Season 5, Episode 3 | 6 parts | First broadcast: 11 November – 16 December 1967 | Writer: Brian Hayles | Director: Derek Martinus
Cast
- Patrick Troughton as the Doctor
- Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon
- Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield
- Bernard Bresslaw as Varga
Summary
In a future Britain menaced by an advancing new ice age, the scientific staff of Britannicus Base rely on an experimental ioniser to hold back the encroaching glaciers. When a huge, armoured figure is found frozen in the ice and brought back to the base to thaw, it proves to be the first of a race of Martian Ice Warriors, whose buried ship threatens to derail the base’s fight for survival.
Interesting Facts
- This serial introduces the Ice Warriors, one of the few classic-series monster races to be depicted with genuine moral complexity rather than pure villainy.
- Episodes 2 and 3 are missing from the BBC archive; they have been recreated with animation for home media release.
- The hissing, rasping vocal performance of Bernard Bresslaw as Varga became a defining feature of the Ice Warriors’ menace.
- The story reflects mid-1960s anxieties about both technology’s fallibility and the risks of an over-reliance on computers, embodied by the base’s contrarian scientist Clent.
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