The Web of Fear This story is not known to exist in its original format (6 black-and-white 25-minute TV episodes) in its entirety. CD Audio - 3 discs

(Doctor Who Story No. 41, starring Patrick Troughton) written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln directed by Douglas Camfield produced by Peter Bryant featuring library music tracks 6 episodes @ 25 minutes each Story: Growing wisps of web in space ensnare the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria into a nightmare in the London Underground subway train system. The army is working with Professor Travers and his daughter Anne to combat the spread of the Web over the city, suspecting that the Yeti are once more involved. As their every move to keep the tunnels clear is thwarted, they know there is a traitor in their midst. Can it be Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, arriving late to take charge?

Director Douglas Camfield returns to Doctor Who for the first time since "The Dalek Masterplan" (story no. 21) to oversee one of the most mythologically important stories of the series. The results are excellent. It isn't too surprising then, that so many clips from the sole existing episode, number one, pop up so frequently in nostalgic documentaries and featurettes about this era of Doctor Who.

Background music has a tendancy to upstage dialogue in some of Camfield's productions, and the first episode of "The Web of Fear" dances on the threshold of good taste in music volume. Back when the only way to view the episode was to get a copy from another fan, who got his copy from another fan, who got her copy from another fan..... etc., the fragile sound suffered many generation drops, and the problems were unfortunately magnified.

The soundtrack on CD audio, however, is a vast improvement and does not appear to have any real problems. Dialogue is crisp and easy to understand, and of course Frazer Hines is on hand as narrator to explain all the action. He gets into it emotionally, almost like a sportscaster, and his enthusiasm becomes contagious. This is great stuff. How much of the increase in sound quality is due to Mark Ayres superb re-mastering techniques? This great audio now graces the episode's release on VHS video and DVD. Give thanks and enjoy.

The TARDIS sees more action in this first half-hour than anywhere else in the Troughton era, bar episode one of "The Mind Robber" (story no. 45) and episode ten of "The War Games" (story no. 50), possibly another reason why it remains so attractive to producers searching the archives for good flashback material. It has perhaps a confusing start in having to clean up the loose ends of "The Enemy of the World" (the previous story), but before the first scene is finished, the Doctor and his friends have whetted the audience's appetite for exploring a new wondrous location in hopes of discovering a great adventure. All the right stuff! The turbulent opening also serves to build anticipation of similar rough flights in later TARDIS scenes, and so earns its keep in the suspense department. Sound re-mastering removes much of the initial confusion, as dialogue materializes where only noise and shouting were audible before, and a single quick sentence from Frazer puts it all in perspective right away.

Travers' scene in the museum is a nice little piece, setting up a wonderful atmosphere for the story and linking it to its prequel, "The Abominable Snowmen" (story no. 38). The return of the Yeti is rapid indeed, not wasting any time waiting for the end of the first episode like so many of the Dalek stories. Jack Watling's reinterpretation of the older Professor Travers is a joy to behold, cantankerous and absent-minded and spot-on with comic timing. The music for this scene starts and ends superbly, providing the atmosphere of a classic old horror flick, but the middle of the piece, looped no less than three times in a row, gets a bit silly as its high pitched lead note climbs higher and higher, fighting the dialogue and nearly destroying the atmosphere. Mark Ayres' remastering manages to put the music back in its place, where it can enhance without bludgeoning. As good as this music works on its own in this story, perhaps it is significant to note that it was also used almost exclusively in the three previous episodes of Doctor Who: "The Enemy of the World" episodes 4, 5, and 6. Perhaps it is getting a bit too repetitious?

The absense of a proper audio/visual materialization for the police box is forgivable, as we get to see it in no less than two interesting locations, and the TARDIS has an entire story beat pitted directly against the Web, giving our three travellers something interesting to do in the interior for a change, where their dialogue makes the concept of the TARDIS plain for new and casual viewers. The Yeti and the Great Intelligence have many new tricks up their sleeves for this story, allowing the investigations of the Doctor and his friends to remain fresh, furthering their knowledge, and focusing on exploration even more so than in their previous Tibetan story. The base-defense formula is back, coupled with the dynamics of a "bottle-story", all of which work well thanks to a good script, great actors playing likeable recurring characters, and a master director.

Unfortunately, the telecine insert of the Doctor's first meeting with Nicholas Courtney's Lethbridge-Stewart is merely a figment of Terrance Dicks' novelization. While in some ways this off-screen entrance for the series' most important recurring supporting character is most disappointing, it opens the door of another interesting set of possibilities. Is it really the first meeting of the Doctor and the soon-to-be Brigadier? Perhaps it is so only from Lethbridge-Stewart's point of view. After all, the time-traveling first Doctor has already met him across the scanner screen in "The Three Doctors" (story no. 65), not to mention face-to-face in "The Five Doctors" (story no. 130). What indeed is the first meeting from the Doctor's point of view? Perhaps they recognized each other already when they did meet here in this story..... Then again perhaps not. Haisman and Lincoln have set up Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to be, through coincidence, a major suspect, something that does not easily come to the mind of today's average fan, or as easily to the Doctor after he gets to know old Alistair. The Doctor really doesn't seem to know him, or at least trust that he isn't under the control of the Intelligence, in this adventure. Haisman and Lincoln do such a superb job of spreading suspicion onto practically every character that it doesn't make much difference - the "Who done it? Could it be....?" question will still bite and confound cast and audience alike until the end.

Episode two is perhaps the weakest of the six episodes, what with neither the Doctor nor Lethbridge-Stewart on hand, but Jamie and Victoria get to reunite with Travers, and the different viewpoints of soldiering held by likeable old Staff Sergeant Arnold (an exquisitely unique character in terms of UNIT stories, expertly played by Jack Woolgar) and the newly introduced Private/Driver Evans keep the story interesting, as does the team's discovery that the Web and the Yeti can render their explosives useless. The episode also features a very effective, gripping battle-sequence that skyrockets the sense of menace surrounding the Yeti, and the choice of music here ("Spine Chillers" by composer Edwin Braden) perfectly amplifies horror, hopelessness, and tension all at once. Corporal Blake and Craftsman Weams have one of the funniest soldiering scenes in all of Doctor Who, as they shoot the breeze and speculate on where the Yeti menace came from. The weakest episode is still quite strong.

"Doctor, you'd better stay here and get on with your tinkering."

Episode Four delivers a lot of plot-impacting action, and with Douglas Camfield in the director's chair, it appears to have been exceptionally good considering the BBC's budget. The sheer energy in the sound track speaks volumes to this effect. The hopeless horror music returns at the right moment, but also of note is the fact that the Yeti have stolen the Cybermen's main theme music from their three previous stories: Martin Slavin's Space Adventures, Part Two. Monster identification aside, it works perfectly in this new context.

Mystery mounts in the final two episodes, as it becomes clear that there must be a traitor in the midst, whose identity is not revealed until the final moments of the last episode. The Doctor manages to devise not one but several methods of getting back at the Yeti, the Web, and the Great Intelligence throughout the final episodes, but his increasing deviousness is too much for his friends to follow, and he is unable to get as permanent a victory as he might have wanted. The audience and the other characters need not be disappointed, as a very satisfying set of revelations, character resolutions and display of pyrotechnics brings "The Web of Fear" to a dramatically satisfying conclusion. Despite the obvious door left open for it, a further Yeti/Intelligence sequel never developed on Doctor Who. Sad in some respects, but the future lay in another direction, with fresh worlds and ideas to explore.

"The Web of Fear" is a true classic, and one of the very best of the Troughton Era, though I think "The Tomb of the Cybermen" (story no. 37) is still better. If the rest of the story is ever recovered, I might reconsider this story for absolute top rank among all of Troughton's Doctor Who work. At any rate, the seed of the UNIT formula was firmly planted here by Haisman, Lincoln, Camfield and Co., to sprout and bloom later on, a more interesting legacy than the Yeti themselves.....

Doctor Who: Lost in Time - Patrick Troughton 2 DVD discs (also included in Lost in Time Boxed Sets)

Coverage on The Web of Fear includes:

• Episode 1
  • (with optional commentary by actress Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield), story editor Derrick Sherwin, and moderator Gary Russell)
• censor clips from episodes 2, 4 & 5 with full sound

Audio CD - Doctor Who - The Web of Fear (3 discs).

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror - Collectors' Edition 2 VHS video tapes

• One complete episode:
  • Episode 1
  • short clips from episodes 2 & 4

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