Advanced computerised technology sits incongruously within a Georgian drawing room. Technicians supervised by Miss Garrett bustle around it as an alarm sounds. Her superior, Clent, arrives to take charge of the situation. Their mission is to hold back an advancing glacier. This is Britannicus Base, one of several around the globe battling a new Ice Age...
Outside, a technician named Arden is helping organise the placement of seismic monitors on the ice face, so that they can accurately measure the advance. His colleague Walters alerts him to something they have just found embedded in the ice - what appears to be the body of a man. Once an archaeologist, Arden elects to excavate it - even though he knows Clent would deny him permission.
The TARDIS materialises on a bank of snow outside a huge dome structure, toppling over to rest on its side. Luckily the doors are free and the Doctor and companions Jamie and Victoria emerge to find themselves in a wintry landscape. Jamie thinks they have simply landed on another part of the mountain in Tibet from which they have just come. They explore and find an opening in the dome, but hide when two men emerge. They are dressed in heavy furs and have been carrying provisions, which they have just stolen. One of them, a small man named Storr, is concerned that the alarm is meant for them, but his colleague Penley recognises the sound as originating from the computer. Clent is having trouble with the Ioniser...
After they have gone, the Doctor and his companions venture inside and are surprised to see that the dome protects a large country house. Inside they are generally ignored until someone pins badges on them - identifying them as scavengers who are to be deported to the Equatorial regions.
The Doctor is intrigued by the alarm and decides to investigate, entering the control room where Clent and Miss Garrett are scrabbling to fix the computer problems. The travellers are spotted and Clent orders them thrown out - but the Doctor explains that within three minutes there will be a massive explosion unless he is allowed to help. The nuclear reactor is about to overload.
Clent looks on stunned as he hurries from panel to panel gathering data, then instructs Miss Garrett on what she must do. His efforts are successful and the alarm ends.
When Clent checks with the central computer he learns that the Doctor was only out by a second in his warning.
Penley and Storr are making their way back to their shelter when they see Arden and his men, who have now managed to expose the huge armoured figure they found. There is an avalanche and one of the technicians is swept to his death. Arden arranges to take the figure, which Walters has described as a "proper ice warrior", back to base.
There, the Doctor is being offered a job. Penley was once Clent's computer expert but he quit and left, and Clent would like the Doctor to replace him. When the Doctor claims not to know about this new Ice Age, he is given a test to see if he will be suitable - working out how this state of affairs occurred and what should be done about it. He correctly deduces the cause to have been the loss of plant life as more and more land was given over to industrial and residential purposes, and that ionisation would be the best solution. This process intensifies the sun's heat onto the Earth's surface.
Across the world, the glacial advance is being held in check, but Britannicus Base is continually struggling since they lost Penley, and Clent is too proud to invite him back.
Arden and Walters arrive with their find. Thermal packs are attached to the ice in which it is still encased, which should slowly melt it. Clent and Arden then leave to see to the Ioniser.
The Doctor examines the figure and is intrigued. It is believed to be an ancient warrior who was entombed centuries ago - but the Doctor sees electronic components in its armour. He goes to alert Clent, leaving Jamie and Victoria in the room where the block of ice is thawing.
However, the packs are working much faster than anticipated.
Unnoticed by the youngsters, the creature stirs to life...
Written by Brian Hayles
Recorded: Saturday 21st October 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.10pm, Saturday 11th November 1967
Ratings: 6.7 million / AI 52
VFX: Bernard Wilkie
Designer: Jeremy Davies
Director: Derek Martinus
Guest cast: Peter Barkworth (Clent), Wendy Gifford (Miss Garrett), Peter Sallis (Penley), Angus Lennie (Storr), George Waring (Arden), Malcolm Taylor (Walters), Roy Skelton (Computer Voice)
Brian Hayles had been submitting scripts for Doctor Who since the earliest days of the series, finally getting one accepted by John Wiles and Donald Tosh. This unusual piece strayed into the realms of fantasy, including characters from a play written by Gerald Savory who was then head of drama at the BBC. He changed his mind about their inclusion and the piece was heavily rewritten by Tosh. Tosh and Wiles then left the series, to be replaced by Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis - and Davis carried out a further rewrite on Hayles' story, which became The Celestial Toymaker.
The new team commissioned Hayles for another story - this time a historical genre piece called The Smugglers, which would be one of the final purely historical stories.
Lloyd and Davis' replacement, Peter Bryant, decided that they wanted another new monster to rival the Daleks - which were now absent from the series - and to match the Cybermen. This would be a bipedal creature, organic rather than machine-like this time, which might become a new regular foe for the Doctor.
Taking this on board for his next idea, Hayles was inspired by a story he had read concerning the finding of a perfectly preserved mammoth corpse in Northern Siberia. This had been discovered in August 1900 on the banks of the Berezovka River and was found to be some 30,000 years old.
This is referenced in the script as Arden thinks that their find might be a mastodon, another form of prehistoric elephant.
Another inspiration is the classic science fiction film The Thing From Another World, which concerns the finding of an alien being, survivor of a spaceship crash, entombed in ice near a scientific base in the Arctic. The 1951 film was an adaptation of a 1938 novella titled Who Goes There?, written by John W Campbell.
This will prove to be the inspiration for a number of Doctor Who stories.
In devising his new aliens, Hayles originally intended that they be human-like in appearance, akin to Vikings, but with cybernetic implants. This was changed as it was felt it might too closely resemble the concept of the Cybermen.
We'll talk about the costumes, designed by Martin Baugh, next time, once the Ice Warrior makes its first full appearance.
This was the final story which Victor Pemberton worked on before going freelance, though only in the early stages. He found Hayles resistant to changes being made to his scripts, and Pemberton did not like the story himself, thinking it lacked excitement.
Hayles specified in his outline that the base personnel use personal communicators which looked like wristwatches, recommending that for close-ups the director could cut to a full size monitor with a cloth background, suggesting the sleeve of a coat or tunic. This was picked up by Bernard Wilkie, practical head of the BBC VFX department (along with Jack Kine, who tended to handle the managerial side). Wilkie's contribution to the series went back to The Daleks, where he offered advice to its designer Ray Cusick on the design and manufacture of the titular creatures.
The Ice Warrior's helmet was described by Hayles as looking like the one from the title sequence of the TV series Hereward the Wake (1965). This programme no longer exists, but we can hazard a guess that this was probably the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet. He wore armour but his face was visible. The Doctor spotted an electronic ear-piece.
The character of Storr was originally to have been a big muscular figure, with Penley slighter in stature.
Filming on this episode got underway at Ealing on Monday 25th September. Hayles had suggested that the glacier scenes be recorded in the TV studio, but Derek Martinus elected to move these to the film studios to give a greater sense of space. He was unhappy with how realistic jablite chips looked as snow, having previously experienced its use in The Tenth Planet. He thought it only looked good when wind-blown.
The very first scene filmed was the arrival of the TARDIS, as the regular cast could only be spared for a limited time from rehearsals for the fourth instalment of The Abominable Snowmen.
The TARDIS prop had been refurbished with the doors now opening outwards for this sequence, the dialogue for which was mostly ad-libbed - such as the business with the Doctor looking like he's seen something horrifying, only for it to be that Jamie is kneeling on his hand. The cast wore their costumes from the previous story.
The dome featured a circular door which opened upwards, and beyond was a photographic blow-up of a stately home.
The following day the avalanche scenes were filmed. The unfortunate technician who gets swept away was fight arranger Peter Diamond, who had worked on many Doctor Who stories - including speaking roles in The Romans and The Space Museum.
Wednesday 27th September saw scenes filmed of the discovery of the Ice Warrior, with George Waring and Malcolm Taylor present. Bernard Bresslaw was busy working on Carry On Doctor at Pinewood and so Tony Harwood stood in as Varga. He had been cast to appear later as the Ice Warrior Rintan and had previously played both Cybermen and Yeti.
Joining the cast as rehearsals got underway on Tuesday 17th October was Peter Barkworth. He was one of the stars of The Power Game - one of Innes Lloyd's favourite programmes, as he tried to get almost everyone in its cast onto Doctor Who at some point. Debbie Watling had guested in an episode in January 1966 and worked with Barkworth. Unsurprisingly, Wendy Gifford also featured as a regular in the business drama.
Clent's limp and use of a walking stick were not scripted, having been added by the actor during rehearsals. Barkworth had also wanted his character to have a stammer, but Martinus vetoed this.
Into studio, and neither Sallis nor Lennie were required as all their scenes for this episode had been captured on film at Ealing.
The episode number for each instalment was captioned simply "ONE", "TWO", "THREE" etc.
These were shown over a wintry landscape. A soprano singing voice accompanied the titles - something which would come to represent "outer space" music in later stories such as The Space Pirates. Composing the incidental music is Dudley Simpson, who will develop a martial drum-based theme for the Ice Warriors.
No recording breaks were planned.
The main set was the Ioniser control room, with futuristic equipment set up in a Georgian style room, as specified by Hayles. Set dressing included oscilloscopes, and there's a well-known portrait shot of Troughton posing with one, which features on a later Radio Times cover.
Decoration for the base personnel outfits was based on printed circuit designs, which Baugh had seen in New Scientist. French fashion designer Andre Courreges was another influence.
The computer prop had an extra sitting inside, to make it rotate. Three different people carried out this task over the course of the story, including Frankie Dunn who had worked the Cyberman revitalising machine in The Tomb of the Cybermen.
On the wall were two backlit screens which showed the advance of the glaciers - one locally and the other a world map. Wave pattern machines - one vertical and one horizontal - were projected onto these, with a sliding perspex panel representing the ice face.
Debbie Watling ad-libbed the line about the base reminding her of her old home.
The other principal set was Clent's office / laboratory, which had a suspended monitor to display the countdown for the Doctor's test as well as images of the two glacier maps. A curtain-like screen could be lowered down to shield the frozen Ice Warrior.
The end credits began rolling over a close-up shot of the waking Warrior.
The story was given a 75 second trailer, broadcast immediately following the sixth and final episode of The Abominable Snowmen. This had been recorded by Barkworth and Sallis on Saturday 28th October, during the making of the second episode:
"My name is Clent. I'm a scientist in charge of stopping the second Ice Age from destroying the European world. A complex task at the best of times, but a challenge. A great challenge. One of the most brilliant scientists on my staff has rebelled against the way I run the base. So now, he lives the life of a scavenger. A useless, non-productive waste of talent".
"He's talking about me. I'm the scientist who rebelled - the name's Elric Penley. There's no point arguing with a man like Clent. He's a machine. I chose this existence because - well - because I demand the right to be an individual. Clent may be able to control the glacier... but there's a far greater menace that he hasn't reckoned with. I mean the creature from the ice..."
"The Doctor and his companions find themselves involved in this life and death struggle in Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors, next Saturday at Five Twenty-Five".
The actual broadcast began fifteen minutes earlier than stated here, as you can see above. This was due to the live Festival of Remembrance event that evening.
This trailer now only exists on audio.
Two cuts were made to this opening episode. On first entering the base the Doctor and companions are confronted by a group of men running towards them. However, they run right past with one of them shoving the Doctor out of the way - straight into Jamie's arms.
The other cut came at the end of the scene where Clent offers the Doctor a job. Miss Gifford extols the virtues of the World Computer as an infallible tool, leading the Doctor to deduce the reason for Penley's defection.
Pemberton's accusation that this story lacks excitement is hardly a fair one. This opening episode is very much about scene-setting, providing the dramatic backdrop to the story - the new Ice Age, which will prove to be just as big a threat as the Ice Warrior. We also have the erratic computer providing a second threat, as lack of proper control over it might lead to an explosion which will not only destroy the base, but have an impact on the global situation. The waking Warrior provides the third threat, though at the moment it's just a mysterious being who is initially thought to be a prehistoric human, but has modern attachments. Being Doctor Who, viewers at the time will have already worked out that it's probably alien.
Penley features only briefly, but the episode provides a good introduction to Leader Clent and, to a lesser extent thanks to one of those cuts, Miss Gifford. Clent is seen to be somewhat neurotic and panicky - a man seemingly out of his depth and struggling with his responsibilities, but too proud to do anything about it. He comes across as a technocrat who goes strictly by the book and lacks imagination or intuition. The same can be said for Miss Gifford, who has an over-reliance on the World Computer. We'll see later the dynamic which exists between her and Clent, and between her and Penley.
That trailer, for those who caught it, helps with the scene setting as well - telling you all you need to know about the personalities of the two key Britannicus Base personnel.
You would definitely want to tune in the following week to see what happened next...
- The ratings get off to a tentative start, some half a million down on the previous episode. ITV continued to offer very little in the way of competition.
- The story outline submitted by Hayles set the date as 3000 AD. At one point Clent talks of losing 5000 years of history, which led some fans to believe that the story was set around 5000 AD. This was partly due to hindsight, as Robert Holmes had mentioned an Ice Age around that time in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, though there's no indication of it in The Invisible Enemy. Hindsight again, but the year 3000 clashes somewhat with the tail end of the Earth Empire which features through the Pertwee era.
- Whilst some future-set stories suggest the end of contemporary borders / power blocs, Clent implies that Russia is still only an uneasy ally, which can't necessarily be trusted.
- With its scripts running behind schedule, The Abominable Snowmen might possibly have gone into production after this story, and two different "Next Week" captions were prepared for the fourth episode of The Tomb of the Cybermen - one for the Yeti story and one for this.
- Jamie thinks that they have simply landed elsewhere on the Tibetan mountain, meaning that this is the fourth consecutive story to follow on directly from its predecessor, starting from the conclusion to The Faceless Ones.
- Angus Lennie will be back in Terror of the Zygons, playing Fox Inn landlord Angus. He was a regular for many years on the soap Crossroads, playing the volatile motel chef Shughie McPhee.
- Peter Sallis is best known for the 37 years he played Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, as well as voicing Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit animations. He was due to make a return to Doctor Who in 1983, playing Striker in Enlightenment. He had already been cast in the role when industrial action led to a postponement, forcing him to drop out.
- After skipping the previous story, Radio Times once again gave readers a preview item accompanied by a photograph. This piece concentrated mainly on the new aliens, though the photo caption mistakenly identified the Ice Warrior as guest star Bernard Bresslaw when it is in fact Sonny Caldinez as Turoc in a scene from the fourth episode:
- The Daily Mail helped advertise the new story on the day of broadcast with a piece about guest star Bresslaw, even though he wouldn't be featuring that week. It was accompanied by a marvellous photograph of the actor with his two sons, in costume but without the helmet:
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