The Ice Warriors

Dear Gary—

The Ice Warriors starts with a nice comedy bit highlighting the camaraderie that is developing between our three travelers. It begins with the TARDIS landing unexpectedly sideways (“It was a blind landing”) so that the three have to climb over each other to exit, and ends with the classic one-two-three heads peaking around a corner, one above the other, as they enter the base they have materialized beside. I have to say, also, that the strange, high-pitched 60’s sci-fi music that starts out the story lends an unintended bit of humor as well. I almost expect a green alien woman to come floating by looking for her beloved Dr. Smith.

The base the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria are entering is reminiscent of that from The Moon Base except instead of controlling all weather patterns this base is focused solely on containing massive glacier movements that have been triggered by the lack of carbon dioxide. It seems that the people of future Earth have developed an inexhaustible food supply that does not require plant life and have replaced paradise with a parking lot so to speak (actually I think it has been replaced with living quarters to house the exploding population). No plant life=no carbon dioxide=New Ice Age. But not to worry, ionizers have been set up at multiple bases around the world to keep the advancing glaciers in check. Seems like it would be easier and cheaper to plant a few trees, but then we wouldn’t have a story.

The Ice Warriors highlights the Doctor Who love/hate relationship with computers/technology. Two of the main Doctor Who antagonists are humanoid beings that have had their humanity removed and replaced with electronics—Daleks and Cybermen. In The Ice Warriors the real threat comes not from the Ice Warriors themselves but from the indecision and dependence on the computer that runs the base.

The Doctor’s unease with computers is established early in the story when he is asked if he has ever worked with them. “Only when I have to,” he replies. And the ineffectiveness of the base leader who relies solely upon the computer is evident from the start. As one of his men says of him, Leader Clent is not a scientist but rather an organizer; “he should have been born a robot.” He doesn’t think for himself, he obeys what the computer tells him. “I do think you might try trusting human beings instead of computers,” the Doctor tells him.  “I trust no one Doctor, not anymore; human emotions are unreliable.” Sounds like a Dalek or Cyberman in the making.

The Ice Warriors of our story do pose a threat. Frozen in the ice, the base scientist unthaws one and we learn that they are Martians who crashed during the first ice age and have been frozen ever since. The recently thawed Ice Warrior, Varga, kidnaps Vicki, frees the rest of his men, and determines that the ionizer of the base is a threat and must be destroyed. The Martian ship, however, doesn’t have much power left and ultimately they don’t pose the real danger for the base. The fact that they have Vicki is the only complication for the Doctor to work out. They do have a weapon of sorts, but that is an easy matter for the Doctor.

No, the actual danger is the fact that there is a glacier bearing down on the base on the one hand and on the other there is an alien ship buried in the ice that may or may not have an engine that could trigger a nuclear explosion if they use the ionizer on the glacier. Couple this with the fact that Leader Clent is crippled by his reliance on the computer, and the computer in turn is crippled by this rock and a hard place riddle, and a genuine disaster is in the making.

“Because it is so logical it can’t gamble; it can’t take risks,” is the reason given for the computer’s indecisive decision to do nothing. It is playing for time. By demanding action, it seems, the crew is asking the computer to commit suicide. I’m not sure about that one, Gary. By instilling a sense of survival in the computer the show is ascribing human like qualities to it. Certainly there are Doctor Who super computers that develop the capacity for independent thought and monomaniacal traits, but there is no indication that the computer of our story is anything more than just that—a computer.

“This is a decision for a man to make not a machine. The computer isn’t designed to take risks but that is the essence of man’s progress. We must decide.” In the end, when pressed to make a choice, the computer implodes and the Doctor and the base’s rogue scientist Penley take over. They use the ionizer, only a minor explosion occurs, the glacier is stopped, the Ice Warriors are defeated, and all is right once again with the world.

This Man versus Technology theme is a fitting one for the Troughton Who era. Patrick Troughton’s Doctor is definitely one for individuality, creativity, impulsiveness. He uses a rock, not a sonic screwdriver. He knows what he is doing—he hopes. Or as he says in this story, “Your regulations do not apply to me; I work in my own way—freely.” Or as the computer asseses him: "High IQ but undisciplined."

One final note about Patrick Troughton, Gary, before I sign off. “I live in hope,” he says in The Ice Warriors. I’m glad to see this theme of hope continuing through from the Hartnell years—“You must travel with understanding as well as hope;” “Isn’t it better to travel hopefully than arrive?”

"I live in hope.”

Here’s hoping, Gary . . .