Wrath of the Ice Warriors (audio story)

Wrath of the Ice Warriors was the second and final story in the audio anthology Beyond War Games, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Andrew Smith and featured Michael Troughton as the Second Doctor, Jon Culshaw as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Emma Noakes as Raven.

Publisher's summary
Plunged into the middle of a desperate mission by his new masters, the Doctor is delighted to be reunited with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT near Cape Wrath, Scotland. The Doctor's arrival coincides with the sighting of black cylinders in the sky and an attack on a trawler by a 'creature o' the sea.'

The Doctor quickly realises he is dealing with Ice Warriors and investigates with the help of the Brigadier and local crofter Sheena Flynn. With a space fleet lurking in the vicinity of Jupiter, the Doctor believes the Martians are planning a new invasion of Earth – but who is the true enemy?

Battle lines are drawn and the Doctor races against time to prevent Earth being caught in the crossfire.

Part one
Aboard the Sandpiper west of Cape Wrath, Tam Walsh sees black cylinders floating in the sky and, as he makes a transmission to nearby boats, watches as one is shot down. Skaar, an Ice Warrior, climbs onto the boat and pushes Walsh aside to get to his communication device, which he finds is useless to him, before diving into the sea with swimming lights which disappear along with him. Walsh and his men agree not to talk to anyone about the experience.

The TARDIS materialises in space near Jupiter and detects a repeating signal from Earth. The Doctor spots a flotilla of warships and calls out to Jamie and Zoe before remembering that they are no longer with him. He follows the beacon to a Ministry of Defence firing range at Cape Wrath and is separated from the TARDIS by live fire. He meets Sheena Flynn, who is painting nearby and offers to give him a lift to the military base, but a helicopter lands nearby and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart gets out.

Sheena returns home and the Doctor joins the Brigadier in the helicopter. The Brigadier shows him a black cylinder which Archie Anderson found on the north shore, impenetrable and covered in scorch marks, which the Doctor recognises as a stealth pod and is able to open. He surmises that it was shot down and tells the Brigadier about the signal and the flotilla near Jupiter, mysteries which they might be able to solve by finding the pilot.

Skaar forces his way into a lighthouse and questions Dougie about the location of the building's secondary power source before threatening to kill him if he does not run away. Although the lighthouse's radio is primitive, Skaar believes that it could suffice for his purposes. Dougie flees and tells Sheena what has happened; they watch Skaar leave the lighthouse carrying radio equipment and batteries and head to the army base.

The Doctor and the Brigadier go to the lighthouse to investigate Dougie's story, Sergeant Major Roach taking men to surround the perimeter whilst they go inside. From the stealth pod's dimensions and the description given by Dougie, the Doctor believes that the pilot is an Ice Warrior, possibly a scout sent ahead of an invasion. The Brigadier gives the Doctor a transceiver radio and goes to lead the search for Skaar whilst the Doctor goes to speak with Sheena to "pick her brains" over local knowledge.

On the way to a bothy, Sheena's car radio picks up an interference signal caused by a nearby radio transmission. The Doctor believes that it is being transmitted by Skaar and attempts to tell the Brigadier, but his radio is blocked and he instead tells Sheena to deliver the message. However, Skaar appears and tells them that they made a mistake coming here before firing his sonic cannon.

Part two
The Land Rover is damaged by the sonic weapon and the Doctor and Sheena are forced to disembark. Skaar is surprised that the Doctor knows of his kind and of the flotilla and takes the two of them into the bothy, although the Doctor believes that Sheena is remarkably calm. Skaar's signal into outer space needs amplification and he threatens to harm Sheena unless the Doctor helps him; he agrees and uses his sonic screwdriver to boost the range before sending a coded message to the Brigadier.

Skaar denies the Doctor's claim that he is part of an invasion force, stating that he has no ambition to invade the Earth, but refuses to answer any further questions. He decides to salvage technology from his stealth pod, the location of which Sheena informs him, and orders them to lead him to the base on foot.

The Brigadier orders Roach to have the engineers find the source of the transmission. They head towards the bothy and are attacked by Skaar, but the Doctor uses his screwdriver to send a sonic vibration through his armour. The screwdriver breaks when Skaar knocks the the Doctor away, but the Ice Warrior is left unconscious and the Doctor removes the power cell for his weapon. Sheena heads home and the Doctor and Brigadier transport Skaar back to the base, but an Ice Warrior ambush forces them to get out and hide under the vehicle. Skaar is taken away by spaceship.

As Goonhilly is unable to detect any craft in the upper atmosphere, the Doctor surmises that the Ice Warriors stayed close to ground level and could be hiding in the caves. The Doctor and the Brigadier go to warn Sheena that Skaar is at liberty once more and learn from her about Tam Walsh, whom she takes them to see in Kinlochbervie. Walsh tells them about the "sea creature" who boarded his trawler and confirms that it looked like a drawing that Sheena drew; he writes the coordinates of the encounter down for Sheena, who then arranges a boat with the harbourmaster.

The Doctor, the Brigadier and Sheena take to sea and arrive before the Royal Navy frigate that the Brigadier sent. The Doctor accuses Sheena of working with the Ice Warriors, having told them of Skaar's capture and now led him and the Brigadier into a trap. Ice Warriors emerge from the waters and declare that they are their prisoners.

Part three
An Ice Warrior submarine emerges and Lady Zelanda disembarks, ordering the Doctor, the Brigadier and Sheena to come aboard. The Brigadier believes that UNIT will soon be here, but the Doctor tells him that Sheena has given them the wrong coordinates and sent them miles away. The submarine descends to the Ice Warrior base and, during the journey, the Doctor tells Sheena that he knew that she was a spy from her drawing, which was of an Ice Warrior other than Skaar.

At the base, the Doctor and the Brigadier are taken to the detention cells despite Sheena's insistence that it is not necessary. They find that Skaar has also been detained and learn that he is an opponent of Lady Zelanda, sent to locate her and report back to his faction once he had done so in order that she might be executed. She and her sympathisers were exiled in suspended animation for trying to assassinate her father, the Grand Marshal, due to his dismissal of her expansionist ideas. She now has the flotilla of Martian and mercenary ships awaiting her signal to attack Mars and seize power.

The Doctor is taken to Lady Zelanda and Sheena by Idnal. Lady Zelanda plans on accelerating her plans now that the humans know of their presence on Earth and goes to send a message to the fleet, leaving Idnal to watch the Doctor and Sheena. Sheena tells the Doctor how she saw the Ice Warriors land and fell over a cliff edge whilst running, after which they tended to her wounds and attached a machine to her heart. Believing that they were refugees, she agreed to help them keep hidden and eventually seek asylum.

Preparing to board her command ship with the unwilling Doctor and Sheena to travel to Mars with the flotilla, Lady Zelanda begins to flood the detention cells to drown the Brigadier and Skaar. Sheena distracts Idnal by running away and the Doctor turns off the power, allowing the Brigadier and Skaar to escape. Idnal takes the Doctor and Sheena to the ship and the Brigadier and Skaar attract UNIT's attention by tricking Lady Zelanda into remotely detonating the submarine in an attempt to kill them. As UNIT approaches, the command ship emerges from the seas to fly to Mars, with Lady Zelanda deciding that Earth will be her second conquest.

Part four
Approaching Mars, Lady Zelanda orders her ships into an arrowhead formation and has the Doctor and Sheena strapped into chairs. The fleet dives into the atmosphere and prepares engage surface defence batteries and, although they meet no such opposition and Idnal can detect no heat nor technology signatures, they open fire. The flotilla returns to the upper atmosphere and Lady Zelanda sends a message to the Grand Marshal which receives no response. The Doctor surmises that she and her sympathisers were in suspended animation for centuries and that Mars has since been abandoned.

The Ice Warrior ships land south of the Strassis Rift and those aboard travel to the Fortress Citadel in armed transporter vehicles to investigate. Idnal can detect no life within and, after a search, reports that there is indeed nobody there. The Doctor, Sheena, Lady Zelanda and Idnal go to the throne room, from which the Grand Marshal would have oversight of the entire planet, and Idnal finds that the computers still operate; Mars, they find, was abandoned almost five-thousand years ago due to a thinning of the atmosphere known as the Red Dawn. Still wanting to be Empress, Lady Zelanda tries to find out where her people have gone, but the Doctor causes the power systems to overload and runs away with Sheena as the ground quakes.

The Doctor and Sheena reach a transporter and drive to Lady Zelanda's ship whilst being shot at. The engine of the ship is hit, preventing them from taking off, and Idnal boards to kill them both. The Doctor is contacted by the Brigadier, who has come to Mars with his men and Skaar. Skaar attacks from the sky, killing Idnal, and the Brigadier provides the Doctor and Sheena with spacesuits. Lady Zelanda demands assistance from the mercenaries as UNIT soldiers attack, but they inform her that they are leaving as their contract has technically been completed. She instead takes Sheena captive and drives away in a transporter, threatening to kill her unless the Doctor provides her with a ship and safe passage off of Mars.

Lady Zelanda takes Sheena to the Strasis Rift to meet with the Doctor. The Doctor offers to take Lady Zelanda with him in his TARDIS in return for Sheena's life, but she believes that it is her destiny to be Empress and refuses the offer. Sheena struggles to get free and accidentally causes Lady Zelanda to fall over the cliff to her death. The Doctor comforts her and says that it is time that they got her home. Upon returning to Earth, the Doctor says goodbye to Sheena and the Brigadier and dematerialises in the TARDIS, telling them that he is not a free agent at the moment.

Raven is impressed by the Doctor completing his mission and, having found that he works best alongside a known ally, sends coordinates to his TARDIS. She attends to her prisoner, Celestine, who remains delirious and does not know who he is. When Raven asks who he is, he says that he is the Emperor of the Daleks and laughs.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Michael Troughton
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Jon Culshaw
 * Zelanda - Katy Manning
 * Sheena Flynn - Lucy Goldie
 * Skaar / Tam Walsh / Dougie - Mark Elstob
 * Idnal / Ice Warriors - Nicholas Briggs
 * Raven - Emma Noakes

Uncredited

 * Celestine - Nicholas Briggs

Continuity

 * The Doctor says that he will have to build a new sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth; AUDIO: Lost and Found)
 * The Brigadier would later allude to the Ice Warrior attack when interviewing Liz Shaw, telling her that there had been "two attempts to invade the Earth" since UNIT had been formed shortly before the Cybermen invasion of Earth. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
 * During a bout of post-regeneration trauma, the Fifth Doctor briefly reenacted his second incarnation's fight against the Ice Warriors with the Brigadier. (TV: Castrovalva)
 * The Doctor mentions that Mars' atmosphere has evaporated. (TV: Empress of Mars)