Seen the photo of that base-type set which is sure to get people drooling ahead of Series Nine of Doctor Who hitting our screens later this year?....
...That's the one. Well, if you're a fan of the Second Doctor, or ' Troughtonist/ite', you may well cast your mind back to Britannicus Base, which hosted the team responsible for the discovery of the first Ice Warrior in the début appearance of the ruddy cold Martians.
Back then the Doctor, Jamie & Zoe soon found themselves drawn into the hoohah after the Base's team of scientists make a big discovery, actually the Warrior-
ARDEN: Walters, drill here. Now clear that trench, Walters, while I prepare the seismograph probe.Only it isn't quite a woolly mammoth, is it?
WALTERS: Sir. Get your drill ready, Davis. Sir!
ARDEN: Yes?
WALTERS: Come quickly, sir! I could swear there's something inside.
ARDEN: Oh, not another mastodon.
WALTERS: Well, look for yourself, sir.
ARDEN: Is it a man?
WALTERS: Perhaps it's an animal.
ARDEN: Well, we'll soon find out. Davis, the heavy drill.
DAVIS: Yes, sir.
ARDEN: A giant among prehistoric men.So that's the name sorted then. Best to crack on with thawing him out, though we'll soon see that's not the brightest idea anyone ever had! Confusion reigns.
WALTERS: See the kind of armour he's got on?
ARDEN: Yes, that's rather strange. He looks pre-Viking. But no such civilisation existed in pre-historic times, before the first ice age.
WALTERS: Proper Ice Warrior, isn't he, sir? I reckon Leader Clent'll be interested.
ARDEN: Yes. What'll the mighty computer make of it, ay?
VICTORIA: What is it?After the Warrior emerges & takes Ms Waterfield hostage, we learn his name is Varga. And he's not all that happy to have been left trapped under ice all this time!
JAMIE: It looks like a Viking warrior. Look at the helmet.
DOCTOR: Frozen for centuries in the ice. Perfectly preserved. Ooo, that's odd though.
JAMIE: What?
ARDEN: Who are you?
CLENT: An addition to our staff, Arden. What's odd, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well the helmet, it's wrong. When this man was frozen to death only primitive cavemen existed.
VICTORIA: Who are you?
VARGA: (hissing) Varga.
VICTORIA: Where are you from?
VARGA: From the Red Planet.
VICTORIA: Mars? We thought you were dead and then you came alive. What happened?
VARGA: Too many questions.
VICTORIA: I'm curious, that's all.
VARGA: I need answers from you.
VICTORIA: I don't think I can help you very much.
VARGA: Answers.
VICTORIA: Is that a gun?
VARGA: How long was I in the ice?
VICTORIA: I don't know, I.....One of the scientists said you must have been there since the first Ice Age. Thousands of years ago.
VARGA: That cannot be true.
VICTORIA: Were there others with you?
VARGA: Yes. Our spaceship crashed at the foot of the ice mountain. As we came out to investigate, a great avalanche of snow buried us.
VICTORIA: Then the others are still trapped in the glacier, then.
VARGA: I will free them. Then we will return to the Red Planet.
VICTORIA: How? You can't get them out by yourself.
VARGA: You will help. How was I brought to life?
VICTORIA: Let the scientists here on Earth help you.
VARGA: Tell me! They would not help me. They would keep me as a curiosity, and they would leave my warriors for dead, or destroy them.
VICTORIA: No. No, they, they wouldn't.
VARGA: But with my men, I can talk from strength. Then we shall decide.
VICTORIA: Decide? Decide what?
VARGA: Whether to go back to our own world, or to conquer this.
Of course, the Doctor is able to defeat them- though they will return to sow The Seeds Of Death!
SLAAR: You would be wise to co-operate at once, otherwise you will be destroyed.
OSGOOD: Well I, I suppose that leaves me no alternative.
PHIPPS: Don't do it, sir.
SLAAR: Silence.
OSGOOD: There's a certain element of risk.
SLAAR: You are wasting time. What is happening?
OSGOOD: I'm afraid there has been a fault. The circuit's overloaded. Very unfortunate.
SLAAR: You have deliberately sabotaged this apparatus. Kill him.
In the light of Mark Gatiss' Cold War, too, it could be that the newest of the Doctors finds himself in very familiar 'base under siege' territory. Whether that base is Britannicus itself at a point before or after his first visit remains to be seen. But if indeed it is the site of his maiden meeting with the Warriors, the Twelfth could find himself with something of a moral dilemma. Does he side with the humans, as he did that first time? Or, does he perform something of an about-turn & ally himself with the Warriors?
After all Kill The Moon showed us that he's perfectly capable of leaving humanity to it when he deems such a course of action necessary.
CLARA: So what do we do? Doctor? Huh? Doctor, what do we do?And he's attempted mercy with the Warriors before-
DOCTOR: Nothing.
CLARA: What?
DOCTOR:We don't do anything. I'm sorry, Clara. I can't help you.
CLARA: Of course you can help.
DOCTOR: The Earth isn't my home. The moon's not my moon. Sorry.
CLARA: Come on. Hey.
DOCTOR: Listen, there are moments in every civilisation's history in which the whole path of that civilisation is decided. The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now. Now, you've got the tools to kill it. You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity. You don't need a Time Lord. Kill it. Or let it live. I can't make this decision for you.
SKALDAK: You attacked me. Martian law decrees that the people of this planet are forfeit. I now have all the information I require. It will take only one missile to begin the process. To end this Cold War.Ultimately, who knows? But if things are 'icy' then Peter Capaldi might fancy trying on that fur coat from The Abominable Snowmen at least.......
DOCTOR: Grand Marshal, there is no need for this. Listen to me.
SKALDAK: My distress call has not been answered. It will never be answered. My people are dead. They are dust. There is nothing left for me except my revenge.
DOCTOR: There is something left for you, Skaldak. Mercy.
SKALDAK: Mercy?
ZHUKOV: You must wear that armour for a reason, my friend. Let's see, shall we?
DOCTOR: No, Captain, wait!
ZHUKOV: I will do whatever it takes to defend my world, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes, great, fine, good, but we are getting somewhere here. We are negotiating. Jaw-jaw not war-war.
GRISENKO: Churchill? ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyxGN0Jb8WM)
DOCTOR: Churchill.
ZHUKOV: Very well, we'll negotiate, but from a position of strength.
SKALDAK: Excellent tactical thinking. My congratulations, Captain.
ZHUKOV: Thank you.
SKALDAK: Unfortunately, your position is not, perhaps, as strong as you might hope.
