Simon and Eugene discuss the ending, again, of the Doctor Who animation series, where animation improves on live action, and we look at what missing serials from Doctor Who remain unanimated.

Episode Synopsis

In the Himalayas, at a mountain camp, a strange creature enters the camp and leaves one man dead.  Shortly thereafter, somewhere else on the mountain, the TARDIS arrives.  The Doctor has come here, apparently intentionally, to return a sacred ghanta, or bell, as Jaime calls it, to the nearby monastery.

He expects a warm welcome from the monks, but when he spies a monstrous footprint in the snow, he instructs James and Victoria to remain in the TARDIS while he continues on.  

Of course, they don’t stay, and the Doctor doesn’t get a warm welcome at the monastery.  He is accused of killing one of the mountaineers and some of the monks.  Travers, the surviving mountaineer, who is on an expedition to find the legendary yeti assumes the Doctor killed his companion.

In the mountains, Jamie and Victoria find a cave, which is really more of a mine.  Inside they find a stacked pyramid of spheres, just as a yeti follows them into the mine.  Jamie thinks he dispatches it by collapsing the roof on it, but still it lives.  They hastily retreat from the cave with one of the spheres.

Khrisong, chief warrior monk, has more or less convinced the other monks to go along with his plan to tie the Doctor up outside and wait for his confederates, the yeti, to rescue him; however, if they attack and kill him, it will prove his innocence.  Before he is taken outside, he manages to get the Ghanta to Thonmi, a sympathetic young warrior monk, who takes it to the Abbot.  Both Thonmi and the Abbot are bid to converse with the master of the monastery, Padmasambhava, who seemingly knows the Doctor.  Thorn’s memory of this meeting is wiped, but the order is given to release the Doctor.

Jamie and Victoria meet Travers on the mountain and convince him that the Doctor isn’t a newspaperman trying to beat him to the discovery or a killer and so he takes them to the monastery.

With a plan by Jamie, the monks are able to capture a yeti, but it dies as they try to subdue it.  The Doctor examines the yeti and reveals it is a robot.  Unknown to them, a control sphere was knocked from the robot during the capture.  Equally unknown to them, the similar sphere that Jamie brought into the monastery begins to beep and move on its own.

Khrisong locks everyone in the monastery for their own safety, but Travers sneaks out and goes in search of the cave Jamie and Victoria described.  

The Doctor convinces Khrisong to go outside and looks for the control sphere, which he thinks must have been knocked loose during the capture.  Khrisong finds it, but the yeti attack and take it back.

It becomes clear that Padmasambhava is under the influence of an alien intelligence, and has been for a very long time.  He in turn controls the actions of the Abbot, and he sends him to the cave with a pyramid to activate something.  A patrol of yeti escorts him.   The Doctor and Jamie also leave the monastery to collect a device from the TARDIS to use to get a bearing on the yetis’ control signal.

In the monastery, the missing sphere hops in the dormant yeti, and it comes to life while Victoria watches in horror.

With the help of Thonmi, Victoria escapes the yeti, and then the yeti escapes the monastery.  Unfortunately, some monks think Victoria caused the yeti to come back to life, so they lock her up.

Travers has spied the Abbot and the yeti and, when they leave the cave, he enters, only to see alien lifeforms beginning to expand out beyond the completed pyramid.  He manages to escape the cave.

Padmasambhava orders the monastery evacuated – he wants no humans around for the invasion.  Khrisong ignores the order and will stand to fight with his warrior monks.  Victoria escapes to try to see Padmasambhava, and she does, but she’s hypnotized by him.

Travers has returned but he cannot remember what happened to him.  The Abbot lets the yeti in so they can trash the place and drive the monks out.  The Doctor figures out that the control signal is coming from within the monastery, and that it is coming from the inner sanctum of Padmasambhava.

Khrisong confronts him and the Abbot is forced to kill him.

The monks leave, but the Doctor and a crack team of stragglers stay behind to destroy Padmasambhava control system.  When they succeed, the yetis all collapse, and Padmasambhava is freed from the control of the Great Intelligence.  He thanks the Doctor and his 200+ year old body dissolves.

Returning to the TARDIS, Jamie requests they go somewhere warm, just as they spy a real yeti.  Travers leaves them to pursue the elusive beast.