Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen – Arriving on Blu-Ray in 2022!

An animated version of missing classic The Abominable Snowmen is arriving in 2022 on DVD, Blu-ray and an exclusive Steelbook

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen originally transmitted in 1967, and the six-part story featured the first appearances of monster the Yeti and the villainous Great Intelligence. Both would menace the Doctor again in The Web of Fear. And the Great Intelligence would return in the 21st century played by Richard E Grant and battling the Eleventh Doctor.  More than that, many fans regard The Abominable Snowmen as a true lost classic.

Lost because the episodes were wiped shortly after transmission. However, a duplicate copy of one of the six was returned to the BBC in the 1980s. The audio soundtracks of the others survive too thanks to the dedication of fans who made home recordings. And those soundtracks, and older fans’ memories, both suggest Abominable Snowmen is one of Patrick Troughton’s best Doctor Who stories. Now, BBC Studios have resurrected the entire serial with a fully restored version of the soundtrack married to new animation.

You can check out the trailer for the new version of Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen

The release also includes the surviving live action Episode 2

The release also includes the surviving Episode 2 on Blu-ray for the very first time. There’s no official confirmation yet, but it’s almost certain there’ll be a full telesnaps reconstruction of the missing episodes too. ‘Telesnaps,’ still images of the action taken as the episode went out, exist for The Abominable Snowmen. So the new release will very likely include a new reconstruction, using those still images alongside the soundtrack, too.

Russell Minton, Executive Producer of The Abominable Snowmen, spoke about the project, saying, “We’re delighted to announce Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen, something Doctor Who fans have been waiting patiently for over the years. We’re grateful for the surviving audio-only recordings, which we are very lucky to have courtesy of several Doctor Who fans, which have allowed us to create another exciting and action-packed chapter in the Doctor’s story.”

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen

The Doctor returns to the Himalayas 300 years after his first visit to the Holy Ganta, an ancient relic he was given many centuries ago by the grateful monks at Det-Sen Monastery. On arriving, the Doctor is blamed for a series of brutal murders in the area, however companions Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield 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 is living amongst them. Their ancient Master, Padmasambhava, is being controlled by an alien entity known only as the Great Intelligence.