The Abominable Snowmen

The Abominable Snowmen is the mostly missing second serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 30 September to 4 November 1967.

In this serial, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) arrive in Tibet in 1935. The once gentle Yeti have turned savage and besieged a Buddhist monastery, under the orders of a higher being known as The Great Intelligence. After becoming ensnared in its plans, the crew join forces with Professor Edward Travers (Jack Watling) to stop the being and save the planet from conquest. The story is notable for the introduction of the Yeti and The Great Intelligence.

Only one of the six episodes is held in the BBC archives; five remain missing. The story is due to be released in animated form in 2022.^[1]

Plot[]

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Professor Edward Travers, an anthropologist and explorer, is awoken from his sleep when he hears the screams of his companion. He is horrified to see a lumbering, hairy creature standing over his friend's lifeless body.

The TARDIS lands in Tibet in the Himalayas. The Second Doctor talks about a monastery's bell he has from a previous journey and then goes to explore by himself. He sees a large footprint and, while he is examining it, a hairy creature passes behind him unnoticed. The Doctor goes back to the TARDIS to take the bell and advises Jamie and Victoria to stay in the TARDIS.

The Doctor finds the two empty sleeping bags, the twisted remains of a rifle and a dead man. The Doctor arrives at Detsen Monastery, which seems to be deserted. A group of men comes in and the Doctor is accused of having killed Travers' companion, based on the fact that the Doctor is carrying their sack. While the Doctor is locked in a cell, Travers tells him about his mission: finding the Yeti. It appears there have been some deaths recently, but the Professor says the Yeti cannot be the culprit because of its shy nature.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Victoria decide to step outside. They find the big footprints all around the TARDIS. Jamie would like to obey the Doctor and go back to the TARDIS, but Victoria insists and they find a cave, in which they are soon trapped. The two try to find another exit and accidentally discover a chamber containing a pyramid of metal spheres. Suddenly a Yeti moves the boulder that blocked the cave. Jamie tries to fight it with a scimitar, but the Yeti is too strong. Jamie causes some rocks to fall on it and he and Victoria are able to escape with one of the strange illuminated spheres. They head toward the monastery, where the Doctor is still being detained on Khrisong's orders. He has, nevertheless, been able to pass on the Ghanta to the friendly monk Thonmi. Thonmi takes it to Abbot Songsten, who is in communion with the master of the monastery, Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava knows the Doctor from his previous visit, and though he knows of the Doctor's wisdom, he fears he will intervene in The Great Plan. Thonmi is told to depart, his memory wiped of what he has heard, though given the instruction that the Doctor should be released unharmed.

The Doctor has meanwhile been placed on trial and, as a test of whether he controls the Yeti, is tied to the doors of the monastery to lure the Yeti out. Travers has by now met Jamie and Victoria, who convince him the Doctor is no threat. The trio return to the monastery to see the Doctor freed on the Abbot's instructions. Shortly afterward, the Yeti advance in an abortive attack on the monastery, during which one of them is overpowered and rendered dormant. The Doctor deduces it is a robot, controlled by a missing spherical unit from its chest cavity.

The awakened Yeti battles its way out of Detsen, killing warrior monks and leaving Khrisong angry that Thonmi opened the door to allow it to flee – albeit to avoid further bloodshed. Victoria and Thonmi are imprisoned for supposedly reviving the creature. The Abbot reports to Padmasambhava that their plan is working, and the old master replies that the Great Intelligence is taking on corporeal form. To make way for the next phase, Padmasambhava orders all monks to leave the monastery.

When the Doctor and Jamie reach the TARDIS, they find it guarded by another Yeti, but it is inactive and the Doctor takes out its control sphere, which then returns to life. Jamie prevents it from re-entering the dormant Yeti by lodging a rock in the open chest cavity. They head back to the monastery, where the Doctor forges an alliance with Khrisong based on the need to enable the monks to stay at the monastery. Realising the monks will not leave peacefully, Songsten opens the gates of the monastery to more Yeti.

Victoria has escaped and ventured alone to the Inner Sanctum of the monastery, where she finds Padmasambhava. Victoria realises he is commanding the robots. He wipes her mind of their meeting and summons more Yeti to attack. The Doctor helps Victoria recover from her trance-like state and listens to Travers, who is recovering his senses and explains about the cave and the pyramid. The Doctor pieces together the nature of the threat while Travers recalls that Songsten was in the cave too. It is clear Songsten is the link between the Yeti and the monastery.

In the Inner Sanctum, Songsten has bowed to the will of the Great Intelligence and slays Khrisong. The Doctor and his friends arrive and overpower Songsten, realising he has been entranced. Songsten is bound and returned to the other monks, and the violence of his manner persuades them that he is the threat to Detsen. The Doctor tells the monks to flee so that he can defeat the Intelligence. With Jamie, Victoria, and Thonmi, he plans to destroy the equipment the Intelligence is using through Padmasambhava to control the robotic Yeti. They venture to the Inner Sanctum, where the Doctor distracts the being while Thonmi and Jamie destroy the equipment used to relay instructions to the Yeti. Destroying a further pyramid of spheres expels the Intelligence and, left in peace, Padmasambhava dies. With the danger over, the travelers depart. Travers accompanies them up the mountain and his belief in the real Yeti is renewed when he spots one. He charges off to investigate as the TARDIS departs.

Production[]

^† Episode is missing

All episodes except for episode 2 are missing.^[4] Brief clips from episode 4 exclusively focusing on the Yeti also exist.

The North Wales mountain pass at Nant Ffrancon doubled as Tibet for the filming of this serial.^[5] Filming was done there from 4 to 9 September 1967.^[5] According to Jack Watling one of the actors playing the Yeti fell hundreds of feet during filming and was feared dead, but was merely inebriated and fortunately cushioned by the foam rubber inside the costume.^[6]

Cast notes[]

The character of Professor Travers is played by Jack Watling, the father of actress Deborah Watling, who plays Victoria.^[6] Norman Jones later played Major Baker in Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) and Hieronymous in The Masque of Mandragora (1976).^[7] Ralpachan is played by David Baron, often said to be the playwright Harold Pinter under a stage name. Pinter has since denied this rumour. David Baron was indeed Pinter's name for the purposes of Equity, the British actors' union, but he had relinquished it by the time this serial was produced.

Commercial releases[]

In print[]

Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	Chris Achilleos
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	1
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	21 November 1974
ISBN	0-426-10583-4

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in November 1974. At Barry Letts' request several Buddhist terms used in the screenplay as names were modified for the novelisation. There have been French, Portuguese and Turkish editions. When Target Books began numbering its releases in 1983, it chose to do so alphabetically rather than based upon publication or broadcast order. As a result, the novelisation of The Abominable Snowmen was identified as book number 1. An un-abridged reading of the Target novel was released by BBC audio on CD in February 2009. It is read by David Troughton, the son of Patrick Troughton who played the Doctor in this story.

Home media[]

All known copies of Episode 2, including audio recordings made by fans during the original broadcast in 1967, contain a brief audio dropout late in the episode. The Doctor is examining a captured Yeti and is supposed to say, "You were right about one thing Victoria — this creature certainly doesn't seem to be flesh and blood!" In what appears to have been a fault with the master videotape recording, the sound cuts in with "...toria..."

The original VHS release of the episode saw the soundtrack manipulated to cover the dropout, whilst maintaining the running time of the episode. The DVD release contains a "patchwork repair" of the fault, performed by Mark Ayres of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, using the appropriate words spoken by Troughton with the correct vocal inflections, taken from other Second Doctor episodes.

Audio[]

The audio soundtrack, along with additional linking narration by Frazer Hines, has been released on MP3 CD, along with The Web of Fear.^[8] A collection box entitled "Yeti Attack" contains both Yeti adventures on normal CD.^[9]

A vinyl release of the soundtrack, also with the Hines narration, was issued by Demon Records on 27 September 2019. This release has since become rare and difficult to come by.^[10]

Video[]

In 1991, Episode 2 was released on VHS as part of "The Troughton Years". In 2004, that episode, along with a handful of clips gathered from other sources, were digitally restored and released on the Lost in Time DVD.

Animation[]

On 23 November 2021, it was announced that the story would be released on DVD and Blu-ray, with animations of all six episodes alongside the surviving Episode Two.^[1]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Second Doctor

• The Abominable Snowmen at BBC Online
• Photonovel of The Abominable Snowmen on the BBC website
• Doctor Who Locations – The Abominable Snowmen

Target novelisation[]

• Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database