Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 20, 2022

BBC is continuing its relatively recent kind of sweet if maybe just slightly comical tradition of animating (or reanimating, as it were), "missing" episodes of Doctor Who, where the video element has long gone (mostly) missing, but where there's still a serviceable audio track around which to build a new version. The Abominable Snowmen may be especially humorous for some in this new animated version since it may bring back memories of another Yeti infested "cartoon" from more or less the same era, a memorable episode on the late, great Jonny Quest. Doctor Who: Galaxy 4, the previous animated effort from BBC, actually aired originally in 1965, back when Jonny Quest itself was still being broadcast (more or less, anyway), but The Abominable Snowmen shows that BBC's curation of videotape hadn't advanced much even by 1967, since, like the previous serial, only snippets of this one survive (and are included here for fans who want to see the original, albeit in black and white). This release also duplicates Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 by offering both black and white 1.33:1 and color 1.78:1 versions of the animated production.

Once again Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) and his team Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) find themselves in an isolated locale, but at least this time they're on Earth. It is the 1930s and Doctor Who and his cohort are way up there (if not out there) in the Himalayas, but when you're dealing with an unpredictable TARDIS, it's probably best not to complain too much. A mountaintop monastery which has at least a few perceived tethers to a certain Shangri-la and Lost Horizon has been beset with a series of tragedies. The Doctor and a local investigator set out to determine if the local Yeti population might be a bit more berserk than they're purported to be (they're actually shy, retiring creatures, you know), though the reason for all the mayhem turns out to be something of a shaggy dog (and/or shaggy snowman) story, one which again may remind Baby Boomers in particular of at least some elements of that now long ago Jonny Quest episode.

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1 (for the black and white version) and 1.78:1 (for the color version). The animated versions are not exactly models of Pixar level ingenuity, but the color version in particular offers some nice moments. It looks like either actual photos or at least some photorealistic elements have been interpolated into the animation, including everything from the monastery statues to even what looks like the stucco walls of a quasi-prison the Doctor finds himself in, and those aspects actually add some surprising amounts of detail. The palette isn't especially mind blowing in the color version, but little pops like the purples some of the monks wear help to offset a prevalence of browns and beiges. Line detail is typically precise throughout all of the episodes.

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono audio on the episodes. These seem to have been culled from a somewhat more consistent source than the reportedly fan recorded audio used for Galaxy 4. There can still be slight distortion and crackling in music cues in particular, and nothing really has an overpowering midrange or low end, but dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One features the animated version of the serial in black and white in 1.33:1 (see screenshots 4, 6, and 8) along with these supplements:

• Surviving Original Episode Two (HD; 24:22) has actually remarkably good quality for the filmed on location sequences, with a bit shoddier look for what I assume was the studio shot material. (See screenshot 19.)


• Commentaries for Surviving Original Episode Two feature either Frazer Hines, John Walker, and Toby Hadoke or Deborah Watling and Gary Russell. Both of the commentaries are accessible under the Play Submenu for the Surviving Original Episode Two.


• Surviving Original Episode Four Clip (HD; 00:18) are two frankly funny and extremely brief looks at the Yeti.


• Mervyn Haisman Interview (HD; 3:36) is an archival television piece with the writer.


• Frazer Hines 8mm Film Footage (HD; 1:46) stems from 1967. In color, but with no audio.


• Gerald Blake 8mm Film Footage (HD; 3:51) is more color footage without sound from 1967.


• Audio Commentaries

  Episode One with Toby Hadoke and Judy Marsh nee Shears

  
  

  Episode Two with Toby Hadoke and Gary Russell

  
  

  Episode Three with Toby Hadoke and Bertie Noonan

  
  

  Episode Four with Toby Hadoke (who finally introduces himself), John Walker and Frazer Hines

  
  

  Episode Five with Toby Hadoke, Brian Hodson and Sylvia James

  
  

  Episode Six with Toby Hadoke and Gary Russell

Note: The Play Menu offers the options to either play all six animated episodes, or the five animated episodes with the existing archival Episode Two.

Disc Two features the animated version of the serial in color along with these supplements:

• Audio Commentaries

  Episode One with Toby Hadoke and Judy Marsh nee Shears

  
  

  Episode Two with Toby Hadoke and Gary Russell

  
  

  Episode Three with Toby Hadoke and Bertie Noonan

  
  

  Episode Four with Toby Hadoke, John Walker and Frazer Hines

  
  

  Episode Five with Toby Hadoke, Brian Hodson and Sylvia James

  
  

  Episode Six with Toby Hadoke and Gary Russell

Disc Three

• Photographic Reconstructions are really fascinating aggregations of production stills that hope to recreate in their own way what the original episodes looked like. These each come with two audio options, Original Audio or Narration Audio.

  Episode One (SD; 23:52)

  
  

  Surviving Original Episode Two (SD; 24:22)

  
  

  Episode Three (SD; 24:55)

  
  

  Episode Four (SD; 25:16

  
  

  Episode Five (SD; 24:55)

  
  

  Episode Six (SD; 24:43)

• Troughton in Tibet (HD; 38:48) is a fun newly produced retrospective.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 6:34)


• Teaser Trailer (HD; 00:47)

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Doctor Who episodes from this general era can often be on the daffy side, and that's certainly once again the case here, though the supposedly "exotic" location helps to give this serial a bit of flavor, however derivative it may seem to fans of either James Hilton or Doug Wildey. These newish efforts from BBC may not actually be of much interest in terms of the actual serial episodes to anyone other than devoted Whovians aiming for a "complete collection", so to speak, but as I mentioned in my Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 Blu-ray review, some outstanding supplements may be of more general interest. Within the proper context, then, Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen comes Recommended.