Episode 178: The Abominable Snowmen (5)

Synopsis:

Victoria has once more made her way towards the inner sanctum of the monastery, having tricked Thonmi and locked him in a cell. Having been urged to leave on the previous visit, this time Padmasambhava invites her to enter...

The ancient lama wishes to use her to force the Doctor into leaving here and not interfere with the plans of the Great Intelligence.

He explains to her that he must do what he is compelled to do, and moves the four Yeti models into the monastery courtyard on his map. He then hypnotises her into forgetting what she has seen.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and Jamie are looking after Travers, who is starting to recover. He can recall a glowing light and a powerful sense of evil, but little else. The Doctor asks about the pyramid he mentioned on his return, but he cannot remember.

Khrisong and Thonmi then alert them to an attack by the Yeti who have entered the courtyard through the gates left open by Songsten. Rinchen is still convinced this is the work of the missing Victoria.

Khrisong is distraught that he has failed to defend the monastery but Songsten tells him that there was nothing they could have done and they must now leave here as Padmasambhava had advised.

The Yeti are withdrawing as Rinchen enters the courtyard. Two of the creatures push over the huge statue of the Buddha, crushing him to death beneath it.

In the inner sanctum, Padmasambhava communes with the Great Intelligence, assuring it that the monastery will be empty by nightfall and leaving the mountain free for its work. He then instructs Victoria on what she must now do.

During the attack, the Doctor has managed to take some more readings on his signal detector.

Songsten is giving orders as to the departure of the monks when Victoria appears in a trance-like state, carrying the Ghanta. Padmasambhava then speaks to them through her - confirming that Det-Sen is now a cursed place and they must all depart. He alone will remain.

Ralpachan goes to free the Doctor, Jamie and Travers so that they can accompany them.

Reunited with Victoria, they find that she urgently asks to be taken away from here. She repeats this several times and the Doctor realises that she has been hypnotised - programmed to respond to the sound of his voice. He learns how she had earlier spoken with the voice of Padmasambhava.

Thonmi tells Khrisong of the Doctor's previous visit to Det-Sen 300 years before, and how he knows their master from that time.

The Doctor makes his way alone to the inner sanctum and speaks with Padmasambhava, who has come to realise that the Intelligence is taking on substance in ever increasing quantities in the cave. He fears he has doomed the world. He tells the Doctor of how he made contact with the entity when astral projecting his mind. It was a formless presence, floating in space.

The Doctor tries to get him to explain the Intelligence's plan and why it is using the Yeti, but the old man collapses. After the Doctor withdraws, he revives - now fully possessed by the Intelligence.

Returning to the main chamber where Victoria waits, the Doctor hypnotises her himself in order to clear her mind of the master's influence.

Travers reports that the Yeti are gathered on the mountain nearby, waiting for everyone to leave. He is fully recovered, apart from his memory of what he saw in the cave.

The Doctor declares that he will not be leaving as he wants one more bearing to trace the Yeti control signal. Travers agrees to stay and help him and they set off back up the mountain.

This final bearing reveals that the signal emanates from the monastery itself. They return and inform Khrisong, who notes that it is empty now that everyone is gathered in the courtyard. Thonmi points out that Songsten is not here - and nor is Padmasambhava. 

Mention of Songsten's name triggers Travers' memories and he begins to recall what he saw.

High on the mountain, the ever-expanding substance pouring from the pyramid of spheres begins to spill out of the cave, glowing against the night sky...

Data:

Written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln

Recorded: Saturday 7th October 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 28th October 1967

Ratings: 7.2 million / AI 51

VFX: Ron Oates & Ulrich Grosser

Designer: Malcolm Middleton

Director: Gerald Blake

Critique:

The original draft of Episode 5 carried on up to (spoiler!) the killing of Khrisong by Songsten, which now takes place in the final instalment.

There was more dialogue between the Doctor and Khrisong as they went to the inner sanctum, with the Doctor trying to convince the warrior monk not to abandon Det-Sen.

The Doctor had remained in the sanctum after Padmasambhava's collapse, and witnessed him reawakening, now possessed by the Great Intelligence - warning him to leave the monastery. 

The model filming of the glowing ooze - the BBC foam machine put to good use again - pouring from the cave mouth took place at Ealing on Friday 25th August. A lighting effect was used to make the substance glow in the closing model shot, set at night.

Compared with the previous episode, there is little location footage used this week. 

One of Debbie Watling's favourite convention anecdotes can be traced to the making of this episode. As Victoria is in a trance, Jamie picks up a wooden stool and drops it - to see if she reacts. During camera rehearsals, Hines and her father ganged up on her by lifting a heavy prop trunk behind her back and dropping that instead - making her jump.

She had been obliged to give up her day off on Monday 2nd October to do more filming at Ealing on the following story - presumably her solo scenes with Sonny Caldinez playing the Ice Warrior Turoc through the heart of the glacier.

Norman Jones, playing Khrisong, would later say that he took childish delight in pushing over the Yeti actors whenever the opportunity arose.

Just before recording, the scene between the Doctor and Jamie discussing Victoria's hypnotic state was reworked to reduce it considerably.

Rather than have it pre-recorded, Watling had to mime the dialogue as it was spoken off-camera by Wolfe Morris live in studio, in the scene where she arrives in the courtyard with the Ghanta.

A number of lightweight props were supplied by the VFX team for the Yeti to smash in their attack on the monastery. The Buddha statue wasn't actually destroyed when pushed onto David Grey, playing Rinchen. Two Yeti were seen to grab it and appear to push it forward, the camera zooming in to hint at it toppling forward. There was then a cut to Grey lying on the ground with broken pieces of stone lying on top of him.

The closing credits rolled over the shot of the model cavemouth before a fade to black.

With very little location work this week, technically complex sequences such as the Yeti attack, and a large number of recording breaks - ten in all - the episode over-ran in studio by 10 minutes, finishing at 9.55pm. 

The big set-piece this week is the Yeti attack on the monastery, in which four of the creatures go on the rampage, but this episode really belongs to Wolfe Morris as Padmasambhava. We learn that the old lama is really a rather tragic, pathetic character, who has been tricked into helping the Great Intelligence and seeks only release from it now. His life has been artificially prolonged and he has been rendered a mere puppet for the Intelligence.

He has also come to realise the threat which it poses to the entire world.
Despite his mounting suspicions, the Doctor still treats him as an old friend - a sentiment reciprocated by the old man. The meeting between the pair allows for some exposition - namely how Padmasambhava came to be involved with the Great Intelligence in the first place. We learn that it is simply a formless mass, floating in space, and seeks physical embodiment on Earth. Its exact motives are not explained, and indeed it could be argued that they never will be, satisfactorily, in any subsequent appearances.

In spin-off literature - i.e. the Virgin New Adventures novels - the Great Intelligence is said to be some ancient Lovecraftian entity from the dark origins of the universe akin to the Animus, with which it shares certain similarities. In their next story, we will discover that the Yeti control spheres are simply electronic contrivances, but in this story the Doctor specifically comments on how light the spheres are - hinting more that they contain a fraction of the Intelligence (which makes them parallels to the later Autons - and the Nestene Consciousness has indeed been said to be a cousin of the Animus and Intelligence).

Trivia:

• The ratings see a small rise, with the appreciation figure remaining stable.
• Huw Weldon, controller of programmes, declared this "a spine-chilling episode" at the BBC's weekly review meeting the following Wednesday.
• Following the criticisms of adults on the Talkback programme, it was the turn of the children to have their say on Junior Points of View - with many of them describing their parents' concerns as "making mountains out of molehills".
• On the day this episode was broadcast, the second instalment of The Ice Warriors was being recorded, and it was during this session that the special trailer was made which would be shown immediately after the final episode of The Abominable Snowmen.
• On the Monday following broadcast, ITV showed a play starring Patrick Troughton - The First Thunder. It had actually been recorded back in November 1965, long before he had been cast as the Doctor, though it could now capitalise on his current fame.