‘HOT ICE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Len Skeggs, Ventrosians and the Eye of Gaar with the Fifth Doctor and Peri

This story called ‘Hot Ice’ is by Christopher Bulis. It features the Fifth Doctor and Peri. This is a ‘Doctor Who’ short story set between ‘Planet of Fire’ and ‘The Caves of Androzani’, and before the Doctor and Peri meet Erimem in ‘The Eye of the Scorpion’. I greatly enjoyed reading this short story.

It’s my first encounter with Christopher Bulis as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer. In the story, the Doctor and Peri find themselves in the cellar of a house before they go upstairs to track the source of a neutrino pulse that the TARDIS picked up. They’re soon being framed for stealing a very unusual gemstone. 😐

Ending up back in the TARDIS to find the gemstone in a box on the console and a cable connected to a star-drive nearby, the Doctor and Peri are met by two hooded figures that turn out to be the priests of the Temple of Garr on Ventros Prime. They accuse the Doctor for stealing the gemstone. 😮

The gemstone happens to be called the Eye of Gaar and the priests are Ventrosians. They have a refrigeration system on their planet Ventros Prime that cools their body heat, as they would die on exposure to Earth. The priests refuse to hear the Doctor’s claims that he and Peri have been framed.

After the Doctor and Peri are paralysed; an old man, who owns the house, destroys the priests. He steals the Eye of Gaar before he gets knocked out by Len Skeggs, a housebreaker and a thief. The old man ends up killed, because he’s a Ventrosian, and Len gets killed by the gemstone turning into gas.

‘Hot Ice’ rating – 8/10