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Ice Warrior
Fictional alien from Doctor Who From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Natives of Mars, the Ice Warriors wear bio-mechanical armour to protect themselves from attack and temperature fluctuations. In their debut, the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors, they fought the Second Doctor. Two years later, they reappeared in The Seeds of Death. In 1972's The Curse of Peladon, they were allied with the Doctor, reverting to antagonists in The Monster of Peladon another two years later. The Ice Warriors would not appear again on-screen until the show's 2005 revival in the episode "Cold War" (2013), followed by the 2017 episode "Empress of Mars". They have also appeared in spin-off media for the series.
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The Ice Warriors were created by writer Brian Hayles, out of his interest in life on Mars at the time, when the production team was looking for new recurring antagonists. Originally, the Ice Warriors had been conceived as being akin to cyborg vikings. Designer Martin Baugh, inspired by their name and influenced by crocodiles, designed them to appear reptilian in nature; this also prevented the design, originally described as a cyborg viking, from being confused with another antagonist, the Cybermen.
The Ice Warriors have been received positively, seen as one of the series' most well-known antagonists despite the large gaps in between their appearances. Their design and role in the two Peladon serials, as well as in "Cold War", have been the subject of commentary and analysis.
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Television series
Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television series that began in 1963. Its protagonist is the Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in a ship known as the TARDIS, as well as their travelling companions.[1] When the Doctor dies, they are able to undergo a process known as "regeneration", completely changing their appearance and personality.[2] Throughout their travels, the Doctor often comes into conflict with various alien species and antagonists.[3][4]
The Ice Warriors are a reptilian warrior race from Mars who wear bio-mechanical armour which protects them from attack and hostile temperature conditions. The Ice Warriors have sonic weapons mounted into the wrists.[5][6] They follow an honour code[7] and are ruled either by an "Ice Lord", or an "Ice Queen".[8]
Classic era
The Ice Warriors first appeared in the 1967 story The Ice Warriors, set on Earth during a future ice age in the year 3000. After a scientific team discovers an Ice Warrior spacecraft buried underneath the ice, the hibernating crew is revived. The Second Doctor thwarts their attempt to take over the scientists' base.[9] The Ice Warriors returned for the 1969 serial The Seeds of Death. In this story, mid-21st century Earth has grown dependent on the matter transmission system T-Mat. An Ice Warrior strike force, seeking to conquer Earth, sends seeds through the T-Mat that are intended to make Earth more suitable for Martian life. After this plan is thwarted by the Second Doctor and his companions, the invading Martian fleet is sent into an orbit around the Sun.[10]
In 1972's The Curse of Peladon the Ice Warriors have renounced violence and become members of the "Galactic Federation", an alliance of various races. A group of them are part of a delegation to negotiate the planet Peladon's entry into the Federation. The Third Doctor initially suspects that the Ice Warriors are behind an attempt to sabotage the proceedings but accepts that they have changed after the Ice Warriors save his life. With their help, the Doctor foils a plot to prevent Peladon's admission.[11] A sequel, The Monster of Peladon, aired in 1974 and is set 50 years after the events of The Curse of Peladon. Here, the Ice Warriors are depicted serving as Federation peacekeeping troops. Their leader, the Ice Lord Azaxyr, is secretly working with an enemy of the Federation and seeks to return to the species' warlike past. Azaxyr tries to impose martial law and take over Peladon, but is stopped by the Peladonians and the Third Doctor.[12]
Revived era
The 2013 episode "Cold War" depicts an Ice Warrior named Grand Marshal Skaldak, found frozen in a chunk of ice, being discovered a Soviet nuclear submarine. Skaldak has been frozen for thousands of years and believes his race is dead and he is the last of his kind. As a result, he attempts to obliterate humanity using the submarine's nuclear warheads; he relents after the Eleventh Doctor's companion Clara Oswald reminds Skaldak of his daughter, whom he had told her about previously. An Ice Warrior ship soon arrives, and Skaldak, seeing his race still alive, departs with them as he deactivates the warheads.[13]
The Ice Warriors reappear in the 2017 episode "Empress of Mars". In it, Victorian era soldiers find a crashed Ice Warrior ship and wake its sole inhabitant, "Friday", from suspended animation. Friday brings the soldiers to Mars, where he discovers Mars has become unable to support life since he went into suspended animation. Friday tricks the soldiers into re-awakening the dormant Ice Queen, Iraxxa, and a hive of Ice Warriors. After initial combat, the soldiers' colonel, Godsacre, negotiates a peace. The Twelfth Doctor calls the Galactic Federation to pick up the remaining Ice Warriors from Mars[14] so that they will join the Federation in the future.[15]
In spin-off media
The Ice Warriors appear in several novels, including 1990's Mission to Magnus, an adaptation of a scrapped on-screen Ice Warrior serial,[16] 1992's Transit,[17] 1994's Legacy,[18] 1996's GodEngine[19] and Happy Endings,[20] 1997's The Dying Days,[21] and 2011's The Silent Stars Go By.[7]
In comics, the species appear in the strips Deathworld (1980), where they fight the Cybermen;[22] 4-Dimensional Vistas (1983), which sees the Fifth Doctor combatting the Ice Warriors and the Meddling Monk;[23] and the Seventh Doctor strip A Cold Day in Hell (1987–1988).[24] An Ice Warrior named Harma appears in the comic strip Star Tigers as an ally of Abslom Daak.[25]
The Ice Warriors appear in several audio dramas published by Big Finish Productions, including Red Dawn (2000),[26] Frozen Time (2007),[27] The Bride of Peladon (2008),[28] The Judgement of Isskar (2009),[29] Deimos (2010),[30] The Resurrection of Mars (2010),[31] Lords of the Red Planet (2013),[32] and Cold Vengeance (2017).[33]
An Ice Warrior named Ssard acts as a companion of the Eighth Doctor in spin-off media. First appearing in Radio Times comic strips, Ssard joins the Doctor after helping him deal with a treacherous Ice Warrior leader. Ssard becomes close with the Doctor's companion Stacy Townsend, and in the 1998 novel Placebo Effect they leave the Doctor to get married.[34][35]
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Conception and development
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1960s
The Ice Warriors
A Dalek (left) and a Cyberman (right) on display at various exhibitions. The Ice Warriors were introduced at a time when the Daleks were being written out of the series, with the Ice Warriors also being redesigned to avoid confusion with the Cybermen.
In early 1967, the Doctor Who production team was looking for an additional alien race, specifically a bipedal creature, to complement popular antagonists such as the Daleks and Cybermen[6] (In some accounts, the new species was meant to replace the Daleks, scheduled to be written out of the series at the time).[36][37] Writer Brian Hayles ended up creating the new monsters. He was at the time interested in life on Mars and saw the idea of a race of reptilian humanoids as a plausible concept. Hayles was additionally inspired by a story of a mammoth found preserved in a block of ice by the Berezovka River in 1901, giving him the idea of an alien being revived after being discovered the same way.[6] The Ice Warriors were additionally designed to exhibit more personality than the Daleks and Cybermen.[38]
Costume designer Martin Baugh was inspired by the name "Ice Warrior", as it made him think of a hard, armoured creature.[6] He saw the creatures as like crocodiles and thus made them reptilian in nature;[6] according to some accounts, Hayles had originally conceived them as cyborg Vikings[38][39], and Baugh's change avoided confusion with the Cybermen, also cyborgs. Taking inspiration from descriptions of the Ice Warriors' Viking-like helmets, Baugh envisioned their armour as being central to their appearance, akin to a "bipedal turtle". He suggested the Ice Warrior costumes be cast in fibreglass.[6]
The final costume used a two-piece fibreglass shell, heavy latex rubber for the arms and legs— with the former ending in clamp-like hands— and matted fur between the joints and at the hips. Red perspex was used to act as the eyeholes of the helmets, with the actors' eyelids behind the mask painted a dark green. Plans to have the eyes glow were dropped due to concerns it would overheat the actors. The final costumes stood around 7 ft (2.1 m) tall. Due to their bulk, they were very hot, and actors would sweat out around a pint (570 ml) in less than an hour.[6] During filming, director Derek Martinus requested changes, specifically less bulky helmets, since as built the costumes did not allow for much head movement. Additionally, Martinus wanted the Ice Warriors' sonic blaster weapons to be built into the costume. The helmets of all five Ice Warrior costumes produced for the serial were made smaller, though some were changed more than others.[6]
Bernard Bresslaw portrayed the Ice Warrior Varga in their debut.[38] He used a whisper-like voice to depict the Ice Warriors' reptilian nature,[40] an idea attributed to him that would be used in subsequent serials.[37] The book The Doctor's Monsters: Meanings of the Monstrous in Doctor Who describes this voice as suggesting the Ice Warriors are uncomfortable within Earth's atmosphere, adding character to the species.[40] Military drumbeats were used as a musical cue for when the Ice Warriors appeared, a motif reused in later serials.[41][42]
The Seeds of Death
The popularity of the Ice Warriors led to a sequel to their debut story being produced.[43] The first plan for a sequel was titled The Lords of the Red Planet and would have revealed the Ice Warriors to have been genetically engineered by another Martian species named the Gandorans.[44] It was ultimately replaced by The Seeds of Death. For this serial, new costumes were built featuring the slimmer head introduced late into The Ice Warriors's filming. Ice Warrior dialogue was pre-recorded due to difficulty speaking in the costumes.[43]
The inclusion of Slaar, an Ice Lord with a different design, was a suggestion by script editor Terrance Dicks, done to make the species more interesting. Slaar's costume was primarily neoprene rubber, with the hands, helmet, and chest plate made of fibreglass. Alan Bennion, Slaar's actor, had rubber pebbles stuck to his face to resemble reptilian skin, with black enamel being used to make his teeth pointed. Though some of Bennion's dialogue was recorded in studio via a radio microphone attached to his helmet, other parts of his dialogue were pre-recorded. Bennion could not hear or see through the helmet; an off-camera floor manager would tap him on the legs as a dialogue cue.[43]
1970s and scrapped re-appearances
Following the eighth season's focus on Earth-based encounters with antagonist the Master, the production team wanted to return to stories featuring the Doctor fighting "monsters" for the show's ninth season. Many past alien species were considered for returns, including the Ice Warriors. Hayles submitted two scripts in 1971 for this season, one of which had the Ice Warriors using a "Z-Beam" device to turn humans into mindless zombies to do their bidding. Dicks was unimpressed; at a brain-storming session he, Hayles and Barry Letts created the concept for The Curse of Peladon, with Hayles coming up with the idea of the Ice Warriors having become peaceful instead of acting as antagonists. To deceive audiences and play on their expectations, Hayles planted clues throughout The Curse of Peladon's script to make audiences think the Ice Warriors were the serial's antagonists when they in fact were not.[41]
The Varga costume from The Ice Warriors was re-used for the Ice Warrior Ssorg, portrayed by actor Sonny Caldinez.[a] The costume for the Ice Lord Izlyr was new but heavily based on the original appearance of the Ice Lord in The Seeds of Death, with Bennion returning to portray Izlyr. The new Ice Lord costume was a one-piece jumpsuit, its clasp hidden by a cape. Unlike his prior appearance, Bennion was able to speak his dialogue completely in studio, though Caldinez's had to be pre-recorded due to difficulties with the rubber mouthpiece used.[41]
For the 1974 season of the show, Hayles was brought on to write a sequel to the first Peladon story, which became The Monster of Peladon. Hayles again planned to deceive the audience via the Ice Warriors; instead of being the Doctor's allies like in Curse, they would instead be enemies again. Bennion and Caldinez both returned to portray an Ice Lord and Ice Warrior respectively, though this time they portrayed the characters Azaxyr and Sskel. Bennion acted his dialogue in studio while Caldinez pre-recorded his dialogue. The Ice Lord costume was re-used from the prior serial, with minor additions such as a belt being added. Caldinez utilised the Varga costume once again, with additional Ice Warriors in the serial wearing costumes held in stock. The other actors felt restricted in the costumes and had difficulty breathing. The helmets also had a tendency to mist up. Unlike prior appearances, their weapons were not part of the costume and were instead held separately.[42]
Following this appearance, the Ice Warriors would not appear on-screen again until the series' 2005 revival.[45] They were initially planned to return in Mission to Magnus, a scrapped story for the 1986 season.[16] Another Ice Warrior story, "Ice Time", was planned for the proposed 1990 season. This was scrapped due to the show's 1989 cancellation.[46]
Revived era
"Cold War"
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Doctor Who was revived in 2005. Showrunner Russell T Davies wanted to bring the Ice Warriors back, but barring a brief mention in the 2009 episode "The Waters of Mars",[7] they did not appear during his five years in the position. His successor, Steven Moffat, brought them back to the screen in 2013, for the series seven episode "Cold War".[45] Moffat was hesitant at first, seeing the Ice Warriors as "the default condition for what people thought of as rubbish Doctor Who monsters — things that moved very, very slowly and spoke in a way that meant you couldn't hear a word they said."[47] He also believed the show had reached a point where it did not need to reach into its "back catalogue" any further.[48] Writer Mark Gatiss, a big fan of the Ice Warriors, had pitched their return for many years.[48] He was eventually able to convince Moffat to allow for the Warriors' return,[49] with Moffat being convinced by the idea of the Ice Warriors being seen without their armour, which had not yet been done.[48]
The Ice Warriors would receive a physical redesign, with Gatiss insisting during production that the species should retain the fundamentals of their design from the Classic era serials.[50] They were obscure enough, he said, to not need a redesign. They were thus designed as a "super-version of the original".[49] Millennium FX's Neill Gorton, in charge of the redesign, gave the Ice Warriors a "bodybuilder" physique, styled the armour to resemble plating, removed the fur present in the original design, and altered the hands so that they did not resemble that of a Lego minifigure. The costume was made of flexible urethane rubber instead of fibreglass like the original, since urethane damages less easily and is more comfortable to wear. The costume was made specially to fit Spencer Wilding, who physically portrayed the Ice Warrior Skaldak. Nicholas Briggs voiced Skaldak, with Wilding miming the words on-set.[48]
Gatiss's script described the creature, without its armour, as "wet and leathery", and moving like a gecko, with dark black eyes and sharp teeth.[48] An entire animatronic prop for Skaldak's true form was constructed, though was not seen entirely on-screen. Computer-generated imagery was used to depict Skaldak's face, with motion capture done to lip sync Skaldak's face with Briggs's voice.[51]
"Empress of Mars"
Gatiss announced the Ice Warriors would return for the revival's tenth series in 2017, hinting at the introduction of a "new kind of Ice Warrior" that would appear in his episode "Empress of Mars."[8][52] Gatiss had originally planned to write a sequel to his 2015 episode "Sleep No More" for the tenth series, but since many of the show's regulars were departing at the end of that series' conclusion, and Gatiss was unsure of his future with the show, he decided to produce a story depicting the Ice Warriors on Mars which he had always wanted to do.[53] Moffat agreed only if Gatiss could introduce another interesting concept for the species, which led to the introduction of a female Ice Warrior: a first for the series. This would be incorporated as the character Iraxxa, an "Ice Queen"[54] whose concept was inspired by the Ice Lords.[8] Older drafts of the story involved a return to Peladon, though was scrapped due to similarities with the episode "The Eaters of Light". (2017) To fill in gaps in the Ice Warrior mythology, Gatiss invented the idea of Ice Warriors living in hives. To conceal the species' return prior to their reveal, paperwork for the series referred to them as "Enemies".[54]
One of the Ice Warrior costumes was a repaired version of the costume used for Skaldak in "Cold War", with two other costumes created for the episode. The construction of the helmets, as well as a cooling fan inside, required that earpieces be placed inside the helmets so the actors could hear. Iraxxa's costume was constructed out of fibreglass, foam, and plastic, with silicone used to represent her hair.[54] She was portrayed by actress Adele Lynch.[15]
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Reception
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Despite the large gaps between appearances, the Ice Warriors have been described by Graham Sleight in the book The Doctor's Monsters: Meanings of the Monstrous in Doctor Who as one of the most "fondly remembered of Doctor Who monsters",[40] with SFX Magazine's Nick Setchfield stating they were often considered one of the show's "Big Four" monsters, alongside the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans.[45] Sleight attributed the success of the Ice Warriors to their first appearance, citing the fibreglass costumes as helping sell the effect of the creatures being difficult to defeat, with the implications of a reptilian being underneath furthering the mystery of the Ice Warriors.[40] Graeme Burk and Stacey Smith? in Who Is The Doctor 2: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who — The Modern Series wrote that the Ice Warriors' "large and looming" design, as well as their ability to speak, were key factors in their success.[39] Hayles, their creator, suggested the Ice Warriors were popular due to being organic creatures with emotions, unlike the mechanical Daleks and Cybermen, which allowed viewers to identify with the species.[6]
The Ice Warriors' role in the two Peladon serials have been the subject of commentary. Mark Braxton, writing in a Radio Times review, highlighted the use of the Ice Warriors in The Curse of Peladon as the episode's "ace".[55] The book The Language of Doctor Who: From Shakespeare to Alien Tongues observed that the Ice Warriors' appearance in the serial acted as a way to mislead viewers due to their previous villainy, with their willingness to talk out solutions and find common ground with the Doctor allowing them to transition to the role of allies in the eyes of viewers.[56] Who Is The Doctor 2: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who — The Modern Series credited the serial with giving them "new subtleties" and changing how all alien species were perceived on the show.[39] Sleight stated that The Curse of Peladon was "one of the most interesting uses of monsters in the series' history",[40] positively highlighting the twist that the Ice Warriors were not evil and that they can in fact work towards a good cause.[40] While he believed the sequel, The Monster of Peladon, was weaker, Azaxyr's depiction as acting against the Ice Warriors' honour code helped sell the species as being composed of individuals with differing ideals.[40] Mac Rogers, while discussing "Cold War" for Slate with fellow writer Frank Collins, said that the species had endured as a result of their depiction in these serials. Collins noted that unlike other monsters, the Ice Warriors evolved as characters and did not just act as "the monster of the week".[57]
The return of the Ice Warriors in "Cold War" was commented on by reviewers. Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times highlighted the return of the Ice Warriors in "Cold War", praising the emotions and depth of Skaldak, as well as the reveal of the species' true form.[51] Jeffrey Morgan of Digital Spy considered the return of the species a "triumph"; his only criticism was a lack of screentime for their armour.[58] Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club considered the serial to be the revamp the Ice Warriors needed for the modern age, highlighting the Doctor's interaction with Skaldak as singlehandedly demonstrating their uniqueness.[59] However, in his book Once Upon a Time Lord: The Myths and Stories of Doctor Who Ivan Phillips complained that the reveal of the Ice Warriors' face beneath the armour took away some of the ambiguity of the Ice Warrior design which had made them so successful before.[44]
J.J. Elridge, in Doctor Who and Science: Essays on Ideas, Identities and Ideologies in the Series, commented that the Ice Warriors were an example of the trope of life on Mars being so widespread that it was assumed by the series' writers as a foregone conclusion. Though the notion of life on Mars in the real world conflicted with Doctor Who's depiction of the Ice Warriors, Elridge observed that the idea of ancient life on Mars did resonate with aspects of their backstory and their "noble" way of life.[60] Phillips cited the Ice Warriors as an example of a creature in the series that took mysteries presented on-screen and expanded upon them in spin-off material, stating that further uses of the species had expanded on various concepts, including what was present beneath the armour, the nature of the Ice Warriors as cyborgs, and the origin of the species and its ruling class.[44]
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