Publication Information

Author: Brian Hayles
Cover artist: Chris Achilleos
Publishing date: March 1976

Episode Information

TV serial: The Ice Warriors
Writer: Brian Hayles
Transmission Dates: 11th November - 16th December 1967 (6 episodes)

Fact and Findings

This was Hayles' second and last Who novel, following on from Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon, and also featuring the Ice Warriors. His adaptation of his BBC television script The Moon Stallion was published by Mirror Books in 1978. The serial starred Sarah (Nyssa) Sutton who was featured on the book cover, and David (Pangol - The Leisure Hive) Haig.

Classic chapter title - On the Brink of Destruction! (the only contender for exclamation points).

First edition cover price - 40p

Later editions were numbered 33 in the Doctor Who library.

The original edition was published by Tandem (ISBN 0 426 10866 3). It was reprinted in 1978 with an amended cover (red logo) by W. H. Allen / Wyndham, priced 60p. The third impression was printed in 1980 by W. H. Allen (85p). It was reprinted in 1982 and again in 1984 (£1.35). The ISBN was retained throughout.

A hardback was also released in March 1976, published by Allan Wingate Ltd.  The ISBN was 8 5523 066 5 and it cost £2.25. The dustjacket cover featured the same Achilleos artwork with a white spine.

Brian Hayles died in October 1978, leaving his two other Ice Warriors stories and The Smugglers to be adapted by Terrance Dicks, whilst The Celestial Toymaker was novelised by Gerry Davis and Alison Bingeman, largely due to Davis having rewritten so much of the script as story editor.

Cover Data

The Chris Achilleos cover depicts Victoria being threatened by Varga, the Ice Warrior. It was reused by Target on their next editions with just changes to the logo colouring (red in 1978, blue in 1980) and cover style (no border by 1980).

This was the only cover artwork ever produced for Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors.

It was the first book not to feature the Doctor anywhere on the cover (Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet does not have the first Doctor on the front, but he is on the back of the original edition). The BBC and Target decided that policy would be only to feature the current TV Doctor on the covers and this was introduced gradually over the next couple of years.

The only change to the cover was the substitution of a blue logo and the loss of the black border in 1979.