On Thin Ice: The Future of the Ice Warriors

Guest contributor Chris Morley speculates on the next story to feature the icy Martians.

With writer Mark Gatiss keen for another return of the Ice Warriors there’s no question that the timing would be spot on for Series 9, in what would be a first encounter with the Twelfth Doctor. From their debut appearance in The Ice Warriors alongside the Doctor’s second incarnation to the more recent Cold War alongside the Eleventh, the freezing Martians have always possessed a certain literal ability to chill us.

Though the Ice Warriors haven’t always been a force for bad, walking the line in a sense, going by their latter appearance on Peladon (The Curse/Monster Of Peladon) alongside the man Peter Capaldi clearly took notes from upon his casting as everyone’s favourite Time Lord! Sounds like the Doctor himself, no?

When we first see the Martians, their leader, Varga, has been thawed out by the scientists at Brittanicus Base, soon setting about waking his comrades from icy slumber after a nap of a good few centuries. And it’s the motivations/strategy adopted by the Doctor’s earlier Beatle-cut adopting, recorder-playing self which should prove inspirational to Mark Gatiss in writing for the newer of the Doctors in Cold War.

Where the Eleventh Doctor opted to appeal directly to Skaldak in search of mercy, somewhat surprisingly shown by the lumbering Warrior, his next incarnation would surely look to the past for a few pointers, with Clara taking the role once so ably played by Victoria Waterfield while the Doctor was trying out the ”scruffy Paul McCartney” look?

After all, he’d have been here before, and the resulting narrative would be a fitting tribute to The Ice Warriors in much the same way Cold War served as a means of celebrating the ‘base under siege’ narrative common to the Troughton years, a golden era as far as this writer is concerned. Although throwing a few elements of that, as also seen in the likes of The Macra Terror, Tomb Of The Cybermen. The list is almost endless upon inspection of the Second Doctor’s canon over the course of his three-year stretch as captain of the good ship TARDIS.

However, it would represent a chance for the Twelfth Doctor to show what, if anything, he’s learnt from Kill The Moon, too. Could he afford to leave the choice of what to do about rampaging Warriors to the human population of another such base, perhaps a precursor or successor to Britannicus (wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey and all that), or would he display similar craft and guile in convincing the icy hordes that he is in fact an ally not to be harmed on account of his genius before turning the tables and destroying them once more? A similarly dirty trick, from an Ice Warrior point of view anyhow, works again in The Seeds of Death, if you recall.

Which brings us to another plausible Twelve/Warriors stand-off. In Seeds they’re seen to be sabotaging T-Mat technology in an effort to turn Earth into a nice freezing new home for themselves. Is it possible that just to confuse the Doctor’s already fraught grip on morality – ‘Am I a good man?’ etc – he and Clara arrive in the midst of a situation which is the exact reverse of Seeds? After all, the human race, not least David Bowie, has been interested in Mars and the possibility of life dwelling upon it for a while now.

Let us suppose then that in future the Red Planet has been deemed suitable for our needs, and our far-off descendants have decided to begin the process of colonisation. One small problem – the Ice Warriors have already been living there for centuries, their society thriving. What happens next, and what is the Doctor’s role in proceedings? Does he side with his beloved humans, or ally himself with the Warriors against these warm-blooded invaders?

Time to pick up your pen, Mark!