Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - The Ice Warriors [VHS]

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
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This video is a must own for anyone who has ever pined away for the lost episodes of Doctor Who. It satisfies the hunger of die-hard Troughton fans and is a perfect example of the stories, characters and quality acting of this period in Who. If you have little experience with Troughton's genius portrayal of the Doctor, the "Ice Warriors" shows him at the top of his game.

The story is told in the typical Who acts ... the Doctor and crew are mistaken as trouble makers ... then they are befriended ... then they truly are part of the trouble. It includes the characteristic Who "companions and Doctor are captured and then escape" moments and the obligitory "...oh yeah, there are only 5 minutes left, so let's defeat the bad guy" endings. But the ideas, performances and costumes lift this production up.

The ideas of Man vs. Machine and man's dependence on machine are well played out. Supporting characters like Leader Clent are well fleshed out and undergo good development as the story prgresses. Troughton exudes mystery at all times; unlike Hartnell, who usually was trapped and had to fight his way back to the TARDIS, Troughton's Doctor could leave at any time. He stays because he delights in trouble and adventure.

Also, the scene where Victoria is trying to escape through the ice caves while persued by an Ice Warrior is creepy and suspenseful.

The reconstruction of episodes 2 and 3 are marvellous ... and the included CD of missing audio is a treat to listen to. The story does not lose at all by the loss of these episodes.

I was taken by surprise by this one. It is a glimpse at the greatness of the "Monster Seasons."

BUY IT NOW!

One of the great things about Patrick Troughton was his ability to display great humanity. None of the other Doctors managed the feat of the little panic attacks and the indecision and the occasional fluster and bluster.

I suspect that the lack of espisodes of this irrascible fellow makes them even more valuable. This particular story, originally transmitted between November 11 and December 16 1967, focuses attention on the problems of a new ice age and man's inability to defend him(her)self against mother nature. Once again there is the case against reliance on computers to find solutions, requiring the utmost obedience and removing the need for the human race to think for themselves. Indeed, those who do think for themselves and see the flaws in the case for computer dominance are derided, denounced and outcast.

The leader of the station is also disabled but he is not handicapped by the disability and leads his team despite the adverse conditions even though the mounting evidence against the computers becomes glaringly obvious. Ultimately he sees the error of his ways and regains his humanity in a final display of leadership.

The Ice Warriors are cast as a militaristic society with soldiers and officers but one has some sympathy with their need for conquest due to the dying planet Mars being unable to sustain life any more. This plays out as a tragic Darwinian survival of the fittest struggle when the warriors are ultimately defeated with the aid of the Doctor's assistance.

Happily this VHS tape was released which includes the soundtrack for the entire show on CD. Unhappily, there are many missing episodes, mainly of the Troughton years and the likelihood of them being found diminishes daily. In England the BBC is releasing CD versions of the missing stories which hopefully will be generally available in the US soon.

This is another excellent Doctor Who Story.

The Ice Warriors is a treasured link in a season know to fans as the Monster era, where every story in the season featrured a "monster" of some kind. Many of the monsters went on to a repeat performance in later years, and the Ice Warriors were no exception, making 3 more later stories. The idea of a futuristic world frozen over in a new ice age is relevant today, ironically not due to fear of cold, but of warming trends, though the same disasterous effects are predicted. The missing episodes are cleverly linked, and the accompanying audio cd and book fill in the rest perfectly. I was greatly disappointed that the documentary "The Missing Years" and the 1 remaining episode of Troughton's "The Underwater Menace", both included in a box set of the UK release of "The Ice Warriors", were missing from this collection. No doubt Fox/BBC will release this as a seperate video on a future date.Well worth buying though, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the video, and listening the cd, one episode per day, making it a real treat to watch , listen and imagine. A must have for the true fan!!

For Americans, young British viewers, and fans that haven't seen this serial since it aired, well, you're in for a treat. The TARDIS crew lands on Earth in the future, only to discover that the world is in another "ice age". Meantime, scientist from the Britanicus base have uncovered aliens beings frozen in a glacier! Episodes 2 and 3 may never be discovered, but the telesnaps with audio, and the CD help flesh out the missing footage(much better than "The Invasion" release). All the regulars are in fine form, especially Deborah Walting as Victoria, proving she's more than a pretty face. The guest cast isn't that bad. Clent is great, unable to admit that the computer might not know how to solve their problems. And let's not forget the Warriors, with their hissing and huge pressence. Like "The Seeds of Death", it's also has a wonderful soundtrack. The dissident vocals during episode 1 give a creepy feeling throughout the story. Great design. Not to be missed!

It took several years, but Patrick Troughton's doctor has completely won me over. Not that I did not originally like Pat's performance. From the start,I enjoyed his Chaplin approach to
the character, his ability to use brain over brawn to defeat his enemies. The problem is that there are so few complete serials of his era (the number to-date is only six). This is why "The Ice Warriors" is a complete joy to watch! The very first Ice Warrior story is a good, filled with suspence, solid supoorting characters and quips of humor. Still, the reason to buy this is tape is Troughton. Well established as the doctor at this point, Pat does a remarkable job of mixing humor, believable fright and underestimated self-confidence into the doctor that it reminds us what a superb actor he truly was. A must for all Doctor Who fans!

As you have no doubt read in the other reviews here, in the 70's the BBC junked a lot of their old archives in order to make room for recordings of more recent shows. It was only after the advent of the VCR that they realized that they could make a lot of money by selling copies of their old material. Sadly, two episodes of this serial were among those that have not been recovered. All that survives of these two are the audio track, short video clips and some still photographs.

While the thought of watching an incomplete serial of a black and white TV show from the mid-60s might only appeal to fans, the Reconstruction Team did an amazingly good job. They took the still frames, telesnaps, existing audio and video clips and managed to re-create a coherent story line to fill in the gaps left by the destroyed episodes. The transition from the existing material to the new is handled very well and is not at all as jarring as one might expect. I was quite impressed by the quality of this and the obvious care that the team took to produce it.

The story itself is quite entertaining. The Ice Warriors themselves are wonderfully well realized and Troughton's Doctor is always fun to watch. Although the isolated-base-of-humans-under-siege-from-an-alien-menace became a bit of a Doctor Who cliché (especially during the Troughton years), this is probably the best example of it. The humans come across as understandably afraid for their lives and willing to do anything necessary to preserve themselves. The Ice Warriors are, of course, the evil alien menace and get to stomp around making huge threats about the future of humanity. Usually the budget requirements would make a mockery of the alien race of the week by having huge armies of soldiers being played by only three guys in the suits. However, the small cast of humans and aliens really works in the story's favour. There is a small group of humans cut off from the world and there is a small group of aliens cut off from their people; both sides need to use whatever limited resources they have to survive.

All in all this is recommended for fans of Doctor Who and for fans of science fiction in general. The production values are uniformly (and surprisingly) high, making this a very enjoyable piece of television viewing.

Note: This package comes with a CD of the audio from the missing two episodes and a short booklet.

Until this video came out, there really were only 5 different adventures that represented Patrick Troughton's time as the Doctor, sadly they do not represent the best of his time. This adventure does. Although parts two and three are missing, the accompanying CD (located underneath the wraparound label along with a 48 booklet of neat facts) gives the complete soundtrack to the episode and since you do see episode, 1, your mind can easily "see" what's happening while listening to parts two and three, losing basically nothing. But even so, they cover all the bases, giving a pictorial recap/synopsis of the two missing epidoes. Truly a treat which I think we'll see more of. Sadly not every adventure has the luxury of missing only a few early parts, leaving the meat intact. Still, enjoy!

This story really is one of the better second doctor episodes. I never saw an ice warrior episode and found it to be an excellent introduction to these menacing monsters.

To fill the gaps there is a narration with stills. I believe its one of the best narrations available and really does a very good job on summarizing the missing episodes. It also comes with the audio for these episodes which is a nice treat.

If you are a Troughton fan, you'll love this video. If you are like me and dig the colour episodes, you'll still love this episode. It is a great introduction to the Troughton era.

It's too bad BBC video did not have the foresight to reconstruct the missing episodes of the classic Troughton Cybermen adventure "The Invasion", instead providing weak and simplistic linking material (a few sentences from actor Nicholas Courtney) to explain away the gaps. At least with "The Ice Warriors" they did not make the same mistake, with the two lost episodes of this six-parter being reconstructed using pictures, narration and the original soundtrack. A wonderfully atmospheric and exciting adventure set in the future where a "second ice-age" threatens to envelope the earth. A research team unnearths a frozen figure from the ice (shades of Hawks' "The Thing from Another World") and soon the Doctor and his friends are in a desperate struggle for survival against the dreaded Ice Warriors. Great stuff! This video version set a precedent for future "missing" releases, and we can hope to see most of the lost Doctor Who stories of the 1960s reconstructed and issued to video in this manner. I can't wait!

Too bad that episodes 2 and 3 are missing! But hooray to BBC for releasing this story anyway. This is a true classic from the year that only a handful of episodes remain (shown mainly on the Patrick Troughton tape). One of the best moments was the realization that people relied on computers too much. What does that say for us 33 years later!