Something is coming for the Doctor and his new companion, Bill. Writer and actor Mark Gatiss has confirmed that the Ice Warriors — the fearsome Martian race of armored reptilian humanoids — will be returning for Season 10 of Doctor Who.
BBC America’s official Twitter account released a video on January 31 featuring Gatiss holding an Ice Warrior figurine and excitedly promising the return of the armored Martians.
“Good evening. It’s time to welcome back sssssssome old friends,” Gatiss said, copying the hissing speech pattern of the lizard-like Ice Warriors. “I’m bringing back the Ice Warriors again. One of my favorite monsters. It’s a thrill a minute.”
Gatiss is writing the upcoming Season 10’s as-yet-unnamed Episode 10, and this video counts as the first look into what his episode could possibly be about. In the video, Gatiss promises that the episode will have “a sort of Bank Holiday Monday feel, the kind of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs story of derring-dos I’ve always loved.”
But, he promises, there’s a twist! Apparently, there’s a new kind of Ice Warrior making its way onto the small screen for Peter Capaldi’s last season as the Doctor.
The inclusion of the Ice Warriors is yet another callback to the Doctor Who of old. Ice Warriors were first introduced in classic Who and were an adversary to Patrick Troughton’s 2nd Doctor. They were a bit less menacing back then, especially in comparison to the 11th Doctor’s run-in with them during Season 7’s “Cold War,” when humans threatened to start a race war aboard a Soviet submarine.
Even with the promised “new kind of Ice Warrior” from Gatiss, the mere presence of Ice Warriors might act as a way to bring back the nostalgia of old Who. And wouldn’t that be an excellent send-off for the 12th Doctor?
