Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors (novelisation)

 was a novelisation based on the 1967 television serial The Ice Warriors.

1976 Target Books edition
The world is held in the grip of a second Ice Age, and faces total destruction from the rapidly advancing glaciers.

DOCTOR WHO, with Victoria and Jamie, lands at a top scientific base in England, where they have just unearthed an ancient ICE WARRIOR. Aliens from Mars, preserved in the ice for centuries and now revitalised, the Ice Warriors feel ready to take over...

Can the Doctor overcome these warlike Martians and halt the relentless approach of the ice glaciers...?

2012 BBC Books edition
Varga struck the fractured ice with his great fist. He faced his comrades bodly and barked a command at their lifeless forms: "Awake from the dead!"

The world is in the grip of a second Ice Age. Despite a coordinated global effort, the glaciers still advance. But they are not the only threat to the planet.

Buried deep in the ice, scientists at Brittanicus Base have discovered an ancient warrior. But this is no simple archaeological find. What they have found is the commander of a spaceship that crashed in the glacier thousands of years ago. Thawed from the ice, and knowing their home Mars is a dead world, the Ice Warriors decide to mare Earth their own...

Can the Doctor and his friends overcome the warlike Martians and halt the advance of the glaciers?

''This novel is based on a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 11 November to 16 December 1967. This was the first Doctor Who story to feature the Ice Warriors''.

Featuring the Second Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton, and his companions Jamie and Victoria.

Chapter titles

 * 1) Battle against the Glaciers
 * 2) Two Minutes to Doomsday
 * 3) Creature from the Red Planet
 * 4) Back from the Dead
 * 5) The Omega Factor
 * 6) Under the Moving Mountain
 * 7) Diplomat in Danger
 * 8) The Martian Ultimatum
 * 9) Counter-Attack
 * 10) On the Brink of Destruction!

Deviations from televised story

 * The cause of the Ice Age is rewritten. In the original story, it was caused by the end of farming for agriculture; with the reduction of plants, there was too little carbon dioxide produced and the planet cooled. In the novelisation, mankind started "artificial recycling of waste gases to produce more oxygen" and "intensive depollution processes" that, due to a minor calculation error, took away too much carbon dioxide.
 * The Second Doctor shows several mannerisms from the Third Doctor (i.e. "my dear chap"), which the 2012 reprint attributes to Hayles having recently written two stories for Pertwee.
 * The Brittanicus Base computer is named ECCO in the novelisation.
 * The novel's dialogue and Varga himself identifies him as a 'Warlord'.
 * The section in which Jamie and Penley encounter a bear is cut from the novel.
 * Instead of there being five Warriors as in the episode, there are six.
 * Zondal is given the rank of lieutenant.

Writing and publishing notes

 * The cover and information from the original Target Books edition features the artwork of Chris Achilleos.

British publication history
First publication:
 * Hardback
 * W.H.Allen & Co. Ltd. UK


 * Paperback
 * Target

Re-issues:
 * 1978 W.H. Allen priced 60p (UK)

Editions published outside Britain

 * This book was to have been published in the USA by Pinnacle Books in 1980 as a paperback edition, however when Lyle Stuart Inc secured the rights to distribute the Target Books in America the plan was shelved.

Audiobook
This Target Book was released as an audiobook on 7 January 2010 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Frazer Hines.

The cover blurb and thumbnail illustrations were retained in the accompanying booklet with sleevenotes by David J. Howe. Music and sound effects by Simon Power.