Doctor Who “The Ice Warriors Part 5”

Well, the Doctor didn’t explode when the Ice Warriors did something to the air pressure in the chamber he was in.  Maybe if he just opened with how he was trying to be a helpful scientist.  I mean, he didn’t even give them a name or his usual title.

So, this was another fun Second Doctor episode, at least when the Second Doctor or Jamie or Victoria was onscreen.  The stuff going on in the compound still doesn’t do much for me.  That’s fairly standard, truth be told.  This era of Doctor Who would give a lot of screentime to secondary characters that won’t exactly be appearing again on this series.  Will I see Penley, Garrett, or Clent after the next episode?  Probably not.  True, there’s some plot-related stuff happening there where the Doctor needs Clent to turn in the ionizer, but he just won’t without the computer saying it’ll work.  That annoys Penley, a scavenger who brought Jamie back to the compound for help.  That involves the pair dodging some stock footage of what looks like a small-ish bear.

But Clent is a dick and won’t help despite Jamie’s best efforts to ask him to.

However, the Ice Warriors are kinda in over their heads and don’t know it.  They call the Doctor a hostage, but he points out they really aren’t holding him when they’re outnumbered and in a ship without much power.  He mostly wants to help.  They do bring him Victoria, but it sure does look like they won’t be going anywhere.  Besides, they opt to attack the compound with their sonic canon anyway because they are also dicks.

So many dicks in this serial.

But then something happened that made me very happy:  the Doctor and Victoria took advantage of what the aliens might think Victoria is like by plotting in the open as she fakes distress and crying loudly.  Yeah, the Doctor had to blow his own nose, but that was rather clever.  Can the Doctor use that vial of what Victoria refers to as a stink bomb to take out the Ice Warrior gunner?  Sure!  You know, if he can get the cap off the tube.  And if he was right that the stuff will take out an Ice Warrior.  And if he can keep the creature’s hand off the control panel before the thing can fire the gun.

Well, two out of three might not be too bad.  Unfortunately, it’s the last one that he doesn’t pull off, and that could mean Jamie will be needing a lot more medical attention in the final episode since he’s in the compound right now.