Who's the Ice Warrior?

So, in Silent Stars, Dan rants on (he brings it up more than once, and it seems to cause him some concern) about how, in The Ice Warriors, Victoria is the one who names the Ice Warriors 'Ice Warriors', but then the Ice Warriors seem to quite happily call themselves 'Ice Warriors' as if it's their actual race names.

Oh noes! What a continuity blunder! The entire canon of Doctor Who will surely never sustain such a blow to its integrity!

Well, just as well I'm here to explain this.

Let's go with Victoria does name them. So, then, in people's minds, at that point, they are called the Ice Warriors. Now, enter the TARDIS. We know the TARDIS does the actual translating (what, you think the Martians are speaking English?), so then whenever the Martians are talking, and refer to themselves, the TARDIS thinks 'aha, when they say their race name, I'll simply translate it to Ice Warriors, 'cos that's what everyone else already thinks of it as'. (And this simple translation trick works for the audience too.)

But wait, you really nit-picky people say. Walters was the one who first uses the phrase 'Ice Warrior'! Aha, now we move on to the next part of the theory. Let's skip ahead to The Seeds of Doom. Which, of course, happens before The Ice Warriors. When the Doctor and co turn up, once again, we can have the TARDIS translating the race name. But also consider that the Doctor is the one saying 'it's the Ice Warriors!', so that fixes that name into everyone's mind then. And from that point on, for humans from 2070 onwards the big green Martians are Ice Warriors. Which is why the name comes to Walters later.

(Or, if you follow other media, insert Red Dawn from Big Finish audios in that role instead.)

Ta da!

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