Doctor Who (TV Series) The Ice Warriors: Episode Two (1967) User Reviews

A very strong second episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 24 February 2020]

The Doctor explains to Clent that the warrior found in the snow wasn't wearing a simple helmet, but a complex piece of equipment containing electrics. The Ice Warrior takes Victoria to discover how long he has laid dormant, and raise other Ice Warriors.

Thank goodness for the decision to animate missing episodes, some are more successful than others. I would argue this works incredibly well simply because it's only partial, there are at least some remaining episodes which give us the true flavour of the story.

Best scene is the discovery to the Ice Warrior army.

It's very good, even with it being an animation you can see how good Bernard Bresslaw is, not just there because of his stature, he's really good, that whisper must have been difficult to sustain.

It's entertaining. 8/10

Icy but super hot - this is a fantastic production and a real classic

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 1 September 2014]

Review of all 6 episodes:

This is a tremendous production in all respects. The costumes really stand out straight away as superb and believable. They are stylishly and expertly made especially for the humans and also for the Ice Warriors. The acting and characterisation are of a high standard throughout with guest parts well written and acted providing realistic and interesting characters. The Ice Warriors are brilliant, the TARDIS crew main cast are on great form and the script is fantastic. The story itself is great fun with plenty of action but also intelligent and thoughtful science fiction. There are ideas of humans over-reliance on machines, people torn between just running away from a system they dislike or fighting to change it, relationships with aliens (those different to us) and the threat of war and moral questions which result. More than that though it is just a fine example of a very well produced, exciting story with great villains and three dimensional characters.

I really could not disagree more (and frankly do not understand) a review I read on here giving this a very cool (pardon the pun) reception. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but the only direct criticism I could spot in that review was to say this is somewhat copied from the story of The Thing From Another World, other than that they just say it did not grab them. Well if this does not grab you I suggest Doctor Who will never rate well for you. This is top notch Doctor Who, and that is a view supported by its high rating on IMDb and by reviews by Doctor Who specialist reviewers such as the BBC Episode Guide. To say it is like The Thing From Another World is not entirely wrong in that the story contains an alien preserved in ice which is then thawed out but would that reviewer criticise The Brain of Morbius (widely considered one of the best ever stories) because it vaguely copies the premise of Frankenstein?! I am not a fan at all of copying other people's ideas or derivative stories. However, this is not derivative it purely shares an aspect of that story just as the ideas of nearly every science fiction story all share some aspect or other with at least one other story. The Borg in Star Trek for instance are quite close in concept to the Cybermen (and all cyborgs in sci- fi) but it does not make them rubbish because they are done differently enough and are good in their own right.

This story over its 6 episodes has way more going for it and way more ideas than just the alien in the ice premise. It is a perfect example of an alien menace adventure. The only significant flaw for me is a tiny bit of the scientific explanation regarding the ice age in Episode 1.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 9/10, Episodes 2-6 - 10/10