3 out of 5

Directed by: Gerald Blake

While falling into the classic “over-selling the mystery” bucket of Who episodes, The Abominable Snowmen nonetheless creates a uniquely reserved – almost stately – vibe that keeps it interestingly compelling, until the final couple of episodes collapse under plotting silliness.

After a lead-in setting up our serial’s monster, Doc, Jamie, and Victora land back on Earth, and Doc gets giddy at realizing that we’re on the Himalayas.  While Jamie and Victoria discuss geography (see?  It’s still an educational show), Doc digs out the snow gear and a special bell – a rather MacGuffin item, for all the focus it gets – that he states he’d like to return to a nearby monastery.  Jamie and Victoria should stay put, though!  Because it’s how these things go so they can stumble across trouble!  Sure enough, not only do our companions soon run afoul of a yeti in a nearby cave – and some odd metallic spheres – but the Doctor’s friendly visit turns into detainment as he’s suspected of being involved in the murder of yeti-researcher Edward Travers’ partner, an event depicted in that lead-in.  While this reeks of normal Who plot-extending shenanigans, scripters Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln don’t dawdle: Jamie and Victoria get out of the cave all on their own, and the monks eventually listen to reason (okay, fine, the bell helps here) and let Doc loose… after, uh, a requisite witch trial.  Not the most peaceful monks.

Some interesting business with the spheres reveals a nice twist regarding the yetis, and eventually Doc and the monks are aligned in trying to figure out what’s what.  The monastery’s master may be involved, and while this seems like a missed opportunity to ‘reveal’ the master as some pre-established foe, Haisman and Lincoln admittedly do something on par by coming up with a suitable sci-fi touched explanation, and one that would end up having lasting impact as a returning baddie.  Unfortunately, the runaround to resolving the yeti ordeal and besting the villain feels very forest-for-the-trees, taking about three episodes too long to do something simple, and resulting in a silly battle of the wits (presumably our low budget solution to a face-off) while Jamie hilariously smashes things in the background.

As 5 out of 6 of these eps are lost to time, discussing the direction is questionable, but Gerald Blake’s treatment of the material is a bit plus/minus.  The single available episode (the second part) shows a very withdrawn point of view, hanging back in scenes with a single setup and letting events take center stage.  There’s similarly very little music (if any; I don’t recall any, and the wiki page lists no composer) and none of the usual Troughton mirth once things get going.  The performances illicited are solid, though, giving the serial a serious vibe that ends up serving the bit-by-bit reveals of the script well.  As this drags on, though, it’s too reserved, giving the impression of interminable conversations.  And the sloppiness of the conclusive sequence suggests (again, totally assumed since we’re just going off of stills and dialogue) that Blake didn’t know exactly how to move out of this single set-up comfort zone.