Brian Hayles envisioned the eponymous Ice Warriors as Viking-like cybernetic creatures, with high-tech instruments on their armour and helmets. Costume designer Martin Baugh, however, saw the creatures as more reptilian, with the armour and helmet actually appearing as part of the monsters' carapace.
This episode was thought lost until 1988, when, along with the other three surviving episodes of The Ice Warriors, it turned up at The BBC Enterprises' Villiers House. They were only discovered as the company was in the process of moving out of the building.
The headpieces for the Ice Warriors were based on Anglo-Saxon helmets that were excavated from Sutton Hoo in 1938.
This episode was watched by 6.7 million viewers on its original transmission.
Fans voted this number 59 in a countdown of the 163 Doctor Who (1963) stories in Outpost Gallifrey's 40th anniversary poll in 2003.