14.02.2022

It's fine. I enjoyed the constant barrage of crises to be solved. The Ice Warriors' depiction is one of the strongest I've seen (or rather heard) so far. The message about honor is great, though rather flat in this play.

Sometimes you still get lost though. I caught myself not understanding how we got to this point in the story several times. Also mirroring attempts between Ice Warriors and humans don't really go anywhere and aren't really addressed, and I expected it to be the most interesting part of the story when they went there. Still, a solid story. 3/5

Red dawn is pretty fun and I like the characterisation it gives the ice warriors, probably the most interested I've been in them from anything I've them in seen yet (only revival who). That said, this feels kind of pain by numbers. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, just kind of meh, not something I can ever see myself going back and relistening to.

If this is what the ice warriors are like on big finish (or in classic) though, I understand the hype for them and wish they were used better in the revival.

Overall a solid and high 5/10.

MR 008: Red Dawn

A fairly straightforward story of humans coming into contact with the last ice warriors on Mars. A corporation funds an expedition to Mars with NASA. Naturally, of course, the corporation has other motives than just putting a human on Mars for the first time.

This is also the first time we're getting a Five/Peri story! That's actually pretty exciting. I think Peri makes Five more interesting. Much like he is most of the time, the Fifth Doctor is very passive in this story. He's led around by the nose, observing what's happening while other people do things and then ultimately getting kidnapped. It's Peri who actively participates in the plot. And she's a queen. She takes control of the situation when she's kidnapped by the evil corporation rep. She helps land a shuttle. She negotiates with the Ice Warriors.

The corporation is here because they've already found evidence of alien habitation on Mars and they want even more. They ideally want an alien to bring back and dissect with the ultimate goal of making Human/Ice Warrior hybrids. Like with a lot of Ice Warrior stories, the Ice Warriors themselves are not at fault here.

It ends up being an average "humans suck" story, and I'm generally here for those kinds of stories, particularly when the human that sucks is doing it for a corporation. He kidnaps one of the Ice Warriors and then when that doesn't work he plants a bomb on the remains of a warrior that the other Ice Warriors are guarding.
He gets away with hostages and agrees to a hostage swap with the Ice Warrior commander. The other Warriors will not fire to kill their commander and so the commander sacrifices himself in the "Red Dawn." The atmosphere is too thin to protect from UV radiation which kills him as soon as the sun comes up. Thus leaving the warriors open to attacking the shuttle. It's a nice ending and fitting for Ice Warriors.

There's also an Ice Warrior/Human hybrid already that had been cloned in a lab. The corporation brought her as insurance for when they needed to use the Ice Warrior technology. She decides to stay as an ambassador to humanity, which is also a nice ending.

Despite it being fairly straightforward and average, I still liked it. Just a nice little tale about human greed running headfirst into the honor of the Ice Warriors.

it's okay, nothing too extraordinary but it's nice. a little slow to get to the point, with a very irritating villain!

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Planet of Fire

I'd be lying if I said this was an interesting story, but it does play with some interesting ideas. Most notably, the Ice Warriors here are not the villains. That's not an entirely unique idea, but it's done distinctly enough to make this story a bit of a breath of fresh air. Also, this features a fairly different portrayal of the Ice Warriors in that they aren't played by Nick Briggs. So while the actual adventure isn't outstanding, it was different enough to not make it a chore to listen to.

In fact, I quite liked how competent the Ice Warriors were. They could have easily added an extra part or two of the Doctor getting captured and re-captured while trying to convice everyone that they should all be friends but they didn't. The Ice Warriors trusted him fairly quickly and that gave a chance for another antagonist. Unfortunately he was fairly unremarkable, but I'd say he served his purpose well in the story.

The cast are not exceptional here, all giving average performances but it is an interesting note that Georgia Moffett (Peter Davison's daughter) plays a role here. But in the end, this story is pretty much standard fare for a Doctor Who story, but pretty unique for an Ice Warrior story.

Next Story: The Eye of the Scorpion