4. The Abominable Snowmen
Series seven / 33 of Doctor Who saw the return of a very old enemy, The Great Intelligence. This story is where it all began. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive in Tibet in 1935, to greet an old friend, Padmasambhava. Only it turns out the malevolent Great Intelligence has taken over his body. The Doctor must face a terrible enemy, whose ultimate plan is to gain corporeal form and take over the Earth. Like many stories if this era, only one episode of the original six remain so its difficult to imagine how good this story is. By all accounts, its follow up (which Ill come to shortly) is the better of the two, but theres still great stuff here to enjoyor there would be if the episodes still existed. The Doctor is genuinely frightened by the Great Intelligence in this story. The monastery, abandoned to the enemy, sound genuinely creepy and atmospheric. And we have the introduction of another classic enemy, the Yeti. These robots disguised as the abominable snowmen are the killer henchmen of the Great Intelligence so to speak. Along with the ice warriors (who made their excellent return in the recent
The Cold War), these monsters are another foe Ive heard discussed every time the mention of another classic monster returning comes up. In fact, considering the storyline of the recent series, Im surprised they didnt. Though maybe they were considered too hokey for modern audience. After all, robot Yetis dont exactly install fear, do they? But for the audience in 1967, that may have been a whole different story.