6 episodes
Aired between 3rd February 1968 and 9th March 1968
Written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Douglas Camfield
Synopsis
The TARDIS spins out of control, as Salamander flies out of the doorway.
Jamie manages to drop onto the console and close the doors, averting the catastrophe.
Back on Earth (1968), Professor Travers (of the Abominable Snowman fame) is arguing with Julius Silverstein, a private collector. Travers is adamant that the collector is in danger, and warns him that the control sphere he's been tinkering with has gone missing, and will be making its way to the Yeti statue that Travers sold to Silverstein some years back.
Silverstein in turn, thinks this is some kind of cheap trick to get him to part with the valuable artifact cheaply.
Silverstein calls Travers' daughter Anne, and tells her to get him out of his house. As they leave, the sphere hovers at the window, smashing it open and entering the Yeti statue. The Yeti transforms into a slimmer, more terrifying version and attacks Julius.
In the TARDIS, Jamie tries to convince the Doctor that he's seen the console light flash that indicates they've landed. The Doctor notes the fact that the time rotor is still moving, and dismisses his claims. Victoria turns up in a slinky new outfit and points to the flashing light too, forcing the Doctor to take note. He switches on the scanner, and scratches his head as it shows they're in deep space. It's not long however, before the screen is covered in some kind of spectral web.
Back on Earth, in some kind of dingy red brick room, Captain Knight, an Army officer is being interviewed by Mr Chorley, a London TV presenter. They discuss a situation where his colleague, Colonel Pemberton was recently killed. As they talk, Travers enters and in a rather curt way explains that his daughter called him in. Chorley tries to interview him, but Travers is curt with him too, stating that London, and possibly England is doomed.
The Doctor manages to bring the TARDIS in to land roughly half a mile from where he intended, getting out of the web thanks to a jury rigged device he hooks up to the console.
When they emerge, they find that they're in a dark, brick tunnel. Jamie reckons they're in a prison. but the Doctor thinks its more likely they're in a castle dungeon. As the move further on, they find out that they're both wrong. The TARDIS landed in the London Underground, putting them near Covent Garden.
The Trio head for the surface, but find the gate that the top is locked. Jamie asks a sleeping man nearby, but he falls over and reveals the strange web substance is over him too. He was manning a newspaper stand that carries the headline: Londoner's Flee! Menace Spreads!
Having little choice, the group head back underground. Jamie jumps on the tracks, and the Doctor panics, but quickly ascertains that the current on the track is off. in fact, the trains haven't been running in a while.
As they walk along the track, they hear a noise and hide, watching from the shadows as three soldiers walk down the track, carrying a spool of wire. The Doctor tells Jamie and Victoria to follow them discreetly whilst he traces the wire back to where they've come from. They agree, but it's not long before they're detected and captured.
The Doctor follows the wire to the Charring Cross platform, where he discovers a huge pile of explosives. Suddenly, a strange beeping noise approaches, and he hides under the platform, just in time to avoid being captured by a Yeti. He's forced to remain hidden as a second one turns up carrying some kind of gun. They use the gun to spray the spectral web all over the explosives.
Back at the underground base (which turns out to be in the London Underground), Captain Knight flirts with Anne Travers until Staff Sergeant Arnold turns up with Jamie and Victoria. Anne points out that they need to be sure no one else is in the tunnels before they blow them up. Knight agrees and questions the pair of youngsters, but Jamie suspecting they are in trouble, covers for the Doctor and states they were there on their own. Knight goes to give the all clear, leaving Staff to explain just how lucky Jamie and Victoria were. They both look mortified as the realisation dawns on them.
Out in the tunnels, the Yeti's leave, and the Doctor examines the webs, just as the explosives detonate.
Staff informs Captain Knight about the Doctor, and Knight curses, sending Staff and one of the other soldiers out to check the tunnel. Knight then goes and interrogates Jamie and Victoria further, with the help of Anne and Chorley.
They are interrupted when one of the men explains that a local transport team at Holburn have radioed in saying they're in trouble. As he leaves with the soldier, Knight asks if the Yeti are involved. Jamie overhears them and is curious.
At Charring Cross, Staff and Corporal Blake find the explosives. They're covered in web, and the crates are cinders, but the blast somehow didn't go off properly. Blake suggests that the Doctor stopped the explosion.
Anne goes back to work and see's Travers, telling him how astonished she is that the prisoners know lots about the Yeti. Travers goes to see for himself, hardly believing that their time machine worked Knowing that they're there now, Travers accepts that the Doctor may well be able to help them out of this mess, and takes Jamie to help find him, leaving Victoria to explain to Anne what all this is about.
Travers and Jamie explain everything to Staff who has returned (Captain Knight has gone to Holburn to find the transport). Staff and Corporal Blake voice their concerns about the Doctor's allegiance but Travers sticks up for him, leading to Staff agreeing to find the Doctor with Jamie.
Chorley turns up as Victoria finishes explaining about the TARDIS to Anne. He is upset that he's not got the access that he was promised and tries to get information out of the ladies. Anne warns him off, calling him a sensationalist and accusing him of twisting facts with his own vile opinions.
Captain Knight is in the tunnels on his way back from Holburn where he only found the destroyed truck and dead soldiers. He creates another stockpile of explosives from the ones found in the truck and prepares to blow the tunnel. Jamie and Staff find the group and update them.
As the group are about to blow the tunnel, they are attacked by Yeti's who are (unsurprisingly) bulletproof. They kill some of the soldiers and drive their way towards the explosives, again using their web-guns to cover the crates in spectral webs.
The Yeti continue their advance until Captain Knight, Jamie, Staff and the remaining soldiers are surrounded.
Back at the base, Anne and Travers discuss the previous encounter with the Doctor in Tibet. He muses that the only time the Yeti turn up, the Doctor is there too. Victoria overhears them and decides that everyone will try to pin the blame on the Doctor, so she leaves the base quietly, aiming to find him first. She never hears Travers coming to the conclusion that the Doctor simply couldn't be responsible.
Knight and his men are huddled together, watched by the Yeti. After a moment, a strange bleeping signal is heard and the monsters wander off, leaving the soldiers free to return to the base. As the group do so, they hear the curious sound of someone heading up the corridor, singing in Welsh. The group ambush them and find that it's an army private by the name of Evans. He explains that he was the truck driver caught in the ambush by the Yeti and he barely got out alive. He was looking for a way out, and always sings when he's scared. When questioned, he reports seeing a strange fungus moving in the tunnels, and a Yeti carrying a glowing pyramid out by Kings Cross. Jamie explains that if they can destroy the pyramid, then there's a chance it will stop the Great Intelligence behind all this. The soldiers aren't keen on going, but Jamie insists he is. Evans volunteers to go with him, but as soon as the men are gone, explains to Jamie that he's doing a runner the first chance he gets.
The group return to base, and find that Chorley is calling for an evacuation. Knight dismisses the idea and updates everyone on their encounter. The soldiers at the base state that escape is all but impossible anyway, as the strange fungus they've been tracking along the tunnels seems to have moved once again and now covers all of the circle line except for the monument.
Jamie and Evans reach reach the remaining open station on the circle line, and come face to face with the encroaching fungus, coming out of tunnels either side of them.
Things look bleak for them until from the fungus, a Yeti emerges, carrying a glowing pyramid. Jamie encourages Evans to shoot the pyramid. It explodes and the Yeti stops, but the fungus doesn't. It however gives them enough time to scarper away via a nearby archway.
Elsewhere in the tunnels, Victoria eventually finds the Doctor, but he's being held prisoner by another soldier: Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart.
The Colonel is another survivor of the ammo truck at Holburn. Victoria tells them about what's gone off, and explains that Travers is there, suspecting the Doctor's involvement. The Colonel decides to take them all back to the base. When they get there, Knight is suspicious of Colonal Lethbridge-Stewart, as Evans never mentioned other survivors. Lethbridge-Stewart is understanding, and has adequate ID on him to prove he's legitimate.
Once all ID's are out of the way, Travers explains to them that he doesn't really believe the Doctor is involved, and even invites him to their lab to help find a solution to defeating the Yeti's. They go along, but Victoria voices her concerns about Jamie alone in the tunnels.
Out in the tunnels, Jamie and Evans make it to St Paul's station. Evans explains that he's looking at getting out at the next station. Jamie protests, but Evan's is adamant, leaving Jamie alone.
Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart calls a briefing of everyone left alive in the base (except Chorley), summarising what they know so far. A strange mist suddenly encroached on London, Anyone who went into the mist never came out again. The mist blocks all communication transmissions. In days, the mist transformed into fungus inside the tunnels, and then a couple of days after, the Yeti's arrived. This is all following Travers' admittance that he activated one of the control spheres by accident, leading the Intelligence back to Earth.
Anne explains that her father and she are trying to come up with equipment that will jam the transmissions from the intelligence to the Yeti's, but they need more equipment.
Chorley bursts in, frustrated that he wasn't told about the briefing. His attempts to demand information from the Colonel go unsuccessful, and his insistence that a helicopter could airlift them all out are dismissed. Chorley leaves, and speaks to one of the soldiers about possible buildings they could use for an air evacuation. As the soldier consults the map, he notices that the fungus is on the move again through the tunnels, and rushes off to tell the Colonel.
Jamie is having no luck out in the tunnels, but it isn't long before he is joined back up by Evans. The soldier tries to pass it off as if he's had a change of heart, but soon admits that he couldn't get out at the next station. They give in and head back to base.
The Colonel gives Chorley a coordinating and liaising job to keep him out of the way. Once he's sorted, the Colonel secretly comes up with a plan, taking the Doctors advice to put the last of their explosives on a rolling trolley and blow the tunnel to the base, effectively sealing themselves in, thus buying enough time to come up with a device to combat the Yeti.
As they are discussing the plan, someone in the base goes to the main door and unlocks it, leaving it vulnerable.
Happy with the plan, the Doctor goes to the lab. There he and Victoria note the small Yeti models that Travers brought back from Tibet.
Anne says he brought four back, but there's only three present.
As they discuss this, the person who opened the base also reactivates one of the Yeti models and sets it onto the floor, leaving it beeping away on its own.
Whilst all the preparations are going off, no one except Victoria seems to be bothered about Jamie. Anne consoles her and suggests that he got out of way before the fungus covered the whole circle line.
The Colonel explains to the Doctor that he intends to go and check the explosives used near Holburn to see if any survived. He leaves four men to guard the base, despite the Doctor's warnings that there's sufficient evidence to suspect that one of them is a traitor.
Elsewhere in the base, Victoria is moaning to everyone, and happens to moan to the wrong man - Chorley. She bangs on about how she's worried that blowing up the tunnel will trap Jamie and cut them off from the TARDIS. In one swift move, Chorley discovers the plan that he's been kept out of, and the possibility of escape. He leaves at the earliest opportunity when the Doctor turns up.
The Doctor soon realises Victoria's blunder and rushes off to catch Chorley, but discovers they've been locked in!
Elsewhere in the base, the Yeti enter and attack the remaining soldiers, Anne and Travers, taking the unconscious old scientist with them,
Jamie and Evans make it back to the base and find the Doctor and Victoria locked in. As soon as they're free, they rush off to Covent Garden to stop Chorley reaching the TARDIS and stranding them all.
Out in the tunnels, Captain Knight explains to the Colonel that the fungus has overrun the Holburn tunnel, as if the intelligence knew what they were up to.
The Doctor and co encounter lots of the spectral web near Covent Garden, but find no sign of Chorley. They take a sample of the strange stuff, and are forced to abandon the pursuit with no way through. As they make their way back, they find Staff in the tunnels, giving them an update before they return to the base.
Once back, they take note of the door hanging off its hinges and the unconscious Anne. They rouse her to find out that the Yeti's have taken her father. The timing of the attack puzzles the Doctor, but he comes to the conclusion that the old man must be needed for something.
Staff arranges for the dead soldiers to be disposed of, whilst the Colonel watches the interactive map with concern, noting that the fungus is advancing on their position. They ponder possible traitors. Knight and the Colonel suspect Travers, but the Doctor's money is on Chorley. Through his justification of knowing so much about the Great Intelligence, the Doctor is forced to reveal details about the TARDIS.
The Colonel takes an interest in the craft, just like Chorley, but the Doctor is uncomfortable about using it to escape until they have dealt with the Yeti. When the Doctor has left to assist Anne with her father's work, the Colonel explains to Captain Knight that he intends to send the men to get to the craft. Knight protests, obviously disbelieving the nature of the TARDIS, but the Colonel says he simply can't leave any stone un-turned when it comes to possible escape routes.
The Doctor works with Anne to open up one of the control spheres and confirms that they can override the intelligence commands with it, but only if he gets more components. When Evans shows them the reactivated Yeti model he found by one of the bodies, they discover that the rest are gone too. Evans gets offended when they naturally suspect him and hands over his tobacco tin that contains a sample of the spectral web, before they accuse him of nicking that too.
The Colonel forms a plan to get the TARDIS. He leads a main team overground to Covent Garden, whilst Staff, Evans and another take the trolley (which they'll use to carry the TARDIS back on) underground and try to get through the fungus. Captain Knight is ordered to remain at the base.
The Doctor sets up the lab to experiment on the web, but as he opens the tin, he finds it empty. His suspicion of Evans grows. He informs Captain Knight, but they discover that the soldiers have just left, making it too late to collar him. They decide instead to go to abandoned shops to gather the components they need. Knight reluctantly agrees to go with the Doctor, leaving Jamie, Victoria and Anne alone in the base.
Out in the tunnels, Staff is suspicious of Evans too and warns him against deserting his duty. It's not long before they come face to face with the web like fungus. Evans refuses to volunteer, so Staff and the other private put on gas masks and go in with the trolley, leaving Evans to hold a rope attached to them so they can be pulled out if needed. The web begins pulsating as they enter it. They've not gone far before they begin screaming and the fungus emits a huge shriek. Evans pulls the rope back, but finds only the dead body of the private on the trolley. He calls for the Staff, but gets no response prompting him to leg it in fear.
On the surface, the Colonel and his men arrive at Covent Garden, but find the Yeti waiting for them.
They engage in a furious battle, but find their bullets are useless. Only grenades and the one bazooka they have are of any use.
They're soon overwhelmed and forced into a warehouse where they're all killed. The Colonel only just escapes by the skin of his teeth.
In an electronics shop across town, Captain Knight hears the firefight and grows concerned. The Doctor gathers the remaining components they need, but they're suddenly attacked by the Yeti.
Once Knight is dead, a strange beeping is heard and the Yeti retreat, leaving the Doctor to find another of the reactivated models on knights body.
Evans gets back to base at the same time as the Doctor. They tell Jamie, Victoria and Anne what's happened and begin suspecting Evans of foul play. The Doctor disables the model and they begin work on the control sphere.
The Colonel makes it back to base, and is distraught at the loss of all the soldiers. As they discuss their next moves, the Doctor hushes them all, noting the faint bleeping noise indicating one of the models is close by. They find it on the Colonel, just as more Yeti arrive at the base, this time accompanied by Professor Travers!
Through Travers, the Great Intelligence reveals that it wants to consume the Doctor's mind. It promises that if the Doctor willingly submits, then all his companions will be set free. It gives him twenty minutes to decide. To ensure his cooperation, Travers grabs Victoria and takes her away.
Jamie is all for a suicidal attack on the Yeti to get Victoria back, but the Colonel won't let him.
On her way to the intelligence's base, Victoria subtly drops one of her necklaces to leave a trail.
Left alone, everyone starts to think of a way out of the mess, Evans coming up with the most obvious answer of just giving the Doctor over and they all walk away. The Doctor promises that if he can't think of a better idea, then he'll willingly give himself up.
They soon discover that all the Yeti have gone, and Jamie asks for Evans and Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to help him scout out the enemy base. The Colonel thinks its suicide, but prefers it to doing nothing. Evans wants no part of it and elects to stay behind with the Doctor and Anne as they get to work on finishing the jamming device.
Jamie and the Colonel try to go above ground and get in front of the party taking Victoria. When they open the door however, the unleash the pulsating fungus into the base, and narrowly manage to escape by shutting a fire door. As they return to the base, Evans confronts them, pointing a gun at them both. He says that he's been thinking about it and one of them two must be the traitor. Jamie dismisses the claims as he's sure it's Chorley. He and the Colonel decide to scout the base via the tunnels instead and march past Evans, ignoring his threat.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Anne have managed to create a crude jamming device that only works at very close range, and have reprogrammed the sphere they have to obey voice commands.
Moving through the tunnels, Jamie finds Victoria's necklace and is spurred on, but is cautious of the Colonel now that Evans has cast doubt on them both.
Successful with the voice control, the Doctor and Anne head out into the tunnels with the reprogrammed sphere to find a Yeti. Evans predictably refuses to join them.
As they get close to the base, the Colonel and Jamie run into Staff Sergeant Arnold who is looking a bit worse for wear.
It turns out he survived the fungus and has found Travers and Victoria being held prisoner at Picadilly Station. The Colonel decides that getting Staff some medical attention is more important that rushing to find Victoria, so he forces Jamie to help him take Staff back to their base.
Once they get there, and get past Evans' stammering at the sight of Staff (whom he thought dead), they are told that the Doctor and Anne have left. The Colonel and Jamie race off after them, leaving Evans to tend to Staff.
Out in the tunnels, the Doctor and Anne do indeed find a Yeti and only just disable it as it attacks them. They quickly replace the control sphere, dancing for joy as the Yeti now obeys their commands.
As Evans patches Staff up, the fungus bursts into the base and threatens to consume them.
They are forced to flee the base. Staff wants to go and find the others and warn them, but Evans has had enough and deserts Staff, who shakes his fist and swears that he'll get Evans for this.
Thinking on his feet, the Doctor decides to keep the Yeti a secret, so as to not tip off the traitor. He orders it to wait ninety seconds and then revert to obeying the intelligence until told otherwise. As the countdown begins, he and Anne rush away.
It's not long before they run into Jamie, the Colonel and Staff. Having no base to go back to, the group are eventually surrounded by Yeti. They are led away, and Staff manages to escape thanks to the Colonel creating a distraction.
Travers and Victoria are led to the enemy base: the booking hall at Picadilly Station. There they find a large perspex pyramid, something they've not encountered before. Victoria spots a man lurking in the shadows, but he flee's before they can tell who it is.
The Doctor and company are led to the platform at Picadilly station. As they wait, the Doctor fills Jamie in on the friendly Yeti and hands the controls to him, asking him to call it to him. Jamie agrees and sneaks into a nearby metal box, unseen by the robotic monsters. Evans is brought to join the group and they're led away.
Elsewhere, Staff is scouting the area when he runs into a distraught Chorley.
The journalist says he's been left in the corridors for ages and can't get out. Staff muses how Chorley could have survived so long on his own, hinting that he might be the traitor, but doesn't pursue it. He leads Chorley away to help rescue the Doctor and friends.
On their way to the base, a Yeti closes in on him with some kind of electronic headset in its hand. The Doctor uses the jamming device to freeze the Yeti and quickly gets to work switching some of the wires around on the headpiece. He pops it on his head and reactivates the Yeti, allowing himself to be taken to the base.
Back on the platform, Jamie tries to summon the Yeti, and one appears, but doesn't follow all his commands. He shakes his head and turns to leave, but finds one of the monsters is right behind him.
At the enemy base, everyone is brought together, and are even joined by Chorley. They all assume he's the Intelligence, but he refutes it, pointing a finger at Staff Sergeant Arnold. Sure enough, Staff turns up wearing a similar headset to the Doctor and talking different.
Jamie is brought in and threatened until the Doctor willingly sits inside the pyramid.
When he does so, Jamie gives the command for the rogue Yeti to attack. Everything turns to chaos and Jamie tries to get the Doctor out of the pyramid. Much to his surprise the Doctor resists and says they're ruining everything. Jamie ignores him and hauls him out of the structure, destroying it in the process.
The Yeti cease to function, and Staff collapses, his brain fried.
The Doctor is furious, as he intended on draining the Great Intelligence, thanks to reversing the process on the headset, now all that they've done is banish it out into the vortex once more.
Now the crisis is over, Chorley suggests making the Doctor a hero, which prompts the Doctor to gather Jamie and Victoria, and leave as fast as possible. They say their goodbye's and do just that.
On their way, Jamie asks what the rush is, as the Yeti are all gone. The Doctor smiles and says that they might be, but the trains could well start up again at any moment.
Trivia
- John Levine (the future Sgt. Benton) was hired to play one of the Yeti. Not sure if he's the friendly one or not.
- And so, this was the first story to be made since Innes Lloyd departed. He brought in Peter Bryant as his replacement and a new script editor: Derrick Sherwin was put in place. Sherwin brought a guy called Terrence Dicks with him as an assistant. That's a name you're probably going to want to remember.
- This is the first story with the character of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. We'll be seeing him again soon enough.
- The production team asked British Rail for permission to film on the underground. They refused, leaving the team to have to create everything from scratch. When the episodes broadcast, British Rail sent a scathing complaint in for the BBC disobeying their instructions. The thing is, they didn't! Everything on screen is a set, not location!!!!
What worked
- As mentioned above, the sets are really, really first class.
- Yes, the story is full of regional accent of the week, just like international space stations have been in other stories, but they're all carried out pretty well
- The Yeti look so much better, and the bit where Jamie is ambushed by one at Picadilly still made me jump today
- For anyone who lives in London, or knows the area, the story draws you really close to it by putting it in your back yard
- I loved the fact that they didn't make the action sequences cheesy, with the all British heroes saving the day. The combat showed how futile it was, and gave Nicholas Courtney a good opportunity to play the Colonel in an interesting and dare I say it, realistic way
- The whodunnit aspect of the traitor in the camp was dealt with much better here than in The Abominable Snowmen.
What didn't work
- Running backwards and forwards all the time and abandoning plans got a bit tedious, even though that seemed more realistic
- It's not a fault of the show, but watching this in hindsight gives you the lack of ability to suspect Lethbridge-Stewart as a true traitor, knowing what will happen in the future. In 1968, he was a brand new character, and so allowed people to suspect him in ways we never can
- Why did the Great Intelligence give the Doctor twenty minutes? Why not demand his decision there and then?
- Staff pretends to be on their side a tiny bit too long. He should have been revealed at the point of finding Chorley, I think
Overall Feelings
One of the great things about doing a contemporary Doctor Who story is the ability to show the unfamiliar in the familiar. It makes it more personal, raises the stakes and provides good atmosphere. That technique was first seen in the Dalek Invasion of Earth and was used to good effect. This story takes the familiar and plunges it into darkened tunnels, showing us that huge scary monsters could be lurking in the shadows, right beneath our feet.
This story is perhaps unusual as it doesn't so much develop anything to do with the main characters. It does however provide a real chunk of character development for the secondary cast, giving everyone interesting backstories and motivations which in turn helps draw you into the story.
I honestly find it hard to find fault with this story. It is dark, atmospheric, and feels
right. I guess the main downside is that we spend almost all of episode two wondering where the Doctor is (he's on holiday for a week), which stalls the story a little bit. Then there's numerous occasions where people run up a tunnel with a plan, only to change their minds and come back again. This however tedious, felt realistic, and added to the chaos and panic of it all.
In balance with the Aztecs (9 /10), the Enemy of the World (9 /10), the Massacre (9 /10) and perhaps more relevant, the War Machines (9 /10), this story provides more action and atmosphere where it lacks in complex plot. A must see for any Doctor Who fan.
Rating
10 out of 10!
Not as much character development as in other stories, but makes up for it with suspense and downright action. Sets are amazing and the characters are funny or terrifying when they need to be.
Rewatchability Factor
8 out of 10
Great, great story. But, you need to leave a bit of space between watching to re-capture some of the mystery of the whodunnit.
Watch this if you liked....
- The Snowmen (Doctor Who Series 7)
Consulting the Matrix
Be honest, before the big reveal, who did you think the traitor was?
