Ice Warrior

An Ice Warrior, as they appear in The Monster of Peladon

The **Ice Warriors** and **Ice Lords** were a race of reptilian humanoids from the planet Mars.

They were at times were given the derogatory name of Greenies. (TV: *Transit*)

## Biology

Adult, fully armoured Ice Warriors were large, imposing reptilian humanoids, up to seven feet tall. Unarmoured, they had flattened, scaly faces with sharp fangs and thin green tongues. (TV: *Legacy*)

Females were built more slightly than males, and had spiny dorsal crests which were sexually attractive in a manner analogous to the breasts of a human female. (PROSE: *Transit*)

Due to differences in atmosphere and gravity, in Earth-like environments, Ice Warriors perpetually wheezed and tended to move slowly, (TV: *The Seeds of Death*) though they could move fast when needed. (TV: *Legacy*) They spoke in a drawn-out hiss. (TV: *The Ice Warriors*)

## Society and Culture

### Honour

Ice Warriors had a strong sense of personal honour. After the Third Doctor saved the life of the Ice Lord Izlyr, he felt obligated to help the Doctor escape. (TV: *The Curse of Peladon*) Ice Warriors disliked lying, though they would do so when necessary. (TV: *Legacy*)

### Religion

The Ice Warriors worshiped Tuburr, who was thought to be the one who made the Ice Warriors into warriors. In the early years of Ice Warrior civilisation, the young would be sent to the surface as a ritual trial of endurance. If they survived, they took the oath of Tuburr and tried to pull the Sword of Tuburr from a brazier, after which they were considered adults. (TV: *Legacy*)

### Society

Ice Warriors lived in clans and had a hereditary caste system. Advancement in the hierarchy was decided on merit and skill. (TV: *Legacy*) This feudal way of life continued until the era of the Galactic Federation. (TV: *The Curse of Peladon*)

Military installations in Ice Warrior culture were known as "nests". At the centre of a nest was a room called the Queen's Chamber. Military nests were circular, built around a single spiral passageway referred to as Xssixss, the mouth of which was the only entrance or exit. (TV: *Transit*)

### Titles

* Supreme Lord - a high ranking position. (TV: *Legacy*)
* Grand Marshall - the staff of a Grand Marshal was an important relic. (TV: *Legacy*)
* War Lord - a normal Ice Warrior with more importance. (PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors*)
* Marshal - wore decorative helmets with jewels. (TV: *The Seeds of Death*, *Legacy*)
* Shsurr - a title that roughly translated to mean *M'lady*. (TV: *Legacy*)

## Technology

### Armour

The Ice Warriors wore armour that augmented their already considerable strength. This included a half-face helmet and a red blast-screen over each eye. Ice Warrior nobility ("Ice Lords") wore light armour with sleek, bullet-shaped, metallic helmets, a simple breastplate and a cape. (TV: *The Seeds of Death*) An Ice Marshall's helmet contained circuitry beneath its surface and acted as an additional nervous system for its wearer after it bonded with the cranium. (TV: *Ice Time*) Common warriors had much heavier and bulkier, intricately patterned full-body armour, and stubby helmets (some designs of which also placed blast screens over the ears). (TV: *The Curse of Peladon*)

Their exoskeletal armour melded with the body of their wearer and an Ice Warrior was described as being one with their armour. The armour technology included locked-sequence communicators and induced muscular hydraulics. (TV: *Ice Time*)

### Weapons

Ice Warriors had small sonic weapons in the wrist of their armour as a personal defence weapon. (TV: *The Ice Warriors*)

They also made use of sonic grenades that operated by emitting a sonic impulse which caused a violent implosion of the eardrums of anyone within the vicinity of the blast radius. (TV: *Ice Time*)

### Terraforming

They could deploy seeds on a planet which altered the environment and made it an icy world. (TV: *The Seeds of Death*)

## History

### Early history

Some exploration of other planets was attempted. Varga went to Earth, but his ship was trapped in a glacier for thousands of years. Some time after this, the Ice Warrior's civilisation went into decline as Mars became more inhospitable. (TV: *The Ice Warriors*, *Legacy*)

### 20th Century

In 1867, a lone Ice Warrior named Hhessh was helped by burglar Sam Cunningham and the Seventh Doctor in obtaining artifacts required to resurrect the Ice Lord Sezhyr. After the artifacts were taken onto Hhessh's ship, Sezhyr was resurrected through the body of Raina Kerenskaya and engaged in combat with the Doctor's companion, Ace. He was defeated and killed once again to free Raina, with Hhessh being shot dead by Sam soon afterwards. (TV: *Ice Time*)

### 21st Century

Another invasion and terraforming was attempted in the mid-21st century, when the Ice Warriors, led by Slaar, invaded the central T-Mat base on the Moon which regulated global T-Mat operations. He attempted to use a fungus, which would turn the Earth into a more hospitable planet for them. The Second Doctor and his companions stopped him. (TV: *The Seeds of Death*)

### 22nd Century

By the early 22nd century, the Interstitial Mass Transit System had been established, linking the planetary bodies of the Sol system in a way that allowed humanity to treat Mars as a colony world, marginalising the few remaining survivors of the war (PROSE: *Transit*) and, through the 22nd century, marginalised the Ice Warriors on their own home planet. Later, the Ice Warriors became allies of the humans. The Ice Warriors colonised a new planet and named it New Mars. (TV: *Legacy*)

### Galactic Federation era

By the late 39th century, (TV: *Legacy*) the Ice Warriors were members of the Galactic Federation and had, for the most part, renounced their war-like ways. (TV: *The Curse of Peladon*, *The Monster of Peladon*)

An Ice Warrior delegation led by Lord Izlyr was sent to Peladon when it applied to join the Federation. The Third Doctor initially suspected them of being responsible for plots undermining the negotiations, but eventually worked with Izlyr to discover the true culprits. (TV: *The Curse of Peladon*)

During the Galactic Federation's war with Galaxy 5 a breakaway group of Ice Warriors led by Lord Azaxyr worked for the enemy and embraced their old martial ways. Working with Eckersley, they went to Peladon under the guise of peacekeepers during a dispute with miners which was endangering the Federation's supply of trisilicate, intending to seize the supply for Galaxy 5. Their scheme was exposed and foiled by the Third Doctor. (TV: *The Monster of Peladon*)

### 51st Century

Circa 5000, during an Ice Age on Earth, Varga and his crew were finally revived and decided to take over first Brittanicus Base and then the world. (TV: *The Ice Warriors*)

## Behind the Scenes

* The distinctive qualities of the Ice Warriors came out of the design process and rehearsals. Hayles originally conceived of them as cybernetic Viking-like beings, with high tech devices in their armour. The original script does not refer to them as reptilian at all, with the description of the frozen Varga instead being: "The helmet is hood-like and ominous, in the style of the used under the opening titles of 'Hereward the Wake'." Costume designer Martin Baugh used crocodiles as his design inspiration, deciding an 'ice warrior' must be hard and armoured. The distinct hissing voice was conceived by Varga's actor Bernard Bresslaw in rehearsal.
* Strictly speaking, according to their debut story, the Ice Warriors never had that name until Walters gave it to them and Victoria Waterfield carried Walters' description back to the Second Doctor. Subsequent stories would forget this, and have the Ice Warriors use this name to refer to themselves.
* *The Ice Warriors* implies that Mars can no longer support life. Most Ice Warriors in TV stories unconnected to the Galactic Federation originate from a Mars of long before the 20th century. The storyline of *The Seeds of Death* made it clear that Mars could still support life in the *Doctor Who* universe even up until approximately the 21st century, when that story took place, when the Second Doctor states that Mars is a dying planet, not a dead one.

## Appearances

### Season 6

* *The Seeds of Death*
* *The War Games*