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The Web Of Fear
daveyboy7472
Posts: 16,419 Forum Member
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My absolute favourite of The Troughton Era, The Web Of Fear brings together many elements which I consider make it a Classic. For a start there is the tunnels sets which look realistic enough to even fool the owners of the real London Underground. They are made to look creepily deserted and with the Web stuff floating about gives it extra effect. Then there is the incidental music which had been used in previous stories but here got used to it's fullest effects. The Yeti are a lot less cuddly and therefore more menacingly and the atmosphere combined with the music is just one of total isolation. Add into that the fact there was someone working behind the scenes as the hands of The Great Intelligence and it makes for a great story I think.
And off course, this was the debut of one Brigadier(then Colonel) Lethbridge Stewart played superbly with military precision by the great Nick Courtney. It's a shame in some ways the meeting between him and The Doctor was never shown on screen(though it was done in the novel).
So wish the later episodes had survived the purge as the first episode doesn't tell us that much. It is weird listening to the battle with the Yeti on audio as they used the Cybertheme for that......
Aside from The War Machines, it was a early prototype of the UNIT stories to follow but I personally think this was better than any UNIT story in the Pertwee Era and I love this story to bits.
And off course, this was the debut of one Brigadier(then Colonel) Lethbridge Stewart played superbly with military precision by the great Nick Courtney. It's a shame in some ways the meeting between him and The Doctor was never shown on screen(though it was done in the novel).
So wish the later episodes had survived the purge as the first episode doesn't tell us that much. It is weird listening to the battle with the Yeti on audio as they used the Cybertheme for that......
Aside from The War Machines, it was a early prototype of the UNIT stories to follow but I personally think this was better than any UNIT story in the Pertwee Era and I love this story to bits.
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Loose Cannon have finally done a recon of this one but so far it's only available via YouTube. A nice job, using the few surviving clips where appropriate.
I love this protype UNIT story as the OP daveyboy says, I would agree that this is as good as anything done in the Pertwee era, in terms of UNIT stories. Indeed much better than most.
Again as pointed out the sets/tunnels used for the London Underground are truly excellent, really convincingly done.
The Brigadier first stiry adds to it, he gives a good performance in it's own right. But of course with hindsight it is good to see him meet the Doctor for the first time and see how they initially mistrust each other and size each other up which tickles me.
As for plot highlights, I like the foam (or whatever it is) used to move the story along as a plot device. The little Yeti things used as a homing beacon type thing are good, and the revelation that there is a traitor. The capturing of a yeti and using it is also one of my favourite passages of the story.
But all in all, it is my favourite Troughton. I am a fan of the base under siege type stories and I defy anyone to find a better example than this in Classic Who certainly, if not New Doctor Who as well!
I'm glad that's been heavily rectified.
As with the above post, I am glad I now have the chance to get my wish and watch four extra episodes of this story. As I said above, it is my favourite Troughton story and am hoping seeing more live action will add to what is imo an absolutely brilliant story.
It's like Christmas !
I wonder, him being a Time Lord and all if he might not have nipped forward in time and copied some of Matt Smith's mannerisms.
I realise how young and innocent I was back then not to have taken more note of Deborah Watling who would have been most teens definition of hot.
Mine too
Why such a long wait for the DVD, I wonder?
Maybe they're doing an animated version of the still-missing part?
The telesnap/audio episode three is of course done quite well, and it was just a pity that was the episode that Lethbridge-Stewart first turns up in. But that aside as a telesnap episode it is sympathetically done, would have preferred it to be an animated one of course. But it is a relief to get back to the action again in episode four.
As for the plot and story it more than holds it's own as a six parter that maintains the interest, in general I find the Troughton era has a few of the longer stories that does this.
The fact that The Web of Fear never wains in threat or peril from the Yeti and the Intelligence is one of it's superb aspects.
I am glad this is Victoria's last story I will see as she is nothing but irritating in this one, they have not written her very well towards the end of her time as part of the TARDIS crew. She must rival Mel for amount of screaming done in the series. Jamie in comparison gets better dialogue and a better role here, such as when realising it is Professor Travers and commenting hasn't he got old, before shaking his hand.
As for the set of guest characters they all are good, the slimy reporter Chorley, Travers and his daughter are well portrayed. The soldiers are all a good portrayed bunch. But Evans is great, he indeed made me laugh most due to his numerous cowardly moments, either running away or jumping on a chair as he is scared of the sphere, or just any of his dialogue as he desperately tries to save his own skin.
There are so many to choose from but my favourite moment is probably Lethbridge-Stewart and the troops heading up to the streets and the Yeti being there, there is quite a battle while also the Doctor and Knight are in the shop when two Yeti's come to deal with them.
How brutal are the Yeti, flinging people about and smashing their fists down on them with there huge arms. I found it excellent how this was captured. I love the roaring sound effect they have.
I like the cliffhangers, particularly the fungus in both tunnels at the end of episode two, and where Travers arrives after the two Yeti's barge into the room at the end of episode four.
Wonderful stuff, so glad we can now watch five of the six episodes of this. Superb.
The thing that really stands out for me is how grim and, at times, brutal the story is.
For once the Doctor doesn't get to stop an invasion, he arrives well after it's already happened, and is plonked into the middle of a failing rearguard battle for survival. And immediately he's really struggling.
Last night I watched episode four and it's an absolute blood bath. The cast is decimated.
The Colonel leads a fair sized group of soldiers to the surface, and one by one they are all, save the Colonel, wiped out, and wiped out pretty violently too. This is a lengthy sequence, but is brilliantly filmed and orchestrated by Douglas Camfield, and it's got to be one of the most realistic gun battles ever seen in Doctor Who. What really struck me was the fact that Lethbridge-Stewart doesn't just say something like "You two, with me!" but he calls the soldiers by name, then they are brought down by the Yeti. The fact that they are named seems to make their loss even worse, even though they are characters we've barely met before. It's also good to see that the Yeti aren't indestructible - plenty seem to get blown up or shot, but they just keep on coming. Utterly relentless. Camfield makes great use of his four Yeti costumes and excellent editing and clever shooting really makes it seem like there's a whole army of Yeti.
And it's not just the red shirt soldiers who fall - Captain Knight and most of the speaking part soldiers we've actually got to know since the first episode are killed too. Even dependable, reliable old Staff Sergeant Arnold. ;-) Really quite a shocking episode.
And isn't the scene when Evans pulls the trolley back out of the web to find Corporal Lane covered in cobwebs one of the scariest scenes of Sixties Doctor Who? It genuinely creeped me out watching this last night.
There's also a wonderful sense of paranoia running through the story - everyone suspects everyone else of being in league with the Intelligence. The little Yeti models keep getting put in people's pockets, or placed by the explosives store, and at this point in the story we still have no idea who's doing it. Even the Colonel is under suspicion. With hindsight we know Lethbridge-Stewart is as solid as a rock, but on his first appearance he's actually rather shifty, and not as obviously trustworthy as we might think.
Much of The Web Of Fear seems familiar to us today, the classic base under siege formula, but I would argue that it's rarely been better done than here - there is a palpable sense of threat and desperation. By the end of part four it seems like absolutely everything has gone wrong, no-one has a plan, the troops have been wiped out and the Yeti burst into the base. It's bleak, and hopeless.
However, (even though I know how it all ends) I'm really excited about watching the last two parts. Isn't that brilliant? That a 47 year old TV programme can still get grip me and hold my attention so well. That's what watching Doctor Who should always be like!
Cheers,
Richard
Go for it, your Ladyship.
Web Of Fear is a terrific story. It's got to be one of the very best of the 1960s.
Yes it's a real shame that time and money couldn't have been found to animate episode 3.
I've never really got on with any of the telesnap reconstructions - they just don't really hold my attention, regardless of the strength of the story.
But thank goodness that Web episode 3 is such a strong episode - and it's just the one - so for once the telesnaps worked ok for me. The rest of Web, however, is wonderful.
Agreed. The worst is Marco Polo; it really doesn't lend itself to telesnap recons.
I got ten mins into one of the recons and was snoring loudly. The soundtrack CDs are worth their weight in gold, though.
Agree that Debbie Watling is beautiful, but I must qualify that by pointing out that she's a dreadful actor.
And I'm also glad to see more Classic Series threads surfacing!
When was the last time she did TV acting?
IMDB says "The Jim Davidson Show"
A while ago, I watched Danger UXB (it's v good), and Ms Watling crops up as Naughty Nora in a couple of episodes and is actually rather good. I think there's a nudey sequence. In DW, I think she's probably the weakest companion actor.
Curiously, I experience just the opposite. Animation takes me right out of the story and leaves me cold, whereas I can get totally immersed in a good telesnap recon.
I never felt I had seen all of The Invasion with the animation, but I did after seeing Loose Cannon's take on the two missing episodes. Anyway, each to their own.
That's interesting. I know what you mean about the animation, it gives a whole different feel to the episodes, but the telesnaps, to me at least, just don't hold my attention in the way the animation does. As you say, each to their own - and long may it be so!