Doctor Who: The Web of Fear: Episode 1 starts where the previous story The Enemy of the World (1968) left off as Salamander is sucked out into space through the TARDIS doors & Jamie (Frazer Hines) manages to close them before himself, the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) & Victoria (Deborah Watling) suffer the same fate. Attempting to land the TARDIS it becomes engulfed in some sort of mysterious web like substance, after it clears the Doctor lands the TARDIS at Covent Green Subway Stataion which is deserted & locked up despite being the middle of the day. After finding the body of a man covered in some sort of web like substance they notice soldiers laying cables & the Doctor decides to investigate, meanwhile Jamie & Victoria are found by Staff Sgt. Arnold (Jack Woolgar) & taken to an army base as back in the underground tunnels the Doctor stumbles upon two evil robotic Yeti's...
Episode 23 from season 5 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during February 1968, The Web of Fear was the fifth story from Patrick Troughton's second season as the Doctor & it was a direct sequel to The Abominable Snowmen (1968) which was the second story from the fifth season. Now there's some good & some bad news, first the good news. The Web of Fear: Episode 1 is truly excellent & probably my favourite individual Troughton episode. Now the bad news, in their infinite wisdom the BBC junked most of Troughton's episodes & as a consequence The Web of Fear which originally was a six part story has parts two to six missing assumed permanently destroyed & it was down to sheer luck that a Hong Kong TV station still had, found & returned Episode 1 to the BBC in 1979 so all that is known to remain of The Web of Fear is this solitary opening episode as well as a few assorted clips that amount to about a minute. Directed by Douglas Camfield one has to say this is brilliant & I loved watching it, the story was great as it puts the Doctor in a mysterious, threatening & intriguing situation straight away as the TARDIS lands in the deserted tunnels of the London underground. The script by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln obviously takes it's inspiration from & shares many, many similarities with Quatermass and the Pit (1967) released the previous year with the American Professor Travers taking the Professor Quatermass role as he liaisons with the British army in the London underground after some alien threat is discovered & judging this opening episode along side Quatermass and the Pit the two are quite close in storyline & tone although I'm not sure how The Web of Fear develops over the next five episodes. This moves along at a great pace, it tells a story but never gives too much away as to leave you gripped wanting to watch the next episode & it also sees the return of the Yeti last seen in The Abominable Snowmen a couple of stories prior. The Web of Fear is terrific stuff actually & sets the scene for what looks like a great story that unfortunately we will never be able to see.
As well as having a fantastic Hammer horror feel story with plenty of monsters & mystery the production values on The Web of Fear are excellent & also try to take inspiration from Hammer films. The sequence in the museum at night as the Yeti comes back to life really does looks like something straight out of a Hammer horror film & is quite creepy. There is a famous story where the production team asked for permission from London Transport to film several scenes on location in the real London underground but due to a high fee demand it was decided to film everything on a set which ended up looking so realistic that London Transport wrote to the BBC claiming that they had filmed on their premises without permission! Without knowing that they were indeed sets I also would easily believe that they were filmed in the real thing, they really do look that good & add tons of atmosphere with the dark claustrophobic tunnels & echos. The Yeti's look OK actually & are slightly redesigned from The Abominable Snowmen, they now have sharp claws, roar, have bright piercing eyes, are more slimline & surprisingly effective & one could easily see young audiences back in 1968 being pretty scared of these things. Even the shot of the TARDIS suspended in space being slowly covered by the web is impressive. The acting is solid although Deborah Watling is terrible as usual, The Web of Fear was the first story for Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (here just a Colonel & he doesn't appear on screen until Episode 3) played by Nicholas Courtney who would go on to be a regular cast member for years to come.
The Web of Fear: Episode 1 was a brilliant mix of Doctor Who sci-fi & charm as well as Hammer horror atmosphere & it's extremely frustrating that I will never be able to see the remaining five episodes, there's a chance they still exist somewhere but it's almost zero. Yes, I know about the audio reconstructions but to me it's just not the same. As a one off episode I throughly recommend it. Available in the Lost in Time DVD set as a stand alone episode with beautiful restoration work on it.
Episode 23 from season 5 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during February 1968, The Web of Fear was the fifth story from Patrick Troughton's second season as the Doctor & it was a direct sequel to The Abominable Snowmen (1968) which was the second story from the fifth season. Now there's some good & some bad news, first the good news. The Web of Fear: Episode 1 is truly excellent & probably my favourite individual Troughton episode. Now the bad news, in their infinite wisdom the BBC junked most of Troughton's episodes & as a consequence The Web of Fear which originally was a six part story has parts two to six missing assumed permanently destroyed & it was down to sheer luck that a Hong Kong TV station still had, found & returned Episode 1 to the BBC in 1979 so all that is known to remain of The Web of Fear is this solitary opening episode as well as a few assorted clips that amount to about a minute. Directed by Douglas Camfield one has to say this is brilliant & I loved watching it, the story was great as it puts the Doctor in a mysterious, threatening & intriguing situation straight away as the TARDIS lands in the deserted tunnels of the London underground. The script by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln obviously takes it's inspiration from & shares many, many similarities with Quatermass and the Pit (1967) released the previous year with the American Professor Travers taking the Professor Quatermass role as he liaisons with the British army in the London underground after some alien threat is discovered & judging this opening episode along side Quatermass and the Pit the two are quite close in storyline & tone although I'm not sure how The Web of Fear develops over the next five episodes. This moves along at a great pace, it tells a story but never gives too much away as to leave you gripped wanting to watch the next episode & it also sees the return of the Yeti last seen in The Abominable Snowmen a couple of stories prior. The Web of Fear is terrific stuff actually & sets the scene for what looks like a great story that unfortunately we will never be able to see.
As well as having a fantastic Hammer horror feel story with plenty of monsters & mystery the production values on The Web of Fear are excellent & also try to take inspiration from Hammer films. The sequence in the museum at night as the Yeti comes back to life really does looks like something straight out of a Hammer horror film & is quite creepy. There is a famous story where the production team asked for permission from London Transport to film several scenes on location in the real London underground but due to a high fee demand it was decided to film everything on a set which ended up looking so realistic that London Transport wrote to the BBC claiming that they had filmed on their premises without permission! Without knowing that they were indeed sets I also would easily believe that they were filmed in the real thing, they really do look that good & add tons of atmosphere with the dark claustrophobic tunnels & echos. The Yeti's look OK actually & are slightly redesigned from The Abominable Snowmen, they now have sharp claws, roar, have bright piercing eyes, are more slimline & surprisingly effective & one could easily see young audiences back in 1968 being pretty scared of these things. Even the shot of the TARDIS suspended in space being slowly covered by the web is impressive. The acting is solid although Deborah Watling is terrible as usual, The Web of Fear was the first story for Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (here just a Colonel & he doesn't appear on screen until Episode 3) played by Nicholas Courtney who would go on to be a regular cast member for years to come.
The Web of Fear: Episode 1 was a brilliant mix of Doctor Who sci-fi & charm as well as Hammer horror atmosphere & it's extremely frustrating that I will never be able to see the remaining five episodes, there's a chance they still exist somewhere but it's almost zero. Yes, I know about the audio reconstructions but to me it's just not the same. As a one off episode I throughly recommend it. Available in the Lost in Time DVD set as a stand alone episode with beautiful restoration work on it.