Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen (2024)

Look at the thighs on the yeti on that jacket cover! THICC A.F.!!!

Such a shame that most of the original episodes from these serials have been lost in time. A really cool setting with the story taking place in a Tibetan monastery. There’s fascinating monsters as you’ve got not only the robotic yeti but also the great intelligence. And the pace is very quick in this novelization. Which is quite nice as the original story has a very slow pace.

This is a novelization of the second serial of the fifth season of Doctor Who, which was broadcast from September-November of 1967. The script was written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, and was one of the first that was adapted by Terrance Dicks for book publication. He stuck to the script very closely, and the book seems to me to be aimed at a younger audience than his others. (He was a very prolific writer of children's fiction in addition to his work on Doctor Who.) It has some nice interior illustrations by Alan Willow, and is listed as the first in the Target series; it appeared in 1974. The Doctor is in his second regeneration and is accompanied by long-time Scots eighteenth-century companion Jamie McCrimmon, along with orphaned Victorian Victoria Waterfield. The story introduces two popular antagonists to the series, the Yeti and the Great Intelligence. The team arrives in Tibet in 1935 and find that Yeti are terrorizing Buddhist monks. The Doctor investigates, Jamie and Victoria get into trouble, we find that the Yeti are robotic, there's some alien intervention and philosophic debate.... maybe they're not all robots after all? It's a very popular story in the second Doctor's run, though paradoxically it no longer exists to view. Fun read, though.

The last time I read Terrence Dicks’ ‘Doctor Who and The Abominable Snowmen’ I must have been about twelve or thirteen years old. As a child I had an impressive collection of Doctor Who Target novelizations – it was a go to birthday/Christmas present for me from members of my extended family. I can remember lying in my childhood bedroom reading one after another and being so, so happy in my geeky little bubble. Of course I got older and into ‘cooler’ things, and somewhere along the way my Doctor Who collection disappeared (my mother’s fear of clutter may have played a part in that). I now find myself regretting the loss of those books, as it would be lovely to have my childhood collection there for me to pick up again and peruse as I did nearly thirty years ago. I know that they’re all in print again so I could buy them afresh, but that’s just not the same. Suffice to say that if I did suddenly find myself in possession of a magical box of a time machine, going back and saving my books wouldn’t be the first thing I did, but I’d eventually get around to it.

Really, by anyone’s standards, the plot – robotic yetis attacking a Tibetan monastery under the orders of a disembodied alien intelligence – is insane. And yet Terrence Dicks carries it off with straight faced brilliance, never for a single paragraph acknowledging the slightest suspicion that this is anything other than an absolutely serious, scary and dangerous adventure. I love Terrence Dicks’ prose. Yes it isn’t the most exciting style in the world, but it’s clean and its crisp and it moves this incredibly fast paced story along in a way which is delightfully unobtrusive. It’s an accessible prose style, one perfectly suited to all readers from the ages from eight to eighty. And that’s why I think this book is, for what it is, practically perfect: a spin-off from a television series, an absolutely crazy plot, and rather than being shut off or limited by that, just loudly proclaiming “Come one, come all – Everyone is welcome!”

Before we had easy access to telesnaps, orphan episodes and the complete audio soundtrack for missing stories, there was the Target novelization of the lost "Doctor Who" stories. I vividly recall picking this one up not because I knew it was a lost story but because the Target numbering system set up the stories alphabetically and this was the first in the line.

My young mind assumed that if it was the first in the range, there had to be something special about it.

Yes and no.

Listening to the audio release of the book, I'm reminded that this is one of those special Troughton stories I'd love to see returned in full to the BBC archives one day. The story isn't exactly taxing, but it's nicely told and offers a bit of a twist on the base under seige storylines that dominated the second Doctor's era. And having Patrick Troughton's son David read the story really boosts the story.

However, the novel is still the novel. Terrance Dicks (wisely) consolidates a few bits of the on-screen story, offering a more compact, tighter story. And while it's in the upper half of the Target novels, it's still not one of the great Doctor Who novelizations.

The word for today is 'sphere'. This book introduced that word to my vocabulary over 35 years ago. Terrance Dicks got the novelisation job for this one even though it's a story from before his involvement with the show. For the most part he sticks with the Mervyn Haisman/Henry Lincoln script. He lets the dialogue drive the action with the bare minimum of descriptive narrative. We certainly don't spend much time in anybody's head. There's very little of Dicks' attempting to expand on the story. Travers gets a bit about him being mocked by the Royal Geographical Society and he gets a few little amendments to scenes like tricking the gate guard. To me the book is more notable for what was left out. Only the second episode and audio of the broadcast episodes remain but if you ever get a chance to listen to them you'll realise at once how much more sparkier Patrick Troughton's dialogue is. The scene with the Doctor sounding out Thonmi in the cell is a really strong dramatic scene but in the book it is insipid by comparison. Some of the other dialogue that didn't make it into the book was probably added quite late in the production so probably was never included in the script prints. You could argue that Dicks may have just been editing out some of the humour such as the very funny routine the Doctor has with Jamie when he comes up with a plan to trap a Yeti, or the classic 'They came to get their ball back' line. I didn't know any of this when I first read this book though in the early 1970s. All I knew as a 8 or 9 year old was I was getting to read a past Doctor Who story that I had almost no chance of ever seeing. I was enthralled with the Yeti. Not seeing them waddling down a hillside like a cuddly friendly CBeebies monster has its advantages I suppose. I also didn't notice how thoroughly annoying Victoria is in this adventure. She's dubbed 'that devil girl' by the monks and rightly so as she either whines on about being bored or tries to wander off and get into trouble. It might sound like I don't like this one but I assure you I do like it. Long before I eventually got to watch and listen to what remains of The Abominable Snowmen I'd already burned this book with the heat of nostalgia onto my memory. Those damned monks and that snowy mountainside are going to be with me to the end.
This new edition has an introduction by Stephen Baxter, a between the lines feature about the script to novelisation process, original illustrations and an about the authors spotlight of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln.

A story with a better reputation than its execution

Poor Patrick Troughton had a large portion of his tenure as the Second Doctor wiped by the BBC, and yet he still remains the favorite Doctor of a lot of fans. "The Abominable Snowmen" is one example, a serial from the 5th Season in which 5 out of 6 episodes were destroyed, but it remains one of the most famous of classic Who. It even spawned further episodes both in classic and in new Who featuring the formless villain "The Great Intelligence," which included some real snowmen and not robotic yetis. This is part of my series of reviews featuring the "Lost Episodes" of Doctor Who.

As I mentioned above, this story features robotic versions of the legendary yeti, who are terrorizing Buddhist monks in an isolated monastery in Tibet. They are controlled by a mysterious force called the Great Intelligence, who is using the monsters to scare away the monks for more nefarious purposes.

If that sounds more like an episode of Scooby Doo than Doctor Who, you would be right. Honestly, the plot makes no sense. I am still confused as to why the yeti were needed to bring the Great Intelligence to physical form on Earth, especially since the alien had the power to control multiple human minds as slaves. I don't understand where the materials to build such highly technical and indestructible robots were found, or why the monks were hypnotized to build these robots only to scare away said monks. If the Great Intelligence was intent on conquering the Earth, why did it start in one of the least populous and most isolated parts of the world when it clearly needed human slave labor?

Therefore, the original script is full of holes and clearly was not thought out very well. The late, great Terrance Dicks, who wrote the novelization, was not the screenwriter and therefore not responsible for this mess. But he didn't do much to clean any of it up or improve the screenplay. The novel is a very faithful adaptation of the TV version, with only some minor liberties.

But despite its flaws, this is a fairly enjoyable romp. I read it in two brief sittings, and was thoroughly entertained by the writing of Mr. Dicks. It was a well-paced and charming adventure for young readers.

It was because of writers like Terrance Dicks and these Target publications that many nerds my age got started reading in the first place, were introduced to early Doctor Who stories before their release in the States, and were able to continue to enjoy adventures with our favorite Time Lord during the "Wilderness Years" of the 90s. I just wish I could say this was a better example of one of these books.

The writing tends to be humorless, but still retains a whimsical quality. The characters are all largely wooden and flat. The Tibetan monastic setting is awesome, but could have been evoked a little better in the mind's eye. The companion of Victoria is largely forgettable, but I can't say that even the Second Doctor comes across as much more interesting here. Overall, this is a fairly humdrum retelling of a mediocre episode that serves as a pleasant way to pass some time if you are sick in bed.

Recommended for Doctor Who nostalgia, for the children of old Whovians, and for students of the lost episodes from Who history.

The Target Doctor Who Library was the original way of reliving old stories before VHS and DVD. This tale was the first in the range and is pretty close to the original TV story as I'm working my way though all of Who this was a perfect replacement for the mostly missing serial.

A story set in the past with a robot sci-fi twist, great supporting characters and a villain that has been in the show again recently this is classic who!

The second Doctor and Companions Victoria (wetblanket) and Jamie (idiot) deal with evil Yeti.

Simply written story but well worth reading if you are a Whovian!

After reading the disappointing novelisation of Doctor Who and Dalek Invasion of Earth, this earlier book from Terrance Dicks shows me why he's such a beloved author. Despite the fact that the TV serial of The Abominable Snowmen is also six episodes long, in only 40,000 words (slightly longer than the aforementioned book) Dicks manages not only to convey the script but also to add descriptions and character thoughts that really add to the atmosphere and characterisation. As only one of the TV episodes survives, and the rest have not yet been animated, this novel continues to perform its original function of providing Doctor Who fans with the only way of reliving this story.

I’m a big fan of the old Doctor Who stories and this one was definitely a classic. I’m so glad they immortalised this in book form as it’s just so sad most of these are apart of the missing doctor who episodes! It was great to have the chance to read this story and go on an adventure with the second doctor, with Jamie and Victoria. Abominable snowmen, yeti’s and sword fighting monks - not more you could want from a book!

The general plot is standard Doctor Who - a "base under siege" story - but the setting helps keep it interesting. There are also a number of memorably tense and eerie moments that make this feel more horror than SF. It's a shame this episode is largely lost. (That said, for various reasons, I suspect this story is overall better as a novel than on screen.) (B+)

This was a really enjoyable story, superbly paced and i think the first outing for B list who villain The Great Intelligence.

Another victim of the beebs deletions this story has recently been animated so im intrigued to see it now.

The story is barking mad but in a good way, the story is well told with oodles of suspense. A rollicking 2nd Doctor story.

I really enjoyed this. Unfortunately most of the original footage for the episode has been lost. I've only ever seen the animated version. Reading the novel has given me a greater appreciation for the story.

RIP Terrance Dicks! What a wonderful start to a wonderful series of books.

A nice easy little read and a perfect classic Doctor Who story too!

solidly good time

As a Doctor Who fanatic...and an unabashed Patrick Troughton 2nd Doctor supporter...Target Publishing's novelizations of long-lost Doctor Who stories are absolute Godsends. And with the newly restored Web of Fear now available, and its prequel, The Abominable Snowmen, almost entirely erased from existence, I couldn't continue on not having experienced The Abominable Snowmen in any shape and form.

So while Terrance Dicks' retelling completely reinforces the formulaic Troughton era base-under-siege plot-lines, I loved every beautiful page of this novel; it's mere existence brings me shameless joy.

My nerdy heart is having palpitations at the thought of reliving each and every long lost Doctor Who story with these wonderful books.

I just may be the happiest boy in all the land.

Entertaining and well written.
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"Next morning, a little higher on that same Himalayan peak, a wheezing, groaning sound shattered the peace and stillness of the mountain air. An old blue police box appeared from nowhere, transparent at first, but gradually becoming solid. It perched on a snowy ledge, looking completely out of place."

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‘Don’t give up, whatever you do,’ urged the Doctor. ‘It’s a splendid thing to have a dream... even if it does turn out to be a legend.’

One of the first non-Tom Baker Doctor Who books I ever read.
Really like the second Doctor and Jamie, there's an interesting setting and I don't care if the the Yeti look like plush toys on steroids in the TV show I think they are cool monsters.

I like the mention of some missing past tale of the Doctor having been to the monastery before. Surprised nobody has used it in one of the books or audio adventures.

A solid, faithful, if unremarkable Terrance Dicks adaptation; he's not quite as enthusiastic about this story as he is with its all-around superior sequel, "The Web of Fear". I re-read the recent anniversary re-issue, but the cover I prefer is the beautiful 1980s edition, which I have used for this entry; it's easily one of my favourite Target novelization covers.

This was an amazing story! It had every little twist of an older episode of Doctor Who, and was just as climatic! Through its entirety, I could just see, in the back of my mind, events occurring almost as if projected onto a TV screen. The story was well-written, short, and to the point, and I didn't want to pause, or see its end!

I really enjoy Terrance Dicks writing, he really brings the story to life for me. This is the first Doctor Who book I've read based on Patrick Troughtons Doctor and he(Dicks) did a good job in his portrayal.
Jamie was solid and functional and Victoria a bit of a hapless damsel in distress as expected for the time period.

Silly and excellent fun. 5/5

The Abominable Snowmen is an interesting choice to adapt as the first Second Doctor novelization. Stories like The Web of Fear, The Tomb of the Cybermen, and The Ice Warriors were no doubt more popular and The War Games had both writers adapting serials into the novelization. But Terrance Dicks had no real connections to The Abominable Snowmen, not coming onto the show until The Seeds of Death and not writing until The War Games. His adaptation is interesting, influenced by his and Barry Letts’ appreciation of Buddhism the novelization adapts character names to be closer to accurate with the spirituality though this was still a book written in the mid-1970s by a white man who was not a Buddhist. It doesn’t attempt to be historically accurate to the past as the story was set in the 1940s (before the UNIT Dating Controversy began). Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen is an interesting adaptation as it manages to take a six episode story and speed it up. Six episode stories are something difficult to adapt into a short page-count and this was Dicks’ first six-part story novelized as before this he had only done Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion and Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks. Each episode gets two chapters, making it a nice twelve chaptered book on pace, improving the pace of the television story which languishes in the middle while expansions to the early scenes and the final battle makes things feel satisfying. The translation to prose also improves the Yeti themselves, on television they were far too cuddly, looking almost like giant teddy bears which would be redesigned for The Web of Fear in a much more effective way. There’s also the fact that Dicks can make the setting work as a snowy mountain monastery, as on television rain washed away the snow that was supposed to make the atmosphere work. Dicks is able to make the atmosphere work and turn the story closer to the horror story that it was intended to be, though Victoria is still reduced to a screamer as she is still hypnotized halfway through which is a shame and Jamie feeling more like his characterization in Season 6, which is the season Dicks worked on.

Overall, Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen may be an improvement from a fairly okay television story, it does feel like a bit of an oddity since Terrance Dicks didn’t really have a connection to the season this was adapted from, though he would adapt The Web of Fear to at least fandom acclaim as it is among the novelizations that people associated as the story until its recovery in 2013. It’s good, but not perfect. 7/10.

The great tragedy of the long-lived science-fantasy series, Doctor WHO, is the sheer amount of missing episodes. In some cases, entire televised serials have been lost.

Back in the days before the rise of VHS/Beta, the BBC had little use for older programs, particularly if they couldn't be sold to other markets elsewhere in the world. This led to the scrapping of many a television show. While Doctor WHO fared better than some shows, large swaths of the First and Second Doctor's stories were lost in this fashion, and while some have been recovered, many remain lost, perhaps forever.

However, the novelizations of these old stories help fill in the gaps, and while the episodes themselves might be lost, an avid reader can crack open a book, and let a classic Doctor WHO tale fill their imagination with the heroic exploits of everyone's favorite Time-Lord, and his trusty friends and companions. When I was a young fan of the show in 1978, these novelizations helped expand my reading habits beyond reference materials and comics, and I still hold a great deal of affection for them to this day.

Scriptwriter/Author Terrance Dicks was always a dab hand when it came to these sorts of adaptations, which is why he cranked out over 60 such novelizations. This is one such story, and it's a fun, brisk read, that faithfully adapts and expands the lost serial, "The Abominable Snowmen", and its very accessible to fans both young and old.

Highly recommended to any fan of the good Doctor.

This is a novel based off one of the lost stories of the 2nd Doctor, (who is fantastic), Patrick Troughton’s era 1966-1969. It was interesting to me to read a novel based off stuff from the really old eras of the show so that you could just imagine past the limitations of 1960s sci-fi TV, especially Doctor Who. That works a little bit with this story, but not enough to make me feel like I’m really there. I read on the back that the author Terrance Dicks (who wrote the fantastic TV story Genesis of the Daleks) wanted to make the books feel like you were reading a TV show. It’s not like that’s too much of a bad thing because that show was entertaining enough. But for me, there wasn’t enough description to make me actually imagine what they were going for in the show. It just felt like they were saying “the mountain tops are beautiful”, and just making us think up the rest. Which is okay, but I think that for a novel it was all very surface level. Sometimes I felt like I could’ve inferred more from looking at an actors face than just the vague descriptions the author left for their emotions. But it’s a fun and exciting enough story, although there are moments when it lags a bit, but robo yetis chasing the Doctor Jamie and Victoria around Tibet will never be without a little bit of fun.

'Doctor Who' and the Abominable Snowmen', based on the 1967 TV story 'The Abominable Snowmen' starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, has turned out to be one of my favourites of the Target novelisation range. It was a story that hadn't particularly interested me before, but Terrance Dicks' adaptation was surprisingly absorbing and enjoyable, and I raced through it.

Set in and around a monastery in Tibet, it's a fun tale which sees the Doctor and friends meeting explorer Professor Travers and helping a group of monks who are threatened by marauding Yeti - not, as it turns out, the legendary creatures, but robotic versions controlled by a sinister enemy from beyond this world. Dicks nails the regular characters, especially the quirks of Patrick Troughton's Doctor, and manages to give the story and characters more weight than one would expect for one of these books. And the Yeti may not be the most interesting monsters in print, but their master the Great Intelligence is a wonderfully spooky and chillingly described creation, particularly as it inhabits and controls the bodies of others.

A hugely entertaining book which dearly made me wish the TV version still existed in its entirety (all bar one episode is missing), and took me back to the thrills of devouring Target books in my younger days (now long past). Great stuff.

Maybe 3.5 stars, but not quite up to whatever I consider 4-star level. I quite enjoyed Terrance Dicks's novelization of this lost Doctor Who story of the Second Doctor era, but though the writing is solid and entertaining, there's nothing particularly masterful about it, and I do wish Victoria had had a stronger role in the conclusion of the story. I enjoyed the story well enough that I wish it could be seen and not just heard and read, but it doesn't rank among my favourites of this era or even this season. I don't know what would change if the whole TV story could be seen, but so far that isn't possible...

I listened to the audio book version narrated by David Troughton, Patrick Troughton's son, because it happened to be available through our library. He is quite enjoyable in the narration, telling the story vividly and even pulling off a decent impression of Jamie which can't be that easy to do. I'm not too impressed with his Victoria voice, though. But you can't have everything, I suppose.