After American PBS getting the surviving Sixties stories, with only 5 complete Troughton, in 1986,…this was the earliest Troughton I saw next. I was at University in my native Ohio, and had a friend, through a class, who was also a fan of Who. She found “the fan network”, local -and, “this guy” had a bootleg vhs of the four episodes recovered in 1988. It was 1990. We had to go to his dorm to view, couldn’t get a copy of the video. There was a time code that ran under the image, yet it was like 2nd generation copy. Amazing to see a 5th Season story. Victoria! Martians! I’d read the Target novel. Would not see again until the official video, in like 2000. Yet, with recovery of “Tomb of Cyb”, and the “”Years” videos, getting to see more Troughton in the 1990’s made him a favorite Doctor.
I just finished watching Underwater Menace my only gripe with it is the evil scientist death I was waiting for that moment you see in the cut footage of him drowning but it never came... Sigh.
@@Mark-nh2hsmine arrived today. You’re telling me that they don’t show the waters rising over Zaroff? Why not? That’s one of my strongest memories of watching Who as a boy. Very maddening when they change things for modern soft sensibilities
My view on this one varies a lot. I usually find it a bit of slog - some good character beats, the Ice Warriors look great, but the plotting is laboured. And the shouting! Forgot about that until you mentioned it. - AFA
After watching this one and the Seeds of Whichever One It Is, I've found I run them together and I forget there was a second one... or rather I forget there was a first story. The writers forgot there was a story to the first story; "The Ice Warriors are warriors found in ice." "And?" "And it last for six episodes."
Since this is my first time watching these stories there’s a good chance I’ll love this in the future, but I couldn’t help but feel like it was 6 episodes of “BUT THE COMPUTER SAYS!”
Miss Garett is almost repeated as Miss Kelly in the Ice warrior story (all but the 3rd of the Classic Era IW stories are 6 parters).The late,great Peter Barkworth is great at parts like Clint🎩
The man v machine theme would have made this a good Cyberman story too. I think the title has a nice double meaning, perhaps referring to humanity battling the ice, and not just the martians.
3 stars is definitely fair for this one. It's pretty good but falls flat in a few places that it shouldn't. The animation also isn't half bad. I'll definitely have to give it another watch. As for the ice warriors, seeds of death and Curse of Peladon are definitely stronger appearances for them. But this story still does them well and they are an instant classic monster.
I remember reading the Target Novel of thus story and enjoyed it. When I finally watched it on VHS then dvd the one thing which confused me is that the leader Varga looks totally different from episode 1 to the rest of the story and that one Ice Warrior - we know which one looks so out of place with the others. Overall I still enjoy the story but the story just dip slightly in parts.
The plot structure of this story is fairly interesting in the sense that there's basically an entire sci-fi plot happening before the Ice Warriors even arrive, they're like a midpoint twist to a story we haven't seen the first half of. That being said, this serial is when the Troughton era's general anti-technology vibe really started to wear on me. The Doctor literally travels around in the most advanced spaceship/time machine ever invented, he *really* shouldn't be talking about how much he distrusts computers. Peter Sellers' character felt like Brian Hayles' self-insert character tbh. A roguish iconoclast shunned by his former boss who later becomes helpless without said iconoclast's expertise? Bit of a chip on his shoulder, I suspect! The Ice Warriors, as you said, are basically nothing in this story, and they'd get much better with subsequent appearances. Overall, this serial doesn't do nearly enough to justify its 6 episodes and feels like a lifeless polemic against technology for most of its runtime. Would be an easy lock for the worst story of Season 5 if not for The Wheel in Space. Thankfully we've got an all-time classic coming up next, though.
I am not fond of this story either and is down there with The Abominable Snowmen. Not helped by constantly thinking of Penney and Stor as Clegg/Wallace and Shughie McFee. Love the glacier sets but wish we had seen more of the impact of the glaciers and the Ioniser at work.
One of those situations where the animated recons are so piss-poor it detracts from the good stuff. It’s all a bit tedious tho’ and I much prefer Seeds of Death although the basic concepts to this story are admittedly much more interesting
The atmosphere of the story is great. The set and costume is terrific. But the story is simply too long. I don’t think the narrative does enough to justify its 6 part length.
My view on this one varies a lot. I usually find it a bit of slog - some good character beats, the Ice Warriors look great, but the plotting is laboured. And the shouting! Forgot about that until you mentioned it. - AFA
