The abominable snowmen (1967)

Review
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Review

This was a six-part serial, first broadcast between 30th September 1967 - 4th November 1967. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: accompanied by Jamie and Victoria, the Doctor visits a Tibetan monastery in order to return a sacred bell that had been given to him for safekeeping during an earlier visit. The Tardis crew don't receive the warm welcome that they expect. The abominable snowmen of the title - the yetis that have always lived peacefully in the mountains surrounding the monastery - have turned into killers, and evil lurks in the monastery's inner sanctum...

What I've seen:

Part two. The other five parts are lost.

The good news:

it's a good, unusual story
part two works surprisingly well as a stand-alone episode. It's not too difficult to get at least some idea of what's gone before - the Doctor has been locked up by the monks, who've grown distrustful of strangers, and Jamie and Victoria were separated from the Doctor and have just escaped being killed by a yeti - and in part two we get a great deal of plot development. We see the Doctor return the sacred bell and learn about his earlier visits, we learn about the yetis' changed behaviour and discover a possible explanation, and we find out that the abbot is under the influence of something that lurks in the monastery's inner sanctum. Although with four more episodes to go there's no plot resolution, the episode does end with a nice cliff-hanger
the sets, costumes and location work are excellent
there are good performances by both regulars and guests

The somewhat less good news:

the yetis are too cute to be believable foes. Then again, so are grizzly bears
there's the usual 'Asian characters being played by British actors' thing that was common in the 1960s, though in this case there's no glaringly obvious yellow-face makeup

My verdict:

Nice!

Another singleton that's worth seeing.

More about Doctor Who

An introduction:
Doctor Who reviews: introduction

More "nice!" Doctor Who:
Doctor Who reviews: nice!

More from the Patrick Troughton years:
Doctor Who reviews: 1966 - 1969

Similar stories:
Doctor Who reviews: alien invasion

Original version of this review:
06/11/14

More about this serial

Episode guides:
BBC Cult

Serial reviews:
Outpost Gallifrey

DVD reviews (of the 'Lost in time' boxed set):
Outpost Gallifrey

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