The Ice Warriors and Ice Lords were a race of reptilian humanoids from the planet Mars.
Characteristics[]
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: The Ice Warriors, The Legacy of Peladon)
Ice Warriors perpetually wheezed and tended to move slowly, (TV: The Seeds of Death) though they could move fast when needed. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon) 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: The Legacy of Peladon)
Religion[]
The Ice Warriors also 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: The Legacy of Peladon)
Society[]
Advancement in the hierarchy was decided on merit and skill. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon) This feudal way of life continued until the era of the Galactic Federation. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
Titles[]
- Supreme Lord - a high ranking position. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon)
- Grand Marshall - the staff of a Grand Marshal was an important relic. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon)
- Marshal - wore decorative helmets with jewels. (TV: The Seeds of Death, The Legacy of Peladon)
- Shsurr - a title that roughly translated to mean M'lady. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon)
Technology[]
Armour[]
Ice Warrior armour 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: Thin Ice) 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. (TV: Thin Ice) The armour technology included locked-sequence communicators and induced muscular hydraulics. (TV: Thin Ice)
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 fried the brain cells of anyone within the vicinity of the blast radius. (TV: Thin Ice)
Terraforming[]
The Ice Warriors could deploy seeds on a planet which altered the environment and made it an icy world. (TV: The Seeds of Death
Ice Warriors had access to Spacecrafts. (TV: Thin Ice)
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, The Legacy of Peladon) At some point, a group of Ice Warriors invaded the planet Frobine and reversed the planet's axis, making it cold, and driving the few surviving Magmaclansoff off of the planet. (TV: Fire and Ice
10th Century[]
The Ice Lord Sezhyr was laid to rest with his relics. (TV: Thin Ice)
20th Century[]
At some point, a revolution took place on Mars, and the Ice Warriors split into different factions, with one side wishing to abandon the old ways. A group of Ice Warriors led by the Ice Lord Hhessh were exiled from Mars, but took Sezhyr's relics in the hopes of somehow resurrecting him. They soon arrived on Earth in 1933, but the ship containing the relics crashed into the Moscow River. The remaining Ice Warrior ship was placed into a large cold storage unit, where they were allowed to hibernate by Vitali Wolshkin. (TV: Thin Ice)
In 1967, a group of Ice Warriors led by Hhessh attempted to retrieve the helmet of the Ice Lord Sezhyr from the Kremlin in Moscow. Hhesh was aided by the Seventh Doctor, Ace, Sam Cunningham and Raina Kerenskaya. Once Sezhyr was resurrected through Raina, she attempted to lead an invasion force on Earth, but these plans were thwarted by Ace. (TV: Thin Ice)
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 (TV: 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 or Neo Ares. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon)
26th Century[]
By the 26th century, the Ice Warriors were an isolated species. They had left Mars and were isolated on New Mars. (TV: The Legacy of Peladon)
37th Century[]
By 3691 Mars was dying, and so in an attempt to save it, a group of Ice Warriors began harvesting the power of Earth's core, which began to slowly freeze the planet. This group was defeated by the Thirteenth Doctor, Kelsey Haule and Richard McIntyre. TV: Frozen Time)
39th Century[]
The Ice Lord Izlyr represented the Ice Warriors when the members of the Galactic Federation met to discuss wether Peladon should join the Federation. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
40th Century[]
By the late 40th century, the Ice Warriors (still in the Galactic Federation) had, for the most part, renounced their war-like ways. (TV: The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon)
In 3935, a faction of Ice Warriors led by the Ice Lord Azaxyr were working for Galaxy 5, who were at war with the Galactic Federation. These Ice Warriors desired to return to their race's former ways of military conquest. Azaxyr and his troops helped take over the Trisilicate Mines while making out that they'd been sent by the Federation to keep the miners under control. The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane eventually defeated them. (TV: The Monster of Peladon)
In 3984, An Ice Lord named Rassbur led a team of Ice Warriors to Peladon in order to guard a treasure that had been brought to the planet in order to protect it from a group of mercenaries. However, almost all the Ice Warriors were killed by a Sontaraan grenade. The Ice Warriors were later accused by the Eighth Doctor of stealing a Diadam (TV: The Legacy 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)
Far future[]
Five-million years after the Ice Warriors became extinct, the Ice Lord Velsh was thawed out from his ice tomb, which he discovered was now underneath a museum. Velsh began killing the martians within the museum while attempting to summon an Ice Warrior ship to come and rescue him, but Velsh eventually learned that most of his race was dead, causing him to go insane. After Sally Ryder was able to talk him out of killing everybody, Velsh left in a ship in hopes of finding surviving members of his race. (TV: The Red Museum)
Undated events[]
At some point, Frobine was invaded by the Magmaclans, who attempted to take back their planet by rotating the planet's axis to make it warm and kill off the Ice Warriors, but the Ninth Doctor was able to convince the Magmaclans to leave the Ice Warriors alone, as they were not the same ones who drove them away and that they had a right to live on the planet. (TV: Fire and Ice)
An Ice Warrior was at some point imprisoned on the Time Lord prison planet known as Shada. (TV: The Dusk of War)
Legacy[]
While on trial for breaking the Time Lords non-interference policy, the Second Doctor used a Thought Channel to show them some of the evils he'd fought against, one of which was an Ice Warrior. (TV: The War Games)
While under attack from the Keller Machine, the Third Doctor saw an illusion of an Ice Warrior. (TV: The Mind of Evil)
Gallery[]
List of Appearances[]
Doctor Who[]
Season 5[]
- The Ice Warriors
Season 6[]
- The Seeds of Death
- The War Games (cameo)
Season 8[]
- The Mind of Evil (cameo)
Season 9[]
- The Curse of Peladon
Season 11[]
- The Monster of Peladon
Season 27[]
Season 31[]
- The Legacy of Peladon
Season 36[]
- Fire and Ice
40th Anniversary Special[]
- The Dusk of War (cameo)
Season 43[]
Season 49[]
- Frozen Time