The First 'New' Doctor Who.

[Andrew Curnow]

Count yourself lucky, Ant - we dawn-timers had all the 'lost classic' hype to endure throughout the 70s & 80s!

Actually, I think that Tomb stands up really well, and I was certainly in the 'not disappointed' camp when it miraculously turned up. The kirby wires are a bit unfortunate, and I'm just amazed that not one fan who watched it in 1967 remembered them over the years - how can you NOT have noticed them, people?

Evil I would say is the more over-rated of the two, and like pretty much everybody says it has an absurd plot, and a bit too much padding. On the plus side, having listened to it earlier this year, it is very well-done padding, and you don't necessarily pick up on the plot unless you think about it, so I can see why it left the fans of the time with such a good impression of it.

[Wayne]

The kirby wires are a bit unfortunate, and I'm just amazed that not one fan who watched it in 1967 remembered them over the years - how can you NOT have noticed them, people?

I've never noticed them! Which bit are we talking about?

[Stephen Morgan]

Tomb of the Cybermen

I'll be surprised if by the time i get to the end of this thread, that any other story topples this as my favourite Troughton story! 10/10!

Fury, Wayne, Fury

Speaking as a "Dawn Timer" Andrew This story must have made a real impression on me, my memories of this aren't as vague as some of the previous stories, I remember the Radio Times for that week, and a huge spread for the start of a new Dr. Who series, and the return of the Cybermen.
To find all those years later that this was a missing story was a major disappointment for me as I remembered it so well, what joy when it turned up and was released on video.
The story didn't disappoint me at all it was everything I recalled, the Cyberman firing at Jamie at the end of episode one, the Cybermen emerging from their tombs, the looming menace of the Cyberleader, their voices, the Doctor pointing out the clues to the logic tests, all were familiar, and iconic figures to me.
There's a lot to enjoy in Tomb, for me it's nostalgia, it's hard to believe it was so long ago, (same year as The Prisoner was first unleashed upon us) this story chills in more ways than one.

Oh!! and Andrew, the reason we don't remember the Kirby wires is that you wouldn't have seen those originally on old 405 B/W sets.

[Phillip Culley]

I've never noticed them! Which bit are we talking about?

Episode 3, where Toberman and the Cyber Controller are fighting in the tombs. There's a bit where the Controller picks up Toberman, and you can see the wires lift him up....

[Ralph]

Episode 3, where Toberman and the Cyber Controller are fighting in the tombs. There's a bit where the Controller picks up Toberman, and you can see the wires lift him up....

Well I just watched it and I didn't see that on a 100hz TV...I don't look for these things I have to say...it takes the joy out the viewing

[Wayne]

Well I just watched it and I didn't see that on a 100hz TV...I don't look for these things I have to say...it takes the joy out the viewing

Quite!
I didn't notice it, but now it's been pointed out, i'll probably end up seeing it next time round.

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh!! and Andrew, the reason we don't remember the Kirby wires is that you wouldn't have seen those originally on old 405 B/W sets

Really? I never realised that - in that case, it was rather clever of the director to know what he could get away with! You learn something new every day, thanks Steve!

[Paul Clement]

I never noticed them either. I seem to concentrate on what's happening, and not the effects in place. I never notice the shadows and everything of that ilk that people on the RT Forum man about incessantly either.

[Ralph]

I watched all 4 eps plus the docu on the DVD. I did feel a bit cynical about the way some of those who made this story describe it. Yeah it's OK but not that good. A mini hollywood movie - yeah right!

One of the best bits is the opening scene in the TARDIS. Pat Troughton's performance is what holds the whole thing together for me. I'd agree it's quite well paced at 4 eps and has some good moments such as the Cybs getting defrosted and the Contoller does seems menacing now and again.

The incidental music has an important part in helping to create the atmosphere. As 60s stories go for me, I think this is above average...I stayed awake throughout these

[Wayne]

I stayed awake throughout these

The highest of accolades from Ralph there!

[Ralph]

The highest of accolades from Ralph there!

Sorry I wasn't in the mood so say much more

It is a comfy sofa mind!

[Wayne]

Sorry I wasn't in the mood so say much more

It's not that, It was just that your last sentence there tickled me.

[Logo Polish]

The Evil Of The Daleks

What's striking about this story is how convoluted it often is. Waterfield's trail of cryptic clues for the Doctor to intercept (even Kennedy is amazed that the Doctor picks up on them all), the Daleks' unusually complex overall plan, and the surprisingly deadly nature of the obstacles placed in the way of Jamie's task, all add up to a narrative you really need to concentrate on to keep in focus.

I'm not quite sure why the Daleks choose to make use of Waterfield and Maxtible (or more generally, their era) as a means of trapping the Doctor, as it seems a little roundabout a method to get him and Jamie involved with them, but I suppose it's a case of making use of an opportunity (and saves on some labour, as they're able to get the humans to do a lot of the work simply by promising them what they want). I don't think Waterfield's and Maxtible's attempt at a time machine is really supposed to have worked and brought them there, more that the Daleks travelled to 1866 out of choice and used their own technology to maintain the link used.

The story does have a rich and atmospheric feel, and manages to combine the period drama feel with the science fiction content, and a few touches of horror, quite well though. The set design, lighting and music all go a long way to creating a doomy, claustrophobic sort of ambience around the middle episodes. The characters are also written in ways which add to the ominous mood. The Doctor is in highly manipulative mode, even if this is mainly forced on him by events, with his having little choice but to put Jamie through the scheduled ordeal, and his grim warnings to Waterfield about it being "too late to have a conscience now" suggest he has a greater awareness of the stakes involved than anyone else there. There's also much more of an edge between him and Jamie, with at least two blazing rows between them (very unusual in this era).

Waterfield is the main sympathetic character of the support cast, played with earnest desperation by John Bailey, and is the only one to come close to making as much of an impression as Marius Goring, who invests Maxtible with a hoarse imperiousness, giving the character a definite selfish and malignant quality. His imposing appearance, with a leonine mane of hair and beard also adds to the dominating intensity the character has. Even when pretending to be relatively nice, he comes over as simister and untrustworthy.

Victoria I find rather wet, although she does bring out a pleasantly ruminative and wistful side to Troughton (when he muses about how he could maybe try to take them all to his own planet). Ruth is mainly filler, although Arthur Terrall, if still a bit of a spare part, does add an extra subplot, about his struggles to escape Dalek control (I'm still not sure why this should be a reason for him to order Toby to kidnap Jamie either way though). Kemel is a bit of a stereotype and unfortunately doesn't make much impression on audio, given that he can't speak. Molly does help to show the Doctor and Jamie in a better light, while subtly hinting at the kind of rough treatment she may have grown used to being on the receiving end of in her lowly status, via her panic-stricken fear of having stepped out of line or made a mistake, which barely abates no matter how much they try to reassure her. This is a woman who is seemingly used to being treated by others in a much more harsh fashion.

Some of the ideas are ingenious, especially the humanised Daleks, which are funny because of the incongruity but also thought-provoking to some extent because it helps to demonstrate to what extent human and Dalek natures are a construct, and implies the possibility of benevolent, flexibly minded and tolerant Daleks. The mirror image of this is Goring and Troughton's performances as "Dalekised" people, which has a similarly parodic effect, and may have been intended partly as a joke about children imitating them in the playground.

Rather an involved story, a bit stretched, but one of the more interesting Troughton ones.

[Wayne]

The Evil Of The Daleks
Rather an involved story, a bit stretched, but one of the more interesting Troughton ones.

Great review as always Logo, & summed up well there. I look forward particularly to your thoughts on 'Tomb' & it's alledged 'overated' status.
Meanwhile, i got finished a day earlier than planned with the next one up, so here goes:



The Abominable Snowmen

Episode 1 is a fairly reasonable start. A tad slow paced, but pretty atmospheric. Already, Victoria's whiny 'Jamie! Jamie!' is starting to wear a bit a thin by the end of the episode, but the cliffhanger sounds as though it was quite a good one admitedly. Not a bad opening ep really though.
Once again i'm grateful for the 'Lost In Time' box set for giving me the oppurtunity to real get the feel of this story via the vusual medium for which it was intended. Being able to actually watch Episode 2 adds a lot to the atmosphere of this story. It's not a bad episode either, but ironically one of my favourite things about the episode is the voice of Padmasambhava/The Great Intelligence, who of course we never actually see in this episode! Nevertheless, Top marks to Wolfe Morris who manages to sound suitably eerie, delivering his dialogue with a sinister nonchalance. Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers that the big furry Wombles are actually robots.
Episode 3 isn't much of a happenin' episode, it's rather slow, but i do enjoy Wolfe Morris again, & Troughton's performance comes across well. Episode 4 is slightly better if still a bit ploddy. The confrontation with the escaping Yeti at the beginning of the episode comes across as quite exciting, & the scenes where Travers encounters the pyramid in the cave are quite eerie.
Episode 5 picks up the pace a little more with the Yeti attacks, & the story becomes a bit more interesting with the various consequences like Victoria's hypnotism & Padmasambhava's growing weariness of being under the control of the Great Intelligence. The episode builds towards a good cliffhanger wihich for the first time since Ep.2, has me looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Episode 6 is clearly the best episode of this story, IMO. The consternation between the monks, & the possessed Padmasambhava, makes for good drama in the first part of the ep, & Troughton demonstrates the increased tension very well in his performance, as the Doctor is laying plans to try to deal with Padmasambhava, & then later when he confronts the possessed Abbot in an exciting final battle of wills, that really makes me wish to be able to see the episode proper. However, it's still a great last episode, which ends with the destruction of the Yeti, & The Great Intelligence, bringing a final peace for Padmasambhava.
'The Abominable Snowmen' is fairly typical of many 6 parters, in that it goes through a slow patch in the middle, But it has lots of atmosphere, & the first 2 & last 2 eps are actually pretty good, with the last ep being particularly good, IMO. Troughton maintains a strong performance, & the guest cast, especially Wolfe Morris, all do a fine job too. All in all, i'd give this story a 7.5/10.

[Logo Polish]

Cheers, Wayne.

Well then? Overrated? Underrated? Erm...

The Tomb Of The Cybermen

I think "Tomb" is a rather basic story, in ways which are both good and bad. The plot is relatively straightforward, basically a science fiction version of horror stories about expeditions locating Mummy's tombs in pyramids (making it an early example of the kind of concept often used in Hinchcliffe's time, that of a being or horde turning out to be less dead than originally thought). The characters are not particularly deep, mainly serving to express one chief characteristic each (Viner cowardly and whingeing, Parry a decent authority figure but out of his depth, Hopper sarcastic and impatient, Toberman mostly the muscle, Klieg and Kaftan villains), and there is a frequent reliance on action set pieces to prop the story up as it moves along.

All of this is arguably geared towards allowing the story to work on the most raw, primal level. It wants to make an immediate impression as much as possible, to inspire fear and excitement in the viewer. Hence the obvious nature of the baddies almost right from the off, and the emphasis on dangerous traps and double-crossing that often crops up. As to how well some of these set pieces come off, I think it varies. The testing room sequence with the hypnotic patterns on the wall and Haydon's sudden death has a certain spooky quality, but on the other hand, the scenes where Victoria (and later the Cybercontroller) are trapped in the revitaliser have a slightly clumsy and awkward feel, for me at least, and it seems a bit odd that the Doctor should go to the trouble of trying to trap the latter in there rather than just let his batteries, or the equivalent, wind down. And the less said about the Cyberdummy Toberman throws the better.

It strikes me that, with regard to the villains, Klieg and Kaftan seem more like James Bond baddies than anything else, especially considering the foreign accents they both speak in (Hopper has an American accent, but they were allies in the Cold War). Toberman is also reminiscent of the kind of racially stereotyped heavies sometimes featured in those kind of films, the silent strong black man, and the fact that he is eventually won over from his loyalty to the two villains mentioned above is unfortunately not handled as well as it could have been either, with the character being treated rather too much like a child for my liking.

Apart from that, the only real note of ambiguity in the story comes from the Doctor himself, who has at times a somewhat mysterious manipulative presence, with implications that he's following an agenda of his own. It's rather odd that he surreptitiously allows Klieg and the others to get as far as the tombs below (by secretly correcting the various mistakes the latter makes), which suggests that the Doctor's own personal curiosity is too strong for him, even over-riding any instincts he may have about keeping them well away from the Cybermen. Either that or he is over-confident in his own ability to deal with any problem that might arise and talk anyone out of doing anything drastic (his "keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut, apart form being one of the best lines of the story, is also a way of showing his contempt for Klieg's boasts of his intellectual capacity). He does also get a pleasant little scene with Victoria, which highlights the unusual nature of her new life, and hints at the way he and Jamie have become a surrogate family for her after the loss of her father.

The Cybermen themselves undoubtedly lift the story when they do finally appear, with even the set for their tomb managing to rise above its silver paper limitations, and the model used for their tombs rightly became an iconic bit of design from the series in later years (nice touch to have that Cyber emblem dotted about the sets too). The costumes aren't the best design ever used, but the way they are able to tower above the rest of the cast (helped by using actors who weren't particularly tall) adds to their menacing quality, and the cliffhanger to the second episode, along with their first few scenes in the third, show their ruthless uncompromising nature to better effect than possibly any other before the climax to the first episode of Rise of the Cybermen (another example of what I said about being basic in a positive way). Just a shame that the story tends to tread water after most of the characters escape from the tombs in Ep 3.

I'd say the story was probably overrated before 1992 but underrated after that. Could be a lot better, but it's simplicity gives it a certain power.

[Wayne]

It strikes me that, with regard to the villains, Klieg and Kaftan seem more like James Bond baddies than anything else, especially considering the foreign accents they both speak in (Hopper has an American accent, but they were allies in the Cold War). Toberman is also reminiscent of the kind of racially stereotyped heavies sometimes featured in those kind of films, the silent strong black man, and the fact that he is eventually won over from his loyalty to the two villains mentioned above is unfortunately not handled as well as it could have been either, with the character being treated rather too much like a child for my liking.

Actually that's a good comparison to make. I'd not thought of the 'Bond' villian angle, & i think you're right about Toberman, He is very much an old fashioned clich, but then this was the 60's, & that kind of stereotyping was more the norm back then, i suppose. The actor would probably cringe at himself now.

[Logo Polish]

Roy Stewart (Toberman) actually appeared in Live And Let Die, playing one of Bond's old mates helping him out, now I think of it.

[Logo Polish]

The Abominable Snowmen

I can never quite rid myself of the suspicion that it may be more the scenery and setting that I'm enthusiastic about, rather than the story itself. It's just that it has such a lonely, slightly exotic quality - howling wilderness outside, with mountains and dark caves, along with the claustrophobic and ancient-feeling monastery interior. Must be one of the moodiest stories around, potentially at least.

It's a bit of a shame really, that the location filming in Snowdonia lacks any snow, as that would certainly have added to the isolated and helpless nature of the setting. although even as achieved, it does still manage a wild and cold feel. The break between filing and studio work is perhaps a little too obvious at the monastery gates - film sequence showing the Yeti halfway up a hill cutting to a studio scene where it's right up at the gateway - although the sound effects continuity helps to bridge it a bit. The studio scenes also appear to be mostly very little well lit, with good use of shadow and darkness. The monks' chanting also has a strangely hypnotic ambient effect (and sounds very similar to that used for some of the scnees at Lupton's retreat in Planet of the Spiders).

As to the Yetis themselves, I don't really mind their cuddly appearance, as in some ways, it makes for a more effective irony. I certainly don't think they lose anything from not having more conventional signifiers of evil - fangs, glowing eyes and the like - and the blank nothingness at the centre of their furry heads is possibly more dicturbing anyway. The concept of the silver spheres controlling them, and being capable of homing in on the apertures, is quite ingenious too, helping to improve what would otherwise be a bit of a pulp idea (ie their being robotic). And the beeping noise the spheres make is quite fun.

Most of the characters are fairly loosely defined, with Khrisong probably the strongest. He has a definite aggressive streak, leading him to become easily the most authoritative, assertive and no-nonsense of the monks seen here. Indeed, he barely comes over as a monk at all - as a warrior monk, there seems to be a lot more of the former in him than the latter, although as the story progresses, it does become clear that he ultimately aspires to the same humility as the others, and his eventual death is a cruel betrayal.

There is also Padmasambhava, who, rather startlingly, turns out to be about 300 - 400 years old (a concept which feels a bit Rider Haggard - a similar idea was later used for Dalios in The Time Monster). His character is almost a dual role in a way, given that it involves the use of two voices and personalities, the gentle helplessness of the genuine persona, and the hissing whispering malevolence of the possessed version. The way in which the character veers from one to the other is an effectively simple demonstration of the mental struggle going on in the old man.

Travers starts out rather aggressivly, even seeming a potential baddie at irst, before eventually coming round, and Victoria edges into iritating territory at times (why exactly dies she get so obsessed with getting inside the Inner Sanctum? Curiosity's a powerful thing, I suppose...), although I do like the scene where the Doctor cancels out her hypnosis. There does seem to be something about the character which brings out the tender side of this Doctor's nature, although the downside of this "vulnerability" is that she ends up being patronised by almost everyone.

Quite evocative overall, if a bit slight on story at times.

[Logo Polish]

Oh, and I forgot earlier, ratings for Troughton's first season...

The Evil of the Daleks
The Faceless Ones
The Highlanders
The Power of the Daleks
The Underwater Menace
The Macra Terror
The Moonbase

BTW, Wayne, you mentioned Wolfe Morris and about how good you thought he was as Padmasambhava, just as a bit of trivia, he turned up as Thomas Cromwell in The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 1970, a series in which Patrick Troughton played the Duke of Norfolk. So that was a sort of mini-Abominable Snowmen reunion, In a way.

[Wayne]

The Abominable Snowmen

I can never quite rid myself of the suspicion that it may be more the scenery and setting that I'm enthusiastic about, rather than the story itself. It's just that it has such a lonely, slightly exotic quality - howling wilderness outside, with mountains and dark caves, along with the claustrophobic and ancient-feeling monastery interior. Must be one of the moodiest stories around, potentially at least.

Quite evocative overall, if a bit slight on story at times.

I know exactly what you mean. It's very good for atmosphere, but it's a shame it's not balanced out with a bit more action.

Oh, and I forgot earlier, ratings for Troughton's first season...

The Evil of the Daleks
The Faceless Ones
The Highlanders
The Power of the Daleks
The Underwater Menace
The Macra Terror
The Moonbase

BTW, Wayne, you mentioned Wolfe Morris and about how good you thought he was as Padmasambhava, just as a bit of trivia, he turned up as Thomas Cromwell in The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 1970, a series in which Patrick Troughton played the Duke of Norfolk. So that was a sort of mini-Abominable Snowmen reunion, In a way.

Interesting.
Also interesting to see The Moonbase in last place. Still, it takes allsorts.

[Stuart Wallis]

Roy Stewart (Toberman) actually appeared in Live And Let Die, playing one of Bond's old mates helping him out, now I think of it.

He played Quarrel jnr. Quarrell Senior was in Dr.No.

I'm getting left behind now!

Evil Of The Daleks

I really do like this one, even though it's an episode too long. I think people miss the point about the Doctor being manipulative in this story - he's got a gun to his head; he has to risk Jamie getting killed in the tests, otherwise the pair of them and Victoria are definately going to be killed. That and he needs to find out what the Daleks are up to.

Tomb Of The Cybermen

Not all that bad, though not quite the classic it was made out back in prehistory. The Cybermen are underused and hard to understand half the time, but they look impressive. Plotwise, it's got a few cliches, as mentioned before, but it's quite gripping in its own way. As Logo said, the main oddity is the Doctor's motives - what are they?

The Abominable Snowmen

The atmosphere and the acting of Wolfe Morris and Jack Watling are what carry the story. If you're not careful, you do spot bits where things plod a little. It does sound pretty good on CD though. The sad thing is that we don't have enough of the Yeti or Padmasambva (spl?) existing on-screen.

[Paul Clement]

Abominable Snowmen

I think this is one of the stories that I preferred more as a Target novelisation than I did when I saw/watched it. It's certainly a story that is longer than it needs to be, with a good two episodes in the middle feeling like nothing more than padding.
Having said that, the Yeti are very good and I'm glad they came back soon after in a far stronger story and the Great Intelligence was a good idea.

[Wayne]

The Ice Warriors

I'm quite impressed with Episode 1, i think it's a well paced opener that establishes the setting & the characters well. Peter Barksworth's Clent is quite entertaining, & i also enjoyed Arden's rather saracastic humour. I also liked the scene where Jamie winds Victoria up about about the way the women are dressed. It's a nice moment for the two companions. I liked Victoria's imperious: 'We shall now change the subject'.
Episode 2 is quite good, but not quite as interesting as the opening ep, & waily, whiny Victoria is grating on me again, during her conversation with Varga. (You can tell it's Bernard Bresslaw can't you?) Meanwhile, i can't help but smile at Angus Lennie & Peter Sallis because of their comic associations, but Sallis does a good job, though Lennie is only adequate.
I was expecting a lull in the middle 3rd & 4th episodes, but they're actually fairly good. Events proceed at a slightly ploddy pace in Ep.3, but it's a quite a watchable ep, which is helped by decent performances from both the main & guest cast. We see the slightly autocratic Clent doing his best to be be nice to Arden over his bringing the Ice Warrior's body back, & the Ice Warriors themselves get a fairly good outing in this ep, with quite lot of hissing dialouge & some slightly comical hissing laughter.
Ep.4 fares slightly better still. The outdoor scenes are very atmospheric, particulary enhanced as they are by the eerie incidental music, & the Ice Warriors continue to be oddly facinating to watch, with their lizard like mouths moving strangely as they talk. Peter Sallis continues to impress as Penly. So much so that it's almost a shame he's become mostly remembered for lightweight comedy, as he's clearly better than many a 'straight' actor that i've seen. The death of Storr at the hands of the Ice Warriors was very effectively done i thought. Probably Angus Lennie's best moment!
Can't wait 'til Victoria leaves though. I want to slap her about the face!
Episode 5 is another decent episode. Interesting to see computer lover Clent begin to distrust the machine with the funky voice, & he & Penley have a good confrontion scene. Again i have to applaud Peter Sallis, - he raises the bar in every scene that he appears! Troughton also has a great moment when the Ice Warriors are threatening Victoria's life. Just his facial expressions excellently portray the Doctor's momentary consternation over what to do. A good episode that doesn't flag.
The final episode is also a very good, well paced finisher. Almost immediately the tension within the base is rising rapidly, & Walters begins to crack under the pressure. I liked the bit where Clent tries to distract the Ice Warriors from Walter's attempt to get the gun, but of course he's spotted, & Clent & the others are horrified when the Ice Warriors kill him. A well done scene all round, at which Varga observes: 'So much for your word.' I must confess to a moment of unintentional comedy that made me chuckle later in the episode, when the Ice Warrior is banging his useless 'hands' on the sides of his head as they are overpowered by the heat. In the end the Doctor cleverly outwits the Ice Warriors of course, & there's a nice final scene between Barksworth & Sallis as Clent acknowledges his debt to Penley with a well written & delivered bit of dialogue.
Well, i've only seen this story once before, & i've enjoyed seeing it again. Especially as i've had the good fortune to be able to enjoy the missing 2 eps in great quality narrated recon form. (Thanks Mr.Culley!) 'The Ice Warriors' has definitely gone up a notch in my estimation. Compared to say 'The Abominable Snowmen' or for instance 'The Faceless Ones' which i also had the benefit of a narrated recon, i'd say it was much better overall. It's not the greatest or most highly original story in the world, but it manages to keep going along at a reasonably good pace, & doesn't particularly flag in the middle, or at any point really, unlike the other 6 parters i've mentioned. It also benefits from some great performances, & it's not short on atmosphere for the most part, & i rather enjoy the Ice Warriors themselves. So all things considered, my rating would go up from a 7 to an 8/10.

[Logo Polish]

The Ice Warriors

Rather like The Moonbase, this story is of some interest for highlighting some of the then-concerns about how the future might turn out. Much of the story centres around the possible impact of "computerisation" on human activity and decision-making, and on the differing points of view as to whether scientific development has the potential to make matters better or worse for people or the planet.

The depiction of an Ice Age, for example is a reflection of environmental concerns about carbon emission (these days, it's more commonly global warming and the increased melting of ice and possible flooding which is written about), as indicated in the Doctor and Clent's exchange in the first episode. Storr's bitterness about scientists having killed all the plants and flowers also helps to suggest that he blames them for it.

And the role the computer plays in the story, along with everyone's attitudes to it, is very much of the time. It's interesting that it is presented as a monolithic centralised authority, as opposed to the current concept of computers being widespread and ubiquitious, with almost evryone having access to them. Here, it is revered in an almost God-like way, with its ability to make decisions based on information supplied having led to a situation where the humans have, apparently, voluntarily surrendered their prerogative to choose and decide between its conclusions for themselves.

This is what lays behind the paralysis of action that Clent and Miss Garrett feel compelled to opt for in the latter half of the story, when the computer is unable to do anything other than "stall for time" as Clent puts it, because either courses of possible action risk its destruction (I'm not fully convinced about that as a motivation though, as I would have thought it at least possible that a computer could reason that another such computer could replace it if necessary), and they appear to be psychologically incapable of overriding any decision it makes, or fails to make in this case. The computer is unable to risk its effective death, and so neither are the humans. In other words, the capacity to take risks and make dangerous decisions is something which humanity has allowed itself to lose by reliance on machines (as David Walliams' Carol Beer character would put it in Little Britain, "Computer says no.").

It's also one of the reasons why Penley has walked out of the base. Apart from dislike of and irritation with Clent, and frustration with the stultifying formalism of the place (something also resisted by the Doctor when he defies Clent's insistence on adhering to order and procedure and reminds him that he isn't a memeber of staff there and is not bound by its rules). But the abdication of responsibility cearly turns out to be key. At the end, Penley is declaring "It's a risk I willingly take!" and "This is a decision for a man, not a machine", even while Clent and Miss Garrett are too scared to take the initiative, which he does for them. It exposes the irony of Clent's accusation that Penley has run away from his responsibilities. As eventually becomes clear, it's almost exactly the other way round. The people at the base are the ones who run away from their own responsibilities, by surrendering any decisions to the computer.

Clent is right, however, insofar as Penley's initial rejection of their life ultimately helps nobody. His walking out is a doomed attempt at rejecting everything and becoming, effectively, an island. But it soon becomes clear that hooking up with Storr is a blind alley. Storr, as presented here, comes over as a complete idiot who is wilfully blind to reality, and with a hatred of scientists which has toppled over into outright bigotry. His obsessiveness is shown by the way in which everything for him seems to have to revolve around this hatred. Everything is about proving scientists wrong, everything bad must be their fault somewhere along the line, and allying with anyone against them is justified, even it's the Ice Warriors, who could happily mnurder everyone present there. It's difficult to make out much of a worldview on his part other than anti-science, but it seems to be a vague romantic pastoralism if anything. Even when they're together, it's obvious that Penley finds it impossible to take him seriously, and finds his extreme views mildly amusing more than anything else. At any rate, they lead Storr to moral blindness and eventually his own death. Storr doesn't offer any kind of future, for Penley, or anyone else.

It's only on returning to the base and working to change things there and demonstrate to the others the value of his beliefs that Penley manages to triumph. The story ends with him having effectively made his point, and an implication that it might lead to a rethinking of attitudes in future.

There's an interesting parallel between Clent's initial attitude to the Doctor, and the Ice Warriors' to Storr when they meet. In both cases the subject is required to prove their scientific credentials (the Doctor even has a time limit imposed), as otherwise they are to be considered of no use and subject to elimination, albeit of a rather less blodthirsty kind in Clent's case - forced emigration to resettlement centres. The Ice Warriors just kill Storr. This is possibly also a small way of showing how the procedures have reduced the humanity of the people at the base, in charge at least.

The Ice Warriors themselves are certainly ruthless, although not the cruellest enemies ever encountered in the series. There is some indication that they are willing to do deals under some circumstances, and are willing to abide by terms set if no-one acts against them, hence the irony of Walters' attempt at shooting at them undermining Clent's own bargaining position. They also have some good scenes with Troughton and Watling, who put up a defiant front when surrounded by them in their ship.

Victoria tends to get rather more to do than Jamie in this one, even if she does have to spend a lot of time being frightened and wailing, or pretending to cry. Troughton's Doctor is effectively occupying the same sort of place Penley is likely to after the story. He's a sort of interim replacement for him as far as Clent is concerned, managing to soften his harder and more petulant edges in relatively tactful fashion and keepinga spirit of spontaneity alive on the base. I also like his expressive facial reactions, as Wayne mentions, when in the ship, and indeed the comedy busines of trying to let off a stinkbomb to knock out the Ice Warrior.

It's not too badly made - the ice and snowscapes are reasonably good, and it's a nice idea to locate the base in an old period house, with wooden panelling and the like, with the implication that it's just been converted. It perhaps makes for a slightly more realistic setting than just a generic SF one. The costumes are a lttle odd, and it seems stramngely impractical for women in an Ice Age to be wearing figure hugging tunics and miniskirts with the upper legs and knees exposed. I hope Miss Garrett wrapped up well when she visited Penley...

The main problem with the story is that the device used to make its point - a long wait during which a problem remains unresolved - ends up dragging it out somewhat. It's a story with interesting ideas, but it ends up being a bit of a relief when it ends.

[SiHart]

I find the Ice Warriors rather dull overall. The constant questioning of the computer and the stating and restating of the theme of science Vs natural life drains away all life from the story. It's very, very slow moving.
The performances are all good, the design is snazzy, but I really don't think this one is worthy of its high reputation.

Si xx