The Art of... The Ice Warriors

The novelisation of The Ice Warriors was written by Brian Hayles - the second of his Target books, but sadly also his last. It was published in March 1976 with cover art by Chris Achilleos.

This was one of his favourite pieces as he had two good photographic images for reference, but felt that it lacked something until he added the electrical sparks around the Warrior's clamp-like hands.

This was only the second Target novelisation not to feature an image of the Doctor on the cover. The first was The Tenth Planet, though that had included a small picture of Hartnell on the back.

Troughton doesn't feature at all, and the book mistakenly included the "Changing Face of Doctor Who" preface, which usually explained why the Doctor on the cover didn't look like the current TV version - so referring to something which isn't applicable in this case.

Part of Achilleos' artwork was "borrowed" wholesale for the Top Trumps card from Jotastar in 1978, including the sparks.

Every later edition of the novel used the original artwork, with only the logo altering in colour or design. Annoyingly, when they last decided to reissue some classic Target novels the name of the person writing the Foreward (in this instance Mark Gatiss) was much larger than the name of the actual author.

With two episodes still missing after the rediscovery of the remainder in August 1988, the soundtrack was released as part of the BBC Radio Collection in August 2005, with the usual photomontage cover.

All of the images used actually originate from the story itself - including the portrait shot of Troughton. 

The Varga image and a screaming Victoria we've seen before in Achilleos' artwork. Guest characters such as Clent, Miss Gifford and Arden get to appear as well as the monsters and companions.

Frazer Hines narrated, and also contributed an interview.

Those rediscovered episodes were released on VHS in November 1998, in a box-set which included a documentary about lost episodes (The Missing Years, presented by Hines and Debbie Watling). You could listen to the soundtrack of Parts Two and Three - without narration - on a CD, or watch edited versions employing telesnaps of the missing material. These images were presented as if on one of the base personnel's wrist-worn comm-links. Hines was to have provided narration for these, but contractual complications arose and he was not used.

The companion image on the cover will be recognised from The Abominable Snowmen, whilst the Troughton photo hails from The Faceless Ones.

The story arrived on DVD in 2013, with the missing episodes animated in a terribly basic manner. The cover was designed by Lee Binding, who unusually elected not to use the iconic image of Varga. I suspect he may actually have looked to the costume on display at the Doctor Who Experience for inspiration.

This cover was used again when i-tunes released a collection of the best of Troughton stories.

The audiobook of the Target novelisation, read by Hines, was released in January 2010, sticking with the Achilleos artwork.

In June 2021, the original soundtrack was re-released on vinyl by Demon Records - with that Varga image centre stage. The vinyl itself was described as "molten ice" in design. An upright TARDIS and the Britannicus Base dome feature on the reverse of the sleeve.