PRODUCTION CODE
NN
WRITTEN BY
MERVYN HAISMAN & HENRY
LINCOLN
DIRECTED BY
GERALD
BLAKE
RATINGS
6.9 MILLION
RECOMMENDED
PURCHASES
'LOST IN TIME' DVD BOX SET (BBCDVD1353)
RELEASED IN NOVEMBER
2004;
AND 'THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN'
AUDI CD (ISBN 0-563-47856-X) RELEASED IN JULY 2001.
BLURB
The
TARDIS MATERIALISES IN the snowy Himalayas, and the Doctor is astonished
to find the Detsen monastery under attack, apparently From the Yeti which
are said to roam the mountainside. Furthermore, he discovers that his
friend the High Lama is still alive, his ancient body under the influence
of an apparenTLY UNEARTHLY FORCE...
BBC ARCHIVE
ALL BUT EPISODE TWO ARE MISSING. |
The Abominable
Snowmen
30TH SEPTEMBER 1967 - 4TH
NOVEMBER 1967
(6 EPISODES)
Doctor Who’s
fifth season will forever
be remembered for its begetting two new breeds of monster: the Martian
“Ice Warriors”, who would show up in the next serial, and the Yeti, who
make their auspicious debut here.
Being the first serial of fifth production block to be shot, this serial
was afforded the luxury of a week’s location filming, which took place in
Snowdonia, North Wales, at the start of September 1967. Location shoots
were still incredibly rare at this point in the series’ history, but as
this serial ably demonstrates, they make a profound difference visually.
The Abominable Snowmen’s telesnaps, and to a lesser extent its
orphaned surviving episode, offer us a fleeting glimpse of the broad,
filmic vista that helped to make this story such a hit when it was first
broadcast.
“There’s a great deal of difference between the Highlands and the
Himalayas, Jamie.”
The first few episodes of the serial are slow moving, but compelling.
Episode 2, which is now available on the Lost in Time DVD, is not
the best showcase for the serial’s aberrantly-inspiring cinematography as
the plot gets bogged down for long periods inside the Detsen Monastery,
but it does allow viewers to get to know the story’s characters, who are a
particularly alluring bunch. Travers, the prototypical bearded explorer,
is played by companion Deborah Watling’s esteemed father, Jack, whose
gravitas lends a lot of weight to the proceedings. Norman Jones enjoys a
similarly memorable turn as warrior monk Krisong, who takes an instant
dislike to the Doctor and his companions. The Abominable Snowmen
follows the tried-and-tested Who formula whereby the Doctor is
initially suspected of wrongdoing and so has to gradually earn the trust
of the people who initially suspected him, but it does so with much more
poise than its peers. To see the impish Doctor slowly win over Travers,
Krisong and the monks is a delight to watch – or, indeed, hear.
However, as it’s action-packed in the extreme, Mervyn Haisman and Henry
Lincoln’s script is unusually light on dialogue and thus very difficult to
appreciate through listening the BBC Radio Collection’s soundtrack
release, even when we have Frazer Hines’ helpful narration to light the
way. Plot points and gags hang on exclusively visual elements - for
instance, the Doctor and Victoria mistake the Doctor in his shrouding
sheepskin coat for a “hairy beastie” early on, as does Professor Travers,
who initially thinks that the Doctor may have attacked him (when in fact
it was a Yeti). Fortunately, when the narrated soundtrack is listened to
in synch with the telesnaps, one can start to get more of a feel for the
serial’s lost episodes.
One
of my strongest memories of the Terrance Dicks’ Target novelisation of
this serial is its underlying humour, most of which revolves around the
Doctor and Jamie’s comic capers, and particularly their immortal
one-liners: “They came to get their ball back”; “Bung a rock at it”; et
al. Victoria, conversely, spends most of the narrative doing little else
besides furthering her unfortunate ‘screaming young girl’ reputation,
which is, in fact, the story’s only real weakness.
Indeed, on transmission The Abominable Snowmen proved such a big
hit with the viewing public that a sequel for later in the season was
immediately commissioned, and whilst many don’t put this six-parter on the
lofty pedestal that they do its moody sequel, it is still generally
considered to be one of Patrick Troughton’s finest adventures and serves
as an extraordinary introduction to the Great Intelligence and their
monstrous robotic servants.
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