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The Randomiser: The Ice Warriors
Dec. 19th, 2017 09:57 pmThe Ice Warriors is one of rather more Troughton stories than I was previously aware to have had its missing episodes animated. On the whole I'm in favour of the animations since I don't find telesnaps all that watchable in general, particularly when the story is not as engaging as it might be (which, to be fair, isn't actually the case here I think).
In fact, just as we found The Moonbase enjoyable despite its somewhat mixed reputation, we also found The Ice Warriors enjoyable. Clearly we are "base under siege" fans. There is, undeniably, a lot of toing and froing in both stories which are constructed around the basic framework of "external menaces tries (and possibly succeeds) at breaking in and is then repulsed (repeat)". At least in The Ice Warriors the inhabitants of the base occasionally traipse up the mountain to meet the eponymous Ice Warriors. This is from the days when Doctor Who still had much DNA inherited from serialised shows and when done well this kind of story construction, where the purpose of each episode is largely to resolve the cliff-hanger from the previous episode and then proceed to the next cliff-hanger rattles along at a fair old pace.
I think we're both a bit of a sucker for stories where most of the supporting cast are portrayed as scientists as well. I even like the fact that Clent, who in many Doctor Who stories would be a fairly clear-cut antagonist, is shown instead to be a man who has a different approach and set of concerns to the Doctor, but who is basically one of the good guys.
The other striking thing about The Ice Warriors is the costume design. 1960s Who, and I think 1960s genre television in general (possibly just the 1960s in general full stop) is sometimes much more in your face about bold design choices.
In the 1960s at least one person thought this was what scientists in the future would wear. I'm a little bit sad we don't.
Picture hot-linked from randomwhoness.com which apparently is doing a randomizer as well as us and, it would seem in a rather more coherent and organised fashion.
Obviously the story has its weaknesses. Some of the ice warrior costumes are pretty rickety. There is a lot of toing and froing. It's hard to talk about its anti-computer theme - to me it seemed over-simplistic and the kind of thing someone who doesn't really understand computers but thinks they sound dangerous and new-fangled might write, but I'm too close to the industry and the issues to really see the question from a 1960s viewpoint.
We enjoyed it a lot. However it is probably at its best viewed, as we did, episodically over several days.
In fact, just as we found The Moonbase enjoyable despite its somewhat mixed reputation, we also found The Ice Warriors enjoyable. Clearly we are "base under siege" fans. There is, undeniably, a lot of toing and froing in both stories which are constructed around the basic framework of "external menaces tries (and possibly succeeds) at breaking in and is then repulsed (repeat)". At least in The Ice Warriors the inhabitants of the base occasionally traipse up the mountain to meet the eponymous Ice Warriors. This is from the days when Doctor Who still had much DNA inherited from serialised shows and when done well this kind of story construction, where the purpose of each episode is largely to resolve the cliff-hanger from the previous episode and then proceed to the next cliff-hanger rattles along at a fair old pace.
I think we're both a bit of a sucker for stories where most of the supporting cast are portrayed as scientists as well. I even like the fact that Clent, who in many Doctor Who stories would be a fairly clear-cut antagonist, is shown instead to be a man who has a different approach and set of concerns to the Doctor, but who is basically one of the good guys.
The other striking thing about The Ice Warriors is the costume design. 1960s Who, and I think 1960s genre television in general (possibly just the 1960s in general full stop) is sometimes much more in your face about bold design choices.
In the 1960s at least one person thought this was what scientists in the future would wear. I'm a little bit sad we don't.
Picture hot-linked from randomwhoness.com which apparently is doing a randomizer as well as us and, it would seem in a rather more coherent and organised fashion.
Obviously the story has its weaknesses. Some of the ice warrior costumes are pretty rickety. There is a lot of toing and froing. It's hard to talk about its anti-computer theme - to me it seemed over-simplistic and the kind of thing someone who doesn't really understand computers but thinks they sound dangerous and new-fangled might write, but I'm too close to the industry and the issues to really see the question from a 1960s viewpoint.
We enjoyed it a lot. However it is probably at its best viewed, as we did, episodically over several days.