Although this is the third instalment of Demon Quest, the dating of A Shard of Ice places it before the second instalment, A Demon in Paris, which is set later in the 19th Century.

This section sees the Doctor and Mike Yates travel to a snowy mountainside on the basis of a book of fairytales obtained in The Relics of Time.  The book has an illustration depicting the Doctor and Mike being terrorised by a huge monster.

They meet Albert Tiermann, a storyteller to the king and discover that, since he was a child, he has been visited by an ‘angel’.  Unsurprisingly, this angel turns out to be the demon central to this series who has been laying an elaborate trap for the Doctor.

There’s not a lot to this story, to be honest.  It isn’t packed with Magrs usual barmy ideas, preferring to go for atmosphere.  The snowy wasteland allow the Doctor and Mike to track down the demon whilst Tiermann agonises over his own personal issues.  Samuel West plays Tiermann as is solid enough (also providing the narration) and the rest of the cast are fine.  Richard Franklin, back as Mike after cameos in the first two instalments of this series, is dependable and stoic but doesn’t really do a huge amount.  Tom actually seems a little more reined in for this story, responding perhaps to the atmospheric production rather than the zany ideas he seems to believe he has to give a zany performance.

Historically, this story is very vague.  Whereas The Relics of Time was very clearly set during the Roman invasion of Britain and featured Emperor Claudius and, as we’ll see, The Demon in Paris features the Moulin Rouge and Toulouse-Lautrec, this story, as I’ve said, is more about the atmosphere of a snowy locale – possibly Germany or somewhere similarly European.  I think there is an attempt to go for a fairytale vibe, in keeping with the book which draws the Doctor and Mike to this time and place, but I wouldn’t say it’s particularly successful.

I haven’t got a huge amount more to say about this instalment.  As the middle section of the series it did seem to be treading water a little.  It was obvious who the demon would turn out to be and with far more happening in the instalments either side, this one did leave very little impression on me.