The Abominable Snowmen is a story that introduces the Yeti to the Doctor Who world. The story is set in Tibet in 1935 where the Doctor is revisiting despite us not having seen the Doctor in either incarnation. The locals are fearful of the of the Abominable Snowmen who in reality are robots. I must say that this is a nice thing to do in mixing myth with science and having a creature that has alien bits. The first half of the story is very atmospheric and is wonderful engaging.
It’s a shame that this story doesn’t exist on video in its entirety because there was a lot of location filming in Snowdonia and in the exisiting episode it looks wonderful and its not very often that this can be said but the location filming is something that goes in the stories favour. The Abominable Snowmen starts off as an atmospheric tale that was good enough to warrant a sequel which in TV terms would come very quickly, in three months they would come to terrorising the sewers of London. The story starts off building up things and one could argue that it takes too long to build things up but I have to admit that it spent just about the right amount of time setting things up before the main action begins.
The performances from everyone is something that is a positive thing in this story. In the supporting cast the one performance that stood out was of Jack Watling as Travers. Not just because he is Debroah Watling’s father but because the character is perhaps the closest that the viewer can relate to in this story. On the regular front I think that Frazer Hines and Debroah Watling are on good form and work well together and its remarkable how far Jamie has come since his debut story and he does well being at the centre of the action.
The story changes direction in the latter half of the story changes and it then becomes a base under siege and that’s when it falls into a base under siege story like The Moonbase and The Tenth Planet but doesn’t do it
The actual look of the Yeti isn’t perhaps the most convincing design ever created. The main issue is that it looks like a bloke in fur outfit. Something that was clearly created with the intention of it being the next Dalek, the next thing that would make the creators money. Sadly this wouldn’t be the case. This is slightly disappointing but it gets away with it due to the size of them. Their not your normal sized monsters.
The Abominable Snowmen is a good story that starts off in one direction and goes off into another. It’s obvious why they were popular and its quite right but I think that on audio this story isn’t perhaps the best story ever. But you know if only we could design a time machine and stop this story from being wiped.
It’s a shame that this story doesn’t exist on video in its entirety because there was a lot of location filming in Snowdonia and in the exisiting episode it looks wonderful and its not very often that this can be said but the location filming is something that goes in the stories favour. The Abominable Snowmen starts off as an atmospheric tale that was good enough to warrant a sequel which in TV terms would come very quickly, in three months they would come to terrorising the sewers of London. The story starts off building up things and one could argue that it takes too long to build things up but I have to admit that it spent just about the right amount of time setting things up before the main action begins.
The performances from everyone is something that is a positive thing in this story. In the supporting cast the one performance that stood out was of Jack Watling as Travers. Not just because he is Debroah Watling’s father but because the character is perhaps the closest that the viewer can relate to in this story. On the regular front I think that Frazer Hines and Debroah Watling are on good form and work well together and its remarkable how far Jamie has come since his debut story and he does well being at the centre of the action.
The story changes direction in the latter half of the story changes and it then becomes a base under siege and that’s when it falls into a base under siege story like The Moonbase and The Tenth Planet but doesn’t do it
The actual look of the Yeti isn’t perhaps the most convincing design ever created. The main issue is that it looks like a bloke in fur outfit. Something that was clearly created with the intention of it being the next Dalek, the next thing that would make the creators money. Sadly this wouldn’t be the case. This is slightly disappointing but it gets away with it due to the size of them. Their not your normal sized monsters.
The Abominable Snowmen is a good story that starts off in one direction and goes off into another. It’s obvious why they were popular and its quite right but I think that on audio this story isn’t perhaps the best story ever. But you know if only we could design a time machine and stop this story from being wiped.
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