Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen


The Abominable Snowmen is the second serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 30 September to 4 November 1967.

The TARDIS lands in Tibet in the Himalayas, where The Second Doctor finds a dead body amid the remains of a campsite. The Doctor arrives at Detsen Monastery, where he meets Professor Edward Travers, who is attempting to find the Yeti. It appears there have been some deaths recently, but the Professor says the Yeti cannot be the culprit because of its shy nature.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Victoria find a cave, in which they discover a chamber containing a pyramid of metal spheres. Suddenly, a Yeti moves the boulder that blocked the cave. They escape and head toward the monastery.

The Doctor has been accused of controlling the Yeti and placed on trial. Jamie and Victoria convince Prof. Travers that the Doctor is no threat. The trio return to the monastery and show the sphere to the Doctor, who turns it over to the monks. Padmasambhava, the master of the monastery, instructs one of the monks, Thonmi, to release the Doctor.

Shortly afterward, the Yeti attack the monastery, during which one of them is overpowered and rendered dormant. The Doctor deduces it is a robot, controlled by a missing spherical unit from its chest cavity. Padmasambhava orders all the monks to evacuate.

When the Doctor and Jamie reach the TARDIS, they find it guarded by another Yeti, but the Doctor takes out its control sphere. They head back to the monastery, where the Doctor forges an alliance with Khrisong based on the need to enable the monks to stay at the monastery. Realising the monks will not leave peacefully, Abbot Songsten opens the gates of the monastery to more Yeti.

Victoria realises Padmasambhava is the one commanding the Yeti robots. He wipes her mind of their meeting and summons more Yeti to attack. The Doctor helps Victoria recover from her trance-like state and listens to Travers, who is recovering his senses and explains about the cave and the pyramid. The Doctor pieces together the nature of the threat while Travers recalls that Songsten was in the cave too.

It is clear Songsten is the link between the Yeti and the monastery. The Doctor and his friends arrive and overpower Songsten. Songsten is bound and returned to the other monks, and the violence of his manner persuades them that he is the threat to Detsen.

The Doctor, Thonmi, and Jamie destroy the equipment being used to control the robotic Yeti. Left in peace, Padmasambhava dies. With the danger over, the travellers depart. Travers accompanies them up the mountain and his belief in the real Yeti is renewed when he spots one. He charges off to investigate as the TARDIS departs.

To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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