September 2nd, 2022
267 comments
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Doctor Who The Abominable Snowmen Steelbook
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk
Also available to order from www.zavvi.com, HMV via www.ebay.co.uk and other selected retailers.
The Abominable Snowmen will be released in 2022 on DVD, Blu-ray and as an exclusive Steelbook this year, filling another gap in missing Doctor Who episodes.
Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen is a six-part story based on audio recordings of the original episodes. Most of the six-part adventure story was lost soon after the programme’s original transmission in 1967 and only the audio recordings of the episodes survived. in missing Doctor Who episodes.
In the 17th century, an old Tibetan friend of the Doctor’s reached out and touched the mind of an alien disembodied energy, known only as the Great Intelligence, giving it a conduit to Earth.
300 years later, the Doctor revisits the Himalayas because he wants to return the Holy Ghanta, an ancient relic he was given many centuries ago by the grateful monks and their Master, Padmasambhava, at Det-Sen Monastery. On arriving however, the Doctor is treated as a villain – blamed for a series of brutal murders in the area. Jamie and Victoria meanwhile discover the true culprits – the previously peaceful Yeti that live in seclusion on the mountainside have apparently turned violent.
The Doctor must convince the monks that not only is he not their enemy, but the real foe – and the power controlling the Yeti – is living amongst them.
Most of the original 1967 master recordings of the six-part adventure ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ were lost soon after the programme’s original transmission. However, audio-only recordings of all the episodes have survived and have been used here to create six brand new fully animated presentations of this lost classic, as well as the one surviving segment, Episode Two.
INCLUDES
- Episodes 1-6 (Animated Black & White)
- Episodes 1-6 (Animated Colour)
- Restored Surviving Original Episode 2
- Photographic Reconstructions of Episodes 1, 3, 4, 5 & 6
- Making-of Documentary
- Audio Commentaries
- 8mm Home Movie Footage
- Archive interview with writer Mervyn Haisman
- Photo Gallery
- Teaser Trailer
- PDF ROM Content
Written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln.
Directed by Chloe Grech and Gary Russell (2022 Production).
Directed by Gerald Blake (1967 Production).
Executive Producers for Big Finish Creative Jason Haigh-Ellery, Mark B. Oliver and Gary Russell (2022 Production).
Executive Producer for BBC Studios Russell Minton (2022 Production).
Produced by Innes Lloyd (1967 Production).
Starring Patrick Troughton, Deborah Watling, Frazer Hines, Wolfe Morris, Norman Jones and Jack Watling.
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Prowl 1701
September 10th, 2022 - 11:06pmSo my black and white copy of this gets glitchy for about ten minutes on episode six (between the 5-15 minute mark) not sure whether to complain to amazon UK, or if I need to message the BC about replacing the disc? And could someone give me a link for the bbc dvd and blueray issues divsion, I can never remember it.
Gordon
September 11th, 2022 - 9:16amMy copy is fine and I don’t think I’ve seen anybody else complain about it so I think it’s either your disc or possibly your player needing an firmware update (if it does updates) . Would contact Amazon about a replacement.
Not sure if its changed but the dvd support is: [email protected]
Prowl 1701
September 12th, 2022 - 8:05amThanks, Gordon. Will have to get them a message when I get a free moment from work!
Prowl1701
September 9th, 2022 - 2:14pmWorking my way through the black and white version now, four episodes down, and two to go. Liking it so far, the animation is a vast improvement over Fury.
Bookcollector
September 8th, 2022 - 12:32pmWatched it all now, so…
The monochrome animation works well but I have to admit I think the colour version looks fantastic. The clean up of episode 2 is very good and the reconstruction is fun. Some of the CGI is rather amusing as the yeti bumble around! Overall I enjoyed all three versions. The extras are good with the best being the making of documentary. The 8mm footage is known as are the episode 4 clips but they are still a nice addition. Commentaries are interesting and explained some of the animation choices well.
In terms of the animation it’s very good. I liked the alteration of the cast to fit in more accurately with ethnicity, I makes it more believable and it’s odd that abominable isn’t talked about in the same way as crusade and talons is. If this is the final animation at least it means they go out on a high.
D84
September 8th, 2022 - 3:26pmI quite agree this one is very good, and i think its a good move to have the desired ethnicity represented
I would so like to see more animations, and will be overjoyed if we get wind of new activity on a future release
Do we think there is any chance BBC America could reinstate their funding?
Bookcollector
September 8th, 2022 - 3:49pmI suppose it depends on why they withdrew in the first place. Was it sales of the animations? General cost cutting in the downturn experienced by all in the covid age? I hope we get more in a few years time. I do think we could still see a few old style releases. By which I mean in the style of the moonbase or reign of terror. Incomplete stories completed by only animation of the missing episodes. There may be enough budget to cover the two episodes of underwater menace but I’m doubtful it would stretch to say the four episodes of wheel in space. Even the crusades two episodes may be beyond a solo budget. We can live in hole though and frankly in this day and age hope is something we should all cling onto
Bookcollector
September 8th, 2022 - 3:52pmOr we could live in a hole as autocorrect suggests!
the ergon
September 8th, 2022 - 5:59pmDon,t you just loathe it when that happens. LOL,.
D84
September 8th, 2022 - 9:14pmI agree Bookcollector, If we were to get “only” missing episodes animated to fill in the gaps – that will do absolutely just fine. I was also thinking 2 eps for underwater menace may be possible (although it was previously commissioned then shelved due to increased costs) but the 4 missing eps of Wheel in Space may be too much of a stretch
Gordon
September 9th, 2022 - 1:16amIf you think about it bbc america actually didn’t withdraw funding. They were contracted for 7 stories (power, shada, faceless,fury, evil, g4 and abominable) and they fulfilled that contract. They just decided not to do any more beyond that.
Considering work on evil finished july 2021 and that team never got any more commissions the choice would have been made not to do any more quite some time ago.
The decision to not do any more could be down to a few possibilities. As far as I’m aware bbc america don’t have anything to do with the dvds so dvd sales isn’t a factor.
Ratings are a possibility. Bbc america do broadcast them. The early releases ie power/macra got about 250k viewers. Later ones weren’t as high. Could be possible that the viewing figures just weren’t high enough to justify them forking out for any more as the more viewers they get the higher the ad revenue to they would get.
As far as I know bbc America have actually stopped producing new original programming. Think the last thing they produced was killing eve and that finished back in February. That could also be a reason.
Delays due to covid. The likes of fury, evil, g4 and abominable all had delays due to covid. Could that have played a part
Place this under rumour bbc america might be losing the rights to show doctor who. Bad wolf/Sony is taking over the production side of doctor who. There already is rumours that Disney wants the streaming rights to doctor who.
Bookcollector
September 10th, 2022 - 4:47pmThanks for the info Gordon, was just speculating so it’s nice to have a bit more background of the situation. Actually killing eve 4 is an odd one as well. It was released on DVD in July in America but in the UK? Nothing announced at all. Very odd.
Bobby Fackrell
September 11th, 2022 - 3:00pmKilling Eve series 4 is an abortion though, best to imagine 3 was the last series
Nick r
September 7th, 2022 - 3:48pmStill waiting for my copy from zavi larst item i buy from them no mail till saturday as there on strike thursday and friday iso not to say this time next week i might have it. Grrr
The ergon
September 8th, 2022 - 2:58pmGot mine delivered on wednesday 7th as was notified but its still a poor show from Zavvi considering some got theirs almost a week earlier. If there are future animations i wont be ordering through them even though they were the cheapest option at the time. Mm, i wonder why?
Anon
September 8th, 2022 - 3:50pmErgonomics it most likely is down to zavvi being sent the stock. It’s not their fault if suppliers don’t provide them with the merchandise in time to release it early.
Anon
September 8th, 2022 - 5:49pmLooks like autocorrect has struck again or is ergonomics the ergons full name?
the ergon
September 8th, 2022 - 5:56pmShould have stuck to HMV or Amazon. I,ve Never had any problems with them delivering to date. and i will from here on in.
The ergon
September 11th, 2022 - 3:23pmAnon the matter convertor is now aimed at you. Ha,ha!
Anon
September 11th, 2022 - 10:22pmNoooo! Not the matter converter! Mind you better than a mind probe…