The Web Planet

The Web Planet

What an utterly extraordinary story the Web Planet is, and what an absolutely terrific first episode the Web Planet is. Set on a mysterious, barren, good looking world in which the regulars need breathing equipment, with terrific looking aliens in the Zarbi, a number of mysteries, a quadruple cliffhanger and William Hartnell at his absolute giggliest. What more could you want? Oh, and Vicki with an interesting hairstyle. I mean it, it's great. Whatever happens for the next five parts, this is a truly superb opening episode, even with Vicki's rather patronising view of Barbara. The world does look very good, and I love the Zarbi noises. Not much happens as such, but the regular cast are all always wonderful to watch, and it is a nice, mysterious, alien opening episode. Fun, promising start. 8/10

The Zarbi

We find here that we've landed on an alien planet that the Doctor already knows, and may even have visited. That's two in this season, both of which the Doctor knows, compared to the zero out of three or four (depending on An Unearthly Child) in the first season. It's quite a sudden shift, and I'm not sure how keen on it I am, really. It does present a different type of mystery though. "Why has this planet changed?" rather than, "where are we?" 

The Menoptera do look ridiculous at first with their stylised movements and silly voices, but I do have to admit that when you get used to it, it does work very well and helps add another dimension to their "alien-ness". Roslyn de Winter as Vrestin is particularly good throughout this story. Hardly surprising really, as she's credited with "Insect movement", which has to be one of my favourite credits. Maureen O'Brien follows up some dodgy flailing acting as the TARDIS is dragged with a wonderful despairing "help me"! Apparently the Animus can control gold, and anybody touching gold. Interesting idea. The story continues well, with more mystery, the Menoptera at this point not friendly, and our heroes seemingly in a lot of danger, and they're about to escape to even more. 7/10

Escape to Danger

It's a holiday for Jacqueline Hill this week. Last time she went away, the quality of the story dropped enormously. This time it's not so bad, but it does suffer without her because the Doctor, Vicki and Ian are all in the same place. That means there's not much variety of location in this episode, and when we do get it, it's just Ian and Vrestin having a nice long chat about the history of Vortis. There is a lot to like about this episode, though. That the Animus thinks the Doctor is a Menoptera is quite amusing. I love the Doctor saying to Ian, "I must do something about that face of yours", and when he tells the Animus to "drop this hair-dryer or whatever it is". The flying effect for the Menoptera is good too. The crowning achievement of this episode, though, is when a Zarbi charges headlong into the camera, which is hilarious. 

This episode isn't so bad, but it does lack a bit of energy. It also lacks directing, too. That cliffhanger is utterly abysmal. The worst so far, by a wide margin. Ian and Vrestin are running from some Zarbi, Vrestin apparently falls (though we don't see it), then we see a bit of soil falling on top of Ian, then we see some Zarbi milling about. I actually thought Richard Martin had been doing quite well until that point, but there you are. 5/10

Crater of Needles

And now it's better again. Hello Jacqueline Hill! The stock incidental music goes absolutely mad at the start of this episode, and then disappears again, which is bizarre. I like the Optera, actually. There are times when the way they speak reminds me of the Tenth Planet Cybermen. I love the word Isoptope. The moments with the Doctor and Vicki are the highlight of this episode, though, as the Doctor manages to make one of the gold controlling device things not work somehow with a magic bit of something-or-other. Well, that's as much sense as the script makes of it. If you only need gold to control somebody, why go to the bother of making those big, awkward things to put over people's shoulders? Why not just use, you know, rings? Or even a necklace. I know those things in the story are called necklaces, but that's just silly.

The cliffhanger is mucked up again, too. Why wait for Barbara and Prapillus to start running to safety before cutting? Especially as that is the resolution. In spite of all of that, this is an enjoyable episode as some more Menoptera show up and the Optera are introduced. 6/10

Invasion

Aside from Invasion being a horribly unimaginative title, the actual invasion happened in the previous episode. Bad start. That Hilio is an interesting chap, isn't he? He stands behind a wall to talk to Barbara and the rest of the Menoptera. I'm probably being picky, but he does it for no reason other than to give some "interesting" shots, which isn't really good motivation for standing behind a wall to talk to people, I find. I like how it's Barbara who convinces the Menoptera to actually attack the Animus, rather than just stand around and hope for the best, which they appear to want to do.

Vicki is rather fond of naming things, isn't she? She calls the Zarbi that the Doctor controls "Zombo". Next thing you know she'll be calling things Chumblies or something silly like that. That is quite a fun portion of the story, the Doctor leading the controlled Zarbi about. Hartnell's expressive hand and arm movements are rather amusing. Another decent episode here, I have to say. 6/10

The Centre

It did occur to me when Ian suddenly, randomly, and very conveniently appears by the Animus towards the end of this episode that he's been rather sidelined for the past three episodes. He's had interesting things to do, but absolutely nothing to do with the main storyline. It is a bit of an underwhelming conclusion, really. The Doctor and Vicki get caught in the "web", and Barbara nearly does before Ian's appearance distracts her and gives her enough time to point a thing at the Animus and kill it somehow. The Doctor is hailed as a hero, which is a bit harsh on Barbara, really. Without the Animus, the Larvae Guns are cute, cuddly creatures. Hmm, not sure I like that idea, if they're still potentially that deadly! In the previous story, we had a joke that referenced a joke from three weeks ago. Here we have a joke about the Doctor destroying Ian's tie from five weeks ago! That is showing faith in your audience, particularly with a story like this. It's a slightly underwhelming final episode, but still entertaining in and of itself. 5/10

Conclusion

I like the Web Planet. I know it isn't popular, but I think it does deserve a lot of praise simply for them having attempted it. Surely it's better to try something like this than just settle into the same old formula and do a Keys of Marinus clone? The sound design on this story is brilliant. I really like the Zarbi noise. Roslyn de Winter does excellently with the Menoptera, and she is particularly strong herself in her own performance. I think the Zarbi look very good, and while the Optera are slightly awkward, they do add something different.

There are stretches where people are talking about nothing in particular, but there's also always enough going on to keep up the interest. It's far from perfect, but I think it's more successful than not, and is a worthy part of season two's dazzling array of stories. This was Bill Strutton's only contribution to Doctor Who, and to him I say thank you.

Average Rating: 6.2

Old Rating: 6

New Rating: 6