The Web of Fear

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041 – The Web of Fear
Doctor Who serial

A dormant Yeti awakes...
Cast
Doctor Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor)
Companions Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon)
Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield)
Production
Writer Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln
Director Douglas Camfield
Script editor Derrick Sherwin
Producer Peter Bryant
Executive producer(s) None
Production code QQ
Series Season 5
Length 6 episodes, 25 mins each
Episode(s) missing 5 episodes (2-6)
Originally broadcast February 3–March 9, 1968
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
The Enemy of the World Fury from the Deep

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 February 3 to March 9, 1968. This serial marked the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence and Professor Travers and is the sequel to The Abominable Snowmen.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Some forty years after their first encounter, the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria discover that Yeti have invaded the London Underground. Help is at hand from an old friend - and a man who will become one.

[edit] Plot

 The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

Following on from the dematerialisation of the TARDIS by Salamander, an evil dictator who looked exactly like the Doctor, while the doors were still open, the villain has been sent hurtling out of the ship, while the time travellers are left clinging onto the central console. "We've got to close the doors!" the Doctor calls out in a panic. Carefully, Jamie manages to move himself to a position where he can reach and operate the door controls with success.

Now with control re-established onboard the Doctor instantly inquires where they should travel to next. Jamie is irritated at this desire to rush off already but nevertheless can't help but poke the Doctor with the notion that he never has control over the ship anyway. The Doctor responds to the challenge by operating the controls, resulting in a weary Victoria voicing exactly what she and Jamie are thinking: "Here we go again!" The Scotsman wonders where the TARDIS will drag them to this time. The Doctor is similarly curious - "Yes, I wonder."

In the darkness of a dim, candle-lit museum, a figure gazes up regretfully at the form of a huge hairy creature, a Yeti. He is Professor Edward Travers, the man who brought back the creature, actually a robot for the sinister Great Intelligence, in the Tibetan expedition of 1935, some forty years or so previously. Just then two figures approach him, his daughter Anne Travers and the arrogant owner of the museum, Julius Silverstein. Anne is curious as to why her father sent her a telegram to America to return home at once, to which Travers replies "It's that thing!" Anne is puzzled since he had told her that the Yeti didn't work without a control sphere, but the worried old man reveals that he has been tampering with one and managed to work out how to activate it - and now it is missing!

Travers fails to persuade Silverstein to part with the Yeti exhibit. "For thirty years it has stood here in my museum, and now he tells me it's dangerous!" the enraged proprietor exclaims. "You bring it here thirty years ago... and now it is valuable. You try to take it from me by telling me wild stories!" Even the offer of money will not tempt him, and Travers is told by his daughter that they'll try and see if they can find the sphere at home. Travers ends up shouting at Silverstein and the pair are herded out, nobody noticing the small, beeping silver sphere at a window.

As Silverstein blows out all the museum candles, the sphere propels itself through the glass with a crash. Silverstein, suspecting Travers to be playing still more fanciful tricks on him, examines the broken window. He fails to notice the Yeti's eyes suddenly light up as it adopts a menacing stance and starts to move. Far too late, Silverstein sees the creature approach him and barely has time to scream before it strikes him down with a savage blow...

Back in the Time Vortex the Doctor has grabbed some lunch and is confused by Jamie's remark that the materialisation indicator is flashing, indicating that they should have landed despite his insistence that the TARDIS is still in flight. Just then Victoria enters the room in a brand new dress, claiming it makes her look more 'sophisticated' than her traditional Victorian origins. She too spots the flashing red light, and the Doctor's suspicions of a light-hearted conspiracy against him are forgotten when he also notices the blinking indicator.

Turning to the scanner for any indication of where they might be, there are only stars on the screen. The Doctor summarises that they must be still in the depths of space. Meanwhile, the surface of the police box outside is slowly enveloped in a mysterious, gossamer-like web substance. With growing concern, the Doctor checks the Ship's controls with the help of his companions but can find nothing wrong. Victoria draws his attention to the scanner, which is by now becoming smothered in the pulsating web...

In an underground complex in London, a Corporal Lane is on the telephone as his counterpart Corporal Blake enters, looking for their superior Captain Knight. Indeed the Captain is upstairs, recording an interview with vile sensationalist journalist Harold Chorley, the sole reporter selected by the government to cover the unknown crisis. His sincere tribute to his late commanding officer, Colonel Pemberton, seems to fall on deaf ears to Chorley. "I meant what I said, Mr Chorley, every word." Just then Professor Travers barges in, irritated that he has to be second to the army in this operation. Knight replies that he doesn't like the situation any more than the aged Professor - it was his daughter that asked for Travers presence, not him. After a brief but hostile exchange he leaves Travers alone with Chorley, who introduces himself as a reporter from London Television. However his attempts to interview Travers are curtly dismissed by the irascible Professor, who tells Chorley, "Mind your own business!"

Back inside the captive TARDIS, Jamie hands the Doctor a vital component which puts the finishing touch to a device he hopes will release them from their current predicament. Just then the web outside clears, confirming the Doctor's earlier view that "Whatever is holding us here has to let go sometime." Seizing the opportunity the Doctor hurriedly links the device to the console and flicks a switch. The TARDIS begins to materialise and a piercing noise fills the air before they're thrown to their feet. Claiming they've been 'moved on a bit' from their intended destination the travellers check the screen once more, seeing that they are in some sort of long dark tunnel.

"Where are we?" "Well, I really don't know Victoria." "Now is it safe?" "Oh, I shouldn't think so for a moment", grins the Doctor, and requests that Jamie grab some torches.

Outside the ship and in the darkness of the tunnel the trio debate as to where they might be - are they in a prison or the dungeon of a castle? Locating a darkened staircase they carefully descend, discovering another tunnel with a curved ceiling. Jamie spots a sign labeled Covent Garden and the Doctor chuckles as he realises they must be in the London Underground. After a brief explanation of this particular form of public transport, the Doctor leads his friends up a long staircase which ends with a barred station exit. Although the station is closed, there is broad daylight outside, disproving the Doctor's theory that they must have arrived at night and therefore no trains are running. Victoria notes that for the middle of the day, everything seems unnaturally and sinisterly quiet. Jamie spots a news vendor outside the gate, but when he taps him on the shoulder the old man topples dead to the ground, revealing him to be covered in cobwebs. Behind him is the headline - LONDONERS FLEE! MENACE SPREADS.

Back in the tunnels, the Doctor is so busy comforting Victoria that he barely has time to warn Jamie not to step on the track. Had the currents for the running of the trains been on, Jamie could have been fried by the electricity, but he is fortunately safe for now. In fact, layers of dust indicate that no trains have run down the line for some time. Their investigations turn up a power cable, when the tunnel is suddenly illuminated. The travellers duck into a nearby alcove. A trio of soldiers march past with an unwinding drum of cable wires. Emerging from their alcove, the Doctor tells Jamie and Victoria to follow the soldiers surreptitiously while he tracks the cable's source. They agree to meet in a few minutes.

Up the tunnel, young Craftsman Weams thinks that he's heard something behind him. "Getting a bit jumpy are you?" says his gruff commanding officer, Staff Sergeant Arnold. They set about connecting a new drum of cable. Unsure whether the three soldiers have stopped or not, Jamie and Victoria wait before continuing to follow them. However Victoria walks into a hanging cobweb and her exclamation alerts Craftsman Weams. The soldiers hide in an alcove and ambush the pair as they advance further, unaware that they had been heard. They are trapped.

The Doctor follows the cable as far as Charing Cross underground station. Jumping onto the platform, he begins examining the crates at the end of the cable before he is aware of a terrifyingly familiar bleeping noise - a Yeti Control Sphere! Hiding under the platform, the Doctor is not spotted by the lumbering creature as it moves onto the station platform, holding a mysterious weapon of some kind.

Back at the army's headquarters beneath Goodge Street Station, Corporal Lane reports his failure in contacting Holborn station to establish the whereabouts of the ammunitions truck, a group sent in to attempt to reinforce the soldiers in the underground. Captain Knight tells him to keep trying. Anne enters to inform the men that the blast recorders have been repaired, declining Knight's over-eager offer of assistance. Harold Chorley arrives to protest about her father's obstructive and secretive behaviour. As Knight bustles the journalist away, Anne finds quiet amusement in her father's lack of tolerance.

Still trapped from the appearance of the Yeti, the Doctor notes via a new bleeping noise that a second Yeti has joined the first. Using their mysterious weaponry, the pair of robots cover the crates the Doctor has been previously examining with a thick cobweb substance. This substance is similar in nature to the ones which covered the TARDIS earlier. Soon enough they are totally enveloped in webs.

Arnold arrives with his men and their captives, Jamie and Victoria. Captain Knight hasn't got time to question the two youngsters – they need to get on with blowing up the tunnel, telling Arnold to do it himself. Anne worriedly tells Arnold to ask them if there was anyone with them - the last thing they want is to explode the tunnel and kill an innocent person in the process. Herding Jamie and Victoria into the common room, Staff Sergeant Arnold is reluctant to answer any of their own questions on the situation in London. Their contradictory replies on Anne's request make him suspicious. Jamie replies the he and Victoria were alone since he thinks this will result in the Doctor's capture, unaware of the real intention behind the question.

Back in the tunnel, the Yeti have finished their task and leave the platform. Stepping out from the shadows the Doctors goes to the crates to examine their handiwork...

The Sergeant is suitably convinced that the pair were alone and tells the Captain they can go ahead. Realizing the intention of the military, the pair speak out too late for Arnold to get back to the Captain - "The Doctor!"

On the station platform, the Doctor is caught by a contained blast as the crates explode. But as the sound of the explosion subsides, the crates are still there, and glow with an eerie light...

The soldiers soon work out that the blast in the tunnel did not register in the normal way. Arnold and Blake travel there to investigate, while Knight and another troop head off to investigate an ambush by the Yeti at Holborn. Jamie and Victoria find out about the Yeti and at the military HQ make an attachment to Anne Travers, who tells her father about them. He is overjoyed to be reunited with his old friends from Tibet, but puzzled as to why they have not aged like him. Travers insists the Doctor must be found, and Jamie heads off with 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, the web is expanding once more, swamping Kings Cross and then moving on. 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. Elsewhere in the tunnels another soldier, Private Evans, is found by Corporal Blake; he is seemingly the only survivor on the truck to Holborn ambushed by the Yeti. 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. He 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 in the tunnels the Doctor and Victoria are reunited, and he introduces her to Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, the newly appointed CO of the base, who was part of the convoy attacked by the Yeti at Holborn. They all head back to the HQ at Goodge Street where Knight accepts the Colonel’s authorization, despite being a little concerned that Evans and the Colonel did not realize each other had survived the attack. Travers is overjoyed to see the Doctor again, offering to vouch for him, 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 from Tibet and succeeding in activating it. The Doctor remarks that the Yeti seem to have been upgraded since their last encounter.

The personnel at the base are getting ever more nervous as they are entrapped, especially Chorley, who is desperate to circulate his press reports. The fungus continues to spread, now consuming Chancery Lane. The Doctor advocates blowing up the tunnel just outside the Goodge Street station, 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 wreaked damage by consuming all the explosives within and thus preventing the Doctor’s detonation plan. The Colonel decides that an alternative plan would be to get hold of some explosives from Holborn and the troops are split into groups to effect this scheme. Chorley panics so much when he hears about the plan to seal the station that he makes a break for freedom and heads off into the tunnels. He collides with Jamie and Evans, who have returned from their quest. Meanwhile another Yeti attacks the base, killing Craftsman Weams and threatening Travers with its powerful arms.

The Yeti knocks Travers out and drags him away. The Intelligence also scores a success at Holborn, where the fungus attacks Captain Knight’s group and prevents them reaching the necessary explosives. The Doctor retrieves some of the fungal web from the tunnels and decides to start experimenting on it, but has less luck finding the missing Chorley in the tunnels. When he and his friends return to Goodge Street they find Anne unconscious and Travers gone. The Doctor is immediately promoted by Lethbridge-Stewart to senior scientific adviser, and starts to explain the nature and threat of the Great Intelligence. He also starts to examine the functioning of the control spheres, seeking to develop a control box. A little later, he and Knight venture out to the surface looking for transistors to build a control box, but the Yeti attack them and kill Knight but not the Doctor. It seems they were drawn to the Yeti model deposited in Knight’s pocket. The Doctor returns to HQ and reports the death to Anne, Jamie and Victoria, while Evans returns too, with news of a disastrous mission to try and retrieve the TARDIS from Covent Garden. With Corporal Lane left dead and Staff Sergeant Arnold missing in the web, and the Yeti attack and kill more soldiers including Corporal Blake. Lethbridge-Stewart is the only survivor when he returns to HQ and meets the Doctor, Anne, Jamie and Evans. The Doctor works out that Lethbridge-Stewart is being tracked using a missing Yeti model and seconds later two Yeti burst in, accompanied by a haggard and distraught Professor Travers.

Travers is used as a conduit for the voice of the Great Intelligence, which is now controlling his body, and 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 starts to develop a voice control system for the sphere, succeeding in this endeavour remarkably quickly.

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 disheveled 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 Warren Street 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 with the situation. 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. As the Doctor is about to be processed, Harold Chorley reappears, weary and maligned by all who think him to be the human agent of the Intelligence. The real agent is, however, 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 bar 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 in Covent Garden.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Cast notes

  • Actor Nicholas Courtney previously appeared in a different role, that of Bret Vyon, in The Daleks' Master Plan.
  • David Langton was originally cast as Lethbridge-Stewart, but he pulled out before recording and Nicholas Courtney (originally cast as a lower-ranking officer) was given the part instead.

[edit] Continuity

  • Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart makes his first appearance in this story (but with the rank of colonel).
  • The design of the Yeti is significantly different from those seen in this story's predecessor, The Abominable Snowmen. After a dormant "Mark I" Yeti – a prop from the earlier story – is reactivated in the first episode, a transformation takes place. Subsequently, the Yeti are labeled "Mark II" by the Doctor.
  • The Seventh Doctor refers to this adventure in Remembrance of the Daleks, asking Ace if she remembers "the Yeti in the Underground".

[edit] Production

  • Patrick Troughton took a week's holiday during the rehearsals and recording of Episode 2. Consequently, the Doctor only appears in the reprise from Episode 1, and the first meeting between the Doctor and 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] In print

Doctor Who book
Book cover
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear
Series Target novelisations
Release number 72
Writer Terrance Dicks
Publisher Target Books
Cover artist Chris Achilleos
ISBN 0 426 11084 6
Release date 19 August 1976
Preceded by Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
Followed by Doctor Who and the Space War

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in August 1976, entitled Doctor Who and The Web of Fear. Dicks included the first meeting of the Doctor and Lethbridge-Stewart.

[edit] Broadcast, CD, VHS and DVD releases

  • Episode 1 of this story & episodes 1 & 3 of The Faceless Ones were the final episodes of Doctor Who to be released on VHS by BBC Worldwide in 2003.
  • Episode 1 and the surviving clips were released on DVD in the UK in November of 2004 in the three-disc set Lost in Time.
  • Episode 1 was shown during BBC Four's "London Underground" season in 2007.
  • The audio soundtrack, along with additional linking narration by Frazer Hines, has been released on MP3 CD, along with The Abominable Snowman[1]. A collection box entitled Yeti Attack contains both Yeti adventures on normal CD [2]
  • The CD sleeve notes of the Audio CD release describe this episode as "...both a whodunnit with a clever unexpected ending...". However, the reader of the notes will already have discovered who was behind it all earlier in the sleeve notes when it described the critical reaction of fans to the person who voiced the Great Intelligence (and naming him in the process).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Amazon.co.uk: Doctor Who: the Abominable Snowman / The Web of Fear (BBC MP3 CD Audio): Books: Original Soundtrack
  2. ^ Amazon.co.uk: Doctor Who: Yeti Attack (BBC Radio Collection): Books: Various

[edit] External links

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Target novelisation

v • d • e
Doctor Who season 5 serials
v • d • e
Doctor Who: UNIT television stories
Second Doctor
(The Web of Fear) • The Invasion
Third Doctor
Fourth Doctor
Seventh Doctor
Tenth Doctor
Minor appearances
Torchwood
See also