Written by Brian Hayles, based on his scripts for the 1967 TV serial.

The Ice Warriors on TV is not a favourite of mine. A dull, B-movie plod back and forth between Brittanicus Base and a glacier while permanently angry characters snap urgently at each other about computer predictions and the need to do nothing. We have the fanatical bureaucrat Clent, the fanatical conqueror Varga, the fanatical survivalist Storr and the fanatical ditherer Penley. Jamie spends most of it sleeping, Victoria, the nearest pretty girl, gets kidnapped by the defrosted monster.

Brian Hayles’ adaptation can’t resolve the underlying weakness of the scripts, and the result is definitely a step down from Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon, but it’s not entirely tedious. The Doctor comes across well, with a marvellous description of Doctor Patrick: “from the box popped the head of what looked like a dazed jack-in-the-box… With its puckish features, tousled hair and bright-as-button eyes.” True, his habit of calling Jamie “lad” is a bit weird, but Hayles neatly captures the way this incarnation can puncture pomposity or over-confidence with a well placed one-liner. There is also a nod to the subsequent continuity of the Ice Warriors as the Doctor reflects that if Varga is told that Mars is long abandoned, he and his warriors will choose to conquer and colonise Earth. Sadly, the novel never quite sells the idea that about four Ice Warriors who can’t even get their spaceship started represent an existential menace, but it’s a good try. And despite this, Hayles can’t imagine a future that doesn’t involve the USSR.

Beyond this, it’s not a gripping read. It has its moments – the most vivid of which, as on TV, is the Ice Warrior’s pursuit of Victoria through a glacier – but the task of turning a puddle of slush back into crisp, shining snow is ultimately a futile one. Grade 4.

Next Time: Doctor Who And… The Revenge of the Cybermen.