Top Ten Stories of Doctor Who With Religious Elements and Themes

3. The Abominable Snowmen

This lost story of the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, is considered a classic, introducing both the robotic Yeti and the entity which controls them, a rather Lovecraftian entity known as The Great Intelligence.  With the TARDIS landing in the Himalayas, the Doctor decides to visit by himself a Buddhist monastery he had once been at and return to it a holy bell he had taken with him the last time he had been there. He told his companions Jamie and Victoria to stay at the TARDIS and await his return.

Ob his way to the monastery, he finds the remains of a camp which appears to have been attacked. Looking around, he finds a couple sleeping bags, a riffle, and the corpse of someone who had been recently killed. Taking rucksacks with him, the Doctor continues his journey. Upon arrival at the monastery, he finds no welcome at the door. As he enters, it appears the monastery is deserted, but when the Doctor turns around he finds himself surrounded by warrior monks and a British Explorer, Professor Travers, who  had been at the camp and assumes that the Doctor was somehow involved with it. The Doctor protests his innocence, only to find out that the monastery as well as Travers has been under attack by Yeti.

While the Doctor is away, Jamie and Victoria are restless, and upon existing the TARDIS, find footprints of the Yeti. Jamie takes a sword from the TARDIS, which he plans to use as protection as he seeks what caused the footprints, making sure Jamie and Victoria have their own role in the story

Several things emerge. Travers encounters Jamie and Victoria, and eventually, is convinced that the Doctor is an ally and not a foe.  The Doctor, Travers, Jamie, Victoria, and the monks of the monastery work together to find out what lies behind the attacks and discern a way to stop it: robotic Yeti under control of an entity known as The Great Intelligence, a disembodied force seeking to make its way in the world in and through the head of the monastery, the Doctor’s old friend, Padmasambhava.

Clearly the story was a product of its time, when there was a growing interest in Eastern meditation as well as the fascination that many people had for monsters like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. It imitates the Hammer Horror story, The Abominable Snowman, in many ways, although it is able to add to the story with its science-fiction element (The Great Intelligence) and the Doctor’s engagement with the Buddhist monks.

While the story does not go into detail with Buddhism, its willingness to use a Buddhist monastery and Buddhist monks, and put on display some of their beliefs and practices as they were at least popularly known in the West, certainly would have made greater impact on its audience in 1967 than it would do today. Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism, was not so well known, and so was able to serve the story for its own intrigue as well as create a mysterious background in which the Great Intelligence could feel as it belonged. That it was also willing to work the Buddhist elements to make them feel someone normal by the Doctor also allowed Buddhism to seem far less abnormal to the viewer by the end of the story, making it, in a way, the first major encounter many would have with Buddhist themes. Perhaps no better representation of this can be found than in the way the Doctor uses the “Jewel of the Lotus,” that is the words om manni padme hum, as a way to help his companions and himself strengthen their resolve against the attacks of the Great Intelligence, giving a rather positive demonstration of the way Buddhists believed meditation could help is practitioners.

What makes the story a classic, and so high up on our list, is the way all of this is done. It is a very atmospheric story, with the monastery both being a place of peace and violence, of spiritual conflict which can unnerve the viewer as well as spiritual peace once the conflict is over. It is a base under siege which does not entirely feel as it is such, because the base is not your normal Doctor Who environment: a Buddhist monastery and its environs.  The Yeti, well remembered by fans, with the Great Intelligence would return to the series, helping to solidify their place in Doctor Who lore, but they would not have been so popular had the story its direction not used them properly, especially since the Yeti themselves do not look entirely frightening but rather cute and cuddly.. It is not a story which really calls into question or raises many religious questions (although it does contain some within the Buddhist perspective); that was not its purpose, but yet with the stage being set in the Buddhist monastery, it was impossible to avoid the impact its Buddhist engagement would have on the casual viewer. It remains, thanks to this, not only one of the most religious stories, but one of the most positive religious stories, of the series.