Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen

The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) materialise in Tibet only to find the local monastery besieged by the legendary Himalayan cryptids, who turn out to be not what they appear. This is an animated recreation of the 6-part second serial in season 5, of which only episode 2 survives (plus the audio and some video fragments and still images). The story is clever (blending the furry legends with alien villainy) although the ending is a bit vague, production quality and special effects (as judged by the extant episode) are very good by BBC standards, Troughton is entertaining in his interpretation of the 2nd Doctor, and Jamie and Victoria are among my favourite companions. The 'bonus material' on the DVD I was watching, which includes some home-movie footage of the original location-filming and a short film about Frazer Hines returning to the production location in Snowdonia, North Wales 50 years later, will appeal to most Whovians, especially those interested in the early incarnations of the venerable Timelord. These recreations are priceless in filling in the gaps in the old series (allegedly caused by some short-sighted and regrettable BBC penny-pinching) and I hope the resources continue to be made available to give other incomplete story arcs the same treatment.

I have to be honest, I felt quite spoilt, when I learned that Fury from The Deep, and this one were being animated, two of my all time favourites.

Some of the animations have been a little curious it's fair to say, this is arguably the best of them, it looks amazingly sharp and detailed, especially when compared to Galaxy 4.

So, it's a great story, it's nicely animated, and the sound is razor sharp, as though it were recorded yesterday.

Crammed full of extras, I'd argue it's a better watch in black and white, retaining some of the original atmosphere, the colourised version looks nice, but maybe it's just a little too bright.

All I ask and beg, please don't let this be the end for the animations, not before we've had Masterplan and Marco Polo, I get that these must take an age to do, and must cost a fortune, but surely the demand is still there, I don't know a Dr Who fan that didn't have this on pre order.

If it is the last, and I fear it may just be, it ended with a cracker.

Loved it, 9/10.