Hello everyone, the Historian here, finally adding an introduction to this last episode of the story. Of course, now that I’m here, there’s not much to say, so…let’s get to the episode!
First aired on 1 March 1969
H = Historian
K = Ketina
R = Ronelyn
P = Photobug
A = Altair
E = Ezio
Pe = Penuche
—
<applause>
K: That episode felt way shorter. The cliff hanger ran long, though.
R: Yeah. I think that’s the longest cliff hanger resolution I have seen in the course of the Project.
P: That makes up for the super short one from the first Ice Warriors story. I remember one of the cliffhangers in that one someone just stepped aside. What a let down.
<discussion comparing the satellite sound to the Yeti control sphere sound. General agreement that they are pretty much the same sound effect.>
Pe: Did you notice the breathing was just like Darth Vader.
K: Not really. More hissy.
P: Actually, I did. I was thinking that I hadn’t heard that much breathing since Darth Vader had an asthma attack.
Pe: I didn’t think it was like Darth Vader, but that Darth Vader evolved out of that. Like they were looking for bad guys and they kind of stole that for breathing.
E: You could say…they kind of took his breath away?
Pe: <laughs> Yeah.
H: You can say that. I wouldn’t.
R: The wooba wooba visual effect on the sealed radiation door was a good effect.
H: The model work was, again, fantastic, I thought.
K: The satellite rolling in space was fun, I thought.
P: I thought Jamie showing up at the right moment was good for the plot, not just an escape for the plot.
R: “I’m sick of being patient!” That was a beautiful line.
K: Yeah. I liked that Jamie rescued at the end. And his logic was sound – either everything’s cool, or the Doctor is in trouble. Either way, there was no reason for him not to go.
H: Honestly, this was just a good story. There was certainly padding in it, but it worked really well. I mean, a perfect story by no means, but I think it was good and solid.
K: I agree. It was about an episode and a half too long, and the Ice Warrior’s plan was very ridiculous, but overall the story is quite fun, and funny, and exciting.
R: <nerd voice> “I did have one major technical problem with it. There’s no possible way for the amount of energy necessary for a solar destructor array to travel through an HDMI cable.”
P: Helios Destructos Machine Interface.
K: It was just HD, not HDMI, actually.
R: I was also kind of amused by “retro-active” rockets.
K: Yeah, I was too.
R: But it’s kind of “I’m going to sit down an look at the video cassette recording of this automated teller machine.”
A: No one says that.
K: Yeah. They’re aliens. Whatever. They don’t use contractions either.
P: Or side vision.
R: “We have long outgrown the need for peripheral vision.”
P: If it moves, kill it. If it doesn’t move…don’t kill it.
R: I do have one other question.
H: Yes?
R: How did Zoe know the lead alien’s name was Slarr?
H: She was on the moon with them? Yeah, it was probably a mistake.
R: The pace of this was really pretty good.
H: As I said a few weeks ago, there was padding, but the padding moved at a good clip, and was at least interesting.
P: Except the slap stick.
H: No the slap stick was some of the best part.
R: I was really cute. And I thought Zoe and Jamie – their plan to distract the Ice Warrior in the weather station, was actually pretty smart.
H: Jamie’s a smart guy – for a “primitive”
R: He took a gamble, and it panned out.
H: This story was just good and simple and not tremendiously…there’s not a lot to say. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
R: Not at all.
H: I’m sure I’ll have to come up with something next week, when I do the story wrap-up.
P: The fundamental weakness of this monsters – these aliens – is, they’re not doing math. Right? “We’re not going to plot an orbital escape velocity. We’re just going to aim for the beeping thing.” It seems to me that they would have taken over the earth had they not depending on such a basic thing as “aim for the beeping noise.”
H: Something that I’ve noticed, especially over the last season or so, is the shows reliance on using some kind of signal to guide ships in. The Cybermen did it. The humans did it with their rocket to the moon in this story. The Ice Warriors did it. I’m sure we can come up with other examples.
R: That major Tom guy.
H: I’m not sure exactly where this idea comes from. Could it be a naval thing? Does anyone know?
R: After a fashion. I mean, carrier waves like that has been around for almost as long as there has been radio navigation. But yeah, usually, especially over really long distances, and especially on things like PLANETS, when you know exactly where they’re going to be decades in advance, you do some of the math up front.
H: Obviously. It had assumed that they must have been taking the idea from somewhere. Like Star Trek did was submarine combat in “Balance of Terror.”
R: In aviation they used to do that type of navigation.
P: They still do. They use IFR, in which case they use two different radio frequencies, listening to two different stations, each of which transmits a pulse on a regular basis, and a plus on a delay based on the angle you are from it. And from that it can determine what angle it is to you. <gives demonstration. I suggest looking it up.> Triangulation based on two different radio signals.
H: So it’s based on a real idea.
R: It’s not a fiction. But if I was going to travel though space, I would probably do it the other way.
H: Fair enough. I think we might be at final thoughts.
K: Small group this week. Ezio?
E: Pretty solid. That’s it. That’s all I got.
K: Altair.
A: Agreed. I enjoyed it.
P: Photobug?
P: Story or arc?
H: Whatever you want to talk about.
P: This story was well paced and a good conclusion to the overall arc. I argue a little bit about the science used, but I’ve already stated most of that. As far as the acting, I think we were on par. In fact, I hardly noticed the Doctor being gone for one episode. I didn’t seen any technical snafus.
K: I did.
H: Little ones.
P: I didn’t see any attack of the soundtrack in this episode.
K: Although I think we can all agree that the drums attacked us many times thoughout the story as a whole.
H: I liked the drums. It’s the Ice Warrior theme. Nice and thematic.
R: You can have too much of a good thing.
P: I think every character had different shining moments in the story arc. We see Zoe putting her life on the line to change the temperature on the moon base. Obviously Jamie, in this episode, did the same. They solve problems more than just the traditional out think it or out muscle it. I appreciate the foam as a monster theme again. I think for a cheap prop it works fine. I thought there was good writing. And even though we rehashed the Ice Warriors, we saw a different side of them also. I’ll miss having waddling warriors.
R: No, you won’t.
P: <laughter> So, as for the arc, I think this – it got weak in the middle and was strong on the ends. I think that’s an okay formula. It’s clear that they squeezed one or two episodes out of this. This is one of the few arcs where there’s enough scenery in the show to not make you think about the scenery. Usually you use the same jungle over and over. But this arc they seemed to introduce a new set every episode.
K: They did do the run down the same corridor three times in the weather station in this episode, though.
R: But even then, it wasn’t as blatant as they often are.
P: On that, I though the solar weapons looked like giant googly eyes.
E: Well, now that you’ve said that, I can’t unsee it.
P: I think that’s it. I like it. It was…okay.
H: Ronelyn?
R: <computer voice> “Mmmmartian-hissing-cockroach-invasion-averted. Nnnnew-adventure-underway-ooo-space-pirates-sounds-exciiiting.”
H: So, nothing about the episode or the story itself?
R: Hi. I’m Ronelyn. Have we met?
H: Point taken.
K: I likely this overall story. It was fun, and I love foam as a bad guy. I hope the Ice Warriors have learned their lesson, and no better to invade a planet on which they can’t hope to survive. Historian, I assume that this story takes place after the previous Ice Warriors story in regards to the timeline on earth.
H: I don’t believe it does. Which yes, doesn’t wind up making much sense, since the guys at the Ionizer base hadn’t heard of the Ice Warriors. This isn’t the first time on Doctor Who that this sort of thing has happened. And whatever the Internet tells you may, or may not, be correct.
P: Well, according to the Internet, the 1967 story the Ice Warriors takes place in the 30th century. The Seeds of Death occurs in the 21st century. The 2013 story, Cold War, takes place in 1983. And the Curse of Peledon is in the 40th century. So essentially, every 10 centuries they show up.
H: And, presumably, the Monster of Peledon also takes place in the 40th century, since it takes place about 25-30 years later.
K: So, this story takes place before the previous story. And, in fact, this is the last story that chronologically takes place on earth.
H: Yes, so far.
K: Anyway, fun story. It was awesome. Go, Historian.
H: I’m gonna have the last word when I do the story wrap-up.
K: You think you are, anyway. <muhuhahaha>
H: <ignoring her> But I’ll just reiterate, that I think this is a fun story. It’s actually a lot more fun that I remember it being. And Troughton is just great. I’ll just end this looking to the future, and say I’m very exciting about the next story, because I have never seen any of it. I have heard things about it, but I have never seen any of it.
P: And you call yourself a historian.
E: Uncharted territory, huh?
H: Yup.
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NEXT WEEK: THE SPACE PIRATES PART 1
