The Return of the Ice Warriors!
The Doctor Who Team
One of the most memorable and menacing aliens ever to send us scurrying behind the sofa returns to Doctor Who tomorrow after almost 40 years away. We look forward to the return of the mighty Ice Warriors!
The Doctor’s next adventure is called Cold War and it explodes onto BBC One tomorrow (Saturday) at 6pm. The TARDIS lands on a damaged Russian Submarine in 1983 as it spirals out of control, plunging into the ocean depths. An alien creature is loose on board, having escaped from a block of Arctic ice. With tempers flaring and a cargo of nuclear weapons on board, it’s not just the crew but the whole of humanity at stake! The episode is written by Mark Gatiss (The Unquiet Dead, Night Terrors) so we’re assured of scares, great moments of humour and some unexpected twists… All that, plus the return of the Ice Warriors makes this an umissable episode!
The fearsome Martians made their debut in the Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors and were an instant hit, returning about a year later in The Seeds of Death. These two stories established the Ice Warriors as a proud but cruel race, ruthless and relentless when pursuing their goal, which in both instances had been the planet Earth.
But interestingly, when they next crossed the Time Lord’s path in the Third Doctor adventure The Curse of Peladon, they had reformed, renouncing their militaristic ways and eschewing violence except in cases of self-defence. The Ice Warriors’ code of honour came to the fore and they even joined forces with their former foe. Their final appearance to date came in 1974’s The Monster of Peladon in which a rogue faction of Ice Warriors threatened the Doctor.
It’s no secret that Mark Gatiss was keen to bring the Martians back, but what makes these aliens so alluring? The sight of an Ice Warrior is impressive enough and Mark has called their appearance a ‘design classic’. Their ssssibilant, hisssssssing voices are equally evocative and then there’s the mystery of the Ice Warriors, sometimes enemies and sometimes allies of the Doctor. With a strict code of honour and unshakeable sense of purpose there’s a lot to admire about them… Unless they’re attempting to wipe out humanity, of course!
We can’t wait to find out more about the Ice Warriors tomorrow. And if you want to learn more about these awesome aliens we’ve got clips and galleries from every one of their previous adventures – The Ice Warriors, The Seeds of Death, The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon. You can also find out more about the Ice Warriors in our Monster section and we’ve plenty on their next appearance in Cold War.
The Ice Warriors return in Cold War: BBC One, Saturday at the slightly earlier time of 6pm.
