The Abominable Snowmen episode 2 discussion:
Sp: <sings to Scooby Doo theme> Shiny metal poo, what are you? The plot is all about you!
Cz: That makes sense!
P: Okay, I thought they were magnetic bucky balls. Until they picked it up and I was like “nope.”
K: Well, Jamie stole one. Probably just like a previous companion stole the bell.
H: Shall we have that discussion? It said in the episode that there was an attack on the monastery the last time the Doctor was there. And the Doctor said in the previous episode that he’d been given the ganta for safe keeping. So the implication is that he was given it to take away so that it wouldn’t be captured or harmed in the attack. But someone could have stolen it.
M: It’s more fun to imagine Barbara klepto’d it.
P: We could entertain the notion that the Doctor is perhaps the most successful Time Bandit or antiques dealer in the history of the universe, also.
Sp: So, sorry to jump around a little bit, but let’s get Grimace the Adorable Snowman out of our systems here.
M: Sir Snows-A-Lot?
H: You will never get it out of your system.
Sp: So, “he’s a great scary, hairy beastie!” And they had to collapse a ceiling on him just to slow him down enough to escape… and a few scenes later monks with sticks and fishing net “fell” him.
H: The metal ball fell out.
Sp: They knocked loose his poo. So yeah, the suit worked better from a distance.
M: As far as other vaguely goofy things I have to say that Travers pointing a rifle at Jamie “oh, you have to help me please” it was like he didn’t realize he was pointing a rifle straight at him.
K: I thought he was lamely threatening him with the rifle to get Jamie to show him the cave.
M: I found it entertaining that he was being so friendly and cheerful but also pointing a rifle at him.
Sp: Well, A) Travers was slightly unhinged. And B) there’s such a history of safe gun handling on this show! My, I’m shocked!
H: <sarcasm… waving his loaded finger at Spoo like a gun> I can’t understand what you mean!?
A: Am I think only one here who grew up in the Northwest. Because I immediately thought of Ggoorrsstt the friendly Frpl, from the J.P. Patches show, that every kid in the Northwest used to watch. <Pacific Northwest US>
M: The yetis have gigantic hips!
P: Childbearing hips!
M: Or ballbearing hips.
Sp: Yet again the lack of soundtrack was really disorienting.
H: There’s not music in the entire story.
Cz: I thought you liked it better than being attacked by soundtrack.
Sp: I… would… if… half… the… dialog… would… hurry… … the… hell… … up.
P: That’s mountain life, man.
Sp: What kind of Yeti is on island time?
Cz: There’s no snow, it’s not a Yeti.
H: It’s a robot, it’s not a Yeti.
Cz: I don’t know, I fell asleep.
K: You fell asleep in the moving pictures one? Good luck on the next three episodes.
Sp: First instance of “Doc-Tor!”
Cz: Ever?
P: The moment he said that I was like “Dude, it’s the Master” but that’s not right.
H: You’re a few years out.
Sp: So were their two disembodied voices or just one Smeagol one?
H: Perhaps you will have to wait and find out, muhahahaha.
M: It’s very mysterious.
H: Following on from both the discussion of the Yeti hips and the lack of snow, there’s a funny story. During location shooting they were plagued by rain.
M: And seagulls.
H: And seagulls. So Snowdonia was extremely muddy and you have already mentioned that the Yeti tend to be a little bottom heavy. There were lots of incidents, LOTS of incidents of Yeti tumblding.
Cz: That sounds like a sport.
H: And the funny thing about this from out point of view, that the reconstruction uses CGI Yetis. And the tape has a CGI reconstruction of Yeti tumbling that we can watch later.
P: I imagine Yakety Sax. So the Yeti, and the way they acted, added to the story a lot more than just about anything else to me. Because in some way I can foresee the behavior of the monks, but the Yeti are literally a mystery to me.
Sp: Yeah, I tend to agree. The whole monk intramonestary conflict was not all that impressive. “Oh, it’s all a bit misunderstanding.” Okeydoke.
M: I liked that fact, actually. That the guy that everyone insisted that everyone pronounce his name like it was French…
H: Krisong.
M: Yes. That he was sincere and when he had another explanation he accepted it and he was overzealous perhaps, but not necessarily the stereotypical story that you expected it to be. Not just following the fill in the dots mad-lib script.
Sp: Yeah, I can see that.
Cz: Yeah, usually Doctor Crazy People stay Doctor Crazy People.
H: Yeah, Krisong’s whole thing is “I’m chief warrior of the monastery, and I must protect it at all costs, even if that means conflict with the higher level monks. Unless the abbot tells me differently.”
M: Grand-lord Potato Chip.
H: That is an awesome hat.
Sp: And it’s also an accurate hat. The rest of the costuming is also accurate, which is cool.
M: Despite the sometimes goofy look of the Yetis, the production level is really high.
H: It’s not just the costumes and sets. The names are taken from authentic Buddhist history. The Master, who’s name I can never say, was actually the monk who brought Buddhism to Tibet.
K: Even Tommy?
H: Yes. Even Tomni.
<random discussion of what is Kosher>
Sp: Final thoughts?
M: Surely not!
Cz: Can I say that this discussion is far more interesting than the episode itself?
H: No, you cannot.
P: So, okay, the whole plot about tying the Doctor to see if he would be killed / released by the Yeti was so completely out of the normal run, that it just felt like a manufactured cliff hanger to me.
K & H: Yet it wasn’t a cliffhanger.
P: I know. Yet it felt manufactured to me.
M: Almost as if someone made the story up.
Cz: EL-OH-EL
P: What, I thought Doctor Who was a documentary.
Cz: Final thoughts?
<retraced origin of the original Kosher discussion.>
Sp: Still not interested!
SG: Nothing to say.
Cz: I got nothin’.
P: Alright fine. I’ll talk about the soundtrack!
K: There was no soundtrack.
H: There was a soundtrack. There was no music. There is a difference.
P: Okay, they actually did a good job with the soundtrack. There was little repeated anything.
K: Hehahahahaha!
P: I mean nothing looped.
K: Hahahaha!
Sp: Those of you with knowledge of the future, hush.
M: Are we on final thoughts?
K: Yes.
P: Alright. Finally! I liked the story.
H: If you want to say more it’s fine.
P: Oh, I have more. So, liked the use of the cave to trap the Yeti. But seriously they could have trapped themselves in a cave also. I was pretty interested in the spheres, as I think everybody else was. I think it’s a dead giveaway that the word Duracell is printed right on them. And I really don’t think anybody discussed the main plot point of the Doctor getting roped up as goat food for the Velocoraptor.
A: Were we watching the same show?
P: Yes. We just have different interpretations of motivations.
Sp: I think something got lost in the translation from the original Tibetan. “You say Yeti, I say Velociraptor, let’s call the whole thing off.”
P: <throws fake tomato at him>
Sp: Toh-mah-toe.
E: Yeah. That part at the beginning when they collapsed the roof on the Yeti and they were all “no, he’s dead.” I totally called it. He’s not dead. They jinxed it! Whenever anyone says “oh, don’t worry about that thing they just killed.” you can usually count on it not being dead.
P: Words to die by. Literally.
E: Pretty much.
Cz: It was a good nap.
M: All of my final thoughts from now until The War Games will be about Jamie’s kilt.
H: So what would you like to say about Jamie’s kilt this week?
M: Seriously, I think the biggest thing was I thought that the sets and costumes were great. That’s the main thing. There wasn’t much advancement of the story. It kind of seemed like there was two little points of the main story, and lots of stuff that wrapped around it. But that seems common at this point with stories of this length.
Sp: The six minutes of plot that were not disembodied exposition dude were fun. The Yetis were gently hilarious. And the Doctor was hilariously gentle.
K: He was, wasn’t he.
Sp: He was so patient and kind with his captor… I mean, assistant.
P: Goat!
Sp: Yeah, it was very relaxing.
K: That explains why Cz fell asleep. Oh.. my turn? Ronelyn is sick this week.
Sp: I miss Ronelyn’s calming influence.
P: And poetry.
M: And carefully crafted comments saved up for just the right moment.
K: It was interesting that the Doctor set the golden ball thing down. And at the foot of the Buddha statue, no less, almost like an offering. And yet one dude picks it up… I was thinking if it was meant to be an offering that picking it up was quite rude.
P: I thought the statue’s hand would have perfectly held the ball.
K: Yeah. Okay, I’m trying not to say much since I do remember what happens next pretty well. I will say, I do like this part of the plot. Laughing comments aside, this isn’t the “boring bits” for me… at least not yet.
H: So one of the things I really liked about this episode is something I also liked about parts of the previous one, although it was harder to tell there. It’s the way that this story builds atmosphere very well, particularly in the monastery. When we first see it in the previous episode it appears to be deserted, and it’s this eerie place. Then the monks appear and things are briefly normal. But in this episode, with the chanting, with the disembodied voice and everything, the sense of something seriously eerie is going on here just builds. And I really liked the way this story does that.
