The Doctor and Rose encounter the Ice Warriors…

We never got to see what Russell T Davies would have done with the Ice Warriors in the TV series, but Big Finish make up for that with this tale that pits David Tennant and Billie Piper’s Doctor and Rose against the honourable villains. Matt Fitton carefully treads a path with the characterisation that fits with what we learn later in the Moffat era (which tallies with the way they were reimagined to an extent in the New Adventures) and the classic series, to give us a story that, like the Peladon tales from “three” decades earlier, plays on our expectations of the Martians.

Fitton also picks up on aspects of the Tenth Doctor’s persona that haven’t been seen as much in this set, in particular his habit of forgetting to keep his ears open and his mouth shut at times. The “we know what we’re doing” attitude from the Doctor and Rose is more prevalent here, and Tennant and Piper pick up that vibe from the later series 2 stories well.

Nick Briggs does multiple duty here – hissing away in the booth as the director, as well as giving the Warriors their necessssssary ssssssibilance – while guest stars Keziah Joseph, Maureen Beattie, Sean Biggerstaff and Anthony Stuart-Hicks are given plenty to do, with Fitton ensuring that all the characters are as well-rounded as possible given the constraints of the format.

Verdict: A welcome return for the Ice Warriors, and a suitably epic end to the set. 9/10

Paul Simpson