The next, and sadly last for the foreseeable future, animated missing Doctor Who story has arrived in the large and hairy shape of “The Abominable Snowmen”, the first story to feature the Great Intelligence and his robotic Yeti, a fact that has become more important after the discovery of most of its sequel story roughly a decade back. It’s also a rare story in that I only experienced it once in my life prior to this, as a photo recon with the only existing episode (Episode 2) in the middle, and it was so dull I never wanted to go back to it again. Does the animated version improve the experience? Let’s find out!
The story on paper is an extremely atmospheric and interesting one as The Doctor (Patrick Throughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) arrive at a Tibetan Monastery, deal with monks both warrior and not, and encounter large Yeti creatures. Sadly the actual episode was filmed in Wales when it wasn’t snowy and a lot of the Tibetan monks were just white guys “yellow-faced”, so I have to say that for the first time the animated version does the story more justice than what actually got filmed thanks to them creating great looking snowy Tibetan mountains and, um, let’s say “more correctly depicting a Tibetan man named Thonmi”. This isn’t a criticism of the original, it was a 60s TV show after all and didn’t have access to actual Tibet or the ability to CG one, but it’s what really stood out to me when I watched the existing Episode 2 after having watched the full six part colour animated version the day before so I thought I’d mention it. The other animations are fun takes on the originals, and certainly my go-to for the entirely missing stories over photo recons, but this was the only case where it felt it did the actual story “better”.
A much more realistic depiction of a man in Tibet looking at robotic Yeti holding a glowing orb. REALISTIC.
So the story then! The Doctor excitedly returns to the Det-Sen Monastery, where he apparently had an unaired adventure before where he left with a holy bell called a Ghanta, but is soon captured and accused of murder due to his fur coat making explorer Edward Travers (Jack Watling) assume it was The Doctor who had killed his explorer partner dressed as a Yeti and Monastery head guard Khrisong (Norman Jones) is happy to believe he’s also responsible for the missing monks that have similarly been blamed on the Yeti, which have been uncharacteristically approaching the monastery. So arriving at a location and being blamed for a murder… your regular day for The Doctor!
Jamie and Victoria soon arrive after an encounter with the Yeti in a cave (where Jamie gets hold of a mysterious metal sphere) and the Victoria soon befriends guard Thonmi (David Spenser) while they all take turns being accused of things and being put in cells, meanwhile we as the audience see the beloved Abbot Songsten (Charles Morgan) is taking advice from a superbly creepily voiced Master named Padmasambhava (Wolfe Morris) who is controlling the Yeti with wooden figures and hypnotising the Abbot, claiming to be serving the Great Intelligence.
The Doctor tries not to laugh at Thonmi’s haircut and outfit.
It’s a fun set up but there is a definite lull in the middle, lessened by the animation but it was a reminder why this stuck in my head as “one of the dull ones” as the slower paced, in-and-out of prison episodes as a series of black and white stills didn’t inspire excitement. There are some fun Doctor and Jamie moments though, especially a scene where one of the “Control Spheres” tries to insert itself back into a Yeti and our lead duo faff about with their hands and rocks to try and stop it. I wish that clip survived, I bet Mr. Troughton was hilarious!
One of the big changes in the animated version (not counting the scenery and correct look of the Monks I’ve already mentioned) is Padmasambhava, who in the original is a (white) man who looks a bit old whereas in the animated version he’s a grey husk with a twisted grin and glowing green eyes when possessed. Given it’s revealed Padmasambhava has been alive for centuries the animated version certain makes more sense and fits the aforementioned super-creepy voice better in my opinion, so I really enjoyed that change as well. As you can tell the animated version went down well with me!
The Continuity:
The Doctor tries to explain the plot of an extra-dimensional force controlling robot Yeti in the middle of the Himalayas to the extended cast.
Obviously the two major ones are its direct sequel, just a few stories later, in “The Web of Fear”, and the Eleventh Doctor Christmas Special “The Snowmen”, which acts as something of an origin story for the Great Intelligence. There is also a First Doctor audio story called “The Secrets of Det-Sen” that shows how The Doctor first met Padmasambhava and left with the bell that’s mentioned throughout the story. Haven’t listened to that one yet myself…
Overall Thoughts:
A shot of an “actual” Yeti. Don’t you just want to hug it?
The Abominable Snowmen is still a good example of a story that would’ve been better off four parts rather than six, but I will say that the new animated version gave me new appreciation for the story it was trying to tell, and while I would’ve preferred “The Wheel in Space” to be the final (for now) animation, I’ll take being able to watch all the Great Intelligence stories at long last.
The Great Intelligence is summoned by a glowing pile of spheres shaped like a triangle (the sound of which drove ME crazy as it pierced through my soundbar at far-too-loud a decibel!) and The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Thonmi enter Padmasambhava’s chamber and try to resist the Intelligence’s great power long enough to destroy the machines summoning it but fail to do so until the arrival of Travers and one of Khrisong’s top men (Khrisong having been killed earlier in the final episode) allowing Jamie and Thonmi to smash the equipment and send the Intelligence away. Padmasambhava thanks The Doctor for finally freeing him as he turns to a skeleton and then dust. It’s a dramatic fight, with (and this is the last time I’m bloody typing this name…) Padmasambhava floating in the air and taunting with his creepy voice and shooting green light everywhere. I assume the actual filmed end was a little less dramatic, but I guess we’ll never know!
The Doctor tries to resist looking up Padmasambhava’s skirt.
As The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria head back to the TARDIS with Travers the latter spots an actual Yeti and goes after it with great excitement, which was a fun little bit at the end, though given Travers in “The Web of Fear” only has a robo-Yeti as proof of his adventure he clearly didn’t get very far…
Hogan Reviews 