Doctor Who, season 5 continues …

The Ice Warriors begins in a fashion that would become typical of Earth-based futuristic adventures.  The Earth is under threat of some catastrophe (in this instance, a man made disaster in the waiting threatens the ice sheets melting).  The adventure opens in the control center of Britain’s “ioniser” – many of which are situated around the world and are used to intensify the sun’s heat in order to control the ice).

The base’s expert has gone AWOL, just prior to the Doctor and co turning up, which allows the Doctor to step into his shoes and lend a hand.  Meanwhile, out on the ice, a startling discovery is made – an armoured humanoid being.

Episodes 2 & 3 are no longer available in the BBC archive.  Instead, an abridged version of both episodes was put together with narration and telesnaps to fill in for what’s missing.

While the Doctor and others are busy realising that they can’t use the ioniser for fear that the creature they’ve discovered had a spaceship under the ice, which might be powerd by a reactor that could cause untold disaster if hit by intensified sun heat, the creature defrosts.  It attacks Jamie, and carries off Victoria.

The creature tries to get information from Victoria, but she doesn’t know enough to help.  He reveals that his name is Varga and he, together with others, crashed on Earth millennia ago.  Believing his ship is trapped under the snow, Varga makes Victoria show him what device was used to defrost him so that he can use the same on his colleagues.

Jamie alerts the Doctor and others to the Ice Warrior’s escape, and sets off with one of the scientists, Arden, to track him and Victoria down.

Varga locates his comrades and thaws them out.  When Jamie and Arden locate them, the Ice Warriors shoot first and asks questions later.  Arden is killed and Jamie barely escapes with his life, thanks to Penley, the scientist that previous went AWOL from Ioniser Control.

Victoria manages to contact the Doctor on the transmitter and tells him of her belief that Jamie was killed with Arden.  Her hysteria alerts the Ice Warriors, who prepare to kill her…

The Ice Warriors can’t rely on lucious locations and exotic sets and so much deliver in terms of character and story.  The characters aren’t really up to a lot but, fortunately, the story proceeds like the trickle that promises a river from a waterfull.  The ice sets stand up very well indeed, which is fortunate because the rest of the sets are pretty mundane.

If you’re prepared to give the story a go, the first three episodes do keep up the interest.  Characters such as Penley and Clent (the base commander) provide contrasting support for the Doctor and the regulars, which promises that the story is just going to grow and grow.

Next time … The Ice Warriors continues