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

The remaining Ice Warriors awaken.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 24 February 2020]

Varga manages to reanimate his frozen comrades, and begins assessing the direction he and his abandoned army will taken. Jamie and Arden set off to resuce Victoria.

I am really enjoying it still, in spite of this and the previous episode being in the form of animation. I have to say they did a very good job with the animation here, being able to watch Part one it its original state does help.

There really is a lot happening throughout, the story is thoughtful and well crafted, not only is there the threat of the Alien menace, but there's also the pressing matter of climate change. Production values are very good indeed, the sets and costumes look very good.

Peter Sallis is very good here, his character has clearly clashed with Clent and had enough, but the ego of Barkworth's business like character is preventing any progress.

Very good. 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