The TARDIS arrives on Earth in a new ice age. The travellers make their way into a base where scientists, commanded by Leader Clent, are using an ioniser device to combat the advance of a glacier.
A giant humanoid creature, called an Ice Warrior by one of the scientists, has been found buried in the nearby glacier.
I like the Ice Warrior as a villain. I just find this story to be kind of okay. It is not bad but it ain’t fantastic either.
Definitely elevated by just how well it introduces the Ice Warriors (that voice is still so goddamn creepy), but I love it all the same. One of my favourite Second stories.
It’s been a while since I rewatched this one. I have it as 6/10. I remember it as being fine, but not particularly exciting and mostly important for introducing the Ice Warriors. But I’ll see what I think about it after rewatching.
I actually am kinda due a rewatch on this one, because it’s been quite a while. I’m pretty sure this was one of the first serials I watched with missing episodes as a recon.
I enjoy this one a lot. I have it at 7/10 (3.5/5). I appreciate that this is coloured by nostalgia for reading the Target novelisation as a child, but it colours how I see this story in a very positive way. The animation really helps for the missing episodes. The setting is great. Always love a frozen wilderness and the conceit of a space age base in a stately home. It’s one of the great base under seige stories from the season that refined this formula time and time again. Oh, and there’s a good reason why the Ice Warriors would become one of the returning alien species in the Whoniverse.
This is the next story I’ll be watching with my eldest once I’ve done the extras on Abominable Snowmen. Haven’t ever watched the animated episodes for this so excited to see that. It’s a story I enjoy and I’m a fan of the Ice Warriors so looking forward to a rewatch.
I rewacthed this yesterday and today, and found myself enjoying it more than I remembered. The set design is great and I love Simpson’s score for this. The animation isn’t my favourite, but it’s true to the visual style of the serial, so it doesn’st stick out like a sore thumb.
Has anybody else noticed that Brian Hayles named the main Ice Warrior after Terry Nation’s favourite sticky plant?
The Ice Warriors is a richly atmospheric slice of 1960s Who, introducing a monster that would go on to become one of the show’s most enduring alien races. With strong thematic undercurrents, memorable performances from Troughton and the guest cast, eerie music, and some of the best set work of the black-and-white era, it earns its place as a classic. Clunky pacing and filler subplots might freeze the action now and then, but when the serial is firing, it captures that peculiar magic of Troughton-era Doctor Who: half-clown, half-genius, always compelling.
Here’s my non-spoilery review for those who fancy a read. Thanks!
I will always love the Second Doctor’s distrust of computers and anarchic attitude. He’s so very watchable.
Oh, he totally is. Performance-wise easily my favourite Doctor. And my second favourite behind Eleven overall. There’s something about Throughton’s performance that is so magical, and it’s impossible to fully recreate in animation, even if the animators have made an admirable effort so far!
I like the Ice Warriors, it’s no Serial that I would be in rush to rewatch and it’s certainly up there as one of the weaker Troughton Serials, that said it does a lot of good Things. The Introduction of the titular Ice Warriors is great, their Costuming is quite striking and their voices, while at times a bit hard to make out, to have something iconic about it. I do enjoy the Antics with Troughton’s Doctor here, his mistrust towards Computer does amount to some amusing Scenes. It’s especially interesting looking at how this Story tackles Computer and a Character who relies too them heavily with a modern lense, but that’s probably a different topic.
I do think after a fairly strong run, this is easily one of Victoria’s weakest Outing, while the acting is still very solid, I do think she gets not a lot of interesting material to do sadly. Although there are some good Scenes with her. Jamie also isn’t exactly the most interesting here, whiles hines delivers, his material isn’t one that comes to my mind all that much. That said I do think the side cast is at least much more strongly characterized here!
As for the animation: I think it’s solid, it does do its Job well by filling in the Gaps and while as much as I admire Planet 55’s more realistic take on filling in the gaps for missing episodes, it’s no surprise to me that this animation was sort of the template for later Animations to follow. Both in a more cartoony art direction for its Character and in general in terms of other smaller or bigger things. It’s fairly solid!
This I think was the first awful 2nd doctor story you know it’s a bad ep when the science is wrong
Oh, I agree that a story can be much elevated when the science is, to some degree, plausible (though I’m very forgiving on technobabble in Doctor Who because sometimes it’s done delightfully, and because it’s reasonable to assume that the Time Lords might know a thing or two that we don’t). That said, there are so many stories in DW (much as I love it) where the science is wrong, very poorly translated to script (with horrific inaccuracies) or just utterly bonkers, that I can’t allow this to be a key barometer of quality for me to enjoy a story. There’s much more to it than that. What do I look for in a Doctor Who story? Principally, two things:
Those are my key criteria. I appreciate others differ. 
Oh I get that I think it doesn’t help that I’m not a huge fan of the animation eps either so 1 slightly hooks me 2-3 loose me slightly with the animation then I’m lost 4-6
Sure. I get this. One thing that The Ice Warriors gets horribly wrong, of course, is its approach to climate science. That said, public understanding (and scientific consensus) re: climate change was much poorer in 1967 than today. There were scientific concerns that increasing aerosol release into the atmosphere might cause a cooling effect that potentially could overwhelm the warming effect of so-called greenhouse gases. There was a real debate about whether anthropogenic change might lead to net cooling or net warming. Add to that, geological analysis of cycling ice ages and the observation that another ice age might be plausible on a geological timescale, there’s a clear justification for where that base idea for the climate change depicted came from in The Ice Warriors.
Our understanding improved significantly since the 1960s, and it became glaringly apparent that climate change would lean very much towards a warming model. I’m pretty lenient with this 1960s interpretation (and associated aspects) of The Ice Warriors because of the vastly different knowledge context. It’s a curious historical scientific record (and, yes, I’m well aware they get other stuff wrong as well - but I’m limiting myself from writing the most absurdly long article because I have a propensity to disappear down rabbit holes like that and don’t want to become really dull). Anyway, suffice to say, the confused climate science (by today’s standards) of The Ice Warriors would really upset me in a story written in the 21st century because it would reinforce common disinformation and misinformation regarding a very real and profoundly important problem for planet Earth and for all humankind. In 1967, I accept it and look back on it fondly. I enjoy what it was doing and how it tried to engage with these ideas.
As for your comments re animation, I fully respect that. If it takes you out of the story or causes other elements to grate with you even more (because you have less visual joy to detract), then I can’t argue with that (nor would I want to). I love the animations for giving us back (as best they can) those precious missing episodes but I totally understand that many other people find them challenging.
I’m gonna have to be negative nelly with this one I’m afraid, I rated it as a 4/10. I think what really lets it down for me is the fact that the ice warriors are so one dimensional in my eyes. No interesting motive for their actions, no distinction in characterisation between any of the warriors or conflict among them. They have better stories in the future, but in this one they are simply an unnuanced clone army ready for conquest which I find so incredibly boring
And their voices oml. I get they were meant to be scary but the hissing and whispering noises just grate me, they’re annoying to me instead of unsettling. Oh and the ‘scientific’ explanation of ‘plants producing carbon dioxide’ also grated me!! How did the show spread blatantly false science that is the opposite of the truth and so so simple to rewrite to be accurate??
I do appreciate the Doctor’s interactions with the computer, which feel very relevant to the current rise of AI and he echoes some of my feelings on that topic. But that’s about the only positive I can think of, thinking back to when I watched this a couple of weeks ago
While as you say the stuff that directly relates to climate change might be more understandable given the 1960s context, for me I think it’s the part earlier in the line of reasoning that lays out the reason for the ice age that gets me. The Doctor says “no plants, no carbon dioxide”, which is the opposite of what we have known to be true due to photosynthesis since about the late 18 century. It’s from there that the conclusion then becomes no carbon dioxide = ice age iirc.
Technically of course plants do produce carbon dioxide through respiration but the fact that photosynthesis means their net effect is the opposite, to absorb carbon dioxide is something that is fairly elementary for children’s learning of biology, and I don’t imagine that part was different in the 60s myself. If they said too many plants were planted, leading to a shortage of carbon dioxide and therefore an ice age, the climate science would still be wildly wrong, but it would at least get the very basic fact of photosynthesis right. As a family show I think it’s important it gets the very basic science fundamentals that a child should know right, then build the nonsense technobabble up from there!
I like this one. Nothing amazing, groundbreaking, or new, but just a solid little story.
You are quite right, and yet it still doesn’t bother me half as much as if it was written today. The story does correctly equate carbon dioxide with warming (even if the plant explanation is silly) and does explore the consequences of anthropogenic climate change (even if the prediction is in the wrong direction). I fully understand your issues with the story. Just explaining my context. I applaud much of what it does (despite the errors). The message is laudably environmental… and the Ice Warriorssssssss are cool. 
Pun very much intended! 
This story was very enjoyable and a big step up from The Abominable Snowman as it has a better plot, cast, and pace. The plot here is fairly good with some questionable science pulling it down, but the threat of the Ice Warriors bringing it up. I think they are a super cool monster and it’s great seeing their debut. I love the voices they have and the design is just absolutely amazing. I do think it’s interesting how their species name is never said and they’re just called the Ice Warriors by one of the characters and that ends up sticking around.
The cast is really great here with the members of the base all having unique drives and motives. Penley was definitely my favorite though. The computer making the decisions and multiple characters solely relying on it is actually super relevant to today where people have started to rely on AI for both small and big decisions, choosing that over making their own decisions. The pacing here is fairly good with a lot happening in each episode, although at times it is a bit too slow. I also think the resolution was too fast and should’ve been better spaced out between the last two stories though. Overall, really good!
8/10