5.3: The Ice Warriors
- Doctor: Patrick Troughton
- Companions: Jamie, Victoria
- Creators: Brian Hayles (Writers), Derek Martinus (Director), Innes Lloyd (Producer)
- Season 5
What's the rating?
Worth Watching.
What's interesting about it?
The first appearance of the Ice Warriors, and the first story (the only?) where The Doctor encounters a scientist as smart or smarter than himself.
The story begins with things in progress, and with a confident and clever approach. Equipment and costume design are excellent, and rather ahead of their time. The acting by guest actors is unusually good. The story follows the quickly-becoming-standard "remote scientific facility attacked by aliens" motif, popularly known as "base-under-siege".
The Doctor's relationship with computers, and the question of relying on computer versus human analysis, is a major part of the story. Antagonism towards computers is unique to Troughton's Doctor, as William Hartnell never displayed the same disdain.
Two episodes are animated, and while I'm fully in favor of using animation for missing episodes, it's unfortunate that this is a more primitive and less-engaging approach compared than, say, The Reign of Terror. This is bad Saturday morning cartoon stuff.
On the other hand, the live action portion continues the trend -- started in The Tenth Planet -- of excellent blizzard and snow effects, including quite good ice tunnels. These effects are as good or better than those done in many modern TV shows and movies, and stand in stark contrast to the execrable attempt back in The Keys of Marinus.
It's a six episode story, which means about two episodes too long. But the elements combine to make something stronger than the weak story, so it's worth watching, though it does drag in the end.
What are others saying?
Generally seen as a classic, though fans do puzzle over The Doctor's sudden change of heart about computers.
- Wife in Space (score: 7/10)
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