The Abominable Snowmen

The Abominable Snowmen is the mostly missing 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. In this serial, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) arrive in Tibet in 1935, where they face off against the malicious Great Intelligence and its robot Yeti, who seek to conquer the world. This serial marks the introduction of both antagonists to the series, with both recurring in subsequent Doctor Who media.

The serial was written by Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman, who, after discussing the series with lead actor Patrick Troughton, decided to base a story set on Earth that featured yeti. This led to the creation of the robot Yeti and subsequently the Intelligence. Filming for the serial was done on location in Nant Ffrancon Pass in Snowdonia, and at the time was the longest location shoot performed for the series.

The serial is considered one of the best in the series by fans, with critics highlighting its atmosphere and the Yeti, though some felt the Yeti were too cute to be intimidating antagonists. Only one of the serial's six episodes survives, with the rest remaining missing. Due to the predicted popularity of the serial, a sequel, dubbed The Web of Fear, was commissioned before The Abominable Snowmen had finished airing, and would air in 1968.

The TARDIS lands in Tibet in the Himalayas, where the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) finds a dead body amid the remains of a campsite. The Doctor arrives at Detsen Monastery, where he meets Professor Edward Travers (Jack Watling), who is attempting to find the yeti. Travers believes the yeti cannot be the culprit due to their shy nature, but Victoria (Deborah Watling) and Jamie (Frazer Hines), the Doctor's companions, find a cave of metal control spheres, and a Yeti attacks them.

The Doctor is accused of controlling the Yeti by the monks of the monastery, though Jamie and Victoria are able to convince Travers he is innocent. The latter three return to the monastery and show a control sphere to the group. Padmasambhava (Wolfe Morris), the immortal master of the monastery, instructs one of the monks, Thonmi (David Spenser), 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 of the monks to evacuate.

The Doctor and Jamie find the TARDIS guarded by a Yeti, but the Doctor takes out its control sphere. They head back to the monastery, where Padmasambhava orders Abbot Songsten (Charles Morgan) to open the gates of the monastery, allowing the Yeti to attack. Victoria realises Padmasambhava is the one commanding the Yeti robots, but he wipes her mind and places her in a trance-like state, which the Doctor is able to free her from. Padmasambhava reveals to the Doctor that he is under the control of a being called the Great Intelligence, who possessed him and used his body to partake in an experiment.

The Doctor and Travers learn from Songsten that the Intelligence originally agreed to remain in the cave, and Padmasambhava and some of the monks aided in constructing the Yeti robots, but the Intelligence broke its promise and is bent on controlling the mountain of the monastery and conquering the world. The Doctor, Jamie, and Thonmi destroy the equipment being used to control the robotic Yeti. Padmasambhava dies as the Intelligence leaves him, its plans thwarted. Travers spots a real Yeti in the distance and pursues it as the TARDIS crew departs.

The serial got its start after writers Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman had spoken with then-lead actor Patrick Troughton, who expressed disappointment in the lack of Earth-bound stories in his first season as the Doctor. Lincoln chose the stories of the yeti as a suitable concept around which to create a serial of the program, as it was a creature viewers would be familiar with; it could also reasonably be adapted as the creature was never found, and thus was not proven to actually exist. Lincoln and Haisman brought up the idea with Troughton, who was interested and had wanted to be in a story with Yeti. Producer Innes Lloyd was interested in doing an episode set in the Himalayas and also saw the monsters as a potential replacement for the Daleks, which had recently been written out of the program. The Yeti, alongside other monsters such as the Cybermen and Ice Warriors, were one of many attempts by Lloyd to create such a replacement. The Yeti's debut serial was commissioned for six episodes. Lincoln and Haisman, before they had started scripting, ironed out designs for the Yeti, including the original concept for the Yeti's control spheres. They wanted the Yeti to look cuddly and friendly so that their strength would come as a surprise to viewers. The pair quickly realized the Yeti would likely not be sentient, resulting in the creation of their in-universe master the Great Intelligence to act as their controller.