The Web of Fear: Doctor Who: Season 5
| SYNOPSIS |
| DETAILS |
| CAST & CREW |
REVIEWS |
 Goldby |
 Boland |
The Web Of Fear SYNOPSIS:
People have fled Central London. The London underground is shutdown and deserted. The Tardis arrives on present day Earth and the Doctor finds the Yeti are roaming the London subway tunnels. Jamie and Victoria are captured by a group of soldiers setting explosives and are taken back to their base.
There, they are reunited with Professor Travers from the previous Yeti encounter in Tibet who is assisting the military. The army are trying to stop the spread of a web like fungus through out the tunnel system and the Yeti keep neutralizing any explosives placed to seal the web in the tunnels. It becomes apparent their is an enemy in the midst of the Military base working for the Great Intelligence.
The Yeti attack and most personnel are wiped out, Travers is captured and his daughter Anne has vanished. The only survivors left from the Yeti attacks are the Tardis crew, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, Anne Travers and Evans. Soon Professor Travers returns, now possessed by the Great Intelligence.
Victoria is taken prisoner and the Great Intelligence explains it deliberately brought the Doctor to Earth to drain his mind and unless he surrenders to it, the intelligence will instead drain the minds of his companions. Left to ponder the ultimatum, their only hope stopping the web conquering Earth lies in the Doctor and Anne getting control of a Yeti to turn the battle and and hopefully uncover the traitor in their ranks.
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The Web Of Fear DETAILS:
| Episode | Broadcast | Run Time | Viewership (In Millions) |
| Part One | 3-Feb-68 | 24:53 | 7.2 |
| Part Two | 10-Feb-68 | 24:38 | 6.8 |
| Part Three | 17-Feb-68 | 24:34 | 7 |
| Part Four | 24-Feb-68 | 24:50 | 8.4 |
| Part Five | 2-Mar-68 | 24:19 | 8 |
| Part Six | 9-Mar-68 | 24:41 | 8.3 |
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The Web Of Fear CAST & CREW
Stars:
The Doctor:
Patrick Troughton(Second Doctor)
Companions:
Fraser Hines (Jamie McCrimmon)
Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield)
Guest Stars:
Nicholas Courtney — Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart
Jack Watling — Professor Travers
Tina Packer — Anne Travers
Jon Rollason — Harold Chorley
Ralph Watson — Captain Knight
Jack Woolgar — Staff Sgt. Arnold
Richardson Morgan — Corporal Blake
Rod Beacham — Corporal Lane
Stephen Whittaker — Craftsman Weams
Derek Pollitt — Driver Evans
Bernard G. High, Joseph O'Connell — Soldiers
Frederick Schrecker — Julius Silverstein
John Levene, John Lord, Gordon Stothard, Colin Warman, Jeremy King, Roger Jacombs — Yeti
Production Staff for Serial QQ:
Writer - Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln
Director - Douglas Camfield
Script editor - Derrick Sherwin
Producer - Peter Bryant
Missing Episodes 2,3,4,5,6
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The Web Of Fear REVIEWS
Goldby
Only part 1 exists and a swag of clips from every episode except part 6. This is a real shame there's no more as it's one of the most fast paced black and white episodes ever. It looked like it would sustain this pace through the remaining episodes. Thought I was gonna be disappointed as this was one of the novelisations I read and re-read as a kid. The setting, the monsters and the threat were just a damn good combination.
Web Of Fear really served as the genesis of the UNIT years this one and was well served by the direction of Douglas Camfield. Which is why it probably moved so fast and was visually engaging. The set up is great the Doctor, Jamie & Victoria (who's now showing off her legs -yum!) are hijacked in the Tardis and deposited on Earth in what turns out to be the deserted London Underground and have to investigate what's going in the tunnels and why the military are there. We don't see much of the supporting cast, but Jack Watling is back playing an 30 years older, grumpier Professor Travers and it really don't look like the same guy. The guest glam gal looks awesome as his daughter, Anne and has a bit of sass about her. Captain Knight appears endearing and dashing and the reporter is the archtype slimeball character you need for this base under siege story.
The yeti were redesigned to appear more frightening which sort of works, they seem much taller and nastier if still teddy bearish, and only really fully appear at the end of part 1. Thing is a yeti is a good disguise for a robot in the Tibetan mountainside and you'd think the Great Intelligence would've chosen something less conspicuous for the London Underground. From the clips the battle scenes with the soldiers and the yeti look really action packed and the whole base under siege plot seemed to have more layers of tension than normal, especially with the Yeti threat from one direction, the advance of the web from another direction.
The Added threat is that someone holed up in the fortress is actually the human host for the Great Intelligence, not revealed until the end of part 5, and apparently it could be anyone, even the Doctor. Who for once was responsible for bringing the threat back to Earth with his Tardis. It looks well plotted and executed and if they found any more episodes would hope it would be the last 5 of this one, doubt it would disappoint like Tomb or Ice Warriors did. Bugger it - not much of it but gonna give it a 10/10 anyway.
Boland
The Web of Fear
The Yeti are back! Yeehaw! The giant flushing toilets have invaded the London Underground, a set so convincing that the operators of the ‘tube’ thought that the thing had been secretly shot there! Doesn’t seem very likely, does it? Well what a great setting for a story! It’s dark and scary and familiar to the Londonites as well. I’ve seen, again, the Loose Canon reconstruction of this one. Some nice clips you might not have seen from episode four (discovered since the ‘Lost in Time’ DVD was released). I think it’s a pretty good story, but as with most black and white six parters, it feels like a four-parter stretched to six for budget reasons.
It’s quite brutal at times, lots of deaths and the use of the character ‘Arnold’ as a house for the Intelligence is very very creepy indeed. Troughton is in fine form as well, but it suffers from slowness from episodes 2-5. Then the ending is incredibly rushed. The TARDIS, last seen before episode six, was covered in the ‘web’. Yet we leave with the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria rushing towards the TARDIS worried the trains are about to return! We don’t see them getting to the TARDIS. Who knows if all the web has suddenly disappeared or not!
‘Evans’ the Welsh wimp of a soldier is a very annoying character and one you feel should have been killed off but unfortunately isn’t. Instead they kill almost everyone else off, it’s a real blood-bath, especially episode four. Nic Countney appears as Lethbridge Stewart for the first time. His character would change quite a bit... at time he feels like his Inferno ‘alter-ego’ in ‘The Web of Fear’.
At times I wished they could get out of the underground. It’s a great sort of under siege/claustrophobic setting however it is six episodes with around 85% of the story in these sets. And it seems the whole plot is basically the Great Intelligence wanting the Doctor’s mind. Rather elaborate plan don’t you think.
But creepy and well made, if a little slow at times.
7/10
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