With the Ice Warriors returning to Big Finish in ‘Thin Ice’. I thought it would be good to return to their second adventure in Doctor Who. Their first sadly doesn’t exist and the thing about this story is that this is how the Ice Warriors should be, not how they end up in The Curse and Monster of Peladon stories a few years later. The first thing we see is a model shot and that is one thing that continues throughout the entire story. Viewers in 1969 would have been familiar with the Ice Warriors but its still clever that they don’t show them straight away. Something that seems quite odd is the introduction of the regulars. It’s eight minutes before they appear and when they turn up there is a nice sequence in the TARDIS. This is their sixth adventure (including Wheel in Space) and this relationship is very strong.
The story sees the Ice Warriors invade the moon where they plan to send little fungus pods to the earth to make it uninhabitable for humans. It’s quite a simple idea and its cleverly padded out over the six episodes with the first four episodes taking place largely between the Moonbase and the T-Mat base on Earth before shifting to the Weather Station in the latter half. It was a common trick in six parters to do this because its at the half way point that the story starts to sag and it needs a change of direction and the focus on the weather station is what was done here. I have to say that I found the way that they defeat the Ice Warriors was quite clever. They plan to throw the Ice Warriors invasion fleet off course by giving them the wrong homing beam.
There are things that don’t seem right to me. Firstly it seems bizarre that they wouldn’t have a proper back up plan in the event that the T-Mat goes wrong. I know that they are pretty confident in it but they should still have a Plan B. Also it takes a long time for them to work out that water is the thing that stops the fungus and to make it rain. Surely, water would be the first thing that you would try.
The supporting cast are very strong. Miss Kelly (Louise Pajo) starts off as a sort of Ice Queen (which is quite appropriate really considering the villains). She is portrayed as a sort of Emma Peel character. Pajo is very good throughout and is a sound character. She is quite proactive considering the way that female characters were portrayed in Doctor Who. Eldred (Philip Ray) is a nice character and is well played. He runs the space museum and is the only one who is still in love with the rocket despite everyone else preferring the T-Mat. He is quite a stubborn character and it starts to get a bit annoying when he is being pessimistic for so long but thankfully that changes.
Commandor Radnor (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) is the friendly stranger that the viewer is suppose to like. He is willing to listen to the Doctor and this means the Doctor can save the day. He is a fairly standard sort of boss but that’s not necersarily a bad thing. I was most impressed with Terry Scully who played Fewsham. He spends most of the time with fear on his face and everyone on earth thinks that he is working for the Ice Warriors but there is a mystery as to whether he is helping them. His demise was very sad because he sacrifices his life so that the Doctor and can hear what the Ice Warriors plan.
The cliffhanger to part one was fairly tame compared to others at that time. We knew it they were Ice Warriors and yet they choose the very last moment to reveal them to us. It’s sort of like the Dalek Invasion of Earth when the Daleks appear at the end of episode one. I also thought that episode five’s cliffhanger was quite good with the Doctor about to be killed by the fungus whilst Jamie and Zoe are hiding from the Ice Warrior.
This story falls victim to the ‘one of the regulars wants to go on holiday’ syndrome. This time it’s Patrick Troughton who becomes unconscious after breathing in the fungus gas. I have an issue with this because ok it had to happen during the first couple of years because Doctor Who was on air for about 10 months of the year but at this stage there was a longer break and it could/should have been possible to insist the regulars take their break during that off-air period. Patrick Troughton is on good for in this story showing why he is such a good doctor. My favourite line comes from him. “Your leader will be angry if you kill me, I’m a genius!” It’s the way that he delivers the line that makes me smile. Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines are on good form as well and do well in the episode where Troughton is on holiday. I do like the moment in episode six when the Doctor is falling through the entrance after Zoe lets her in and Wendy Padbury can clearly be seen with a massive grin on her face.
The Seeds of Death is a good six parter and its one of the three top stories from Patrick Troughton’s final season but its sadly the last time that Ice Warriors would be used until they return via Big Finish in ‘Frozen Time’ in 2008. Good story, good characters and good production values are the reason why its worth watching again and again.
The story sees the Ice Warriors invade the moon where they plan to send little fungus pods to the earth to make it uninhabitable for humans. It’s quite a simple idea and its cleverly padded out over the six episodes with the first four episodes taking place largely between the Moonbase and the T-Mat base on Earth before shifting to the Weather Station in the latter half. It was a common trick in six parters to do this because its at the half way point that the story starts to sag and it needs a change of direction and the focus on the weather station is what was done here. I have to say that I found the way that they defeat the Ice Warriors was quite clever. They plan to throw the Ice Warriors invasion fleet off course by giving them the wrong homing beam.
There are things that don’t seem right to me. Firstly it seems bizarre that they wouldn’t have a proper back up plan in the event that the T-Mat goes wrong. I know that they are pretty confident in it but they should still have a Plan B. Also it takes a long time for them to work out that water is the thing that stops the fungus and to make it rain. Surely, water would be the first thing that you would try.
The supporting cast are very strong. Miss Kelly (Louise Pajo) starts off as a sort of Ice Queen (which is quite appropriate really considering the villains). She is portrayed as a sort of Emma Peel character. Pajo is very good throughout and is a sound character. She is quite proactive considering the way that female characters were portrayed in Doctor Who. Eldred (Philip Ray) is a nice character and is well played. He runs the space museum and is the only one who is still in love with the rocket despite everyone else preferring the T-Mat. He is quite a stubborn character and it starts to get a bit annoying when he is being pessimistic for so long but thankfully that changes.
Commandor Radnor (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) is the friendly stranger that the viewer is suppose to like. He is willing to listen to the Doctor and this means the Doctor can save the day. He is a fairly standard sort of boss but that’s not necersarily a bad thing. I was most impressed with Terry Scully who played Fewsham. He spends most of the time with fear on his face and everyone on earth thinks that he is working for the Ice Warriors but there is a mystery as to whether he is helping them. His demise was very sad because he sacrifices his life so that the Doctor and can hear what the Ice Warriors plan.
The cliffhanger to part one was fairly tame compared to others at that time. We knew it they were Ice Warriors and yet they choose the very last moment to reveal them to us. It’s sort of like the Dalek Invasion of Earth when the Daleks appear at the end of episode one. I also thought that episode five’s cliffhanger was quite good with the Doctor about to be killed by the fungus whilst Jamie and Zoe are hiding from the Ice Warrior.
This story falls victim to the ‘one of the regulars wants to go on holiday’ syndrome. This time it’s Patrick Troughton who becomes unconscious after breathing in the fungus gas. I have an issue with this because ok it had to happen during the first couple of years because Doctor Who was on air for about 10 months of the year but at this stage there was a longer break and it could/should have been possible to insist the regulars take their break during that off-air period. Patrick Troughton is on good for in this story showing why he is such a good doctor. My favourite line comes from him. “Your leader will be angry if you kill me, I’m a genius!” It’s the way that he delivers the line that makes me smile. Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines are on good form as well and do well in the episode where Troughton is on holiday. I do like the moment in episode six when the Doctor is falling through the entrance after Zoe lets her in and Wendy Padbury can clearly be seen with a massive grin on her face.
The Seeds of Death is a good six parter and its one of the three top stories from Patrick Troughton’s final season but its sadly the last time that Ice Warriors would be used until they return via Big Finish in ‘Frozen Time’ in 2008. Good story, good characters and good production values are the reason why its worth watching again and again.
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