The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Web Of Fear
The Web Of Fear - Part One (03/02/08)
Pretty good this week. Started off with Jamie closing the doors to the TARDIS before cutting to Professor Travers! visiting a stereotypical old Jew who'd bought a disused Jetty...sorry, Yeti from him 30 years ago. Travers wanted it back because he'd (stupidly) reactivated one of the control units. It only seems 5 minutes since we last saw Travers and the Yeti but it's great to see the series bring back another old monster aside from the Daleks and the Cybermen! I wonder if they'll bring back any more recent monsters like the Macra or the Martians?
Anyhow, cut to the TARDIS trapped in space by a mysterious web, then on to the London Underground where the army seem to be trying to blow up the Yeti. The sets are fantastic - in fact all of it is, particularly the direction and the filming. The scenes with Travers and Silverstein were very Hammer Horror. My one problem was with the TARDIS landing at Covent Garden (on the Piccadilly Line) and then following it to Charing Cross (on the Northern Line). I'm going to excuse this discrepancy by assuming there was a missing sequence where the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria decided to explore a different line and change at Leicester Square. That's the only explanation for it. Unless there's an unknown connection that I don't know about.
Anyway, it looks like London's been evacuated, and now Jamie and Victoria have been caught by the army. But they lied and said they were alone and the army have just blown the Doctor up in Charing Cross... except some Yeti had just sprayed the explosives with web so I don't reckon the explosion actually happened.
Anyway, quite a promising start with great Direction, filming, acting, sets and music (some of it from the last story) and a great turn by Jack Watling playing Travers as a rude, barmy old git - he also had a line which I think is the closest to swearing we've had in the series: "How the hell should I know?"! Lots of fun. Looking forward to next week.
The Web Of Fear - Part Two (10/02/08)
A little slow this week but not bad - didn't notice till fairly late on that the Doctor wasn't in it. Travers met Jamie and Victoria, and Jamie's gone off with some soldiers to look for the Doctor in the tunnels. However, first Staff Sergeant Arnold, then the reporter and also Travers' daughter Anne are beginning to think that the Doctor's the one controlling the Yeti. Matters weren't helped when, having learnt from a driver from the ammunitions party attacked at Holborn that the Yeti's web was moving through the tunnels, Arnold decided to return to the base at King's Cross and Jamie insisted on continuing to look for the Doctor on his own. The Welsh driver went with him.
Then Travers and Arnold found out Victoria had also gone off to try and find the Doctor, making everyone suspect them even more. However, driver Evans seems a little suspicious claiming to have joined Jamie in order to leg it at the first opportunity, but instead leading him onto the Circle Line and getting trapped by the web fungus. At the same time, Victoria was watched in the tunnels by another shadowy figure.
It's all quite intriguing and, whilst it felt a bit slow, I'm starting to think that it actually set up quite a bit of background for what started to happen in the last five minutes or so. Plus the cliffhanger with Jamie and Evans was possibly one of the best in ages. It'll be interesting to see how this story develops.
The Web Of Fear - Part Three (17/02/08)
Good episode this week. They're building up the tension. The Doctor has met up with a Colonel from Evans' unit who has been sent to replace Colonel Pemberton, but at the same time it seems there's a traitor at the Goodge Street stronghold who's luring the Yeti to them.
Jamie and Evans slowly made their way along the Central Line throughout the episode, and Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart held a meeting explaining how it all started (with a deadly mist. then fungus in the Underground). The fungus is closing in on Goodge Street and Lethbridge-Stewart has gone off to Holborn with some soldiers to retrieve some explosives after the explosives they had were covered in web by a Yeti let in by the traitor.
Meanwhile, Chorley - the reporter - is going a bit crazy and has gone off looking for the TARDIS believing he can escape in it after Victoria stupidly told him about it. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have just headed after him leaving Travers and Anne behind, but the Yeti is still in the Goodge Street HQ, has killed a soldier and has attacked Travers.
There was a lot of information this week and the episode went quite quickly - it's lucky I had my Tube map to hand so I could follow where the fungus was going. Looking forward to next week!
The Web Of Fear - Part Four (24/02/08)
Really good this week. Started with Travers being taken off by the Yeti, then lots of mystery as the Doctor tried to figure out who was helping the Great Intelligence. With the reporter, Chorley, missing, he was prime suspect but Evans could be the traitor, and for a while I thought it could be Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart but the cliffhanger made that unlikely (especially with his reaction to all his soldiers being massacred). Also, Staff Arnold and one of the Corporals were attacked in the tunnels and only the Corporal's body was seen.
There were some great scenes where the Colonel and his soldiers were fighting the Yeti in Covent Garden, and bits where they were travelling through a deserted Central London. The Doctor and Captain Knight broke into a hardware store on TCR (at a guess)and were attacked by Yeti too and, really shockingly, Knight was killed. Really didn't expect that!
Anyway, the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, Anne (there was a great bit where she sweet-talked Knight into taking the Doctor above ground and the Doctor thanked her with "Well done, Travers" completely breaking down the gender stereotype and making the audience aurally double-take before realising, as the Professor's daughter, yes, she's a Travers too), the Colonel and Evans regrouped to Goodge Street as the last survivors only to find a Yeti doll/homing device had been planted on Lethbridge-Stewart drawing Yeti and a possessed Travers Snr to them. Great cliffhanger to the best episode this season!
The Web Of Fear - Part Five (02/03/08)
A really creepy and atmospheric episode this week, starting off with a possessed Travers explaining that this has all been a trap for the Doctor so that the Great Intelligence can drain all the knowledge from his brain. Travers kidnapped Victoria and returned to where the Great Intelligence is based - at Piccadilly Circus. The Intelligence released Travers' mind and he remembered nothing, but then Staff Arnold appeared, not dead after all (although we never did see a body). Jamie, the Colonel and Evans went after Travers and Victoria, but Evans chickened out and Jamie and Lethbridge-Stewart came against the fungus.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Anne worked on a control unit for a Yeti sphere and got it working. But Staff Arnold returned to Goodge Street while the Doctor and Anne were testing the control at Warren Street and the fungus has burst through the wall of the lab.
Two things, this week. Firstly, the atmosphere was kept very tense. The Intelligence gave the Doctor 20 minutes to give himself up, so the episode went pretty much in real time. It also stated that it also had another puppet besides Travers at the start of the episode which I now think is either Lethbridge-Stewart or Arnold. It won't be Evans because he's too obvious, and we haven't seen Chorley for ages. Also, Evans suggested they just hand the Doctor over because then the Intelligence would leave them alone, which makes me think he isn't working for it and is just a self-serving little shit.
That was kind of my two points rolled into one, really: very good plotting and maintained tension through the characters and their actions. Some very good music, too, keeping the atmosphere of the tunnels decidedly creepy.
The Web Of Fear - Part Six (09/03/08)
So, Staff Arnold was dead after all and his corpse was being used by the Great Intelligence. Of course, you only found this out toward the end of the episode. Chorley returned to confuse the audience into thinking he was being used, the Doctor, Anne, Jamie and Lethbridge-Stewart let themselves be taken prisoner by the Yeti and slowly, everyone ended up in Piccadilly Circus where Arnold revealed his true nature and Jamie used the Yeti that the Doctor and Anne had gained control of to kill Arnold while the Colonel and Evans freed the Doctor from the Intelligence's brain-draining pyramid machine.
Except the Doctor had crossed the wires on the helmet so it would actually wipe the Intelligence instead, so all they did was cut off the Intelligence from Earth leaving it stranded in space. Not an expected conclusion by a long shot, and it wasn't quite as hurried as some stories have been, and at least it leaves us with the possibility of another sequel.
I have to say, this has been one of the best realised stories in a long time, possibly since the Hartnell historicals. It was tense and dramatic with great music and great sets. The 'Who-Dunnit' scripting could've been a bit tighter, but on the whole it was really rather good and the best so far this series. Hopefully, they'll maintain the quality next week.
Pretty good this week. Started off with Jamie closing the doors to the TARDIS before cutting to Professor Travers! visiting a stereotypical old Jew who'd bought a disused Jetty...sorry, Yeti from him 30 years ago. Travers wanted it back because he'd (stupidly) reactivated one of the control units. It only seems 5 minutes since we last saw Travers and the Yeti but it's great to see the series bring back another old monster aside from the Daleks and the Cybermen! I wonder if they'll bring back any more recent monsters like the Macra or the Martians?
Anyhow, cut to the TARDIS trapped in space by a mysterious web, then on to the London Underground where the army seem to be trying to blow up the Yeti. The sets are fantastic - in fact all of it is, particularly the direction and the filming. The scenes with Travers and Silverstein were very Hammer Horror. My one problem was with the TARDIS landing at Covent Garden (on the Piccadilly Line) and then following it to Charing Cross (on the Northern Line). I'm going to excuse this discrepancy by assuming there was a missing sequence where the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria decided to explore a different line and change at Leicester Square. That's the only explanation for it. Unless there's an unknown connection that I don't know about.
Anyway, it looks like London's been evacuated, and now Jamie and Victoria have been caught by the army. But they lied and said they were alone and the army have just blown the Doctor up in Charing Cross... except some Yeti had just sprayed the explosives with web so I don't reckon the explosion actually happened.
Anyway, quite a promising start with great Direction, filming, acting, sets and music (some of it from the last story) and a great turn by Jack Watling playing Travers as a rude, barmy old git - he also had a line which I think is the closest to swearing we've had in the series: "How the hell should I know?"! Lots of fun. Looking forward to next week.
The Web Of Fear - Part Two (10/02/08)
A little slow this week but not bad - didn't notice till fairly late on that the Doctor wasn't in it. Travers met Jamie and Victoria, and Jamie's gone off with some soldiers to look for the Doctor in the tunnels. However, first Staff Sergeant Arnold, then the reporter and also Travers' daughter Anne are beginning to think that the Doctor's the one controlling the Yeti. Matters weren't helped when, having learnt from a driver from the ammunitions party attacked at Holborn that the Yeti's web was moving through the tunnels, Arnold decided to return to the base at King's Cross and Jamie insisted on continuing to look for the Doctor on his own. The Welsh driver went with him.
Then Travers and Arnold found out Victoria had also gone off to try and find the Doctor, making everyone suspect them even more. However, driver Evans seems a little suspicious claiming to have joined Jamie in order to leg it at the first opportunity, but instead leading him onto the Circle Line and getting trapped by the web fungus. At the same time, Victoria was watched in the tunnels by another shadowy figure.
It's all quite intriguing and, whilst it felt a bit slow, I'm starting to think that it actually set up quite a bit of background for what started to happen in the last five minutes or so. Plus the cliffhanger with Jamie and Evans was possibly one of the best in ages. It'll be interesting to see how this story develops.
The Web Of Fear - Part Three (17/02/08)
Good episode this week. They're building up the tension. The Doctor has met up with a Colonel from Evans' unit who has been sent to replace Colonel Pemberton, but at the same time it seems there's a traitor at the Goodge Street stronghold who's luring the Yeti to them.
Jamie and Evans slowly made their way along the Central Line throughout the episode, and Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart held a meeting explaining how it all started (with a deadly mist. then fungus in the Underground). The fungus is closing in on Goodge Street and Lethbridge-Stewart has gone off to Holborn with some soldiers to retrieve some explosives after the explosives they had were covered in web by a Yeti let in by the traitor.
Meanwhile, Chorley - the reporter - is going a bit crazy and has gone off looking for the TARDIS believing he can escape in it after Victoria stupidly told him about it. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have just headed after him leaving Travers and Anne behind, but the Yeti is still in the Goodge Street HQ, has killed a soldier and has attacked Travers.
There was a lot of information this week and the episode went quite quickly - it's lucky I had my Tube map to hand so I could follow where the fungus was going. Looking forward to next week!
The Web Of Fear - Part Four (24/02/08)
Really good this week. Started with Travers being taken off by the Yeti, then lots of mystery as the Doctor tried to figure out who was helping the Great Intelligence. With the reporter, Chorley, missing, he was prime suspect but Evans could be the traitor, and for a while I thought it could be Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart but the cliffhanger made that unlikely (especially with his reaction to all his soldiers being massacred). Also, Staff Arnold and one of the Corporals were attacked in the tunnels and only the Corporal's body was seen.
There were some great scenes where the Colonel and his soldiers were fighting the Yeti in Covent Garden, and bits where they were travelling through a deserted Central London. The Doctor and Captain Knight broke into a hardware store on TCR (at a guess)and were attacked by Yeti too and, really shockingly, Knight was killed. Really didn't expect that!
Anyway, the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, Anne (there was a great bit where she sweet-talked Knight into taking the Doctor above ground and the Doctor thanked her with "Well done, Travers" completely breaking down the gender stereotype and making the audience aurally double-take before realising, as the Professor's daughter, yes, she's a Travers too), the Colonel and Evans regrouped to Goodge Street as the last survivors only to find a Yeti doll/homing device had been planted on Lethbridge-Stewart drawing Yeti and a possessed Travers Snr to them. Great cliffhanger to the best episode this season!
The Web Of Fear - Part Five (02/03/08)
A really creepy and atmospheric episode this week, starting off with a possessed Travers explaining that this has all been a trap for the Doctor so that the Great Intelligence can drain all the knowledge from his brain. Travers kidnapped Victoria and returned to where the Great Intelligence is based - at Piccadilly Circus. The Intelligence released Travers' mind and he remembered nothing, but then Staff Arnold appeared, not dead after all (although we never did see a body). Jamie, the Colonel and Evans went after Travers and Victoria, but Evans chickened out and Jamie and Lethbridge-Stewart came against the fungus.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Anne worked on a control unit for a Yeti sphere and got it working. But Staff Arnold returned to Goodge Street while the Doctor and Anne were testing the control at Warren Street and the fungus has burst through the wall of the lab.
Two things, this week. Firstly, the atmosphere was kept very tense. The Intelligence gave the Doctor 20 minutes to give himself up, so the episode went pretty much in real time. It also stated that it also had another puppet besides Travers at the start of the episode which I now think is either Lethbridge-Stewart or Arnold. It won't be Evans because he's too obvious, and we haven't seen Chorley for ages. Also, Evans suggested they just hand the Doctor over because then the Intelligence would leave them alone, which makes me think he isn't working for it and is just a self-serving little shit.
That was kind of my two points rolled into one, really: very good plotting and maintained tension through the characters and their actions. Some very good music, too, keeping the atmosphere of the tunnels decidedly creepy.
The Web Of Fear - Part Six (09/03/08)
So, Staff Arnold was dead after all and his corpse was being used by the Great Intelligence. Of course, you only found this out toward the end of the episode. Chorley returned to confuse the audience into thinking he was being used, the Doctor, Anne, Jamie and Lethbridge-Stewart let themselves be taken prisoner by the Yeti and slowly, everyone ended up in Piccadilly Circus where Arnold revealed his true nature and Jamie used the Yeti that the Doctor and Anne had gained control of to kill Arnold while the Colonel and Evans freed the Doctor from the Intelligence's brain-draining pyramid machine.
Except the Doctor had crossed the wires on the helmet so it would actually wipe the Intelligence instead, so all they did was cut off the Intelligence from Earth leaving it stranded in space. Not an expected conclusion by a long shot, and it wasn't quite as hurried as some stories have been, and at least it leaves us with the possibility of another sequel.
I have to say, this has been one of the best realised stories in a long time, possibly since the Hartnell historicals. It was tense and dramatic with great music and great sets. The 'Who-Dunnit' scripting could've been a bit tighter, but on the whole it was really rather good and the best so far this series. Hopefully, they'll maintain the quality next week.
Unusually for a story of its length, the remaining five episodes live up to the promise of the first - although I agree that it sags a little at times and that the plotting could be tighter. That said, to produce two such coherent and well-realised stories featuring the same villain and monsters in a short space of time is remarkable. The Abominable Snowmen works better for me as an overall story, but this is more stylish, thanks almost entirely to Douglas Camfield. The performances and design are also great. It's essentially Part 1 to The Invasion's Part 2, and while I don't feel it's the out-and-out classic it's often argued to be, it is very good (and certainly held up a lot better upon rediscovery than Tomb of the Cybermen).
ReplyDeleteI can understand how it went down in history as one of the most popular and memorable stories - it's the London Underground under siege and the sets are brilliantly realised and the episodes shot to really enhance the atmosphere and claustrophobia of the setting. I think the location is what chiefly raised it above those surrounding it, but regardless it's still a great serial. Whilst not my favourite Troughton, I still appreciate its attributes.
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