For years, two episodes of the six-part Troughton story
The Ice Warriors have been missing from the BBC's archives, and so the story has never been officially released on DVD (actually, it was released on VHS but the two missing episodes were audio-only.) Well, thanks to Qurios and their team, these two episodes have been animated for a DVD release and they really do look good! In fact, I'd say it's the best Doctor Who animation so far!
So, what do I think of the story?
I wasn't expecting too much from
The Ice Warriors thanks to all the reviews that say it's disappointing and slow, but I was very pleased with it!
I think it's a good, solid six-parter that introduces the Ice Warriors and has some great scenes (the bit where the TARDIS lands upside down and the end of part 1 / start of part 2 are brilliant!) and of course, fantastic acting from Troughton, Hines, Watling and quite a few other members of the cast.
The Ice Warriors are great monsters here - they want to get back to Mars and don't really care about Earth, but that doesn't mean they won't kill people who get in their way. I love the setting of another Earth ice age, it feels really well done.
Now, unfortunately,
The Ice Warriors suffers from the same fate as quite a few other early Who stories - it's too damn long and didn't need to be six episodes long, and could have easily been four. Luckily that's the only problem I have with it so it's not bad at all to be honest. All in all? Brilliant story with some brilliant scenes but it's a little bit too long, and that's all I can say, really.
The animation?
WOW! Even if you're not a huge fan of the story, this is a great reason to go out and buy this DVD! Qurios, Chris Chapman and everyone else involved did an AMAZINGLY AWESOMELY BRILLIANT job! I just can't fault the animation at all! Honestly, as people have said, it's so good you kind of forget it's animation!
It's obviously not the best animation ever made, but, excluding the upcoming
Scream of the Shalka, it's certainly the best animated Doctor Who DVD release so far. As good as
The Invasion and
The Reign of Terror were, this is just fantastic. A HUGE reason to buy it! A must-have for any Doctor Who fan, old or new!
Alien Design?
I love the Ice Warrior design - as you can see, Marsians are not little green men from outer space! Brilliant aliens which were great in their Series 7 appearance
Cold War. I really hope Capaldi gets to meet them!
Special features?
These are another major reason to buy this DVD. There are three different sets of commentaries:
1. Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Sonny Caldinez, Jeremy Davies and Pat Heigham commentate episodes 1, 4, 5 & 6).
2. original archive recordings or readings of text written by Brian Hayles, Derek Martinus, Martin Baugh, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Barkworth, Wendy Gifford and Sylvia James on episode 2.
3. Patrick Troughton's son (Michael) commentates episode 3.
Very interesting way to do the commentary, they're all pretty good too!
It has programme subtitles and subtitle production notes, don't really have anything to say about those.
On disc 2, there is a 25-minute documentary called
Cold Fusion where the cast and crew look back on the making of the story, featuring Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Sonny Caldinez, Jeremy Davies and James Bresslaw. Quite interesting, worth a watch.
There is a short behind the scenes video called
Beneath the Ice which features the producers and directors of the animated episodes. It tells you a bit about how they were made. Again, quite interesting and definitely worth a watch.
It has the original VHS links featuring Hines and Watling linking the missing episodes, which is a pretty nice addition.
It features a
Blue Peter design a monster competition which ran during the transmission of this story. Fairly interesting, and again, a very nice addition. An entertaining 10 or so minutes.
It also features the second part of
Doctor Who Stories: Frazer Hines which looks back at Jamie's later Doctor Who appearances. Very interesting, especially if you're a fan of Jamie.
Of course, there's the standard photo gallery, Radio Times listings in PDF format, programme subtitles and a coming soon trailer for
Scream of the Shalka which will be released next month. It's a very good trailer and honestly makes me want to watch the little animated story starring Richard E. Grant!
Overall, a great buy for just about any Doctor Who fan. The animation doesn't take anything away from the story, and I'd take this animation over a pictures and audio reconstruction any day, as much as I respect the people who make those.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Amazing story, amazing animation but minus one point for being a bit too long.
Buy The Ice Warriors on DVD here for £14.00! 
