181 The Ice Warriors: Two

EPISODE: The Ice Warriors: Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 181
STORY NUMBER: 039
TRANSMITTED: 18 November 1967
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Peter Bryant
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors
TELESNAPS: The Ice Warriors: Two

The Ice Warrior rises, clubs Jamie to the floor, and takes Victoria hostage. The Doctor bursts into Clent's meeting and explains his concerns about the Ice Warrior having come from another world: If his spaceship is still in the glacier and is nuclear powered it could cause an explosion when exposed to the Ioniser. Jamie then arrives and tells them the creature has taken Victoria. The Warrior tells Victoria that he is Vaaga and comes from Mars. His ship crashed here millennia ago, his warriors are still trapped in the glacier and he wants to revive them. The computer suggests Arden should investigate the spaceship: Jamie goes with him. Storr is weakening so Penley decides to return to the base for medication. Arden has difficulty getting a radiation reading on the glacier. Vaaga forces Victoria to find him powerpacks to defrost his warriors. Clent enters the room and is clubbed to the floor by Vaaga who leaves with Victoria. Penley finds Clent and is treating him when the Doctor arrives allowing Penley to leave with the drugs. Back at the glacier Vaaga uses his sonic gun to start digging the warriors out. Storr shows signs of recovery after treatment. Vaaga begins thawing his crew.

Vaaga sounds great in this and I know that Bernard Bresslaw, the actor playing him, would have towered over Deborah Watling producing a good visual image. The base crew make me want to slap them for their reliance on the computer, but really that's what this story is about, the reliance on technology.

When the surviving episodes of the Ice Warriors were released on video a short reconstruction of episodes 2 & 3 was included along with a CD of the Soundtrack for these episodes. Hopefully when the DVD comes out a full reconstruction in the manner of Tenth Planet 4's vhs release will be attempted.

The Ice Warriors 2 & 3 are the only 2 episodes of the race's 22 episodes existence in Doctor Who that is missing. By contrast only two of the Yeti's 12 episodes remain. 22 Episodes from Dalek stories (totalling 81 episodes) are missing 9 Episodes from the 41 the the Cybermen star in are also missing.