013 - The Web Planet

Broadcast:

13^th February - 20^th March 1965

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Ian, Barbara, Vicki

Adversary:

Zarbi

Written by:

Bill Strutton

Director:

Richard Martin

Music:

Stock

Script Editor:

Dennis Spooner

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

12.5m (13.5, 12.5, 12.5, 13, 12, 11.5)

Summary: The travellers get caught up in a battle between species on a planet where evolution has favoured the insect world. To save themselves they must help the invading resistance forces.

By coincidence, ahead of watching The Web Planet I read a discussion about least favourite Doctor Who serials and was surprised how often it was mentioned. I could see that it might be disliked because of the experimental lens effect on exterior shots but I couldn't remember anything else that could garner such a response, though I did have a nagging apprehension about it that I couldn't place. It is clearly a story that divides fans as its viewing figures were still very good (the first episode set a new record that wouldn't be matched for ten years) but the Appreciation Index started at 56%, higher than the previous serial, but decreased each week ending on a poor 42% - the lowest ever recorded. The DVD production subtitles quotes a lot from the audience reaction research and it is clear once again that the show was ahead of its time. There will always be people who moan about the little things but it was evident that the audience just didn't understand the story and found it confusing or hard to follow. One BBC executive only saw the fifth episode and complained that it felt like he needed to have watched all the episodes to understand it... which is surely the point of a six part serialised adventure!

The news of the time again reminds us that society was at a turning point with major civil rights marches taking place and leading to violent clashes in Alabama. Controversial activist Malcolm X was assassinated, 3500 US Marines became the first active American troops in Vietnam, while Gambia was given independence from the UK. On the lighter side of things, Canada's new flag was inaugurated, Goldie the golden eagle escaped from London Zoo for 12 days, and Luxembourg won the Eurovision Song Contest (beating Great Britain by just 6 points). There was cause for cheers when Alexey Leonov became the first man to walk in space, but sadness at the deaths of Nat King Cole and Stan Laurel. In the charts, The Kinks had their second number one with "Tired Of Waiting For You" followed by the year's biggest seller "I'll Never Find Another You" by The Seekers. Tom Jones's debut single "It's Not Unusual" went to number one and the Rolling Stones had their third chart topper with "The Last Time" (which it wasn't!) In the cinemas were Lord Tom, Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors starring Peter Cushing and Roy Castle who would shortly appear in the first Dalek movie, and Kiss Me, Stupid.

When we left the Doctor at the end of The Romans, the TARDIS had materialised unexpectedly and was instantly being dragged down by some kind of force...

We re-enter the TARDIS to see a new area on the left containing scientific computer equipment and drawers, the main doors are ahead and to the right, with doors to the sleeping quarters (as would be revealed later) on the far left. It's frustrating to hear Gary Russell on the DVD commentary asking Richard Martin if he deliberately reversed the layout to show what was normally 'behind' the camera because as I've noted before, it was not yet an established norm for the main doors to be on the left - I've not tracked it fully but the configuration has changed quite randomly so far and suggesting that doors-left is normal was as alien a concept in 1965 as the planet the TARDIS has just landed on! To help emphasise the strangeness, where a colour production might add a red or blue hue to the picture, The Web Planet had Vaseline smeared in front of the camera lens for exterior shots which gave the image a strange blurred distortion. For the narrative, the Doctor introduced ADJs (Atmospheric Density Jackets) which only have a power supply for one hour and were abandoned four minutes into episode two! There is also a vastness to the planet surface with the sets being rather open and airy yet there is a curious echo in the sound. And of course when we see the planet's inhabitants they are giant insects.

A lot of thought went into constructing this strange world and defining it by its differences to Earth and further development is leant to Vicki's character as well as she sits talking to Barbara about her advanced education from the year 2493 gaining Certificate Of Education (What I would know as GCSE and Barbara would know as O-Levels) at the age of 10. She is unsure of Barbara's 'arcane' medication and has never heard of aspirin. It is during this conversation that attention is drawn to the bracelet that Nero gave Barbara in the previous story (because it will be a key plot point a little later) and Vicki finally hears that the Barbara and Ian went to Rome as well as her and the Doctor.

Focussing on first episode TARDIS scenes for a while longer, there is another key plot point which is almost lost in one of William Hartnell's worst line fluffs. In a way, it draws attention to it but unless you are paying attention it is not clear that he is talking about and using his ring. The TARDIS has been completely shut down by the mystery force that pulled them down and there is no power available to open the doors (though there is still light to see by!) What could have been a simple flurry of Doctor brilliance "Hah! This ring is more than a mere decoration..." followed by the required waving of it in front of the new sensor prop to open the doors, turned into a worried and confused moment where the Doctor didn't seem to know what to do but some how managed it with this new sensor rather than the central console. You can really see the concern on William Russell's face as he struggles to come up with a way to prompt Hartnell who has clearly lost his way! The power of the ring is the important point that is all but lost.

Finally, there are three more console moments that I want to mention. The first is an unfortunate set wobble (which is explained later in the episode) when the failing TARDIS throws its passengers about and Barbara falls against the console. The second explains why the set moved because we see, rather surprisingly if not scarily, the central console spins out of control after the doors open on their own and table turn over. This is followed by Barbara being pulled out of the TARDIS by an invisible force acting on her gold bracelet. The third is Vicki fumbling with the controls when she is on her own and things are going weird... and she apparently makes it dematerialise! This, of course, leads to the first cliffhanger. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS only to discover that it is gone and since he and we all know that controlling it is far from easy, it seems inevitable that it will never return!

As cliffhanger resolutions go, this one is as good as the cliffhanger itself. Of course the TARDIS hasn't taken off, it had already been shown and explained that it wasn't possible but instead the Doctor and Ian discover that it has been dragged and we see several model shots of exactly that. The TARDIS slides along in a manner completely in keeping with the idea that it is being moved by ants! Ants which are actually called Zarbi and which are seen to go a little nuts when they try to enter the TARDIS - almost the first case of an adversary, or indeed a non regular, entering the TARDIS. The Doctor eventually realises that they are on the planet Vortis but unlike Dido in The Rescue he hasn't been there before but it soon becomes apparent that all is not well. Two production aspects that didn't go well are the fact that Vicki exited the TARDIS to the right (as already pointed out, that's where the doors are) yet when she is seen exiting the Police Box she is walking to the left; the other was another line fluff from Hartnell describing Vortis as "It is many light Earth... many light years from Earth". On the plus side though, the Menoptra movement is nicely stylised and insect like and their pronunciation of the regulars' name was a nice touch (Doctror, Arbera, Heron, and Vricki), while the Zarbi forelegs are animated rather than simply being left lifeless. Actor visibility was hugely impaired however and on one occasion one of them charges head first into a camera! On the other hand, there are several moments when they are required to remove a control yolk from either Vicki or the Doctor (or indeed put one in place) and the procedure is carried out rather sublimely given the circumstances - they have to use their mandibles after all!

The Zarbi are a pretty dumb species but are being controlled by the Animus. The Menoptra describe them as being cattle like and as such they don't have any real speech, they just chip in an excessively electronic manner. It is this fact that leads many scenes to feel quite open and slow if not annoying but for me, it wasn't until the fifth episode that things took a momentary dip into the dull during a wordy exposition scene with Barbara and the Menoptra which actually added to the confusion rather than clearing it up. This is perhaps a symptom of an insufficient script from writer Bill Strutton which Dennis Spooner and Richard Martin had to expand on, leading to the addition of a whole other species to split Ian into his own strand which also allowed Barbara to be excluded from episode three while Jacqueline Hill was on holiday. One definite symptom was irregular episode lengths. For my own curiosity, I have been tracking episode lengths without titles credits and recaps (with the ultimate intention of comparing each Doctor's story time without being affected by the 45 minute episode lengths of Colin Baker and the modern era) and while fluctuation is normal most of The Web Planet is below average including one of the shortest episodes to date, and the final episode practically finishes 7 minutes short and is padded out after the TARDIS leaves with a long epilogue that effectively repeats itself as well as the departure scene in stating that everything is going back to normal and everyone can live together nicely like they used to. In contrast however, episode 4 is longer than average and features no reprise at all from the previous episode.

The extra species that Spooner and Martin introduced are the Optera, a kind of larval stage of the Menoptra who have been living underground... They tend to be a major target of criticism because they are kind of cute and move like kids in a sack race whilst their speech is gruff with a limited vocabulary. Given the fact that they were created very late without much time or money they work quite well but you do need to see past the foam, felt and hopping and appreciate the sacrifice of little Nemini (whilst also bearing in mind that actress Barbara Joss stood bent over and fixed in her dead pose for over a minute without so much as a twitch). Similarly the Larvi Guns (or Venom Grubs as some people refer to them) are like woodlice but their dangling legs are just a hint from the props department at how we should imagine them moving. They're kind of cute too and on a few occasions it is clear that they are played by men on their hands an knees, though earlier appearances had them gliding on trolleys. There is a nice moment though when one of them is picked up and squashed against the wall! The lighting and camera angle work together to hide the fact that it is being lifted off the back of a performer who then had to scramble off set, then a sound effect completed the splat effect.

Yes, The Web Planet has its problems and some of them are self inflicted but everyone plays it with nothing short of conviction and it is perhaps best viewed with an understanding of the troubled conditions under which it was made (limited time, money and script) more than most other serials. It was adventurous and experimental, everything that Doctor Who always tried to be, but perhaps this time it wasn't entirely successful. For all it's failing though there is plenty to be impressed by and over all I scored it a slightly below average (compared with previous scores) 72%

Oddly, again due to scripting issues, there is no TARDIS scene at the end. This is why the final epilogue is so long, and perhaps the serial's final mistake. It gives the planet Vortis a nice finish that other stories have not allowed for but the viewer feels like they have been left behind as the Doctor runs off for his next adventure without us...