Synopsis:
Varga has freed his crew members from the ice which has entombed them for thousands of years. He announces to Victoria that he is now ready to bring them back to life...
His sub-commander Zondal is the first to reawaken.
Jamie and Arden prepare to set off on their expedition to discover the nature of the spaceship's engines. The Doctor warns Jamie to be careful of Arden's scientific curiosity and not take chances, whilst Clent insists that their mission must take precedence over rescuing Victoria.
Clent admits to Arden that, as a scientist, he too would have excavated the Warrior and brought it back to the base.
After the pair have gone, Clent tells the Doctor that Penley suffered a breakdown due to the pressures of following the base's regulations, but the Doctor suspects that this wasn't the whole story.
At the plant museum, Storr refuses to believe Penley's story about seeing an alien creature. He also refuses to accept that it was science - in this case medicine - which helped him get over his recent injury. He is stubbornly anti-science, which for him is symbolised by the base.
They hear a noise outside and discover Miss Garrett approaching.
She has come to plead with Penley in person to return to the base to help with the Ioniser. He realises that she is only doing this to help Clent who is under pressure from his superiors to give a full report on what is happening at Britannicus Base.
He values individuality and his personal independence too much to return to Clent's automated and regimented world.
When she realises that he will not come back with her she threatens him with a tranquiliser gun, but Storr intervenes.
As she leaves he does give her one piece of advice, however - to look into his notes on the "Omega factor".
Intrigued by the aliens, Penley tells Storr that he intends to find out more about them and will go back to the glacier.
Varga, meanwhile, has Zondal excavate a cave around the entrance to their spaceship once it is located, large enough to create a trap for anyone who should try to approach. He decides to keep Victoria prisoner for now, as she may come in useful as bait for his trap.
Clent is becoming frustrated with the Doctor's progress in his ionisation researches as he refuses to use the computer. Miss Garrett arrives back and tells them about the "Omega factor", and the Doctor realises this provides the missing data which he needed. She does not say where she got the information from, but after Clent leaves to check it with the computer the Doctor tells her that he assumes she got it from Penley, and still counts him as a friend.
Arden reports by comm-link from the glacier that he and Jamie have discovered a huge cave hewn into the ice. At the rear is what appears to be a metal door.
Arden begins taking radiation readings.
An Ice Warrior suddenly emerges from hiding and shoots the two men down.
The ambush has been observed by Penley. After the Warrior returns to the ship he discovers that Arden is dead, but Jamie only badly wounded. He drags the boy away.
Varga is pleased that he kept Victoria as a hostage, and orders Zondal to get their engines into working order as soon as possible. Until then, they remain vulnerable.
The Doctor and Clent become concerned when Arden fails to report in at the agreed time, and does not answer when called.
Miss Garrett confirms that the "Omega factor" equation will make the Ioniser work at full efficiency. However, they cannot use it at full strength as they still do not know what effect it will have on the spaceship's engines.
Storr is unhappy that they will have another mouth to feed as Penley brings Jamie to the plant museum. He has recovered consciousness, but is unable to move.
Victoria has been left unguarded and slips out of the ship. She looks for Jamie but finds him gone, then spots Arden's communicator. She tries to call the base.
She is spotted on a monitor by Zondal who insists she be destroyed before she can warn the humans. He activates the ship's sonic cannon, which silently emerges from the wall beside the doorway.
Victoria gets through to the base and tells the Doctor and Clent of the attack on Jamie and Arden, informing them that the scientist is dead and Jamie missing. Clent's only interest, however, is in the engines.
As they try to ask her questions, she is unaware that the sonic cannon has her in its sights...
Written by Brian Hayles
Recorded: Saturday 4th November 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 25th November 1967
Ratings: 7.4 million / AI 51
VFX: Bernard Wilkie with Ron Oates
Designer: Jeremy Davies
Director: Derek Martinus
Additional cast: Roger Jones (Zondal), Sonny Caldinez (Turoc), Michael Attwell (Isbur), Tony Harwood (Rintan)
The first draft of this episode differed from the final version mainly in its descriptions of the Ice Warriors and their technology. The Warriors themselves were described as looking the same as Varga but with minor differences to denote his superior rank. Zondal was identical, however, and was described as being particularly belligerent.
The Warriors used a form of SONAR to detect their buried spaceship - their chests lighting up and emitting a pinging sound. Once detected they produced sonic pistols to break down the ice, emitting a sound like a slowed down pneumatic drill. Varga opened the door with his helmet - again emitting a light to activate the entry panel.
Following the filming at Ealing, Derek Martinus had been made aware that the actors in the Warrior costumes felt restricted by the heavy helmets, and he noted that they were not able to move their heads very much. He instructed Martin Baugh to redesign the helmets prior to going in to the studio, concentrating especially on the one Bernard Bresslaw would be wearing as he was being asked to deliver a significant character performance.
Martinus also took this opportunity to ask Bernard Wilkie to have the sonic weapons built into the arm of each costume.
From this episode on, Ron Oates was credited as Wilkie's VFX assistant.
Once again, this episode was recorded entirely in the television studio. Joining the cast were the four actors who would be playing Varga's subordinates. One of these was Sonny Caldinez, whom Martinus had cast as Kemel in his last story as director, The Evil of the Daleks.
Of the Warriors only Varga and Zondal had any dialogue, and this was pre-recorded on the Thursday prior to the studio taping.
Isbur, Turoc and Rintan would retain the larger helmets from Ealing, but modified with jaw pieces. The eyes were also enlarged.
The closing moments of the previous episode were remounted in studio. The Ice Warrior crew were seen standing on pedestals of ice, covered with toffee glass. This dropped from their costumes as they began to move. Toffee glass was also dropped from above to show the ice being blasted by the Warriors' weapons as they excavated their spaceship entrance.
Some of the scenes set in the main computer control room were rewritten to take place in the laboratory which doubled as Clent's office.
Wendy Gifford wore a different costume to the one she had worn the previous two weeks.
Two new sets this week were the small spaceship interior and the larger ice cavern exterior. The spaceship entrance was marked with a metallic panel with circular edges - indicating that the ice had been melted away by the Warriors' guns.
This episode sees the first use of the Ice Warrior sonic disruption technique, when they shoot down Jamie and Arden. This was shot out of sequence due to the lengthy setting up required.
The camera was pointed at a piece of mirrorlon - a lightweight and flexible reflective plastic material. A studio crewmember then prodded the mirrorlon from the rear, to make the image wobble and distort.
The episode closed with a shot of Victoria on a monitor fed into the spaceship set, which had a triangular crosswire superimposed. This effect would be refined for a later episode.
The sonic cannon was an illuminating plastic drum affair, mounted on a trolley so that it could be pushed out from the ice wall. This had a separate inner barrel section which could be pushed out further from behind.
The day after recording, Sunday 5th November, saw the regulars give up their day off to travel down to the coast at Littlehampton to film sequences for the opening instalment of the next story to go into production - The Enemy of the World.
This episode allows us to get to know Penley and Miss Garrett a little better, in the sequence where she comes to the plant museum to try to talk him into returning to the base. He reaffirms his refusal to relinquish his individuality and speaks of Clent's obsession with rules, regulations and conformity. Whilst Clent sees himself as a scientist - telling Arden that he would also have investigated the figure in the ice - Penley thinks of him more as a politician, worried about his own reputation and how he is perceived by his superiors.
Miss Garrett, whose first name we learn is Jane, initially appears to be asking him as a friend to return with him, but Penley sees through this and knows that her loyalty lies only with Clent and the World Computer. She is just as much a willing part of this regimented world as her leader.
We also get to see the Ice Warriors in greater numbers this week. The previous episode featured only Varga, but we got a good enough idea of the Martian mentality from him. Victoria attempted to get him to work with the humans, but he thought they would either destroy or imprison him. This week we see that he is not an atypical specimen of the race, and Zondal seems to be even more aggressive. Despite there only being five of them, and they are cast adrift from their own time by thousands of years, they still believe that they can conquer the humans - and Victoria once again fails to convince Varga that he ought to co-operate with the scientists. They are a proud and arrogant race.
It is no coincidence that Hayles elected to have the Ice Warriors originate on Mars. The Red Planet is named after the Roman God of War after all...
Trivia:
- The ratings continue to improve week on week, now up 0.7 million on the opening instalment.
- Sonny Caldinez will go on to play Ice Warriors in the three other stories of the classic era which featured them, always wearing the Varga costume made for Bernard Bresslaw.
- Michael Attwell, who was an accomplished newspaper cartoonist as well as an actor, later became a regular on EastEnders, and had one further Doctor Who appearance - as Bates in Attack of the Cybermen.
- Tony Harwood had played Varga in the opening episode due to the unavailability of Bresslaw, and had previously portrayed Yeti and Cybermen. He would play another Ice Warrior in The Seeds of Death, before donning the costume for the last time to appear on a screen at the Doctor's trial in The War Games. His final Doctor Who appearance will be in The Ambassadors of Death.
- This would be Roger Jones' only Doctor Who appearance. He had only worked briefly in television up to this point, and gave it up to concentrate on theatre work soon after.
- Radio Times had yet another brief piece on the series this week, concentrating on guest artist Peter Barkworth:
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