Previously: The Ice Warriors, episode 1-3…

Using the ice set to its best advantage, we get a fantastic sequence of Victoria running from an Ice Warrior and then inadvertently using her, by now infamous, scream to trap it.

The Doctor figures out a means of defence against the Ice Warriors, and then goes unarmed to their ship with the intention of being caught by them so that he can discover what kind of propulsion system they’re using.

Jamie wakes up in Penley’s hideaway, but he’s suffering from the the after effects of Ice Warriors’ weapons, which enables the story to prevent him from going back for Victoria.  Penley’s friend, Storr, believes that the best way to help Jamie is to ask the aliens for help.

Storr hears the trapped Victoria, allowing for another great avalanche sequence.  On following Storr, Penley runs into the Doctor and takes him back to Jamie.

The Ice Warriors discover that they have no fuel for their spaceship, and so require some information about the control center’s reactor in the hope of obtaining the vital elements to make their ship work.  This is the kind of narrative convenience that helps to make the story flow a little better than it might otherwise do.

The ice sets continue to impress.  Other than no one actually appearing to be cold enough, the ice sets are a great achievement and really brings out the jeopardy of the collapsing glacier as it moves.

In his hatred for the scientists, Storr leads Victoria into the clutches of the Ice Warriors.  As soon as they realise that he knows nothing about the scientists and their equipment, Varga kills him.

Having ensured that Penley will take Jamie back to the base, the Doctor reaches the Ice Warriors’ ship.  He makes his way into the airlock, but refuses to identify himself to Varga who threatens him by removing the atmosphere from all around him…

The Doctor answers Varga’s questions and gains access to the ship, only to find scheming and distrusting Ice Warriors.

On their way to the base, Penley and the incapacitated Jamie are stopped by a rogue bear, leading to quite an exciting encounter with Penley not capable of fighting and Jamie unable to fight.

The Doctor leaves his video communicator active in his pocket to allow Clent to overhear the Ice Warriors’ plans and to surreptitiously tell them to risk using the Ioniser anyway.

The computer, however, says that they should wait.  Penley and Jamie arrive, with Penley arguing that Clent shouldn’t listen to the computer because the computer is just trying to save itself.  Clent has Penley and Jamie tranquilised and taken to medical.

Varga tells the Ice Warrior that guards the Doctor and Victoria to fire their sonic gun at the ioniser base.  With help from Victoria, the Doctor uses the ammonium sulphide he prepared earlier, but this only weakens their guard and they grapple for  control of the sonic gun.

With the sonic gun only causing minor damage, Varga demands Clent’s surrender.  Knowing they can’t survive another blast, Clent agrees to talk.

While the Ice Warriors confront the humans in the ioniser room, the Doctor repurposes the sonic gun while watching out for their unconscious guard.

Clent tries to delay Varga from taking vital components of their ioniser, but Varga isn’t falling for it.  Penley awakes and listens to what’s going on from outside the ioniser room.  He determines that he can make it uncomfortable for the Ice Warriors by turning the environmental controls up to their hottest.

The Doctor adjusts the Ice Warriors’ sonic gun so that it affects water, which he hopes will affect the aliens more than the humans.  This proves to be the case, and he forces the Ice Warriors to withdraw from the base.  He and Victoria quickly leave the ship before they return.

Between them, the Doctor and Penley force Clent to go against the computer’s advice and fire the ioniser anyway – taking the risk that the alien ship is the best option.

As is becoming typical of these Troughton adventures, there is a lot going on in this story and it’s another relatively slow burner.  It takes awhile for the Ice Warriors to get into the story, but there’s the threat of ice age proportions around the world encapsulated by the humans at ioniser control.  Clent is depicted as a bureaucrat that fails to see the value in scientists, relying on a computer that was obviously built by scientists, such that he has no confidence in making decisions for himself.  The scientists are portrayed as uncontrolled crazy types with no discipline.  And the Ice Warriors have confused motives.  Throw in some excellent sets, destruction all around, avalanches, and even a bear, and in short you have a good definition of an “adventure”.

The last episode culminates it all by quickly wrapping up the drama (spending ages to determine what the Ice Warriors’ engine is in case the ioniser causes it to blow everything up, the Doctor just says “well, it’s the wrong type but fire anyway” – makes you think they could have fired wayyyy back in episode 2 and saved us two hours of story!), and having plenty of explosions and confrontations to leave you with a feeling of having watched a fantastic slice of escapist adventure.

The Ice Warriors will probably prove to be their best adventure.  The fully-surviving The Seeds of Death from Troughton’s final year bears some similarities to this one, but nowhere near as well executed, and the Ice Warriors become good guys by the time Pertwee faces them.  Here, then, is possibly the adventure to see them at their best.

Next time: The Enemy of the World…