Doctor Who “The Abominable Snowmen Part 1”

Alright, I got my hands on another animated recreation of an old Second Doctor serial, this one a set that had only one surviving episode.  I’m not sure there are going to be any more of these in the future.  Many that were produced are a bit out of my price range to get my hands on, and I believe the decision was made not to produce any more after one of the most recent.

Too bad.  One I would love to see, “The Highlanders,” the first serial to feature Jamie McCrimmon, won’t be produced because of all the plaid cloth being a bit too rough to animate.  In the meantime, hey, the Yeti!

So, the TARDIS lands in Tibet.  What year?  I’m not sure.  There’s some British explorers who got attacked the night before, one killed, the other Professor Travers, didn’t really see what happened, but that’ll come into play later.

Fun fact:  Professor Travers was played by Deborah “Victoria Waterfeld” Watling’s father Jack.

Anyway, the Doctor is so excited to see where they are that he goes to an old trunk to find, well, a bell.  He calls it something else.  Neither Jamie nor Victoria know what it is.  Then again, Jamie’s never heard of the Himalayas before, and Victoria thought they were in India, so they may not be the most knowledgeable.  The Doctor does find some other stuff before he finds the bell.  There’s an amplifier.  He doesn’t know what that is.  Jamie found some bagpipes he thinks he can fix.  The Doctor wishes he won’t.  He does find his Yeti-fur coat, one of the Second Doctor’s more memorable costume additions, and Victoria eventually finds the bell.  This bell will, the Doctor claims, give them a fantastic welcome wherever the end up.

Then he tells his two companions to stay put while he goes off to check things out.

Huh.

So, there’s some more bits with Jamie and Victoria in the TARDIS, and one thing that jumped out to me, something that told me this is early in Victoria’s stay, is it is her idea to go looking around outside.  This is the same young woman who spends many of the later serials utterly terrified at, oh, everything.  She’s the one who wants to go exploring?  Jamie is the one who wants to stay put?  I mean, he found a sword, but there’s some evidence of something big and hairy hanging around outside the TARDIS.

Meanwhile, the Doctor finds Professor Travers’s wrecked camp and knapsack.  He then goes on to a Tibetan monastery for what I am sure will be a culturally sensitive portrayal of the locals.  Small problem there:  Travers is there, and he thinks the Doctor must have been the guy who attacked his camp and killed his companion, especially bad since the Doctor was wearing that particular coat and had the knapsack.

That could be a problem.

I mean, all Travers wants to do is find a real Yeti.

Jamie and Victoria, maybe, do.  They find a cave.  With an automatic door.  And a pyramid of weird globes.  And a Yeti that breaks swords when he comes in.

Lousy Yetis.  Always breaking things…

But Victoria was screaming, so that’s the Victoria I know.  Maybe next time, she’ll just stay in the TARDIS.