...a visit by the Fifth Doctor and his companion Amy led to the fall
of the race. The two time travellers were looking for a decaying
segment of the Key to Time, one of which was took the form of a
pyramid's capstone. The segment had begun its decay, causing
earthquakes. The Doctor and Amy, along with Zara and Harmonious 14
Zink, who were also looking for the segments, reached the top of the
pyramid. Zara, who was a sentient tracer, activated the segment,
leaving with Zink's time ring. This led to the formation of a gravity
well which sent earthquakes and hurricanes across the planet for three
decades. These devastated the Martian civilisation. Some managed to
get off world but most remained on Mars where they fought amongst
themselves for food and shelter. After thirty years, the energies from
the segment of the Key to Time had been spent and the ground had
settled. What remained of their race emerged onto their world where
they planned to rebuild, even if it took them a thousand years.
(AUDIO: The Judgement of Isskar)
Despite this honourable goal, the Ice Lord Izdaal had been observing
the sky. His studies determined that their atmosphere was no longer
capable of keeping out radiation from outer space. This would
eventually kill them all. He told the government that their turmoil
was not over and with the evidence of sickening children, he declared
that their world was no longer sustainable. (AUDIO: The Judgement of
Isskar) He was ignored by his people. Izdaal made the ultimate
sacrifice. To prove himself right, he elected to step outside and face
the Red Dawn, knowing he would die. (AUDIO: Red Dawn) His death led to
his people coming to the same conclusion and they worked to survive,
slowly becoming a conqueror race that took what they wanted from
others. (AUDIO: The Judgement of Isskar) A group of Ice Warriors
remained in suspended animation on Mars to protect Izdaal's tomb.
Risking never being woken up, Izdaal's guardians lay inside their
tombs waiting for a lifeform with enough honourable intentions to make
it past the biometric locks inside the tomb, having "much" to offer to
the Ice Warriors as they would to any Earth lifeforms that would
discover the tomb. (AUDIO: Red Dawn)
According to the Twelfth Doctor, Mars' atmosphere had "all but
evaporated", and the surface was "lifeless" before 1881. He told
Iraxxa that the Ice Warriors could not survive without help. Friday
agreed with the Doctor. (TV: Empress of Mars)
At some point prior to his travels to ancient Mars, the Fifth Doctor
was surprised that there were Ice Warriors still around by the 21st
century; he assumed they "all" left Mars after its atmosphere thinned
"centuries" before the 21st century, while Lord Zzaal said the Ice
Warriors had discovered "primitive, early life" developing on Earth
before his people went into suspended animation. (AUDIO: Red Dawn) The
Eighth Doctor dated this time as "many millions of years" before the
23rd century. (AUDIO: Deimos)
The Eleventh Doctor claimed that the Ice Warriors were scattered "all
across the universe". (TV: Cold War) After the fall Edit
Following the destruction of Mars' atmosphere, the Ice Warriors fled
to Deimos, one of the planet's moons, where they constructed catacombs
and placed themselves in suspended animation in the hope of one day
either reclaiming Mars or conquering Earth. A human-made exhibit on
Deimos dramatising the lead up to Izdaal's walk into the dawn
mentioned that Earth was unsuitable to be conquered and inhabited "at
this point in history" and that the Ice Warriors had nowhere to
evacuate to. It said that Ice Warriors would one day awaken from the
tombs to become "rightful" rulers of the Sol system. (AUDIO: Deimos)
Lord Zzaal, whom had placed himself in suspended animation around the
same time as those on Deimos, also told the Fifth Doctor that at that
point the Earth's environment was unsuitable for them. According to
Lord Zzaal, even without the threat of the dawn, the low temperature
and loss of water would mean an Ice Warrior could only survive for a
few days. (AUDIO: Red Dawn)
As Mars died, one million Martians remained trapped in suspended
animation on board the generation ship that had become the moon
Phobos. (PROSE: Crimson Dawn) Similar installations existed in the
asteroid belt in the Sol system. (AUDIO: Deimos)