28th September, 2022.
I have officially had too much pizza.
It’s Monday: at a time I’m usually cooking my own dinner.
But?
I’ve had my nephew, Jude, over: and we’ve edited — and posted — the new trailer for his YouTube channel.
And had — yes, you’re right — pizza.
That’s what happens when you spend time a an eleven year old who grew up glued to anything with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in it!
At any rate?
Channel trailer posted, pizza (me) and chicken strips (him) eaten, and nephew safely heading home with Grandma?
That now means I have the rest of the evening to myself.
And can settle in with a nice cup of tea, a sneaky chocolate bar — trust me, I’m diabetic, I do try and keep them to a minimum! — and the next episode of a TV show I’m watching.
Yes: that’s right.
I’m going to follow up the first three episodes of The Abominable Snowmen … by watching episode four.
I will, of course, have my reviews of the episode — both written and video — posted tomorrow night.
I’ll see you then*.
Episode 4 opens by showing the rampaging Yeti pulling off its restraints: while Victoria (Deborah Watling) screams for help.
She’s answered by Thomni (David Spenser): who holds the creature off, whilst Victoria flees.
Just in time to join Sapan (Raymond Llewellyn) as he mets Khrisong (Norman Jones): which gives the panicked pair a chance to tell someone there’s a Yeti amok in the building.
There’s only one thing Khrisong can do: order his warriors to drive the hideous thing out of Det-sen Monastery.
Meanwhile?
The Doctor and Jamie (Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines) are outside Det-sen: heading back to the TARDIS, a TARDIS that the Doctor feels will have something that can be used to block the Yeti control signals.
However? He quietly admits to Jamie that he’s nervous: as there seems to be a distinct lack of Yeti in the area.
Something Jamie … finds equally nerve wracking.
Their fears are confirmed, when the pair find the TARDIS.
It’s being guarded …
~≈🩺≈~
Meanwhile … ?
Travers (Jack Watling) is chasing wild Yeti, further up the Mountains.
And found none.
He has spotted Abbot Songsten and five Robot Yeti.
The Abbott? Seems keen to get into the cave Jamie and Victoria found earlier.
The Abbott has a job to for Master Padmasambhava: putting a small glass pyramid into place in on top of a stack of Yeti Control Units.
Something that Travers goes to look at, after Songsten has safely gone.
Travers has problems.
As the Pyramid … starts frothing …
~≈🩺≈~
Now …
What did I make of the episode … ?
Was it good? Bad? Indifferent?
Are there things I’ve noticed?
What’s the episode like?
The episode, itself?
Is great.
The animation, itself, is very well done.
In one sense, it’s a disappointment that it’s not a Dalek episode.
Both The Power of The Daleks, and Evil of the Daleks, were riveting, in part, because they featured animated Daleks.
Those things were gorgeous.
Saying that?
The overall look of The Abominable Snowmen is superb: in episode four, as the earlier episodes.
And yes: The Abominable Snowmen, so far, is an improvement on earlier reanimated stories.
I’m assuming that’s the animators’ experience showing: as much as any improvements in software and computer power.
The story, itself … ?
Is moving along at a cracking pace.
Granted: this is the second episode of the series where Victoria walks into a cliffhanger: straight into Master Padmasambhava’s inner sanctum.
But?
The episode also reminds us that Victoria wasn’t just a screamer who walks into trouble: as, earlier in the episode, she manages to escape from the cell she’s held in by pretending to have been poisoned.
So? I think we can say she had a little more to her than we thought: had we just seen her screaming.
There’s other elements, as well: in forcing the Yeti out of Det-sen, episode four shows us Khrisong giving some leadership to his warriors.
Even if — towards the end of the episode — he is over-ruled by the Abbot.
And? And the episode also tells us about something called the Great Intelligence: and that it’s controlling Master Padmasambhava.
And given the Master a hell of a lot of power: the fact he seems to be able to easily hypnotise Victoria, is sign of that.
~≈🩺≈~
There’s other things, as well.
My slightly irreverent side? Watched one part of the episode — where Master Padmasambhava is toying with the model Yeti, the ones that control the full sized Yeti robots, whilst thinking aloud — and immediately dubbed the action ‘Yeti Fondling.’
Which sounds odd … until you see the scene in question.
Next? The Yeti control units. Are spherical: and — in the cave — are in a heap.
I’m trying to avoid calling them a ‘pile of balls,’ but the phrase has a bad habit of floating through my mind.
Whilst we’re on the subject of the control units?
At one point in the episode, Abbot Songsten goes to the cave with a glass pyramid, and mystically removes the top three layers of the pyramidal pile of units: to reveal that the last layer is 16 units, arranged in a square.
He then places the glass pyramid in the centre of the square: where it starts to glow.
I had a look at the equivalent scene in the telesnaps reconstruction of episode four.
To find that the equivalent was a glass pyramid … in a triangular arrangement of balls.
To me?
That sounds like the crew that produced the original live action version of The Abominable Snowmen could only afford so many props: so made a tetrahedral pile.
A pile with four triangular faces, in other words.
A shape that involved less balls than the pyramid the animators drew: let’s face it, the animators didn’t have to spend as much money on physical props.
They could do a pyramid, a five faced solid with a square base, far more cheaply.
Why that was done did it how they did?
I don’t know: beyond guessing that price was an influencing factor.
But I’m aware that — although they’re occasionally referred to as pyramids — that a four sided solid with triangular face is correctly called a tetrahedron.
If you’re a mathematician who can tell me otherwise, please do!
In layman’s terms!
~≈🩺≈~
About the only other thing that I noticed?
Was the sound quality.
Most of the time, the reanimated versions have sound quality that can be … varied.
Mark Ayres and his audio restoration team do a great job: but there’s times the quality of the source material shows.
This particular episode?
Is good: as we’ve come to expect.
But the scenes in the mountains, between the Doctor and Jamie — around two minutes into the episode — have a superb depth and richness to them, depth and richness I found wonderful to hear.
I’m assuming part of That is due to the richness of the source audio file, as much as Ayres’ skills.
I can only hope this quality is maintained in the next episode.
Because?
I am going to be watching episode five: on — appropriately enough — Monday, 5th December†, 2022.
I’ll have my review up on 6th November.
I’ll see you then!
Episode 4.★★★★
* There’s a wide variety of emojis I could use. None of which are a call box. There’s a few doctor type emojis. Which looked odd. So I’ve settled on a stethoscope emoji. It’s used by a doctor, after all …
† That link will go live, late on 6th December, 2022.
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