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The Doctor first encountered the Ice Warriors in the distant future when our planet was threatened by the grip of a new Ice Age. As glaciers rolled across the world, scientists struggled to arrest their advance and keep Earth habitable. But one creature was quite at home in the chilly conditions… A huge, green humanoid that had been frozen alive in ice for possibly thousands of years… Once thawed it turned out to be a militaristic Martian: An Ice Warrior!

The nature of the Ice Warriors was revealed quickly enough. This revived alien, called Varga, kidnapped one of the Doctor’s companions and talked openly about resurrecting his fellow warriors, also trapped in ice, in order to conquer the planet. It’s worth noting that even at this point Varga was partly motivated by a fear and suspicion of humanity. ‘They would not help me!’ he said of the humans. ‘They would keep me as a curiosity,’ he added, ‘And they would leave my warriors for dead, or destroy them…’ Varga succeeded in reviving a number of comrades but their schemes to take over our planet were foiled.

The Ice Warriors had another crack at the conquest of Earth using deadly seed pods but again the Doctor was on hand to derail their plans. It’s no wonder that when the Third Doctor was forced to work with a delegation of Ice Warriors on the planet Peladon, he was highly suspicious. Surely these two Martians - Ssorg and Izlyr - were lying when they insisted their people had renounced violence, except in self-defence? The Doctor got his answer when Ssorg saved his life and the delegation joined forces with their old foe to defeat a poisonous threat to Peladon’s future.

But back on Peladon, years after this encounter, the Doctor discovered a faction of Ice Warriors still used guile and violence to achieve their goals. Of course, these rogue Martians were defeated but it emphasized that when it comes to the Ice Warriors, there are no stone cold certainties…