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The Ice Warriors appeared in the BBC's longest-running sci-fi series, Doctor Who (1963-1989). They weren't as famous as the Daleks or the Cybermen, but they were a popular addition to Doctor Who mythology, despite appearing in just four stories.

Inhabitants of the planet Mars, the Ice Warriors lived in the icy caverns deep beneath the surface of the planet. They could survive only in freezing cold temperatures and were best suited to an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide. They were immensely tall, powerful creatures with scaly green reptilian flesh, clamp-like hands and a ridged green exoskeleton shell.

The Ice Warrior society was based on a warrior caste system, ruled by Lords¹ (sleeker versions of the normal warrior with no exoskeleton, domed helmets and flowing capes) and Grand Marshals (the same as the Ice Lords but with glittering helmets). Although technically Martians, they were nicknamed 'Ice Warriors' by humans because of their vulnerability to extreme heat: increasing the temperature causes them to collapse or completely evaporate into nothing over a short period of time. Over the centuries, Mars' orbit brought it closer and closer to the sun, and the ice caverns where the Ice Warriors lived began to melt. Realising the need for a new home, dozens of Ice Warriors in their spacecrafts were sent out to search for a suitable new home. The Ice Warriors are masters of sonic technology and use sonic waves to destroy the brains of their enemies, fired from slender tube-shaped guns clipped on their wrists. They also constructed sonic rifles which increased the range and power of their sonic guns.

Story Guide

Below is a description of the Doctor Who stories that featured the Ice Warriors.

'The Ice Warriors' (1967)

One of their spacecrafts, commanded by an Ice Warrior named Varga, crash-landed on Earth during its third Ice Age in the year 3000. The spacecraft and the Ice Warriors became buried in the ice, only to be dug out and revived by a group of human scientists in a nearby base. Free of the ice, Varga and his warriors attempted to seize control of a weather-controlling computer device called the Ionizer. However, the Ionizer was instead used against them and the Ice Warriors perished in the rising heat.

In this first appearance of the Martian giants, the main Ice Warrior was played by lumbering comic actor Bernard Bresslaw, familiar to fans of the Carry On... series of films. The tortoise-like nature of the Warriors was highlighted by having their heads sink down below the neckline when they were not talking.

'The Seeds of Death' (1969)

In the 21st Century, a group of Ice Warriors, led by a Martian Lord named Slaar, took over a transmat (or T-Mat) station on the moon. Their plan was to use the T-Mat system to dispatch deadly seed pods down to Earth that would remove the planet's oxygen, killing humanity and making the Earth more suitable for the Ice Warriors. However, the Doctor (who had also defeated Varga) discovered that water could destroy the seed pods so he used a weather control station to cause a huge shower of rain and wipe out the seeds. Then he journeyed to the T-Mat station and destroyed Slaar by causing his sonic gun to self-destruct. A vast fleet of Martian ships was then sent hurtling into the sun by the Doctor, where they perished.

'The Curse of Peladon' (1972)

Over the centuries, the Ice Warriors turned to peace and in recompense for their war-like ways, they joined an alliance of different planets known as the Galactic Federation. When a comparatively primitive, feudal planet called Peladon asked to join the Federation, Lord Izlyr and his warrior lieutenant Ssorg were sent as delegates to Peladon (along with representatives from Earth, Arcturus and Alpha Centauri) to see if it was suitable to join the Galactic Federation. Soon a mysterious death and other such events caused unrest among the delegates, but the Doctor (now in his third incarnation), posing as the chairman delegate from Earth and aided by Izlyr, found that the traitorous High Priest Hepesh was using Peladon's sacred beast Aggedor to sabotage the delegate's conference. He was allied with the treacherous delegate Arcturus, who planned to prevent the planet from joining the Federation in order to steal Peladon's vast supply of minerals. Arcturus was destroyed from a blast by Ssorg's sonic rifle and Hepesh was killed by Aggedor after the Doctor had tamed it. Peladon joined the Galactic Federation, and became a planet of great strategic importance due to its near limitless supply of minerals - in particular the mineral trisilicate (previously thought to exist only on Mars) - when the Federation went to war with a rival power bloc called Galaxy Five. During this time the Ice Warriors' strategic and tactical knowledge was essential to the Federation's success.

'The Monster of Peladon' (1974)

Some fifty years later, a rebellious group of Ice Warriors, who much preferred their war-like nature, decided to secretly invade Peladon and steal its supply of trisilicate to benefit Galaxy Five and eliminate the Galactic Federation. Led by a Commander Azaxyr and his warrior deputy Sskel, the Ice Warriors invaded Peladon through its network of mines and attacked the royal citadel. However, the Third Doctor used a directional heat ray and a hologram of Aggedor to kill and terrorise the Ice Warriors. In this invasion they were aided by a traitorous human engineer called Eckersley, but he was killed by the real Aggedor after the death of Commander Azaxyr. Sadly, Aggedor also died while killing Eckersley. The Ice Warriors never encountered the Doctor again.

Writing Credits

Created by Doctor Who writer Brian Hayles in 1967, the Ice Warriors were a reworking of the more traditional idea of 'little green invaders from Mars' from books such as HG Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898). Hayles originally imagined them as purely robotic creatures similar to the Cybermen, but Doctor Who's costume designer thought they would be better as reptilian creatures, bearing in mind that they came from Mars where reptiles were most likely to survive. This concept was merged with that of a Viking, with tufts of fur visible around the joints of the costume (one of the original Ice Warrior helmets even sported a huge moustache!). Brian Hayles wrote all four of their stories. Sadly, Hayles died in 1978.

In 1986, during preproduction on the planned 23rd season of the series, writer Philip Martin wrote a story called 'Mission to Magnus' in which the Ice Warriors (in conjunction with Martin's own villainous creation, the alien con-artist Sil) would have seized control of a planet called Magnus. When the series was put on hiatus for 18 months, this story was dropped along with a number of others and replaced with an entirely different story. Martin later novelised his story for Target Books.

TV Episode Checklist

• 'The Ice Warriors' (1967). 6 episodes, written by Brian Hayles. Commander Varga played by Bernard Bresslaw, Zondal played by Roger Jones, Rintan played by Tony Harwood, Isbur played by Michael Attwell, Turoc played by Sonny Caldinez.

• 'The Seeds of Death' (1969). 6 episodes, written by Brian Hayles and Terrance Dicks. Lord Slaar played by: Alan Bennion, Ice Warriors played by Sonny Caldinez, Tony Harwood and Steve Peters.

• 'The Curse of Peladon' (1972). 4 episodes, written by Brian Hayles. Lord Izlyr played by Alan Bennion, Ssorg played by Sonny Caldinez.

• 'The Monster of Peladon' (1974). 6 episodes, written by Brian Hayles. Lord Azaxyr played by Alan Bennion, Sskel played by Sonny Caldinez.

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¹ Though known by fans as Ice Lords, they were never referred to as such in the programme itself.