, the young freelancer Terrance Dicks. The Doctor and Jamie also had a new travelling companion on board the TARDIS, Victoria Waterfield, who had decided to join them on their adventures after her father was killed in Evil of the Daleks. Victoria is brilliantly played by Deborah Whatling, who together with Frazer Hinez and Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, go on to make one of the most iconic TARDIS crews of all time as they prepare to face The  Era of Monsters…

Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)

Doctor Who’s fifth season is often cited as one of the best in the shows long running history.  The term classic is often bandied around with great aplomb when it comes to Doctor Who. It is perhaps a fitting moniker for Season Five then, as it not only oversees some of the biggest changes in the programs production team, it also features some of the highest levels of quality and design ever seen in Doctor Who during the sixties. It is this, along with the endearing trinity of Troughton, Hines, and Watling that made Season Five so memorable.

With the new Doctor and his companions now firmly established, Season Five began in fine style with Tomb of the Cybermen (1967). The TARDIS materialises on the planet Telos, where an archaeological expedition from Earth led by Professor Parry (Aubrey Richards) is trying to find the legendary tombs of the Cybermen. As the Doctor surreptitiously helps the Professor gain access to the tombs, Parry’s business partner Kaftan (Shirley Cooklin) and the treacherous Klieg (George Pastell) have their own agenda. But Klieg’s plan to form an alliance between the Cybermen and his Brotherhood of Logicians turns into horrible nightmare when, upon reactivating the tombs, the revived Cybermen turn on him. To his horror Klieg realizes that the tombs are in fact an elaborate trap, one designed to lure suitable subjects below ground for Cyber-Conversion.

Tomb Of Cybermen

Tomb of the Cybermen is a fantastic story by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis. The early scenes as the Doctor helps the archaeologist’s beak into the tombs and begin exploring are well staged by director Morris Barry, perfectly building the tension, until the team descends into the frozen tombs. Martin Johnson’s set designs are excellent for this story, the chillingly basic Cyber-Symbols are almost like high-tech hieroglyphics, depicting cold logic and function, giving you real a sense of just how inhuman and alien these monsters really are. The tombs themselves are outstanding, they really convey the relentless power and strength of the Cybermen as they emerge from their tombs, still retaining the impressive redesign they had for The Moonbase, but this time they are also joined by their leader – the gargantuan Cyber Controller (Michael Kilgarriff).

There are also some wonderful moments in this story between the Doctor and Victoria, where the Doctor helps her deal with the death of her father by telling her about his own family, and how he can always remember them in his mind. Later the party have to face a deadly swarm of Cybermats, before the Doctor finds a way to defeat the Cybermen and refreeze their tombs, but not before the Kaftan’s partially Cyber-Converted body guard, Toberman (Roy Stewart), sacrifices himself to stop the Cyber Controller from escaping the tombs. It’s fascinating to see such an explicit portrayal of body horror in this adventure. The whole idea of Cyber-Conversion is horrifying enough, but Tomberman’s fate and the graphic death of a Cyberman after having its chest plate smashed – oozing foam and writing on the ground in its death throes – are all clear signs that Doctor Who was wholeheartedly embracing a much darker tone. Even the Doctor seemed to manipulate events in a way that ensured the outcome, with a glint in his eye and a mischievous grin that belied the formidable intellect within.

With the Cybermen confined to their icy tombs the TARDIS whisks the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria to 1935 to visit a  Detsen monastery in Tibet. The Doctor sets out to return a sacred bell to his old friend The High Lama Padmasambhava (Wolfe Morris). He encounters Travers (Jack Watling), an Englishman who is trying to discover the truth behind the mysterious sightings of the Abominable Snowmen – who are later revealed to be the robotic Yeti; servants of the disembodied entity known only as the Great Intelligence.

The Abomniable Snowmen

The Doctor is shocked to find that Padmasambhava has been possessed by the Great Intelligence, prolonging the High Lama’s life and using him to control the Yeti through model replicas placed on a chessboard. With the assistance of the Monks, Jamie and Victoria help fend off the Yeti to give the Doctor time to confront the great intelligence, preventing it from attaining a corporeal form, and banishing it back into the great beyond so Padmasambhva can die peacefully.

The Abominable Snowmen (1967) is a highly atmospheric story by newcomers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. It is an extremely clever move to have the Doctor visit the scene of an untelevised adventure, the Yeti and their bleeping control spheres would quickly become one of this seasons most iconic monster’s, lurching into life at any given moment as they stalk the mountainsides and dark halls of the monastery. But it is the all pervading sense of isolation director Gerald Blake manages to covey that really makes this story something special. As the wind howls outside the evil within is even more terrifying as Padmasambhva draws the pieces on the chessboard to their doom, his quiet rasping voice sending genuine shivers down the spine.

As well as featuring some excellent location filming, The Abominable Snowmen has some impressive production values, a great supporting cast, and Deborah Watling’s father, Jack, also played Travers. Even by today’s standards, The Abominable Snowmen stands as a great piece of television drama, and marks the debut of one of seasons fives most memorable monsters.

Ice Warriros (Victoria)

If the TARDIS crew thought it was cold in Tibet then their next adventure would see the temperature plunging even further below zero. The Ice Warriors (1967) sees the time travellers arrive at the dawn of a new ice age, where Leader Clent (Peter Barkworth) and his team are operating an ioniser device from their base to hold back the threat of an advancing glacier. With the world in the grip of a new Ice Age and completely reliant on the computerized ionisers to keep the glaciers at bay, the delicate balance is threatened when a giant creature is found by a group of scientists frozen in the ice. When they thaw it out, the Ice Warrior (Bernard Bresslaw) breaks free and kidnaps Victoria, taking her back to its spaceship in the glacier where he revives the rest of his crew.

With The Ice Warriors, writer Brian Hayles plays on the themes global warming and mankind’s over reliance on automated technology, with Leader Clent’s rigid adherence to protocol and logic being flung into chaos by the arrival of the Doctor. Much like Tomb of the Cybermen, the Doctor seems to manipulate events from the sidelines, gradually steering the disgruntled scientist Penley (Peter Sallis) towards patching up his differences with Leader Clent, and ultimately overriding the computers control to turn the ioniser on the Martians spaceship.

Director Bernard Martinus casting of tall actors to play the Ice Warriors was a brilliant idea, as they tower over everyone. Their impressive costumes are like armoured shells, with only their lizard like mouths showing, these reptilian aliens with their hissing voices were as ruthless as they were calculating. The Martian leader Varga is played by Bernard Bresslaw (already well know for his role in the Carry On films), and the actor makes the role his own, exuding menace as he plans to take over the base – ordering his troops to execute anyone that stands in their way with their lethal sonic weapons.  The Ice Warriors is full of memorable moments: Victoria’s plight after she escapes the Martian ship and is chased through the glacier by an Ice Warrior is nail bitingly good, Jamie has his fair share of the action as well, while Toughton’s Doctor mischievously uses a complex machine to make himself a glass of water and manages to outwit the Ice Warriors by using a stink bomb! The Ice Warriors is a fantastic story, overflowing with B-Movie thrills, and spills, while also serving as a perfect vehicle for the introduction of the Martian warriors from the Red Planet.

Enemy of the World

The Enemy of the World (1967/68) offers Patrick Troughton the opportunity to really flex his acting muscles with his dual role as the Doctor and his tyrannous doppelganger Salamander. After arriving in Australia in the future, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria find that the world is on the verge of being taken over by Salamander – a scientist who has discovered a form of storing and using solar energy to aid the world while advancing his ambition to become its absolute ruler. Discovering that he is Salamander’s double, the Doctor decides to impersonate the dictator in waiting and ruin his plans so he can save Jamie and Victoria, but even in defeat, Salamander isn’t prepared to give up that easily.

In its attempt at creating an ambitious action adventure along the same lines as a Bond film, David Whitaker’s script is only partially successfully. Sadly not even director Barry Letts could work his magic on this story, and while the central premise is sound, it does stand out as one of the weakest stories during this otherwise impeccable season. However, its saving grace has to be Troughton’s dual performance, and the actor no doubt relished the chance to play the villainous Salamander. Deborah Watling and Frazer Hinez also have little to do; spending much of their time separated from the Doctor, but the final scenes where Salamander tries to commandeer the TARDIS and gets sucked out through the doors into the time vortex at least provides a fitting end for this slightly disappointing story.

The Web Of Fear

After Salamander’s demise the TARIDS manages to avoid becoming trapped in a giant web in deep space. The Web of Fear (1968) begins in earnest when the TARDIS finally materialises in the London Underground, which has also been overrun by huge pulsating webs controlled by the Great Intelligence and its robotic Yeti. The Doctor and his companions meet up with Professor Travers (Jack Watling), who they first met forty years ago in the Himalayas. They learn that Travers brought one of the Yeti back with him, and after accidentally reactivating it, he gave the Great Intelligence the opportunity it needed to try and invade Earth again. As the webs begin to fill the underground tunnels the Doctor joins forces with the Army, led by Captain Knight (Ralph Watson), and then later Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), to fight the Yeti. The Great Intelligence draws the Doctor to its lair, determined to take possession of his body, but the Doctor is saved by his companions and the Intelligences is sent screaming back into the void from whence it came.

The Yeti make a triumphant return in Mervyn Haisman’s and Henry Lincoln’s direct sequel to The Abominable Snowmen. Directed by  Douglas Camfireld, The Web of Fear is blessed with incredibly realistic sets designed by David Myerscough-Jones. Although the plot may be little more than a whodunit, with almost everyone under suspicion as the Great Intelligence’s duplicitous servant, this is one of the most exciting stories of Season Five – memorable also for Nicholas Courtney’s first appearance as the Doctor’s long time friend Lethbridge-Stewart. Nicholas Courtney had previously appeared as Space Security Service Agent Bret Vyon in The Dalek Master Plan (1965) with William Hartnell.

Fury From the Deep

Season Fives penultimate story is Fury from the Deep (1968) by Victor Pemberton. Based on the writers own BBC radio serial The Slide, and places the Doctor and his companions in mortal danger from a parasitic seaweed that is threatening to overrun a gas refinery and its offshore drilling rigs. The man in charge of the operation, Robson (Victor Maddern), is struggling to contain the situation as the seaweed and poisonous foam begins to affect his staff, possessing their minds, until he himself becomes a vessel for the weed creature dwelling within the pipeline.

Fury from the Deep is one of the most terrifying adventures of Season Five. Director Hugh David wrings every ounce of psychological tension from Pemberton’s fantastic story, preying on deep seated fears as this isolated community comes under attack. There are scenes of pure horror throughout: the pulsating heart beat of the weed creature in the pipe line is deeply unnerving, bubbling foam boils and writhes from the darkness to consume anyone in its path, and perhaps most horrific of all is when Maggie Harris (June Murphy) is attacked by the grotesque Oak and Quill who subdue her by spewing noxious fumes from their rasping black mouths. Later she appears to commit suicide as she walks into the sea, vanishing beneath the waves in what must surly be one of Doctor Who’s most chilling cliff-hangers.

When Robson becomes possessed by the weed creature he captures Victoria and takes her to the control rig, the source of the seething infestation. The Doctor and Jamie manage to rescue her and escape to the refinery, but having fully established itself the weed begins to advance through the pipeline, and its only Victoria’s high pitched screams – amplified by a device the Doctor builds – that ultimately destroys it and frees everyone from its control. Sadly this is Deborah Watling’s final story, meaning that Fury from the Deep is also tinged with a hint of sadness as this popular TARDIS crew say their goodbyes. Victoria decides to stay behind and live with Harris (Roy Spencer) and his wife Maggie at the end of the story, having grown tired of her adventures in time and space. So with a heavy heart the Doctor and Jamie bid her farewell in a poignant final scene, one that ends with them watching Victoria slowly fading from the scanner screen as the TARDIS continues on its way.

The Wheel In Space

After leaving Victoria on Earth the TARDIS develops a fault with the fluid link as it arrives on a spaceship called the Silver Carrier. As they set out to find some more mercury for the fluid link the Doctor and Jamie are attacked by a Servo Robot, Jamie manages to radio a nearby space station called the Wheel and they are soon rescued, but the Cybermats hidden on the Silver Wheel have also made their way over to the space station. The Doctor and Jamie team up with a young woman called Zoe Heriot, and together they discover the Cybermen want to use the Wheel as a beacon for their Cyber-Fleet to lock onto before they can invade Earth. The Doctor manages to break the Cybermen’s hypnotic control over the space stations crew, before connecting the TARDIS vector generator rod to the stations X-Ray laser so he can use it to destroy the Cyber-Fleet.

The Wheel in Space (1968) features the return of the Cybermen and the Cybermats, but David Whitaker’s story (based on an idea by Kit Pedler) doesn’t quite mange to live up to the promise of its early episodes, and as such ends up being an extremely routine invasion story. With its claustrophobic setting in deep space, director Tristan de Vere Cole successfully builds up the tension, and you never know when a Cyberman will suddenly appear from the shadows. Overall the Wheel in Space makes a good introduction story for Zoe, and Wendy Padbury is brilliant as the super genius. The Cybermen also get a makeover for this story, there are some chilling scenes when they begin attacking the crew of the Wheel, and the Cybermats are also as deadly as ever.

The Mind Robber

As season five draws to a close Zoe joins the Doctor and Jamie on their adventures in time and space. The dynamic between this TARDIS crew does seem to shift somewhat as the series moves into its sixth season, with Zoe’s keen intellect proving to be almost  a match for the Doctor’s, while Jamie is often left a bit bemused and bewildered by how strong and independent she is. With Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin becoming involved in other projects, the production of Season Six was beset with difficulties: The Dominators and The Mind Robber were both subjected to rewrites, and The Krotons, The Space Pirates, and The War Games were all hastily commissioned after a successive number of stories had to be abandoned.

The Krotons (TARDIS)

The sixth season of Doctor Who was the last to be entirely filmed in monochrome, and would also feature the departure of Patrick Troughton, along with Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury who had also decided to move on. In many ways Season Six is the end of an era, and although The Dominators (1968) and their deadly Quarks proved to be something of an understated start to the season, things rapidly improved when the TARDIS was apparently destroyed in the white void of The Mind Robber (1968) – transporting the Doctor and his companions into a land of fiction. The Cybermen would make another attempt to invade the Earth, this time with the help of entrepreneur Tobias Vaughan (Kevin Stoney). The Invasion (1968) would see the Cybermen emerging en mass from the sewers of London, a scene that would go on to become one of Doctor Who’s most iconic moments.

The Invasion (Cybermen)

Robert Holmes first story, The Krotons (1968/69) is a far from auspicious start for the writer who would go on to write a plethora of classic Doctor Who episodes in the years to come, while The Seeds of Death (1969) would see Brian Hayles script the Ice Warriors return, before The Space Pirates (1969) also proved to be something mixed offering from Robert Holmes. The ten part epic, The War Games (1969), saw the Doctor and his friends racing across a number of different time zones in their bid to stop The War Chief from taking people from various conflicts throughout Earth’s past and making them fight for the amusement of his alien masters. At the end of the story the Doctor  is forced to call on his own people, The Time Lords, for help. The Time Lords intervene, using their immense powers to return the combatants to their own time zones, but the price is high for the Doctor. He is captured and placed on trail by his own people, charged with breaking the Time Lords code of non interference with the affairs of other worlds, and ultimately sentenced to exile on Earth. Allowed only to say goodbye to Jamie and Zoe before they are sent back to their own times, every memory of their adventures with the Doctor wiped from their minds, before he must then endure the ignominy  of having his appearance is forcibly changed by the Time Lords as he begins his sentence on Earth.

doctor-who-the-dominators-quarks

With so many of these fantastic episodes junked by the BBC much of Patrick Trougnton’s era sadly no longer exists. There is always hope that some of these episodes might turn up one day, having been sold overseas, it is entirely possible that the miraculous moment when Tomb of the Cybermen was found in Hong Kong back in 1991, and quickly released on video in 1992, might happen again one day. Indeed, in 2011 two more classic episodes turned up: Episode 3 of the William Hartnell story Galaxy 4, and Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace from Patrick Troughton’s first season. In October  2013 fans were delighted by the news that 9 episodes had been found by Philip Morris in Nigeria, The Enemy of the World (episodes 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6) and The Web of Fear (episodes 2, 4, 5, & 6), and both stories were made available to download on iTunes right away (While Episode 3 of The Web of Fear remains missing, a reconstruction was made from stills and the soundtrack to recreate it).  The Invasion was released on DVD back in 2006 with its missing episodes recreated by animation, and the results proved highly popular with fans. Two more incomplete Troughton stories were later released on DVD, The Ice Warriors and The Moonbase, using similar animation techniques to replace their missing episodes. The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear are now also available on DVD. However, the planned release for The Underwater Menace (Which would have included the long lost episode 2, and possibly animation for the missing episodes 1 & 4) was unfortunately cancelled following the insolvency at the animation company Qurios. But, following support from fans and an online petition, gaining over 2750 signatures, it now seems The Underwater Menace will finally be released on DVD on October 26th 2015 (tbc) at last! They may be missing from the BBC’s archives, but all the soundtracks of the 2nd Doctor’s missing adventures are now available on CD, with superb linking narration, and are a still a perfect way to enjoy Doctor Who’s lost episodes. It is a credit to Troughton’s immense talent that these stories work so well on audio, they are as spellbinding now as they ever were, and effortlessly captivate our imagination of a classic era of Doctor Who that is now sadly consigned to history.

The War Games 1

Patrick Troughton’s three years as the Doctor were some of the finest from the programmes monochrome era. Troughton’s performance is simply superb in every way, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the programme could survive the change of its lead actor. Anneke Wills and Michael Craze were instrumental in bridging these two eras of the show, while Troughton’s comic timing with Frazer Hines is a joy to behold, and together with Deborah Watling, then later Wendy Padbury, the Second Doctor’s companions would become an endearing part of this halcyon age of Doctor Who.

Season Five is certainly a contender for one of the best, if not finest, seasons of Doctor Who ever made. As Doctor Who begins to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the programmes past is likely to come under even greater scrutiny than ever before. Season Five was ahead of its time. It takes the simple base under siege format and turns it into something uniquely special. Blessed with impeccable design and production values, Season Five introduced a wealth of classic monsters, paved the way for UNIT to be phased into the Doctor’s life, and together with a  fantastic regular cast, The Era of Monsters remains a timeless gem that will endure forever.

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Dr Who: New Ice Warrior Revealed!

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Paul Bowler in All, Doctor Who

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Doctor Who, Douglas Mackinnon, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Ice Warriors, Mark Gatiss, The Ice Warriors

Doctor Who: New Ice Warrior Revealed!

The new Ice Warrior design was officially unveiled today by SFX Magazine. This stunning new version of the classic monster will debut in the third episode of Doctor Who Series 7B, featuring in a story written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.  I really like the design of the new Ice Warrior, it remains faithful to the classic design, while giving them a great new look for their spectacular return.

Dr Who New Ice Warrior (2013)

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The Ice Warriors to Return in the New Series of Doctor Who!

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Paul Bowler in All

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David Warner, Doctor Who, Douglas Mackinnon, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Ice Warriors, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Mark Gatiss, Matt Smith, Submarine, The Curse of Peladon, The Ice Warriors, The Monster of Peladon, The Seeds of Death

The Ice Warriors Return to Doctor Who

By Paul Bowler

Ice Warriro (1)

There are few Sci-Fi TV shows that can match Doctor Who for the sheer diversity of memorable alien monsters that have returned time and again to menace the Doctor over his many adventures in time and space. As we get ready for Doctor Who to return to our screens this Easter, on Saturday 30th March, news emerged today that Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman will face one of the Time Lords classic adversaries – the Ice Warriors!

The reptilian creatures who originated from the planet Mars will return in the second half of Series Seven of Doctor Who during the third episode. Written by fan favourite and horror aficionado Mark Gatiss, and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, the episode takes place on a submarine, staring David Warner, and will see the Doctor battling against the Ice Warriors.

Talking exclusively to SFX Magazine executive producer Caro Skinner said: “We’ve got the most fantastic episode by Mark Gatiss, where we bring back the Ice Warriors… on a submarine! It’s a really wonderful kind of ‘bunker’ episode, and a classic monster which Mark has brought his own inimitable twist to. We wanted to bring them back because they are wonderful!” Skinner said, adding. “Mark is an enormous fan of the Ice Warrior stories, and came up with the idea.”

After the return of the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, and the Great Intelligence in the 2012 Christmas Special: The Snowmen, it seems only fitting that  the Ice Warriors finally make an appearance in the new series as Doctor Who gets ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Ice Warriros (Victoria)

The Martians from the red planet first appeared in 1967 during the programmes fifth season, when Patrick Troughton played the 2nd Doctor. The Ice Warriors saw the world locked in the grip of a news ice age. The Doctor, Jamie (Frazer Hines), and Victoria (Deborah Watling) arrive as a group of scientists discover a giant figure buried inside a glacier. When the Ice Warrior thaws out it breaks free and captures Victoria, before returning to its spaceship in the ice to revive its crew. Written by Brian Hayles, the Ice Warriors is one of Doctor Who’s all time classic stories.  The Ice Warriors distinctive armoured costumes were designed by Martin Baugh, their rasping voices made them even more sinister, and Director Derek Martinus cast tall actors to play the Ice Warriors – including Bernard Bresslaw (famous for his roles in the Carry On films) as the Martians ruthless leader Varga.

After proving popular with viewers the Ice Warriors returned to fight the 2nd Doctor again in The Seeds of Death (1969), taking control of a base on the Moon, they used the T-Mat to transport deadly seed pods to Earth in an attempt to terra form the planets atmosphere into one that would be more hospitable for the Martian invaders.  This time Brian Hayles gave the Ice Warriors a new leader, the Ice Lord Slaar (Alan Bennion), and we also get a brief glimpse of his superior the Grand Marshall (Graham Leaman). This time the Doctor and Jamie, along with new companion Zoe (Wendy Padbury), have to find a way to stop the Ice Warriors and prevent the seed pods from destroying Earth’s atmosphere.

The Ice Warriors would be back a few years later to face the 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee), in two more stories also scripted by Brian Hayles: The Curse of Peladon (1972), and The Monster of Peladon (1974).  The Curse of Peladon saw the Doctor and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) visit King Peladon’s (David Troughton) cliff top citadel just as an important delegation is about to decide if his planet should to join the Galactic Federation. Here they encounter a bizarre group of alien delegates: Alpha Centauri, Arcturus, and the Martian Ice Lord Izlyr (Alan Bennion) and his Ice Warrior Ssorg (Sonny Caldinez). Together they must find a way to overcome their differences and prevent a coupe to overthrow the King, led by High Priest Hepesh (Geoffrey Toone), who has used the legend of the Beast of Agaddor to instigate an uprising to prevent Peladon joining the Federation.

Ice Lord Peladon

What makes The Curse of Peladon so special is the way it depicts the Ice Warriors as diplomatic envoys to Peladon, having joined the Galactic Federation and abandoned their conquering ways. This is a brilliant move by Hayles, as is having Alan Bennion return, this time as the Ice Lord Izlyr. The Ice Warriors look really menacing as they stalk the torch lit halls of the citadel, for once the Doctor is forced into changing his views on an old enemy, and the Ice Warriors themselves are portrayed as a proud and noble race with honourable customs.

The Monster of Peladon (1974) was a direct sequel to The Curse of Peladon, set fifty years later, this time the 3rd Doctor and Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) have to help the late King Peladon’s daughter, Queen Thalira (Nina Thomas), solve what is behind the ghostly image of Agador that has been killing people in the planets trisilicate mines. It turns out that a rogue faction of Ice Warriors, led by Lord Azaxyr (played once more by Alan Bennion), want to steal the trisilicate and turn the tide of the Galactic Federations war with Galaxy 5 to their own advantage.

Although the same director (Lennie Mayne) and designer (Gloria Clayton) were appointed to try and replicate the look and feel of The Curse of Peladon, along with the return of Alpha Centauri (played once more by Stuart Fell & voiced by Ysanne Churchman) and Aggedor (with Nick Hobbs reprising his role as the Royal Beast), The Monster of Peladon isn’t as enjoyable as its predecessor. The Ice Warriors are as imposing as ever as they stalk the dark corridors, and Alan Bennion gives a great performance as the villainous Lord Azaxyr.

ICE-WARRIOR

The Ice Warriors have remained one of Doctor Who’s most popular monsters, going on to appear in a wealth of comic strips, a number of excellent novels  from the Virgin New Adventures and BBC Books range, as well as the immensely popular full cast audio adventures from Big Finish. Mission to Magnus, a story that would have seen the Ice Warriors return to fight the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) never went into production when Season 23 was cancelled. This story was later adapted by Target books, and then Big Finish for release as part of their Lost Stories range, which also included Thin Ice, a 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) story featuring the Ice Warriors that could have formed part of Doctor Who’s 27th Season if the series hadn’t been cancelled in 1989.

Ever since the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) mentioned them in The Waters of Mars (2009), fans have been speculating about when the Ice Warriors would be back. Now the Ice Warriors will return in time to be part of  Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. The Ice Warriors scaly armoured form will no doubt get a fantastic update for the monsters return to our screens, along with their distinctive rasping voices, Series Seven is shaping up to one of the best yet!

Check Out the link to read the full Exclusive article at SFX

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/02/11/sfx-exclusive-official-ice-warriors-return-to-doctor-who-this-year/

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Paul Bowler

Paul Bowler

Writer / Blogger / Sci Fi geek, fan of Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, Movies, Comic Books, and all things Playstation 4.

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