The Yeti are roaming this abbey!

(Old Man Jamie at a table with pen in hand.)

Having reached the end of my poor sinner's life, my hair now white, I prepare to leave on this paper my testimony as to the wondrous and terrible events I witnessed in my youth. May God grant me the wisdom and grace to be the faithful chronicler of the happenings that took place in a remote abbey in the dark north of Tibet.

The TARDIS deposits the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria somewhere in the Himalayas not too far from the Detsen Monastery. The Doctor has been there before and he has a ghanta (bell) adorned with a dragon to prove it.

Judging by the appearance and armament of Prof. Edward Travers, who is also in the area looking to trap Yeti, it would seem this story takes place in the 1920s or 1930s. Travers is like Indiana Jones but more bellicose and shouty.

Jamie and Victoria stumble upon a cave with a tetrahedral pile of glowing balls - like a pyramidal pile of cannonballs - and are accosted by a big fury thing. Meanwhile, the Doctor heads to the monastery where he finds that it is being threatened by the Yeti (monastery under siege!) who are usually peaceful and avoid people. Travers accuses the Doctor of murdering his fellow explorer, whose death we hear earlier in the episode.

I know nothing about the hierarchies of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries but the abbot in this one reports to an even higher power there - the master. It turns out that this master is Padmasambhava, someone the Doctor knew from his previous visit, and he is this old, withered Emperor Palpatine figure. As it happens, he is a puppet of The Great Intelligence.

The Great Intelligence didn't last beyond Troughton's second season but was revived for NuWho and has appeared in 3 episodes, according to Wikipedia. But the character was latched onto during the Wilderness Years and appeared in 5 novels. (Not sure about short stories, comics, and the like.) I recall reading The Quantum Archangel 20 years or so ago and thinking that The Great Intelligence rang a ghanta, but I couldn't have told you much about it.

I like the idea of a story that takes place in a monastery up in the Himalayas. A neat setting for Doctor Who. Something different, something non-Western. It took me 1 full episode plus before I realized that this story had no incidental music. I don't know if this was intentional, as if to capture the spirit of a monastery, or if there was a technical snafu, if the composer got sick, or some such thing. I wish that that Yeti robots hadn't been revealed quite so soon. But, at least, Padmasambhava, spent much of the story hidden behind a curtain that you could see through but one that didn't allow you to really discern details.

Victoria screams in horror at times while at others she is willful and nosy. Jamie must suffer from shrinkage wearing that kilt at that altitude. I adore the Doctor's fur coat. It's always fun to see him wearing something different that doesn't include a vest or tie. Or scarf. Oh, and the recorder makes a slight return. There's a vague Seventh Doctor vibe here too with Two knowing more than he's letting on.

The Great Intelligence-infested Padmasambhava was a great character. The story could have used some trimming and should have kept the robots' identities hidden a bit longer. Still, a fun tale with Troughton in fine form.