The TARDIS Project

The Ice Warriors episode 1 discussion:

R:

H: I’m not sure exactly what you are referring to.

Sp: The bad soundtrack?

R: No. What I said was “The BBC needs to work on the intelligibility of the artificial voices.

P:

Cz: I make computer voices more intelligible than the BBC.

Sp: Well, I was talking about the soundtrack. Seriously, ever third line was either crosstalk or just lost. Some of it was weather effect. Some of it was tape. Most of it was “Let’s get ready to MUMBLE!”

H: I should note that we are watching these episodes on the original BBC video tape release, as the DVD is not out yet as we’re seeing this.

Cz: I like living in the 21st Century.

H: The tape did come out in 1999.

Cz: It’s probably the last video tape ever made.

H: Not quite. Anyway.

R: It may just have been they were having talking over those immense collars.

Cz: I liked the outfits! I’m with Jamie on this! That short skirt was CUUUTE! Or something.

A: I agree. They were very pop-art. I would have loved to have seen them in color.

Cz: Oh, so it’s nice to know what snow looks like again. How did they get snow for this episode and not the last one?

H: I’ve got a secret for you…

Cz: Was none of that real snow?

H: Yes. They filmed in a studio and none of that was real snow.

Cz: They should have done that for the last one. Or made the location soapy.

R: You canna just poor soap flakes all over the Welsh Himalayas.

H: That wasn’t a Welsh accent.

R: Well, I can’t do a Welsh accent very well can I?

H: That was better than your Scottish accent.

M: That was an accent somewhere between Wales and Ireland.

H: We should talk about the episode.

E: It felt very short for some reason.

R: Because things happened? There, I said it. It felt like they were building up to things that were going to happen in this episode. And then they did!

Sp: Well now, it started off quick enough and then… just kind of moved at a glacial pace.

Sp: I had to get it in before Photobug.

P: I was going to get to it, but the discussion drifted too much.

R: And here comes the avalanche of puns.

M: It seems to be meeting with an icey reception.

R: This whole thing has just gone into a crevasse.

P: I have much more… and no, I will not share.

R: So, when Ringo was digging the iceman out was anyone else having flashbacks to the Thing from Outerspace.

K: No, but I was having flashbacks to Encino Man.

R: Anytime anyone looks at a wall of ice and says “I think there’s a man in there” you’re about to do something dumb.

E: You could tell that they were not genre savvy.

K: No one in science fiction shows are genre savvy, except possibly the main character.

Sp: No, no, you fools! Don’t thaw out lego caveman!

R: Duplo caveman!

Sp: Me am Duplo!

R: Okay, continuing on the silly thread for a little longer here, did anyone else notice that the science outpost had a wolf doorbell? I know what they were trying to do, but the effect was – they’ve got a wolf doorbell. “Ahwooo!” “I’ll get it.”

Sp: Do you think after working on Ice Station Zero for six months the workers mutter to themselves “Werewolves of London”?

H: Werewolves of York, apparently. It was in the beginning in the list of stations, all of them were holding except for theirs.

R: I couldn’t tell because the commander was yelling at the woman who was yelling back while the computer was mumbling horrible nothings at the same time.

H: I thought was kind of dramatic. But I also could understand what they were saying, but I’ve seen this once before.

R: I thought the computer was important and I was trying to extract that, so I was like “Would you two shut up!”

H: I actually knew about the voice of the computer, so I knew to tune it out.

E: Speaking of the computer, I’m not sure I trust it right now. When they said at one point later in the episode that almost everything was computerized it set off a big red flag for me.

M: I didn’t see the episode, but it’s a Doctor Who episode with a computer in it, so I already don’t trust the computer.

E: Always that artificial intelligence man.

K: I don’t trust the big armored iceman, myself. And no, I haven’t seen this before, but I have seen those “aliens” before.

Sp: I don’t trust Jamie in that vibrating chair.

R: I gotta say as soon as she said “the vibro chair” my eyebrows went right up.

P: Skip the massage chair.

R: Ah, the technology of the future. Vibrochairs. Giant collars. Overhead eyeglasses.

K: I loved those.

Sp: Those were cool.

R: Those were not only cool but profoundly ridiculous.

E: Which is why I want a pair.

K: You could probably make yourself one.

R: To finish my silliness rant, “Oh my god! Jeremy Clarkson was right about climate change!”

H: Well, to be fair, the prevailing theory in the late 60’s / early 70’s was that there would be another ice age.

R: And to be unfair, I’m pretty sure that by the 1700’s they knew that plants produced oxygen. The BBC couldn’t afford and encyclopedia.

H: I’m sticking that into the “solar system – galaxy” class of yeah… they did what they… yeah.

R: That’s the last of my “mean spirited, haha your science sucks” comments. The rest of what I have to say is positive.

Sp: I want to go back to something. For all that the mumbling was hard to follow, once I let go of following individual voices at the beginning, the crosstalk was really cool.

K: I loved the technobabble between the Doctor, the technicians, and the Leader.

Sp: And I liked the babble between the technicians, the computer, and the Leader. I thought it set a good mood right from the start. Also, because of the moving pictures, yet again we get to see what we miss out on for the physical acting from Pat in the recons, because he was really entertaining… getting out of the TARDIS, and keeping the station from exploding.

H: He’s just fun to watch.

Sp: He is.

E: Yes, yes he is.

R: Yeah, I have to say the humor in this was just outstanding.

H: And it was nicely sprinkled. It wasn’t too much in any one place. It didn’t overwhelm anything.

Sp: Yeah. The best example to me was “minor character who is surely going to get mauled by an ice monster in two episodes” quipping “oh, I’m sorry, your transmission is breaking up” as he goes and does the stupid thing. It was awesome and funny and he’s going to die.

K: We’ve already had one death already. The avalanche death guy.

P: Davies is the one who fell. The scavenger guy had a partial, he broke his arm.

H: Speaking of the scavengers, did everyone notice who played Penley, the scavenger who used to be a scientist?

K: Yes.

Rest of room: No.

H: It’s the person who because the voice of everyone’s favorite cheese claymation guy, Peter Sallis. The guy who voices Wallace of Wallace and Grommit. Very young Peter Sallis.

E: Aw!

Sp: So, why was Jamie mackin’ on Victoria?

H: Because.

Sp: ?

A: She’s a bonny lass.

Sp: I didn’t think the companions companionated like that.

K: It’s Jamie.

Sp: Yeah. But it’s Victoria.

H: Are you saying that you didn’t notice Jamie’s little crush on Victoria.

Sp:

P: Yes.

H: Let’s get back to the Ice Warriors, please. So, does anyone else have any points, or are we moving to final thoughts? A lot happened in this episode.

P: Yeah, nice landing Doctor. Blind landing my foot.

Sp: Well he wasn’t used to seeing actual snow.

P: Usually I use the grass to see the landing spot. Not possible with snow.

Cz: I know what plants do now! They breathe oxygen at night! But no enough that it even matters. But they do breathe out Carbon Dioxide at night. Because it’s dark. So maybe the planet was really dark for a really long time.

H: Someone call Al Gore!

R: If it was really dark the whole time there wouldn’t be anything. There would be mounds of slightly carbonaceous ice.

H: And everyone would have been eaten by a Grue.

R: That’s one fat Grue. You gotta wonder, when a Grue goes into a dark hallway, what kind of message does it get.

M: I think the message it gets is “Chomp. Yum.”

R: Or “It is dark. You might get something to eat.”

K: So back to the Ice Warriors…

P: Okay, African rehabilitation center was somehow scary.

H: It was scary to Victoria. Remember she comes from the period where “Explorers were exploring the dangerous dark continent” so when she thinks Africa she thinks…

Sp: She thinks cannibals. Just say it.

P: The causes of the global cooling are quite interesting. I seem to recall – the reversal of the magnetic field, cosmic clouds blocking the sun…

Cz: What’s a cosmic cloud?

Sp: It is so awesome! Oh my god! It’s like seven of your best buds in a really small car… and some friends.

M: This is beginning to sound like a Tom Green movie. Please stop.

P: So eventually we settle on the fact that plants went away and the carbon dioxide built up. Can someone explain that to me, it didn’t make sense to me.

H: It makes no sense.

P: Okay.

R: And then ions with what and the who now and which banana? We’ll just have to assume that this episode was written before the BBC started requiring educational content in TV shows.

H: Perhaps it was simply an error.

R: That wasn’t simply an error. That was magnificently an error.

H: You promised you were going to stop ranting.

R: Yeah but… carbon dioxide.

H: Okay. We are going to final thoughts now.

E: A+. I did feel like the episode went by too fast, but at the same time I thought it was very enjoyable. I liked the wit that was thrown in there. And I particularly enjoyed the beginning when our trio is struggling to get out of the TARDIS. I thought that actually something was wrong at first, and then “no, you’re on my hand!”

A: It was fun seeing the Doctor doing a job interview.

A: And it was cool that they are trusting him. They’re actually listening to him for a change.

K: Because he passed the job interview, come on!

R: Yeah, but he hasn’t had a background check or drug test yet.

K: And they haven’t checked on his references yet. “Check with people on the Moon Base. And the South Pole…”

H: Yeah, they’re willing to trust him because, if you’ll notice, the Leader is desperate for someone who understands the science after losing Penley, for some reason. I’m just bringing that up because it’s a plot point that got kind of buried.

Sp: Well, I mean really, he was a scavengers. And then they were ready to throw him out. And then he proved he could do the work. And then he could do the work for cheap. So they basically picked him up from outside of a Home Depot.

K: And yet Penley became a scavenger himself.

Sp: Well, in this economy… eroding middle class Time Lords took our jerbs!

P: The helmet obviously means something to the Doctor, but not to me.

H: I can probably help with that. That’s a history thing. The helmet looks very similar to some Saxon and Viking helmets, but the dude inside the ice must have been frozen millenia ago.

P: Based on?

H: The position of the glacier. They actually said in the episode that he must have been caught in the first ice age. The Doctor also notices that there appears to be some kind of electronic circuit in the dude’s armor, which leaves him kind of baffled.

P: I really enjoyed the whole “see how the lasses are dressed” lines. What Jamie said to Victoria.

Sp: While on the vibrating couch. In a position where she could see up his kilt.

K:

H: I think you’re reading a little into that.

P: It’s sort of under the covers is what you’re saying.

Sp: It’s a short read.

R: Short covers.

P: Also, I found the claw just more silly than scary by far.

K: Also, this isn’t the first time we’ve had a monster thing wake up. Yeti. Cybermen. They should learn to put bodies in cages or something.

H: There’s no reason why they should think this was alive.

K: Is this the third story in a row that involves frozen stuff?

H: Yes. There’s actually a running gag. Jamie says at the beginning almost exactly the same thing he says at the beginning of the Abominable Snowman. He accuses the Doctor of simply landing them further up the mountain. Which is exactly what he says after the Tomb of the Cyberman at the beginning of the Abominable Snowman.

Sp: “Well, take heart Jamie. Sooner or later we’re going to run out of mountain.”

R: Next week on Doctor Who, the Ice Cloud.

P: Followed later by comet!

Cz: It went by so fast… it was the best episode ever!

P: Was it, in fact, shorter?

H: I don’t know off hand.

R: Not significantly.

Sp: I’ve said a lot, so I don’t have any final thoughts.

M: Um… I hope to see this story some day. Hopefully I will see some of the episodes of it this time. Because with the recurring episodes of the Ice Warriors I would love to see it. And watching it might be more fun than having my biceps turned to hamburger by a 17 year old blackbelt.

R: I really got a kick out of this episode. I thought it moved along briskly. They got a really impressive amount of story into the amount of time that they had. They introduced a whole bunch of characters. They developed a complex political situation, setup for a classic horror movie, and managed to squeeze in a tremendous amount of humor along the way. And all without having to stare at a lot of Welsh hillsides for half an hour.

K: Sorry Historian. We just didn’t really like the pace of the Abominable Snowmen.

H: You are all weirdos.

R: So yeah, I’m really looking forward to seeing next week. “Tune in next week when the Commander decides which of his legs is actually injured.” He’s just kind of like “my ass is broke!”

K: I liked the way they established interesting characters in this one. Despite the leg injury switching, that the Leader had an injury was interesting. I liked the uncertain lady scientist technician who’s nervous at first, but improves. I liked the way she brown nosed the leader. The scavengers were interesting… they didn’t feel throw away to me. Honestly the only character who did feel throw away to me feel down a cliff 2 minutes later anyway.

H: “Davies, no!”

P: Sidestepping the avalanche by two inches was not a great plan.

R: They didn’t really have much room to move.

H: It was a small studio.

P: Also I liked the guy saying “can you walk” and he’s on his back with a broken arm and he’s like “yeah, I can walk.”

K: Independent of the set, effects, costumes, etc. I thought the writing, acting, and characterizations were really fun. I enjoyed this one and I look forward to more.

H: So, speaking of writing, this is the first script from Brian Hayles since the Celestial Toymaker. And you guys seem to like this one a heck of a lot better so far.

R: Yeah, they weaned him off the acid for this one.

H: Well, there’s a lot less experimentation…

R: Like I said.

H: … and a lot more standard “base under siege” plot. And I think this is honestly one of the best Troughton “base under siege” stories. Ketina’s absolutely right. Just a tremendous amount of character and characterization and incident is introduced in this episode. It’s still all setup. So we’ll have to see how you guys feel as the story develops. I’ll be interested in finding out what you guys will think is going on at various points. It’s a fun story. It’s well made. And I love Leader Clent. He’s a great character.