The Yeti and Illustrator Alan Willow

Jamie discovers the Yeti-control spheres in a cave.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Of course, there are all kinds of pictures. Some images really speak to you, while others prove eminently forgettable. But few compare to video, which includes motion and sound, and can bring characters and a story to life in a way words or still pictures never can. 

Sadly, five of the six episodes of the Doctor Who story "The Abominable Snowmen" no longer exist. I've watched the story reconstruction several times. This was a real labor of love for dedicated Doctor Who fans. They cobbled the missing episodes together using photos taken of a TV screen, a complete sound recording (probably compiled from multiple sources, and most likely all from just a child's low-tech cassette recorder) and some fan-made animation. While I'm amazed by their achievement, it's the events from the single remaining video episode that cling most tenaciously to my memory.

 So unlike most of the classic Doctor Who stories, reading Terrance Dicks' novelization of "The Abominable Snowmen" was like revisiting a novel I hadn't read in years. I vaguely remembered bits of the story, but for the most part, while familiar, it was also completely new. Again.

Monks defend the monastery during a Yeti assault.

 Given the worth of a good picture, and how much it can contribute to a story, I'm glad the artist who drew these interior sketches receives credit in the book. Of course, Terrance Dicks gets his name on the spine, on the cover, and inside. The publishers also point out that Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln wrote the original screenplay. While the illustrations are copyrighted by the publisher, at least the illustrator, Alan Willow, gets a mention. That's better than some books, in which the interior artist is never recognized until years later, if ever.

Alan Willow would go on to illustrate more of the early Doctor Who novels. Sadly, the series dropped the interior illustrations after awhile. But at least in these early books, we have these wonderful sketches that enhance the story. That's especially nice for stories like "The Abominable Snowmen," which no longer exist in their original form.

Edward Travers, explorer for Britain's Royal Geographic Society, spots a monk and two Yeti.

A few thoughts strike me as I conclude this series on "The Abominable Snowmen." One is that the novelization copyright is dated 1974. This is the same year in which Terrance Dicks left the TV series, after serving for five years as script editor. So this may represent one of his first literary efforts. A second thought is that it was not widely known at this time that the BBC were wiping old tapes to use again, so it would not have represented an intention to preserve a lost story. Third, and lastly, Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen is the first book in the Target Doctor Who series. This suggests that the publishers thought this story was strong enough to launch their range, and that the idea of the Yeti was powerful enough to draw readers to their new book series.

They would have had eleven years worth of Doctor Who stories to choose from by this time, encompassing the first, second, and third Doctor eras. That adds up to over seventy stories! So the fact that Target Books chose "The Abominable Snowmen" to launch their Doctor Who line suggests they must have thought it was extraordinary.

All of which makes me wonder why, with the exception of a cameo appearance in "The Five Doctors," the Yeti never returned to the TV series. But then, Doctor Who has never suffered from a lack of frightening monsters, or threatening alien races.

Dragon Dave