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The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Natives of Mars, the Ice Warriors wear bio-mechanical armour to protect themselves from attack and temperature fluctuations. In their debut, the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors, they fought the Second Doctor. Two years later, they reappeared in The Seeds of Death. In 1972's The Curse of Peladon, they were allied with the Doctor, reverting to antagonists in The Monster of Peladon two years later. The Ice Warriors would not appear again on-screen until the show's 2005 revival series in the episode "Cold War" (2013), followed by the 2017 episode "Empress of Mars". They have also appeared in spin-off media for the series.
The Ice Warriors were created by writer Brian Hayles, out of his interest in life on Mars at the time, when the production team was looking for new recurring antagonists. Originally, the Ice Warriors had been conceived as being akin to cyborg Vikings. Designer Martin Baugh, inspired by their name and influenced by Crocodile, designed them to appear reptilian in nature; this prevented the species from being visually similar to another fictional species who were cyborgs: the Cyberman. The costumes used for the Ice Warriors often proved heavy and cumbersome for actors to wear during filming. For their appearances in the show's 2005 revival, showrunner Steven Moffat originally did not want the Ice Warriors to feature, only allowing them to come back after writer Mark Gatiss was able to pitch the idea of an Ice Warrior outside of its shell. The Ice Warriors received a design overhaul for the revival but were kept largely the same visually, with "Cold War" also showcasing the creature beneath the armour.
The Ice Warriors have been received positively, seen as one of the series's most well-known antagonists despite the large gaps in between their appearances. Their design and role in the two Peladon serials, as well as in "Cold War", have been the subject of commentary and analysis.
The Ice Warriors are a reptilian warrior race from Mars who wear Biomechanics armour which protects them from attack and hostile temperature conditions with mounted into the wrists. They follow an honour code and are ruled either by an "Ice Lord" or an "Ice Queen".
In 1972's The Curse of Peladon, the Ice Warriors have renounced violence and become members of the "Galactic Federation", an alliance of various races. A group of them are part of a delegation sent to negotiate the planet Peladon's entry into the Federation. The Third Doctor initially suspects that the Ice Warriors are behind an attempt to sabotage the proceedings but accepts that they have changed after the Ice Warriors save his life. With their help, the Doctor foils a plot to prevent Peladon's admission. A sequel, The Monster of Peladon, aired in 1974 and is set 50 years after the events of The Curse of Peladon. Here, the Ice Warriors are depicted serving as Federation peacekeeping troops. Their leader, the Ice Lord Azaxyr, is secretly working with an enemy of the Federation and seeks to return to the species' warlike past. Azaxyr tries to impose martial law and take over Peladon but is stopped by the Peladonians and the Third Doctor.
The Ice Warriors reappear in the 2017 episode "Empress of Mars". In it, Victorian-era soldiers find a crashed Ice Warrior ship and wake its sole inhabitant, "Friday", from suspended animation. Friday brings the soldiers to Mars, where he discovers Mars has become unable to support life since he went into suspended animation. Friday tricks the soldiers into re-awakening the dormant Ice Queen, Iraxxa, and a hive of Ice Warriors. After initial combat, the soldiers' colonel, Godsacre, negotiates a peace. The Twelfth Doctor calls the Galactic Federation to pick up the remaining Ice Warriors from Mars so that they will join the Federation in the future.
Many of these spin-off appearances have been described by author Ivan Phillips as an example of a creature in the series that takes mysteries presented on-screen that were subsequently expanded upon in spin-off material. Stories such as these expanded on various concepts not elaborated upon in their on-screen stories, such as the nature of the Ice Warriors as cyborgs and the origin of the species and its ruling class.
An Ice Warrior named Ssard acts as a companion of the Eighth Doctor in spin-off media. First appearing in Radio Times comic strips, Ssard joins the Doctor after helping him deal with a treacherous Ice Warrior leader. Ssard becomes close with the Doctor's companion Stacy Townsend, and in the 1998 novel Placebo Effect, they leave the Doctor to get married.
Costume designer Martin Baugh was inspired by the name "Ice Warrior", as it made him think of a hard, armoured creature. He saw the creatures as like and thus made them appear physically reptilian in nature; according to some accounts, Hayles had conceived them as cyborg Vikings, and Baugh's change was done to avoid confusion with the Cybermen, also cyborgs. Taking inspiration from descriptions of the Ice Warriors' Viking-like helmets, Baugh envisioned their armour as central to their appearance, akin to a Bipedalism turtle. He suggested the Ice Warrior costumes be cast in Fiberglass.
The final costume used a two-piece fibreglass shell, heavy latex rubber for the arms and legs—with the former ending in clamp-like hands—and Matted hair fur between the joints and at the hips. Red Perspex was used to act as the eyeholes of the helmets, with the actors' eyelids behind the mask painted a dark green. Plans to have the eyes glow were dropped due to concerns that it would overheat the actors. The final costumes were tall. Due to their bulk, they were very hot, and actors would sweat out around a pint () in less than an hour. During filming, director Derek Martinus requested changes, specifically less bulky helmets, since the costumes did not allow for much head movement. He also wanted the Ice Warriors' Sonic weapon to be built into the costume. The helmets of all five Ice Warrior costumes produced for the serial were made smaller, though some were changed more than others.
Bernard Bresslaw portrayed the Ice Warrior Varga in their debut. He used a whisper-like voice to depict the Ice Warriors' reptilian nature, an idea attributed to him that would be used in subsequent serials. Author Graham Sleight describes this voice as suggesting the Ice Warriors are uncomfortable within Earth's atmosphere, adding character to the species. Military drumbeats were used as a musical cue for when the Ice Warriors appeared, a motif reused in later serials.
The inclusion of Slaar, an Ice Lord with a different design, was a suggestion by script editor Terrance Dicks to make the species more interesting. Slaar's costume was primarily neoprene rubber, with the hands, helmet, and chest plate made of fibreglass. Alan Bennion, Slaar's actor, had rubber pebbles stuck to his face to resemble reptilian skin, with black enamel being used to make his teeth pointed. Though some of Bennion's dialogue was recorded in studio via a Radio Microphone attached to his helmet, other parts of his dialogue were pre-recorded. Bennion could not hear or see through the helmet; an off-camera floor manager would tap him on the legs as a dialogue cue.
The Varga costume from The Ice Warriors was reused for the Ice Warrior Ssorg, portrayed by actor Sonny Caldinez. The costume for the Ice Lord Izlyr was new but heavily based on the original appearance of the Ice Lord in The Seeds of Death, with Bennion returning to portray Izlyr. The new Ice Lord costume was a one-piece jumpsuit, and a cape hid its clasp. Unlike his prior appearance, Bennion could speak his dialogue in-studio, though Caldinez's had to be pre-recorded due to difficulties with a rubber mouthpiece used for his costume.
For the 1974 season, Hayles was brought on to write a sequel to the first Peladon story, which became The Monster of Peladon. Hayles again planned to deceive the audience via the Ice Warriors; instead of being the Doctor's allies like in Curse, they would be enemies again. Bennion and Caldinez both returned to portray an Ice Lord and Ice Warrior, respectively, though this time they portrayed the characters Azaxyr and Sskel. Bennion acted his dialogue in studio, while Caldinez pre-recorded his dialogue. The Ice Lord costume was reused from the prior serial, with minor additions such as a belt being added. Caldinez utilised the Varga costume once again, with additional Ice Warriors in the serial wearing costumes held in stock. The other actors felt restricted in the costumes and had difficulty breathing; the helmets also tended to mist up. Unlike prior appearances, their weapons were not part of the costume and were instead held separately.
The Ice Warriors would not appear in the Classic series again after this. The Ice Warriors were planned to return in Mission to Magnus, a scrapped story for the 1986 season, and another Ice Warrior story was planned for the proposed 1990 season, though this was scrapped due to the show's 1989 cancellation. Their next on-screen appearance would be in the series's 2005 revival.
The Ice Warriors would receive a physical redesign, with Gatiss insisting during production that the species should retain the fundamentals of their design from the Classic era serials. Millennium FX's Neill Gorton, in charge of the redesign, gave the Ice Warriors a Bodybuilding physique, styled the armour to resemble plating, removed the fur present in the original design, and altered the hands so that they did not resemble a Lego minifigure. The costume was made of flexible Cast urethanes rubber instead of fibreglass like the original, since urethane is more durable and more comfortable to wear. The costume was made to fit Spencer Wilding, who physically portrayed the Ice Warrior Skaldak. Nicholas Briggs voiced Skaldak, with Wilding miming the words on-set.
The story was the first time the appearance of an Ice Warrior without armour had been depicted. Gatiss's script described the creature, without its armour, as "wet and leathery" and moving like a gecko, with dark black eyes and sharp teeth. An Animatronics prop for Skaldak's true form was constructed, though it was not seen entirely on-screen. Computer-generated imagery was used to depict Skaldak's face in a scene where he confronts the Doctor, with motion capture done to lip sync Skaldak's face with Briggs's voice.
One of the Ice Warrior costumes was a repaired version of the costume used for Skaldak in "Cold War", with two other costumes created for the episode. The construction of the helmets, as well as a cooling fan inside, required that earpieces be placed inside the helmets so the actors could hear. Iraxxa's costume was constructed out of fibreglass, foam, and plastic, with silicone used to represent her hair. She was portrayed by actress Adele Lynch.
Several critics have highlighted the Ice Warriors' role in The Curse of Peladon as greatly expanding on their character and being one of the most standout parts of the story. Burk and Smith? credited the serial with giving the Ice Warriors greater depth and shifting how alien species were perceived on the show as a whole, with the pair stating that the story allowed for alien species in the show to have "more nuanced motivations" that did not require them to act as antagonists. Frank Collins, while discussing "Cold War" for Slate another writer, noted that unlike other monsters, the Ice Warriors evolved as characters and did not just act as "the monster of the week".
The return of the Ice Warriors in 2013's "Cold War" was commented on by reviewers. Several critics praised Skaldak's role in the story, with Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club considering the serial to be the revamp the Ice Warriors needed for the modern age. Critics were more mixed on the usage of the Ice Warrior outside of its armour; some were positive to the usage of this gimmick within the story, while others, such as author Ivan Phillips, complained that the reveal of the Ice Warriors' face beneath the armour took away some of the ambiguity of the Ice Warrior design which had made them so successful before.
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