It’s crazy to look back now & think how little Doctor Who there used to be. When I was growing up & becoming a “Proper Fan”, there were 5 complete stories from the Patrick Troughton era that you could own or watch in full. Before I could fully appreciate that fact, it rose to 6 when Tomb of the Cybermen was returned. The Dalek & Cybermen Early Years tapes, along with The Troughton Years, filled in some gaps, but for the longest time if you wanted to go watch a 2nd Doctor story, you were looking at Season 6.
Of course, that number has shrunk over the years, mostly thanks to animations. Some stories have just needed a gap plugged here & there, others have needed all their episodes animating, but as things stand – with The Underwater Menace just around the corner – there are now just 3 stories that need animating before we are able to go and put every 2nd Doctor story on our shelves1. That’s an astonishing thing to write, and would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.
Of course, not every story needs animating. Thanks to the hard work of certain individuals2 we have the actual episodes themselves returned to us to view intact. We’ve all been swept up in rumours and omnirumours, and dared to believe, but we can also all remember the excitement of 2013 when not one but TWO missing Season 5 stories were returned to us. Out of the two, Web of Fear got the best reception, well known as it was as an overriding classic, while Enemy of the World fared a little worse. There was an episode of this still in the vaults, after all, and it wasn’t great, so obviously the whole story was pants too. Not for the first time, Doctor Who fans have been shown to talk out of their arses: Enemy was hailed as a masterpiece, whereas Web was, well… Web was Web. It was already thought of as a classic; it couldn’t be better thought of. In fact, for some people, the only way was down now they could see it properly.
But, of course, Web of Fear IS an overriding classic. It’s a triumph of direction, design & plotting.
Season 5 is the Base Under Siege, Monster of the Week Season. Except, of course, when it’s not – no monsters, bases or sieges to be seen in Enemy of the World; there’s a base but little siege in The Ice Warriors, lots of siege but no real monster in Fury From the Deep… I actually find in an inaccurate – if not lazy – description of this season.
No such complaint here. We have a base, and it’s totally under siege by a formidable enemy, the Yeti. Bringing successful monsters back is a real strength of the 2nd Doctor’s era, with the Cybermen & the Ice Warriors also being beneficiaries of this “smell what sells” method of production. As soon as the Abominable Snowmen went down well, Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln were drafted in to write another story for them; however, they didn’t do anything obvious & bring them back in the same setting. Instead, they moved them to the more familiar setting of contemporary London, and instantly a meme was born3. They also move the story forward a couple of decades, giving Jack Watling the opportunity to give us a different, older Professor Travers – plus daughter. Putting the grumpy old scientist together with the younger, female scientist & getting them to help the military stop an alien invasion… Well, it’s Season 7 in prototype right here. In another universe there’s a version of Doctor Who where Anne Travers is the companion to the Third Doctor, and while that would be fine in most circumstances, I wouldn’t swap her for Liz Shaw at all.
Haisman & Lincoln plot this story to perfection as well. Part One sets up the scenario & builds the atmosphere; Part Two builds on this in the absence; Part Three introduces a major new character to give the story a shot in the arm; Part Four is all action adventure battle scenes; Part 5 takes place in real time as we race to outsmart the Intelligence; then Part Six brings it all together. All throughout we have the running mystery of “Who is working for The Intelligence?”, with the suspects shifting like sand until it’s finally revealed. The pacing and plotting is just superb, and it’s such a shame that Haisman, Lincoln & script editor Derrick Sherwin couldn’t repeat the feat the following Season.
Douglas Camfield’s direction of this story is downright magnificent. Not only does he excel when it comes to the action sequences – that Covent Garden battle/massacre is second to none – but he also finds the quieter moments to build the atmosphere. He’s gifted an astounding set by the design department – which is lit fantastically – and gets help from the stock music used as the soundtrack, but his use of angles, shadows and the way he frames some of his shots makes you realise why he’s so highly thought of.
Of course, we can’t talk this story without mentioning Colonel (soon to be Brigadier) Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. It’s not until the Pertwee Era that The Brig comes into his own, but Nick Courtney has the part down here. Bringing a new character in at parts 3 or 4 of your six part story is a great way of dealing with any pacing issues, and Courtney really is given a great part, but he totally sells it: the Brig-to-be’s total command as soon as he walks into the situation, followed by his quiet despair at the loss of his men, is all elevated by Courtney’s delivery. It’s easy to see why both character & actor became firm favourites that endured for decades.
We also need to have a quick word about the animation for Episode 3. Allegedly4 all 6 parts of this story were recovered, but Episode 3 remains missing, having found its way into the hands of a private collector. And so it was finally released in full a few years back, with the missing episode animated by a new method using motion capture. It was roundly panned. In my opinion it could have been better, but then if they were to make more that way then I’m sure it will be – it seems like a technique that’s open to refinement. It also seems more cost effective for when it comes to stories that will need more scenery, characters, that sort of thing. I got used to it after a while, and if it comes down to having, say, Marco Polo animated this way or not at all, then I’d prefer it animated Web stylee.
When it came back then, The Web of Fear proved itself to be every inch the classic we thought it was. It’s drak, atmospheric, perfectly paced, dynamically directed and wonderfully written. If you can make every Base-Under-Siege story as good as this, then why not pack a season out with stories like it?
COMING SOON: “NO!!! Not the MIND PROBE….!!!!”
Skies Full of Diamonds 