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I like this serial a lot. It’s a nice early example of classic Who exploring the storyline possibilities of time travel, and it’s notable for the first appearance of the Brigadier, one of the most enduring non-regenerating characters in the series. And come on – Yeti attacking the London underground! What’s not to love?
The Second Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria land in an abandoned underground station in 1960s London, in the middle of a real mess. The city has been set upon by a mysterious mist, a creeping fungus, and their old pals the robotic-controlled Yeti from “The Abominable Snowmen.” They come to the logical conclusion, that the Great Intelligence must be at it again, and they meet up again with the now-aged Professor Travers as they try to assist a military group stationed in the underground to fight the Yeti.
There’s just so much I like about this story. Right off the bat, I love that Jamie and Victoria are at a complete loss as to where they are, since underground trains are after both of their times. It’s a great detail the show can pull out when the companions aren’t always modern-day humans from Great Britain, and I love it. I like reuniting team TARDIS with Professor Travers as well. Even though it’s only been a few serials since “The Abominable Snowman,” it’s been half a lifetime for him, and it’s cool to see how he interacts with them again and vice versa.
Story-wise, I think the serial’s biggest asset is how it cultivates a sense of paranoia and distrust in all the characters. What with the dark and claustrophobic setting of the underground, the soldiers’ bafflement at the otherworldly Yeti menace, and, once the Intelligence has been revealed, the growing suspicion that someone in their ranks is working for it, the whole thing creates an eerie atmosphere with suspense and fear. Even looking at how the Brigadier is introduced, someone from another unit who’s lost his men making his way to the base. Coming at the show after the fact as I did, already knowing the Brigadier has a long history with the series, I knew he wasn’t gonna be a bad guy, but the people watching in in 1968 sure wouldn’t have known that.
Speaking of the Brigadier, he’s great here. Many of his familiar traits are quickly established – his no-nonsense leadership, his stubbornness, his bravery, his shoot-first tendency with alien forces he can’t fight in the usual way – and I also like how he’s shown to be pragmatic but not disbelieving. When the Doctor explains, badly, about the TARDIS, the Brigadier has no obvious reason to believe him, but he does anyway. After all, he’s seen the Yeti and can’t dispute that they exist – why not a time-and-space-traveling police box? Later in the series, he can be a little too “balderdash, Doctor!”, so I appreciate seeing him so willing to believe in this story.
The rest of our heroes all acquit themselves reasonably well, though all three of them get caught up in the paranoia of the story in various ways. Victoria manages to keep it together in a terrifying situation, Jamie learns to navigate the underground with the best of them, and the Doctor awesomely rigs up a system for acquiring his own voice-activated Yeti. All around, quite a good adventure.
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