Red Dawn (currently the subject of our Audio Club) sees the return of the Ice Warriors and, Daleks excepted, this is the first appearance of a ‘classic’ Doctor Who monster in the Big Finish releases.
The Ice Warriors, with their hissy voices, seem a good choice for an audio monster and their unique position in Doctor Who of being baddies who became goodies with a long history to explore means they have returned time and again to the Big Finish range.
What are some of your favourites?
It intrigues me, somewhat, that they feature three times in the Lost Stories range including the infamous Mission to Magnus and their ‘Genesis’ story - Lords of the Red Planet.
They also seem to have featured a lot in more recent releases.
Sssssssssssss
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I don’t know. I like the Ice Warriors, but nothing stands out as a favorite.
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It’s interesting how they go through phases of use and disuse. After Red Dawn, they don’t reappear in the Monthly Range until Frozen Time with decently steady use of them (at least once a year or every other year) until they disappear after Lords of the Red Planet and don’t pop back in for almost 5 years.
I think they’re just difficult monsters to use because they are so interesting but you don’t want to overegg the pudding, as it were.
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So far I’ve only hear them in Deimos / The Resurrection of Mars. They didn’t blow me away to be honest, but I’m interested in how they can be good and bad.
Too many species in Doctor Who are just 100% evil. Having a bit of nuance and different sides to them is definitely more interesting!
Looking forward to listening to Red Dawn!
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I’ve mostly found them pretty boring on audio. They share the problem with the Silurians and Sea Devils in that there’s very little variation in how they function and are characterised in the various stories they appear in, and BF has rarely done anything interesting with them.
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I’m not going to lie, I can barely think of any stories that Ice Warriors are in, even though I know there must be plenty. I think they just aren’t my favourite in general - I find their TV stories to be pretty unremarkable too. Not that I don’t like them! They just don’t really rank anywhere for me
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Mission to Magnus is terrible but the other two lost stories, Thin Ice and Lords of the Red Planet aren’t bad. Lords of the Red Planet does drag a bit at six episodes but has a good cast (including Michael Troughton (Patrick’s son) and Charlie Hayes (Wendy Padbury’s daughter) and gives us a ‘genesis’ for the Ice Warriors (which may or may not actually fit with what else we know about the Ice Warriors.
I also quite like the Peladon set stories and am looking forward to finally listening to the Peladon box set.
As I understand it, Frozen Time is an adaptation of an old Audio Visuals story but the original featured a Silurian rather than an Ice Warrior.
I’ve still to listen to Cold Vengeance - 10th and Rose and the Beyond the War Games story intrigues me.
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I don’t remember much about Cold Vengeance other than that it didn’t work for me. The Ice Warriors in it left no lasting impression.
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I have to listen to the Peladon box set in my quest to listen to all of River Song’s stories, so I hope it’s good 
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I know I said I wouldn’t listen to River on Big Finish, but adding Peladon to the mix? Now you’ve piqued my interest!
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River is in a lot of box sets, it’s probably quite hard to avoid her on Big Finish 
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I can always listen to Lucie Miller and Gallifrey on repeat… Which is pretty much what I do anyway 
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Same haha I dread to think how many times I’ve listened to Spirit 
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Came into this topic with a bit of misapprehension as i thought it was about the story ‘The Ice Warriors’ in its audio version, but from what I’ve heard of Ice Warrior stories from BF they don’t really appeal to me, though in fairness I think they’re a bit of a boring alien anyway.
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Peladon is actually a set I was really hesitant about and was very pleasantly surprised with. It’s very much the pilot for the new string of Whoniverse based spinoffs that Big Finish is rolling out like Sontarans vs Rutans and Dark Gallifrey and it shows the benefit to that style of storytelling. Highly recommended!
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I think the absolute best Ice Warrior audio has got to be ‘Cry of the Vultriss’. An action packed romp with high stakes and phenomenal performances.
Shockingly, the Ice Warrior audio I would consider to be the absolute worst isn’t actually ‘Mission to Magnus’ - whilst it once more proves that Philip Martin struggled with writing for audio, and that Time Lord character was very annoying, it was all very camp and stupid, and I kinda love it for that.
No, the worst Ice Warrior story is ‘Thin Ice’ - but also known in some circles as ‘Ice Time’.
Absolute drivel! I know the Seventh Doctor Lost Stories have something of a negative reputation - I personally adore them, and wish Raine got some Monthly Range outings too - but this first story… God, it’s atrociouslly written!
Padded more than a luxury mattress and filled with dire performances. Avoid.
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