The Web of Fear
Encyclopedia
The Web of Fear is a serial in the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti
, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable Snowmen
. It marks the first appearance of Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart
, subsequently better known as the Brigadier, and acts as a pre-cursor to the numerous later serials involving the UNIT
organisation.
, tries to get the owner of a museum to return the Yeti robot which Travers had sold it 30 years earlier, claiming the Yeti is dangerous. Professor Travers claims to have reactivated a control sphere (which controls the Yeti), and now it has gone missing. Silverstein, the owner, throws Travers out who is taken home by his daughter Anne. The control sphere crashes through a window and activates the Yeti, which attacks Silverstein.
Jamie, the Doctor
, and Victoria
, land after some trouble—the TARDIS is frozen in space, and surrounded by what appears to be a web—in the London Underground
railway. The station is abandoned, and it is broad daylight outside. Jamie spots an old man seated outside the gate, but they find he is dead and covered in cobwebs. A newspaper sellers poster declares- LONDONERS FLEE! MENACE SPREADS.
Professor Travers is brought by army troops to a WWII shelter adjacent to Goodge Street tube station
. He is there at the request of his daughter, and he starts off by annoying Harold Chorley, the only journalist allowed there during the problem that is spoken of constantly. The fortress commander, Captain Knight, disapproves of Travers' presence, believing it to be a military matter.
Below ground the trio see three soldiers unwinding a drum of cable along the tunnel. The Doctor tells Jamie and Victoria to follow them while he tracks the cable's source. However Jamie and Victoria are discovered and captured.
The Doctor follows the cable as far as Charing Cross underground station
. He hides when he hears a pair of Yeti coming. Using a mysterious device, the robots cover some crates with a thick cobweb substance.
Jamie and Victoria are taken to the Goodge street fortress. They learn that the tunnel is going to be blown up. They reveal, too late, that the Doctor is still in the tunnel.
After the Yeti have left the platform the Doctor goes to the crates to examine them and is caught by a contained blast as the explosive is set off.
The soldiers soon work out that the blast in the tunnel did not register in the normal way. Jamie and Victoria find out about the Yeti and contact Travers. He is overjoyed to be reunited with his old friends from Tibet, but puzzled as to why they have not aged in 30 years like him. Knight, Corporal Lane and some other soldiers find out that an ammunition party with a truck at Holborn tube station
have all been killed and so they set off to recover the ammo so they can blow up the tunnel.
Travers insists the Doctor must be found, and Jamie heads off with Staff-Sergeant Arnold to see if they can find him. They soon meet up with Knight and Lane, who have come under attack from the Yeti. When they try to detonate some explosives against the Yeti, the bombs fail to explode, the blast being smothered by the web generated by the Yeti guns. The Yeti retreat, leaving the soldiers and Jamie to escape. Elsewhere in the underground there is poison web fungus expanding in the tunnels. It seems to be engulfing the whole of the Circle Line, entrapping central London.
Back at the base, Victoria has overheard Anne Travers speculating that she and the Doctor might be behind the Yeti emergence and so heads off alone to the tunnels to look for the Doctor. As she searches, she does not know that a lone soldier is stalking her.
Elsewhere in the tunnels another soldier, Private Evans, is found; he is seemingly the only survivor from the attack on the Holborn ammo party. He explains that the fungus is being grown and stimulated by the use of a glass pyramid, which Jamie recalls was crucial to the Great Intelligence's development in Tibet. Evans agrees to accompany Jamie back into the tunnels, and it is only a matter of time before they become trapped by the expanding fungal web.
Egged on by Jamie, Evans destroys a pyramid of spheres carried by one of the Yeti and this enables them to make their escape. Elsewhere, Victoria and the Doctor are reunited but the Doctor is in the company of a mysterious Colonel (who had been stalking Victoria) who takes them back to HQ.
Professor Travers is overjoyed to see the Doctor again, and together they start to examine Yeti control spheres. The Doctor is sure the Great Intelligence is attempting to conquer Earth once more, and has brought him here for some reason too. Travers is convinced he has brought the Intelligence back to Earth by running experiments on one of the spheres and succeeding in activating it. The mysterious Colonel reveals himself to be Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart
, who was also part of the Holborn ammo party. He is there to take command of HQ after the death of the previous commander, Colonel Pemberton. During a briefing he holds the time travellers discover that the reason for London's desertion is because of fog on the surface which follows the path of the fungus underground. If anyone enters the fog they do not come out again.
The personnel at the base are getting ever more nervous as they are entrapped. The fungus continues to spread. The Doctor advocates blowing up the tunnel, thus sealing them in and away from the expanding web fungus. However, it now seems that there is an enemy in their midst: someone unbars the doors to the base and places a beacon for the Yeti in the explosives store. Soon a Yeti is advancing on the HQ and deposits a load of pulsating fungus inside the storeroom. It can be contained by closing the doors, but has consumed all the explosives within and thus preventing the Doctor’s detonation plan. The Colonel decides to recover some ammo from Holborn.
Chorley is the prime suspect, and Victoria accidentally tells him about the TARDIS, and he rushes off to Covent Garden tube station
to try and collect it. Jamie and Evans return to the base, and they go to intercept him with The Doctor and Victoria. Meanwhile, the base is attacked by a Yeti which kills the guards and Craftsman Weams.
The Yeti knocks Travers out and drags him away. When they reach Covent Garden the Doctor's party discover it to be barred off by fungus. The soldiers also cannot reach Holborn as it too is blocked by fungus which is continually closing in on Goodge Street.
The Doctor retrieves some of the fungal web to start experimenting on it. They find Anne unconscious and Travers gone. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and Captain Knight are told about the intelligence and the TARDIS by the Doctor. The Colonel decides that while Arnold, Lane and Evans get a baggage trolley through at the same time, he will take all the men left in the base except Knight across the surface to Covent Garden and retrieve the TARDIS so everyone can escape. When everyone has left, The Doctor discovers that the web sample is gone.
At the fungus, Arnold and Lane choose to put on gas masks and go through the fungus with the baggage trolley to get to Covent Garden, but when they enter the fungus Evans hears piercing screams. He pulls the trolley out on a rope to find Lane dead and Arnold gone.
On the surface there are Yeti waiting for the soldiers at Covent Garden. The soldiers take cover in a nearby builder's yard and shut the gate but the Yeti find another way in. The men open fire, but their bullets have no affect on the Yeti, who smash down the main gate as well. The troops retreat and the Yeti kill two men with their sheer strength. Another four are killed by the Yeti web guns, and the Colonel orders a retreat into a nearby warehouse.
The Doctor needs electrical components, so Knight takes him to an electronics store on the surface. In the shop, Knight is killed by Yeti who leave the Doctor alone. He discovers a Yeti model in Knight's pocket which brought them to the shop. Meanwhile, Corporal Blake and all the other soldiers are killed in the warehouse. The Colonel returns to HQ alone where a model is found in his pocket before two Yeti bring Professor Travers back to HQ, who is possessed by the Great Intelligence.
Travers is used as a conduit for the voice of the Great Intelligence, which is now controlling his body. The Great Intelligence explains that it brought the Doctor here in order to drain his mind. Unless he surrenders to the Intelligence, the entity will drain the brains of Jamie and Victoria. Victoria is taken as a hostage by 'Travers' and the Yeti while the Doctor is given twenty minutes to ponder his future. He decides to surrender himself if he can’t find another solution and applies himself to the control box once more, succeeding in reanimating a broken control sphere. He and Anne manage to get the control box to direct the sphere if they are kept very close. The Doctor then develops a voice control system for the sphere.
Victoria is taken to Piccadilly Circus tube station
where the Intelligence abandons Its control of Travers. They are soon joined by Staff-Sergeant Arnold, who turns up dishevelled and bleeding, having somehow survived the web. He is hidden from the Yeti and agrees to head off to HQ to tell the Doctor what is happening. Arnold soon links up with the Colonel and Jamie, who are searching in the tunnels. All three agree to return to HQ to support the Doctor, but he and Anne have gone off to track down and seize a Yeti. They manage to overpower one and substitute the servile control sphere.
Back at HQ things take a further turn for the worse when the fungal web bursts through the walls.
The Doctor and Anne release their servile Yeti, knowing it can be controlled later if needed, and then they run into Jamie and the Colonel who bring them up to speed. A little later they find Arnold, who explains that HQ has been destroyed and Evans has deserted. He slips away again while the others are herded by the Yeti and marched toward Piccadilly. In the central ticket hall of Piccadilly Station, there is an enormous glass pyramid, which is there to manifest the Yeti. The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, Anne, Travers and Lethbridge-Stewart are all reunited at Piccadilly Circus, with Evans brought to them soon afterward. It turns out that the human agent of the Great Intelligence is Staff Sergeant Arnold, who has been killed and his body animated by the Intelligence.
The Doctor is sent into the glass pyramid and is just about to have his mind drained when Jamie unmasks the servile Yeti and uses it in an assault. The pyramid is destroyed in the ensuing scuffle, detonating all the Yeti control spheres, and the corpse of Arnold falls dead. Everyone is happy except for the Doctor. He explains that he had sabotaged the conversion headset and would have drained the Intelligence if the device had been used – but now the Intelligence is free once more. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria slip away and head back to the TARDIS.
, was published by Target Books
in August 1976, entitled Doctor Who and The Web of Fear.
Fan reviews
Target novelisation
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti
Yeti (Doctor Who)
The Yeti of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, although resembling the cryptozoological creatures also called the Yeti, are in actuality alien robots. Their external appearance, that of a huge hairy biped, disguises a small spherical mechanism that provides its motive power...
, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....
. It marks the first appearance of Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
, subsequently better known as the Brigadier, and acts as a pre-cursor to the numerous later serials involving the UNIT
UNIT
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
organisation.
Plot
Professor Travers of the Tibetan expedition seen in The Abominable SnowmenThe Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....
, tries to get the owner of a museum to return the Yeti robot which Travers had sold it 30 years earlier, claiming the Yeti is dangerous. Professor Travers claims to have reactivated a control sphere (which controls the Yeti), and now it has gone missing. Silverstein, the owner, throws Travers out who is taken home by his daughter Anne. The control sphere crashes through a window and activates the Yeti, which attacks Silverstein.
Jamie, the Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
, and Victoria
Victoria Waterfield
Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A native of Victorian England, she was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1967 to 1968.-Character history:Victoria first...
, land after some trouble—the TARDIS is frozen in space, and surrounded by what appears to be a web—in the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
railway. The station is abandoned, and it is broad daylight outside. Jamie spots an old man seated outside the gate, but they find he is dead and covered in cobwebs. A newspaper sellers poster declares- LONDONERS FLEE! MENACE SPREADS.
Professor Travers is brought by army troops to a WWII shelter adjacent to Goodge Street tube station
Goodge Street tube station
Goodge Street is a London Underground station on Tottenham Court Road. It is on the Northern Line between Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street, and is in Travelcard Zone 1.-History:...
. He is there at the request of his daughter, and he starts off by annoying Harold Chorley, the only journalist allowed there during the problem that is spoken of constantly. The fortress commander, Captain Knight, disapproves of Travers' presence, believing it to be a military matter.
Below ground the trio see three soldiers unwinding a drum of cable along the tunnel. The Doctor tells Jamie and Victoria to follow them while he tracks the cable's source. However Jamie and Victoria are discovered and captured.
The Doctor follows the cable as far as Charing Cross underground station
Charing Cross tube station
Charing Cross tube station is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster with entrances located in Trafalgar Square and The Strand. The station is served by the Northern and Bakerloo lines and provides an interchange with the National Rail network at station...
. He hides when he hears a pair of Yeti coming. Using a mysterious device, the robots cover some crates with a thick cobweb substance.
Jamie and Victoria are taken to the Goodge street fortress. They learn that the tunnel is going to be blown up. They reveal, too late, that the Doctor is still in the tunnel.
After the Yeti have left the platform the Doctor goes to the crates to examine them and is caught by a contained blast as the explosive is set off.
The soldiers soon work out that the blast in the tunnel did not register in the normal way. Jamie and Victoria find out about the Yeti and contact Travers. He is overjoyed to be reunited with his old friends from Tibet, but puzzled as to why they have not aged in 30 years like him. Knight, Corporal Lane and some other soldiers find out that an ammunition party with a truck at Holborn tube station
Holborn tube station
Holborn is a station of the London Underground in Holborn in London, located at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. Situated on the Piccadilly Line and on the Central Line , it is the only station common to the two lines, although the two lines cross each other three times elsewhere...
have all been killed and so they set off to recover the ammo so they can blow up the tunnel.
Travers insists the Doctor must be found, and Jamie heads off with Staff-Sergeant Arnold to see if they can find him. They soon meet up with Knight and Lane, who have come under attack from the Yeti. When they try to detonate some explosives against the Yeti, the bombs fail to explode, the blast being smothered by the web generated by the Yeti guns. The Yeti retreat, leaving the soldiers and Jamie to escape. Elsewhere in the underground there is poison web fungus expanding in the tunnels. It seems to be engulfing the whole of the Circle Line, entrapping central London.
Back at the base, Victoria has overheard Anne Travers speculating that she and the Doctor might be behind the Yeti emergence and so heads off alone to the tunnels to look for the Doctor. As she searches, she does not know that a lone soldier is stalking her.
Elsewhere in the tunnels another soldier, Private Evans, is found; he is seemingly the only survivor from the attack on the Holborn ammo party. He explains that the fungus is being grown and stimulated by the use of a glass pyramid, which Jamie recalls was crucial to the Great Intelligence's development in Tibet. Evans agrees to accompany Jamie back into the tunnels, and it is only a matter of time before they become trapped by the expanding fungal web.
Egged on by Jamie, Evans destroys a pyramid of spheres carried by one of the Yeti and this enables them to make their escape. Elsewhere, Victoria and the Doctor are reunited but the Doctor is in the company of a mysterious Colonel (who had been stalking Victoria) who takes them back to HQ.
Professor Travers is overjoyed to see the Doctor again, and together they start to examine Yeti control spheres. The Doctor is sure the Great Intelligence is attempting to conquer Earth once more, and has brought him here for some reason too. Travers is convinced he has brought the Intelligence back to Earth by running experiments on one of the spheres and succeeding in activating it. The mysterious Colonel reveals himself to be Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
, who was also part of the Holborn ammo party. He is there to take command of HQ after the death of the previous commander, Colonel Pemberton. During a briefing he holds the time travellers discover that the reason for London's desertion is because of fog on the surface which follows the path of the fungus underground. If anyone enters the fog they do not come out again.
The personnel at the base are getting ever more nervous as they are entrapped. The fungus continues to spread. The Doctor advocates blowing up the tunnel, thus sealing them in and away from the expanding web fungus. However, it now seems that there is an enemy in their midst: someone unbars the doors to the base and places a beacon for the Yeti in the explosives store. Soon a Yeti is advancing on the HQ and deposits a load of pulsating fungus inside the storeroom. It can be contained by closing the doors, but has consumed all the explosives within and thus preventing the Doctor’s detonation plan. The Colonel decides to recover some ammo from Holborn.
Chorley is the prime suspect, and Victoria accidentally tells him about the TARDIS, and he rushes off to Covent Garden tube station
Covent Garden tube station
Covent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn. The station is a Grade II listed building, on the corner of Long Acre and James Street...
to try and collect it. Jamie and Evans return to the base, and they go to intercept him with The Doctor and Victoria. Meanwhile, the base is attacked by a Yeti which kills the guards and Craftsman Weams.
The Yeti knocks Travers out and drags him away. When they reach Covent Garden the Doctor's party discover it to be barred off by fungus. The soldiers also cannot reach Holborn as it too is blocked by fungus which is continually closing in on Goodge Street.
The Doctor retrieves some of the fungal web to start experimenting on it. They find Anne unconscious and Travers gone. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and Captain Knight are told about the intelligence and the TARDIS by the Doctor. The Colonel decides that while Arnold, Lane and Evans get a baggage trolley through at the same time, he will take all the men left in the base except Knight across the surface to Covent Garden and retrieve the TARDIS so everyone can escape. When everyone has left, The Doctor discovers that the web sample is gone.
At the fungus, Arnold and Lane choose to put on gas masks and go through the fungus with the baggage trolley to get to Covent Garden, but when they enter the fungus Evans hears piercing screams. He pulls the trolley out on a rope to find Lane dead and Arnold gone.
On the surface there are Yeti waiting for the soldiers at Covent Garden. The soldiers take cover in a nearby builder's yard and shut the gate but the Yeti find another way in. The men open fire, but their bullets have no affect on the Yeti, who smash down the main gate as well. The troops retreat and the Yeti kill two men with their sheer strength. Another four are killed by the Yeti web guns, and the Colonel orders a retreat into a nearby warehouse.
The Doctor needs electrical components, so Knight takes him to an electronics store on the surface. In the shop, Knight is killed by Yeti who leave the Doctor alone. He discovers a Yeti model in Knight's pocket which brought them to the shop. Meanwhile, Corporal Blake and all the other soldiers are killed in the warehouse. The Colonel returns to HQ alone where a model is found in his pocket before two Yeti bring Professor Travers back to HQ, who is possessed by the Great Intelligence.
Travers is used as a conduit for the voice of the Great Intelligence, which is now controlling his body. The Great Intelligence explains that it brought the Doctor here in order to drain his mind. Unless he surrenders to the Intelligence, the entity will drain the brains of Jamie and Victoria. Victoria is taken as a hostage by 'Travers' and the Yeti while the Doctor is given twenty minutes to ponder his future. He decides to surrender himself if he can’t find another solution and applies himself to the control box once more, succeeding in reanimating a broken control sphere. He and Anne manage to get the control box to direct the sphere if they are kept very close. The Doctor then develops a voice control system for the sphere.
Victoria is taken to Piccadilly Circus tube station
Piccadilly Circus tube station
Piccadilly Circus tube station is the London Underground station located directly beneath Piccadilly Circus itself, with entrances at every corner...
where the Intelligence abandons Its control of Travers. They are soon joined by Staff-Sergeant Arnold, who turns up dishevelled and bleeding, having somehow survived the web. He is hidden from the Yeti and agrees to head off to HQ to tell the Doctor what is happening. Arnold soon links up with the Colonel and Jamie, who are searching in the tunnels. All three agree to return to HQ to support the Doctor, but he and Anne have gone off to track down and seize a Yeti. They manage to overpower one and substitute the servile control sphere.
Back at HQ things take a further turn for the worse when the fungal web bursts through the walls.
The Doctor and Anne release their servile Yeti, knowing it can be controlled later if needed, and then they run into Jamie and the Colonel who bring them up to speed. A little later they find Arnold, who explains that HQ has been destroyed and Evans has deserted. He slips away again while the others are herded by the Yeti and marched toward Piccadilly. In the central ticket hall of Piccadilly Station, there is an enormous glass pyramid, which is there to manifest the Yeti. The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, Anne, Travers and Lethbridge-Stewart are all reunited at Piccadilly Circus, with Evans brought to them soon afterward. It turns out that the human agent of the Great Intelligence is Staff Sergeant Arnold, who has been killed and his body animated by the Intelligence.
The Doctor is sent into the glass pyramid and is just about to have his mind drained when Jamie unmasks the servile Yeti and uses it in an assault. The pyramid is destroyed in the ensuing scuffle, detonating all the Yeti control spheres, and the corpse of Arnold falls dead. Everyone is happy except for the Doctor. He explains that he had sabotaged the conversion headset and would have drained the Intelligence if the device had been used – but now the Intelligence is free once more. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria slip away and head back to the TARDIS.
Continuity
- For the dating of this serial, see the Chronology.
- Brigadier Lethbridge-StewartBrigadier Lethbridge-StewartBrigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
makes his first appearance in this story, with the rank of Colonel. His next appearance is in The InvasionThe Invasion (Doctor Who)The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
, and from that serial he serves as the central figure of the UNITUNITUNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
organisation. - The design of the Yeti is significantly different from those in this story's predecessor, The Abominable SnowmenThe Abominable SnowmenThe Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....
. In the first episode, a dormant "Mark I" Yeti – a prop from the earlier story – is reactivated, and a transformation takes place. The Doctor describes the subsequent Yeti as "Mark II". - The Seventh DoctorSeventh DoctorThe Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
refers to this adventure in Remembrance of the DaleksRemembrance of the DaleksRemembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....
, asking AceAce (Doctor Who)Dorothy Gale McShane, better known by her nickname Ace, is a fictional character played by Sophie Aldred in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
if she remembers "the Yeti in the Underground". - The novel The Face of the EnemyThe Face of the Enemy (Doctor Who)The Face of the Enemy is a BBC Books original novel written by David A. McIntee and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.It is a sequel to the Third Doctor serial Inferno...
by David A. McInteeDavid A. McIntee-Biography:McIntee has written many spin-off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, as well as one each based on Final Destination and Space: 1999. He has also written a non-fiction book on Star Trek: Voyager and one jointly on the Alien and Predator movie franchises...
features a brief look at an alternate version of the Great Intelligence's invasion here, this version taking place in the alternate reality visited by the Third DoctorThird DoctorThe Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
in InfernoInferno (Doctor Who)Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
, with Britain here being aided by the alternate version of the MasterMaster (Doctor Who)The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
. - A very brief clip of the TARDIS suspended in space from episode 1 is later included in episode 10 of The War GamesThe War GamesThe War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...
in the next season.
Production
- Patrick Troughton took a week's holiday during the rehearsals and recording of Episode 2. Consequently, the Doctor appears only in the reprise from Episode 1, and the Doctor's first meeting with Lethbridge-Stewart takes place off screen.
- The Tube sets were reportedly so accurate that the BBC was accused of illegally filming on London Underground property.
- Several props were reused from the previous Yeti serial, including control spheres and model Yeti.
Cast notes
- Actor Nicholas Courtney previously appeared in a different role, that of Bret Vyon, in The Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966...
. - David Langton was originally cast as Lethbridge-Stewart, but he pulled out before rehearsals and Nicholas Courtney (originally cast as Captain Knight) was given the part instead. However, it is an extra named Maurice Brooks who is first seen in the role, his booted feet appearing briefly late in Episode Two.
Missing episodes
Only Episode 1 and a few clips of this story still exist in the BBC Archives. The clips are those that were censored and physically cut from the film by the New Zealand authorities when they purchased the rights to broadcast the story.In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance DicksTerrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
in August 1976, entitled Doctor Who and The Web of Fear.
VHS, DVD and CD releases
- In 2003, Episode 1 of this story & episodes 1 & 3 of The Faceless OnesThe Faceless OnesThe Faceless Ones is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons...
were the final episodes of Doctor Who to be released on VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
by BBC WorldwideBBC WorldwideBBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
. - Episode 1 and the surviving clips were released on DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the UKUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in November 2004 in the three-disc Lost in Time set. - The audio soundtrack, along with additional linking narration by Frazer Hines, has been released on MP3 CD.
External links
- Photonovel of The Web of Fear on the BBC website
- Doctor Who Locations - The Web of Fear
Fan reviews
Target novelisation