Thursday, April 11, 2013

Loving the Enemy or my fascination with the Ice warriors

This is an exciting year for Doctor Who fans, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention it.  So I'll be remiss, because I want to talk about something else happening to Doctor Who this weekend, something that is very exciting for me.  The Ice Warriors are back.

Those of you that know me or have read any of my Doctor Who Posts on this blog know that I have an unhealthy liking for the Ice Warriors.  But I don't believe I have ever taken the time to explain why.  In this post I am going to do that, In celebration of the return of the Ice Warriors I am going to let every one know why I love these second tier icy bad guys of the Whoniverse.

I got my introduction to the Ice warriors when I was very young with the Pertwee story the Curse of Peladon.  This story has all of the elements I love in my sci-fi.  A vast Space operatic federation, with intrigue, alien races, schemes, murder and a big fury monster.  Within all of that though is a morality tale about racial discrimination.  This story includes the Ice Warriors (or more accurately Martians)  as part of the grand Galactic Federation.  They are pitted to be the bad guy throughout most of the story, and the Doctor doesn't trust them, because he has encountered them before.  But these Ice Warriors are not the bad guys, and in a way they even turn out to be the heroes by saving the Doctor.

The story was great and had a great atmosphere but what I took away from it over 25 years ago is that the Ice Warriors (and Ice Lords) are awesome.  I had never experienced a story, at least in Doctor Who, where the monster turns out to be the good guy, where the Doctor misjudged someone based on his past history with their race.  Now that is not to say that it hadn't happened but I hadn't thought about it like that at my age.  The story really spoke to me and so did the Ice Warriors.

Unfortunately this is the only time (on TV) that the Ice Warriors have been treated like this.  They were the villains in their previous 2 stories, and again in the sequel to Peladon, and unfortunately we never saw them again on the show.  They have however shown up in novels and Big Finish audios and they have shown up as both the villains and the allies of the Doctor, and this is always exciting.

This Idea that an alien race can have the same sensibilities as the human race really captured me as a kid and still does now.  The idea that there are good Ice Warriors and Bad Ice Warriors is stunning to me.  

Now all of that leads me to mention "Cold War" which is going to air this weekend and bring back the Ice Warriors after nearly a 40 year absence from our TV screens.  The images of the Ice Warrior that we have seen so far are pretty amazing.  They are really going back to the roots of making them viking like with some of the small designs in the costume, while at the same time staying very true to the design.  The story, however is what I am most curious about

This story is a historical and appears to be taking place on a submarine.  I have a feeling it is going to harken back more to the Second doctor's encounters with the Ice warriors, in which there is an ancient Ice warrior who came to earth from Mars during our Ice age and has been rediscovered and hence re awakened.  The Ice Warrior will be the villain in this story.  While it is not the way I would bring the Ice Warriors back (I would bring back the Galactic federation and all of it's space opera glory!) I feel it will not let us down as being a good trapped inside with a monster story.

I look forward to this story and hopefully it will be successful enough to bring the Ice Warriors back the way they should be brought back, with their honor in tact!

Just as a note for those of you who don't know my name of the internet has been Izlear for about 15 years now.  This of course hearkens back to Izlyr, the Ice lord from the Curse of Peladon.    


Why do you love the monsters you love in Doctor Who or any other show you love.  Leave your thoughts in the comments below!      

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Life With Fandom Updates and welcomes!

It has been an incredibly long time since I have updated the blog.  I have found myself working on a project (which should eventually be for the blog) that has taken me a lot longer to get finished than I thought it would, but on the bright side it is indeed coming along, so look for that in the upcoming weeks (hopefully).

In the meantime I want to let you all know about some changes that are coming to Life With Fandom.  Since the very beginning of the blog I have always wanted it to be about more than just me.  It started out about my life in Doctor Who fandom, and then evolved into a toy and 80s nostalgia blog.  All of these are things I love and am deeply involved in.  That, however still hasn't really scratched the surface of what I wanted to do.  I wanted to include others.  I wanted Life With Fandom to be many people's lives with fandom.  I wanted to document things people like!  I am able to say I am doing that.

It will be a slow rollout but Life with Fandom is growing.  There will be more than just me writing on the blog.  To begin with we are adding Brad and Stacy Rader, the creator of Battle Babies and the Geekyvixen herself.  They will begin posting pictures and blog posts here on Life with Fandom as we begin to join forces and build the next version of the site.  Other posters are also ready to come on board and will be introduced soon.

We are also planning on expanding even more and we are going to be jumping into podcasts etc.  The videos from New Monster will continue and will continue to be featured here, and of course my new project will be brought to you here soon too.  So I hope I can actually live up to these promises this time.

Hopefully you will hear from us all more often and soon!  So be sure to welcome our first new contributors to the site!