You may remember the big fuss a couple of years ago when the BBC
announced that they had recovered all the lost episodes of “Enemy of the World”
and all bar one of “The Web of Fear” Now, as you know if you’ve been with me
for any great length of time, I loved
the Target novelization of “The Abominable Snowmen” when I read it in about
1975. I really looked forward to reading “The Web of Fear” when it was
published, and then, as often happens when you build up to a sequel, I wasn’t
quite so taken with it when it first came out. Still, let’s be positive.
Looking at the ingredients for “Web of Fear”– Patrick Troughton – Fraser Hines
– Yetis – London Underground – First appearance of the Brigadier (only a
colonel in this one) – they’re enough to give me the confidence that this
should be a pretty positive experience, especially bearing in mind how much I
enjoyed Haisman and Lincoln’s “The Abominable Snowmen” which was mostly recon.
After Watching
My opinion? Well, despite the generally extremely positive fan
response to this story when it first went online, and the DVD first came out, I
found it to be a bit of a curate’s egg if I’m totally honest. As I watched I
found myself thinking that this story has got some great positives, but also
some flaws. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
Flaws
For one thing it’s a 6 parter, one of which doesn’t exist. The BBC
telesnaps reconstruction is perfectly functional, but it’s not great,
especially considering that on some of the Troughton DVDs – “The Moonbase”, “The
Ice Warriors” and “The Invasion”, for example, they have actually used
animation to go with the audio of the missing episodes. Animation of the kind
that was used in “The Moonbase” or “The Ice Warriors” would have certainly been
an improvement on what they’ve given us. This was a bit disappointing. While
we’re on the subject, there were no extra features on my DVD which was a huge
disappointment. It smacks of rush releasing the thing. I think that this calls
for a small digression. You can get Doctor Who stories in two places on DVD.
There are the DVDs which came with the Doctor Who DVD Files Magazines – and
what you get in these are what you pay for – the episodes themselves with no
special features. Then there’s the official BBC DVDs, which in my experience
are often excellent in terms of the special features and bonuses that you get.
For example, at the same time as I bought this one, I also bought the Legacy
Collection, which is actually the current Shada DVD, and the amount of bonuses
you get in that one gives you real value for money, which “The Web of Fear”
doesn’t. Still, I digress, and back to “The Web of Fear”.
I’ll be honest, it was all getting a bit samey too. I mean there is
some amazing set design work which has gone on for this serial. None of it was
shot on the London Underground, and yet it looks so like it that London
Underground famously wrote to the BBC complaining about unauthorized filming in
their tunnels and stations. But, I was getting so sick of tunnels and stations
that it came as a real relief when the soldiers had to face a yeti attack above
ground. Being more positive, this actually came at exactly the right time in
the story to break it up a little.
The yeti themselves sadly didn’t quite live up to the yeti I created
in my imagination when I read the books. When you’re a die-hard fan of classic
Doctor Who you should be pretty good at silencing the inner voice which cackles
‘man in a suit – man in a suit!’ every time you see an alien, but I sometimes
found it difficult in this one. I’m not convinced that the yeti redesign for
this story, headlamp eyes and all, is really an improvement on what we saw in
“The Abominable Snowmen”.
The ‘comedy Welsh’ soldier played by Derek Pyott really got up my
nose at one point, and I almost found myself hoping that Lethbridge Stewart
would take out his pistol and shoot the cowardly git for insubordination.
- and yet –
The story aims for an atmosphere of claustrophobia, and boy, does it
get one, which is a real departure from what we saw in “The Abominable
Snowmen”. I liked the basic premise at the start of the story – that Professor
Travers brought a yeti back to England after his adventures in “The Abominable
Snowmen”. Years later he was forced by financial circumstances to sell it to a
private museum. He tries to buy it back, but the current owner (and I’m sorry
to play the racism card again here, but he is a rather insulting Jewish
caricature) refuses. Well, needless to say, the yeti becomes reactivated and
causes mayhem, and this is the start of the Great Intelligence’s next attempt
to gain corporeal form and take over the world nyaah haaa haaa.
There’s nothing original about my next point, but it is one which
should be stressed every time that anyone writes seriously about this story.
Speaking as a lifelong lover of the London Underground railway, these sets are
extremely convincing. In fact parts of some of the stations which are overdue
for a makeover still look like this. We’ve seen how contemporary London serves
as a wonderful backdrop to both “The Dalek Invasion of earth” and “The War
Machines” and this is a very new twist on that idea. Because of the setting,
there is an ongoing contrast between the gloomy murk of the tunnels and the
harsh artificial lighting of the station areas, and this only adds to the
atmosphere.
I remember the late Michael Winner being interviewed by Barry Norman
about his film “Death Wish 2” once, and he said words to the effect of – Well,
it’s a sequel, Barry, and we all know about sequels. In Rocky 2, Rocky didn’t
go off and become a missionary, so in
Death Wish 2 it’s ugly old Charlie Bronson shooting up the muggers again.- All
of which is a very entertaining way of making the point that sequels very often
retell the same story as the original, sort of like the law of diminishing
returns. Actually, in subtle yet important ways, “The Web of Fear” does not
tell the same story as “The Abominable Snowmen”. In this one the identity of
the traitor under the control of the great Intelligence is not made clear until
very late on, after several red herrings – one of whom is the Colonel/Brigadier
himself – are presented to us. For another thing, this time The Great
Intelligence is now after the Doctor’s body. I bet he says that to all of the
Time Lords. The Doctor is really up for a mental battle with it as well, and it
takes Jamie to pull him away from the machinery. Would he have defeated the
Great Intelligence? We won’t know.
I’m sure I read rumours that plans were afoot for Haisman and
Lincoln to write a third yeti story with a final showdown between the Doctor
and the Great Intelligence – (we’d have to wait for Matt Smith for this final
showdown to happen). I don’t know how much truth there is in that. I know that
there next, and last, story for Doctor Who was “The Dominators” which we’ll be
reviewing in a couple of weeks, since it’s the first story of season 6.
What
have we learned?
Let
sleeping yetis lie.
That
Lethbridge-Stewart chap is a useful character. We could use him again , you
know.
Has
the Doctor had his last encounter with the Great Intelligence? Not yeti.
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