Synopsis:
Capturing one of the beasts after it had suddenly fallen dormant, the Doctor has discovered that the Yeti are actually fur-covered robots. A metal sphere which controls it has fallen out during its capture, and is now stuck in the mud outside the monastery gates. It signals to another sphere which is sitting in the inner courtyard, and this begins to roll away by itself...
The Doctor has worked out how the Yeti are controlled and insists on going outside to look for the missing sphere, but Khrisong will not permit anyone to leave the monastery. The gates are to be opened for no-one and Ralpachan is tasked with guarding it.
Travers is now convinced that the real Yeti are harmless and must still be hiding in the mountains, but Khrisong bars him from leaving as well.
However, Ralpachan had seen the pair talking and, after Khrisong has left, Travers is able to trick him into believing he had been granted permission to go out.
The Doctor tries to get Thonmi to intercede on his behalf but he is reluctant to go against his superior. Jamie then recalls the sphere that he had found in the cave, and they go to the courtyard to look for it.
They find it missing, and Ralpachan claims not to have seen anyone take it. He also tells them that Travers was allowed to leave the monastery. They begin to suspect the explorer took the sphere and is somehow involved with the Yeti. Thonmi goes to inform Khrisong of what has happened.
In the chamber where the Yeti lies dormant, the monks decide that some demon must animate it and so decide to set up a ghost trap of wood and twine around the creature to confine its evil.
Khrisong is talking with Songsten when the abbot elects to commune with the master Padmasambhava for guidance, falling into a trance. Victoria is intrigued by this and wants to visit the inner sanctum - much to Thonmi's horror as it is strictly forbidden to all but Songsten.
The Doctor finally convinces Khrisong that they must examine a sphere, and the warrior monk states that he will go outside the gates himself to look for the one that must have fallen from the captured Yeti.
Victoria follows Songsten, accompanied by the anxious Thonmi. She is determined to get inside the sanctum.
The abbot and Padmasambhava meet and discuss the Doctor. He must not imperil their plan. On a map of the area sit a number of models resembling Yeti. The old lama moves two of them closer to the monastery.
Just as Khrisong finds the sphere half-buried in the mud, two Yeti appear and attack him. He is rescued by the Doctor, Jamie and Ralpachan. However, the Yeti seize the sphere and withdraw.
Padmasambhava has withdrawn the two Yeti models and placed them with a third on the mountain. Songsten is to go and rendezvous with them, and is given a small glass pyramid.
The Doctor has worked out that the spheres are a sort of brain and someone doesn't want them to examine one too closely. Jamie mentions the bleeping sound they make and the Doctor deduces that this must be a controlling signal - and signals can be traced if you have the right equipment.
He has what he needs in the TARDIS, and Khrisong allows them to go and get it - knowing that there is nothing more he and his monks can do, having now tried to fight them himself.
Victoria is found loitering by the inner sanctum and is brought to the chamber where the Yeti lies. She is then sent to wait in one of the cells, overseen by Thonmi.
Out on the mountain, Travers spots the two Yeti returning from the monastery and decides to follow them.
Songsten arrives in the courtyard where he is able to hypnotise Ralpachan into letting him leave, before forgetting that he has seen him.
Victoria learns that the Doctor and Jamie have left the monastery. After Thonmi goes to fetch her some food, she slips away from the cell.
The Doctor and Jamie, meanwhile, have come across a group of Yeti, which stand motionless. They move on towards the TARDIS and fail to see Songsten arrive. The Yeti activate and follow him up the mountain.
Victoria approaches the inner sanctum once more, but she hears Padmasambhava's voice urging her to leave.
The sphere from the courtyard has been slowly making its way towards the chamber where the captured Yeti lies, keeping to the shadows. It enters the room and propels itself on top of the creature, settling into the concave chest unit moments before Victoria enters.
The Yeti is dormant no more, and begins to tear itself free of the ghost trap as she looks on...
Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln
Recorded: Saturday 23rd September 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 14th October 1967
Ratings: 7.1 million / AI 51
VFX: Ron Oates & Ulrich Grosser
Designer: Malcolm Middleton
Director: Gerald Blake
Additional cast: John Hogan (Yeti)
Critique:
In the draft script for this episode, Victoria was aware that the Doctor and Jamie had left the monastery, as she had actually been present when they set off. The Doctor told her and Khrisong that her remaining behind was a sign of good faith (so almost treating her like a hostage). The Doctor advised that she be kept safely in a cell, guarded by Thonmi.
Ralpachan was originally named Khedru. This was later given to one of the non-speaking warrior monks - but we'll be returning to it when we get to the final episode.
This is the second episode to include night filming from the location shoot, as we see Jack Watling and later Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines encountering the Yeti on the mountainside. Charles Morgan was also required on location for scenes with Songsten and the Yeti.
One of the Yeti performers, John Hogan, featured on the making-of documentary on the story's Blu-ray / DVD release - saddened to think that he was the last surviving original Yeti actor. Sadly, since the release he too has passed away.
All four Yeti actors had played Cybermen in the past.
Innes Lloyd and Troughton were interviewed for the BBC's Wales Today during the shoot - a very rare occurrence for the star. Lloyd later told of various hillwalkers having unexpected encounters with the Yeti in the area, including a troop of boy scouts and a German couple who emerged from their tent one morning to see one of the creatures lumbering through the drizzle.
Both Gerald Blake and Hines took 8mm home movie footage during the filming, some of which can be seen in the aforementioned documentary. Blake's footage had previously featured on the unofficial The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel documentary.
Studio sessions reverted back to the normal weekly recording pattern from this episode. Recording took place the day following Hines' 23rd birthday.
All four Yeti actors were required in studio - a big set-piece being the creatures' assault on Khrisong on the small exterior set.
Troughton ad-libbed the line "They've come to get their ball back...".
The remote controlled sphere featured prominently throughout the episode, and this caused much hilarity for Troughton and Norman Jones as it rolled along by itself. Unable to keep a straight face when performing together, Blake had to shoot them on separate parts of the set, even though the pair were supposed to be facing each other in conversation.
Repositioning the sphere, as well as cast movements between sets, led to eight planned recording breaks on the night.
Once again Wolfe Morris went unseen, apart from his heavily made-up hands as he moved the small Yeti models on the map. More point of view shots were used of him looking through the gauze curtain at Morgan.
A lightweight sphere on a wire was used for when it climbed up the table and onto the dormant Yeti.
Victoria has previously been set up as a bit of a tomboy, getting up to things which you might not expect from the daughter of a mid-Victorian gentleman (such as being highly proficient with a handgun). In this episode she develops a very annoying obsession with visiting the inner sanctum of the monastery despite being told repeatedly that even the monks aren't allowed to go near it. The character comes across badly as obstinate and spoilt, showing complete disregard for the beliefs and customs of her hosts. If it's supposed to make her appear independent, it doesn't come off.
This carries on into the next episode, and one can't help but feel that it was added simply to give the character something to do in these middle episodes.
There are many explanations proposed for the true nature of the Yeti, should they actually exist - an unknown species of bear, an unknown species of ape, or even some sort of remnant hominid, a form of missing link. In Nigel Kneale's play, they were creatures of flesh and blood but it is left to the audience to decide whether they are the remnants of some ancient race - or perhaps beings who will come to inherit the planet after we have destroyed ourselves (or indeed both). Despite all these exotic possibilities, it is interesting that Haisman and Lincoln should choose to make them robots. Perhaps this was purely down to the fact that this was a Doctor Who story they were writing, so felt the need to have a science-fiction explanation.
- The ratings see a sharp rise - up just over a million on the previous episode - whilst the appreciation figure remains stable. TV audiences tended to rise as the darker evenings drew in, and ITV was offering very little in the way of competition - a sitcom which had been running since 1964 (Just Jimmy, starring diminutive Northern comedian Jimmy Clitheroe) and re-runs of the Francis Drake adventure series, which had finished in 1962. (Roger Delgado was a regular, playing the Spanish Ambassador. In one episode he fought and killed a character played by Barry Letts).
- Troughton featured in the BBC staff magazine Ariel in October, pictured with a Yeti.
- David Spenser, playing Thonmi, had worked with Patrick Troughton before. He had played Mark in the 1960 religious drama Paul of Tarsus, which starred Troughton as Paul.
- The ghost trap used by Buddhist monks is called a Namkha, and comprises a spindle with coloured threads which are designed to ensnare evil spirits. They are burned after use - which allows the spirit to be reborn in a more benign form.
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