In an effort to find something quick that can be written as part of Daily Doctor Who, we are continuing with Say Something Nice, where I look back at each of the Doctor Who stories and pull out one or two cool things about it.
(Daily Doctor Who #329)
Read the previous entry here. Today, we continue with the third story of the show’s fifth season…
The Ice Warriors
The story stars the same cast as the last one…Patrick Troughton as the Doctor and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon and Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield.
The serial is written by Brian Hayles, and directed by Derek Martinus.
Say Something Nice…
(Named for Missy–aka the Master–and her catchphrase from her first full appearance in Dark Water).
The Ice Warriors themselves are a good addition to the Doctor Who universe–even in this early story one can see their potential to be used as characters, and not just a monsters, which is a quality that many Doctor Who baddies do not have. The script contains some interesting thematic ideas about the dangers of becoming overly reliant on technology, and all the characters are well defined.
But because we’re equal-opportunity fans here, we’re not going to only be sycophantically complimentary.
You craven-hearted spineless poltroon!
(Another cry from the Master, but not exactly a catch-phrase, this time from The Deadly Assassin)
The disdain the Doctor (and the script) seems to feel for computers is quite dated and clearly stems from a time period they were not as ubiquitous as they are now. The ideas are interesting but their development is a little clunky, and there’s something about the story’s setting which is interesting at first but gets a little monotonous by the end.
Catch you next time!
Blue Towel Productions 