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The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive in the snowy Himalayas
in the 1930s, where they find that a Tibetan monastery has
recently been attacked - apparently by yeti...
Although
its sequel The Web of Fear has already been released
by the BBC Radio Collection, this story marked the Doctor's
first encounter with the Yeti.
It
is interesting to note that while offering a scientific explanation
for the legendary hairy beasties - as robotic instruments
of the disembodied Great Intelligence - writers Mervyn Haisman
and Henry Lincoln offset this by maintaining that real yeti
also exist within the fictional universe of Doctor Who.
The monks in the story speak of the yeti's usually timid nature,
and explorer Edward Travers (Jack Watling - the father of
series regular Deborah) actually gets to see one at the end
of the tale. It's almost like The X-Files with one
if its "so it is spooky after all" kind of endings!
The
first two episodes of this six-part story romp along very
nicely, and Frazer Hines's voice-over sounds particularly
sprightly as he has to gabble rapidly to fit his narration
into the small gaps between dialogue and action. Once into
episode three, however, the pace slows down considerably.
Much of the dialogue is mere padding as characters wonder
who could be in league with the Yeti, even though the writers
have already blown the identity of the Great Intelligence's
agent by this time. It's a pity that Haisman and Lincoln didn't
maintain the mystery for longer, which is what they ultimately
succeeded in doing in The Web of Fear.
Certain
aspects of the production work better in this audio version
than they did on TV, however. For one thing, we cannot see
how cuddly the supposedly terrifying Yeti were on screen (unless
you watch the second episode on the Troughton Years
video). Nor do we see the complete lack of snow on the location
footage, which was filmed in Snowdonia in Wales during a warm
August.
This
release represents good value for money compared to The
Web of Fear, as it just fits on to two CDs. Yes, the plot
drags a bit, but it's far from being completely abominable.
Richard
McGinlay
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