39) THE ICE WARRIORS

There seems to be an evident obviousness to the story where every serial just does not quite work as a six-parter and The Ice Warriors is no exception. Nothing really happens and the alien menaces do not do that much apart from stroll around with great difficultly – something many Doctor Who monsters suffer from – who come up with a last-minute plan to claim the Earth for themselves. The plot just doesn’t arrive, and Patrick Troughton is given very little to do which is a shame because he was a diverse actor  at the time. Hayles misses the mark writing a good Doctor Who story which is a shame because he was such a top writer throughout his life. The story is very back and forth, repetitious and draining. There is a hilarious moment where Victoria seems to sing as she cries out for help – perhaps Deborah Watling was getting tired of screaming all the time. Who can blame her anyone would become tired of the same troupes week in and week out. There is evidently a lot of money spent on this one but for such an ambitious story you would expect so much more. The acting is not some of the best and nobody sounds that interested and the whole thing is a let-down. The Outer Limits did a similar story where a creature found buried in the Earth is brought to a base for study and research and worked so much better despite the funny, looking, laugh-out-loud monster that was used. This one is a definite skip where anything good quickly melts away into a horrible mess of the floor. **​