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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.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

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