The Abominable Snowmen episode 4 discussion:
E: I will never get tired of Victoria’s cleverness. She even had me fooled this time.
MS: Me too.
R: You know what they say… women are bitches on wheels.
P: Not all of them are on wheels.
K: I think this conversation is going off into a weird place.
<obscure “Almost Live” reference… don’t worry ’bout it.>
R: Yeah, Victoria’s basically discovered the Woman’s Liberation Movement all on her own.
E: Every time she pulls a stunt like that I just love her more and more.
P: So, I’m confused as to her motives, but maybe that’s because I’m not crafty enough.
H: She’s investigating! She has investigating feet. Have you seen her investigating feet?
P: No. You generally don’t see the feet of a Victorian lady.
R: She’s definitely the “Obi-wan Kenobi” of the group.
K: I thought that was the Doctor?
R: Victoria has power over weak minds. I love everybody’s reaction to it. “What the heck! She told us she wasn’t going to lie anymore!” Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Fool me FIVE TIMES shame on whatever Buddhist lessons we’ve been learning.
R: I really felt like the Doctor was running hot and cold in the episode. Like, at the very beginning of the episode he says the most obvious thing that has ever been said in Doctor Who. “Something is happening on this mountain! I can feel it.” So, what was your first clue?
P: The robot Yeti?
R: Exactly! But then he follows up with “So Doctor, what’s your plan?” “I’m going to bung a rock at it!”
H: That was brilliant.
R: Exactly!
H: It reminded me of Vicki in Galaxy 4, when she observed, analyzed whatever it was… and then she threw a rock.
K: Same writer?
H: No.
P: Also “Would you walk up to that creature with just a screwdriver?” And Jamie say “No, I wouldn’t.”
R: Yeah. So I was expecting bad writing and I was very pleasantly surprised.
Sp: I liked the bit where they jam a metal control sphere sized rock where the metal control sphere is supposed to go.
P: So, was the Doctor being crushed by the ball?
H: It was trying to get back into the Yeti. So he was holding it back.
Sp: This is one spot where I’m kind of glad we’re going off the recon. I don’t want to imagine the mime involved while trying to act like you are restraining a metal ball.
P: It could have been done well.
Sp: I don’t think so.
H: Pat Troughton was a very good actor you know.
R: “I shall now wrestle a ball in the classic High Shakespearian mode!”
P: “What’s my motivation here?”
P: So, with Travers getting first to the pyramid and stack of balls… it sort of the plot is not being led by intelligence, but by luck.
R: Welcome to Doctor Who.
H: Travers saw something. It’s up to the Doctor to interpret it maybe. And I wouldn’t quite say luck because it was a considered thing. He was on the mountain stalking the Yeti. He saw that Songsten was with them, and he investigated.
P: It it’s interesting that Victoria gave up the ghost that the Doctor can travel through space and time.
K: To Tomni, and who’s going to believe him. And why do they keep changing the spelling of his name in the recon? It was spelled Thomni this entire episode of the recon. Previously, no “h.”
H: It’s interesting that Tomni’s reaction is one without surprise when he brings up the master (who’s name I’m not going to say so Ketina doesn’t have to type it… ) could also leave his body and travel through space. It’s sort of an interesting injection of both Buddhist ideas and fairly obvious plot point.
<random unrelated side topic… and… are we back?>
P: So, it interesting the amount of trust that the monks have is really the problem here and the solution. And what I mean by that is the only reason why Victoria escaped is because she abused that trust. Additionally, the conflict between the Abbot and Krisong is really about trust also. In this case, the loss of it.
H: Very apt.
MS: “Be vewy vewy quiet. I’m hunting Yetis.”
H: The one thing that saves the “there’s something wrong on this mountain” is the fact that the Doctor notices that “there are no sounds to hear” right before he says that, that saves that line.
K: Except wind. Lots of wind. Whooooo. <makes wind sound>
P: <squeek>
R: Wrong wind.
P: “When I say run, run like the wind. No heroics.”
H: Yes, another “run” quote.
P: Did he leave the sphere behind on purpose?
H: He bowls the sphere away and the Yeti follow it, rather than converging on him. It was a little hard to tell from the picture that’s what was happening.
H: Okay, final thoughts folks?
E: I’m not quite sure what to think about this episode, although there were some parts I liked. Victoria’s cleverness in particular never fails to entertain me.
H: Is there anything you didn’t like about this episode?
E: I’m not sure. I feel that the plot might be moving a little slow for me, so it’s hard to keep up with it.
R: You have to sort of gear down your attention?
E: Yeah.
MS: When I don’t know what to say for a final thought, I generally just say “It was awesome.”
A: It was awesome.
MS: Someone actually follows my tips!
P: It was… ah, man! I like the Master playing chess as being the control system for the Yeti. It’s nice to see a low tech implementation of something that must be high tech, albeit 2D.
K: Note that in previous commentary you were confused by the chess board controlling the Yeti.
H: I kind of liked the map of the Monastery. It kind of reminded me of the old D&D maps. They’re laid out, and you have all of the rooms laid out.
K: Even the ones where they are completed unreadable?
H: Castle Raveloft? Yes, yes, yes, Chesterton.
K: We ARE ALL Nerds!
P: I thought this episode flowed well enough but it certainly could have been faster.
H: I’m wondering how much we lost with the recon by not being able to see them scrambling over the rocks and just getting dead space. It might have actually had a better flow if we’d have seen the climbing and stuff.
P: So maybe the recon should have interjected the <sings Red Dwarf transition music>
H: I don’t think so.
A: Or Mickey Mousing.
P: What?
A: <sings> Dun.. dun.. dun.. dun.. DUUUUUN… dundundundundun.
SG: It’s awesome.
MS: If only it had been in color, and I’d have had a piece of paper and a pencil, I could have had a few ideas of building a secret passage of what the Yetis use. Instead of.. like in Mine Craft where you put a button near it and instead of the Yetis pulling it over, you just press the button and a secret doorway opens, but you have to go in fast but then it closes.
H: Okay.
Sp: So, Historian…
H: Yeeees?
Sp: What do we miss out on, this being a recon, as far as the effects for a glutinous mass?
H: Well, I’ve never actually seen this episode. But I would imagine… how can I describe it…
R: Talking whip cream!
H: More like bubbling shaving cream. Which is an effect we will see again. And again. But I don’t know.
Sp: So, just the recon description of a glutinous mass is all we get for description of the new bad guy body… dude… thing.
H: I honestly can’t remember if we’re going to see any better pictures in this story.
Sp: I had my expectations set so low for pace on this one that I was pleasantly surprised that it really wasn’t slow.
H: Okay. Cool.
R: Not a bad episode. Fun writing. Pleasantly surprised by the full motion Yeti wrestling scene. Thank you Australia. “We can’t show you a bunch of Yeti wresting Buddhists. That would be racist!” or something.
H: I’m honestly not sure if that was a censor cut or not. I know the shot of the Yeti standing in front of the TARDIS was from a documentary.
R: I just find it more amusing to think that every live action cut was something that the Australians found upsetting. “Well, that’s not cricket. Can’t show that to the kiddies!”
H: Strewth!
R: Yeah. On the whole this one rolled along better than some of the other ones did. There was still a lot of “go back in the room that we locked you up in 4 times in the last 3 episodes” but they made it work. Because Victoria has discovered the power of “hot chick.”
K: I think this one story flows better split up than in “movie” format.
H: This was around when you feel asleep the first time, years ago.
K: Probably. That might explain why it feels a little bit new to me.
<laughter>
K: But… I still think the pace is brutally slow and they could condense a lot. I agree with E that the Victoria and Tomni plot was fun. And the rock throwing and running bit was fun – but Jamie is nearly always fun. But the rest… meh. Too many monks.
<Discussion of Travers… his potential future death… or begging for death according to Ronelyn, and Ketina’s opinion that the Travers plot would have been better served by a companion in the cave instead, since it would have been a character we have a greater investment in as viewers.>
MS: Never leave an explorer along for too long or else…
H: They’ll start exploring…
MS: And always get killed in Doctor Who… sometimes. They never stay. It’s like “Oh hey guys” and 12 minutes later “Argh!”
R: You guys!
H: Rocket sounds!
P: America! Base ball!
R: Oh, we miss you Captain Skippy.
H: This isn’t a unique final thought, but I wish this episode existed because from the soundtrack Troughton just had some wonderful moments, and I wish I could have seen them. He’s just such a great actor, both verbally and physically in the existing episodes using his face to convey all kinds of emotion, and I feel like we’re just missing a dimension. Which is just sad. Anyone who reads this – keep looking for missing episodes, please!
