Synopsis:
The Doctor demands to be allowed into the Martian spaceship, and finds himself in its airlock. Varga appears on a monitor to question him. When he refuses to answer, the Ice Warrior begins to depressurise the chamber...
Varga relents when the Doctor identifies himself as a scientist, come from the base. Allowed access to the spaceship, he tells the Ice Warriors that they will need the help of the humans if they wish to escape their captivity. Another glacier movement illustrates his point as the ship is rocked by tremors.
The Doctor tries to explain that the Ioniser will set them free as it melts the ice, but Varga is still convinced it is a weapon.
Out on the ice, Penley has abandoned the plant museum and is dragging the injured Jamie towards the base on a sledge.
They see a bear approach.
The Doctor, who has now been reunited with Victoria, tells Varga that the scientists need to know about his ship's engines so that a nuclear catastrophe can be avoided. However, they will use the Ioniser at full power even if they don't have this information as to do nothing will allow the glacier to advance. This is said by the Doctor for the benefit of Clent, who he knows is listening in to their conversation.
The suspicious Martian realises this and takes the comms-link from him.
Clent and Miss Garrett realise that they are not going to get the information they need about the alien ship, and are crippled with indecision. Even though he knows what it will say, Clent decides to give the computer all the available information and see what it advises. Miss Garrett has absolute faith in it, that it will come up with the solution to their predicament.
The bear attacks Jamie and Penley, who uses a tranquiliser gun at the last moment to disable it.
As predicted, the computer cannot advise until it has more information, and Clent realises that it has its own conflicted programming - its need to survive in order to serve. It is simply playing for time in his opinion.
The Doctor has been allowed to see the ship's engines. They are ion powered and he believes that they may not explode under ionisation. Varga then begins questioning him about the power supply for the base, and the Doctor realises that he is interested in using it to fuel his ship.
Much to Victoria's surprise, the Doctor tells Varga that he will find what he is looking for at the base.
Varga will go there with Rintan and Isbur, whilst Zondal will remain behind to guard the hostages and operate the sonic cannon, which will be employed to force Clent into acceding to their demands.
Security officer Walters reports to Clent that Penley and Jamie have just arrived at the base. Penley is able to tell Clent about the death of Arden. He is furious that Clent has not gone ahead and operated the Ioniser at full power, since the glacier is continuing to advance with the device on half-power. He knows that the leader is afraid to take risks, which is one of the reasons why he resigned.
The two men argue, with Jamie angrily insisting also that something be done to help the Doctor and Victoria. Losing control of the situation, Clent panics and has Walters tranquilise the two men. They are to be taken to the medical centre and held there under guard.
Varga reports to Zondal when he and his subordinates are outside the base, instructing him to aim the sonic cannon on its dome.
The Doctor has explained to Victoria that he only prompted Varga to visit the base in order to get rid of the Warriors and give them a better chance of escaping against a single guard. He is going to use the ammonium sulphide he had prepared before leaving the base, which Victoria recognises as a stink bomb.
Zondal is to fire on the base by way of a warning shot, to ensure the humans will obey them.
As the Warrior prepares the weapon, the Doctor tries and fails to distract him. Zondal attempts to take the phial of ammonium sulphide from him but he eventually opens it and throws it into his face.
The Martian collapses as Varga gives the order to fire, but as he does so he manages to activate the triggering mechanism...
Written by Brian Hayles
Recorded: Saturday 18th November 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 9th December 1967
Ratings: 8 million / AI 50
VFX: Bernard Wilkie & Ron Oates
Designer: Jeremy Davies
Director: Derek Martinus
Brian Hayles intended Penley and Jamie to encounter a polar bear on their way to the base, suggesting that it had travelled south with the glaciers instead of being an escapee from a zoo. He proposed that this might have to be a man in a suit, or simply use of stock footage.
Only Rintan was to have accompanied Varga on his mission to the base, with Isbur left on guard outside the spaceship in the ice cavern, to be overpowered by the Doctor and Victoria after they had escaped from Zondal.
Jamie was to have been brought into the Ioniser control room on a floating air-bed.
The main filming for this episode was the sequence with the bear attack, which commenced at Ealing on Monday 25th September, with some scenes completed two days later. The bear was not present during this filming. This filming included POV shots to be shown from the bear's perspective.
It was brought to the studios on Friday 29th, a juvenile hired from a company named Zoorama Ltd of Colindale in North London. The contract specified that the animal had to be able to walk upright and follow basic guidance from its trainer. These shots would then be edited into the sequences captured with Frazer Hines and Peter Sallis earlier in the week.
With Patrick Troughton filming scenes for The Enemy of the World at Ealing on Monday 13th November, rehearsals began the following day. Ice Warrior dialogue was pre-recorded on Thursday 16th.
The fifth episode had no reprise from the previous instalment's cliffhanger, with Troughton simply carrying on the dialogue with Varga which had begun with that closing scene.
A recording break was scheduled towards the end of the studio session to line up Bernard Bresslaw with the base dome model appearing behind him, to be seen on a monitor in the spaceship.
An improved graphic was employed for the sonic cannon targeting system, with a fluctuating strength bar as well as the usual crosshairs.
The closing captions began to roll over a shot of Zondal's hand clutching the firing control.
A better episode for the Ice Warriors themselves this week, and the Doctor finally gets to interact with them. Victoria is a bit of a bystander now and Jamie gets a couple of good scenes - the bear attack with Penley (though the animal itself is all too obviously not large and ferocious), and the emotionally charged confrontation with Clent. We get to see more of why it is that Penley despises the Leader so much as he and Penley argue about risk taking. Clent relies too much on the computer, even when he knows it will not give him the answers he seeks. He admits to being a physical coward, but thinks this not as bad as Penley's "coward of the mind". For Miss Gifford, it is simply blind subservience to the machine and all that it represents.
A light is shone once more onto Victoria's upbringing as she instantly recognises ammonium sulphide as the basis for stink bombs - prompting a great line from the Doctor:
"Yes, you've had the benefits of a classical education...".
- The ratings see a big rise of 0.7 million viewers - giving the highest audience figure for this story. This took the series back into the top 50 programmes for the week (in 44th position).
- Some important decisions were being made behind the scenes this week. Innes Lloyd was preparing to step down and hand over fully to Peter Bryant, who needed a new Story Editor. He looked to Derrick Sherwin to fill this role. Sherwin, who also acted, was writing for Midlands soap opera Crossroads at this time.
- Kit Pedler, meanwhile, was preparing for the next Cyberman adventure. Bryant stated that he would like to see a story which featured both them and the Daleks together. The idea was passed to Terry Nation, whose hopes for a US Dalek series had come to naught, but he vetoed this two days later.
- And Douglas Camfield was informed this week that one of his casting decisions for the Yeti follow-up story was going to have to be changed. David Langton, who was to play Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, had been offered another role which he had decided to accept. Instead of looking to another more mature actor, Camfield offered a promotion to his current Captain Knight - Nicholas Courtney...
- Junior Points of View on Friday 8th December mentioned a letter they had received from a "mad Yeti fan", hoping to see the creatures' return.
- The Daily Mirror on the day of broadcast had an article about the Blue Peter competition to design a new monster. Entitled "Our Dr Who Monsters - By The Children" it featured some of the entries submitted so far (The Heap, Frogman, The Dedah and Mongo Man), with comments from the programme's editor Biddy Baxter. It was proving to be the most successful competition the series had run to date.
- Jamie apparently knows some Shakespeare as he says to Penley "Lead on MacDuff". This is actually a popular misquotation as what Shakespeare really penned, in Macbeth Act 5, Scene 8, was "Lay on MacDuff", which means to make a vigorous attack.
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