Doctor Who A to Z: I is for Ice Warriors

Inspired by a series of Facebook posts that I saw, we are going to run through an alphabetical series of Doctor Who-related themes. Today we continue this with the letter I…

(Daily Doctor Who #279)

Ice Warriors

The Ice Warriors are on of the classic recurring monsters that the show has often not known exactly what to do with. Created by writer Brian Hayles, the Ice Warriors have featured in six stories: two with the Second Doctor, two with the Third, and then in the modern series with one each with the Eleventh and the Twelfth.

The question here is which one is my favorite?

Well, I’m tempted to say The Seeds of Death from season six. Though they had debuted the previous year in the eponymous The Ice Warriors, it’s The Seeds of Death which really establish them as a legitimate threat.

But upon reflection, that’s not my pick. Instead, I’m going with…

The Curse of Peladon

This adventure is the serial which turned the Ice Warriors from interesting monsters to an interesting characters. The story features the Third Doctor becoming embroiled in intrigue at a meeting of representatives of the Galactic Federation. The Ice Warriors are present, and quickly identified as the obvious villains. But, it turns out that they’re not–instead, their leader, lead Ice Lord Izlyr (Alan Bennion), becomes one of the Doctor’s allies in solving the mystery and defeating the enemy.

I loved it–long before the Klingons became allies of the Federation or the Cylons teamed up with humanity to find a new home, we had the natural development of the “monstrous” Ice Warriors turning into another member of the interstellar community. It was good stuff.

The Empress of Mars, the Ice Warrior’s most recent appearance on the show wasn’t a classic by any means, but it nicely tied in to the overall Ice Warriors story by having them come into contact with representatives from the Federation at the end.