The Web of Fear

Thank you Doctor for being so cooperative.

The Web of Fear is the sequel to The Abominable Snowmen as is possibly one of the best "base under siege" stories of the Second Doctor era.

This story was lost for a long time and then recently found again along with The Enemy of the World. Episode two is still missing unfortunately but that the majority of it is still there is very nice.

In the story, the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria land in the London Underground in the early 1970's. London has been evacuated due to a mysterious mist covering parts of the city while pockets of the British Army are fighting mechanical Yeti who are spreading a web-like substance through the tunnels. While there, the Doctor meets Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and uses the experiences of his men with the Yeti to battle the Great Intelligence. Things are complicated as the Doctor soon discovers that someone in their party has been taken over by the Great Intelligence and is working against them. Eventually the Doctor gains control of one of the Yeti and is planning to trick the Great Intelligence into destroying itself but Jamie and the rest of the party get in the way. The Great Intelligence is defeated, but it escapes from the Doctor's plan to destroy it entirely.

Most "base under siege" stories have the outside threat which occasionally makes forays against the Doctor and his party to build tension. This one has that as well, but it also makes excellent use of the "traitor among us" theme to add an extra level of fear. The dark enclosed atmosphere of the Underground tunnels and the base add to the feeling of claustrophobia that pervades the story. That the Doctor keeps his companions (and by extension the audience) in the dark of his plan also keeps everyone on edge as they wait to see what is going to happen.

Probably one of the best things to come out of the story being discovered is the full realization of the battle in Episode Four. For about half the episode, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart takes nearly the entire squad from the base up to ground level to fight against the Yeti. They fight well, but are overwhelmed. It is one of the best close quarters battle scenes I've seen. It is shot better than many urban battle sequences in WWII movies in my opinion. It is intense and you feel for these troops who you have come to like be taken down by the Yeti robots all while also feeling them close in on the survivors. The story was shot by Douglas Camfield and his excellent direction comes to the forefront in this battle sequence.

Now there are a few small flaws with this story, although two of those are not the story's fault. The biggest problem I have that there was some control over was the fact that the Doctor is not in episode two. Patrick Troughton was on holiday for that week so the Doctor disappears from the story. In the First Doctor era, this wasn't as big a deal as Ian, and later Steven then Ben, could be counted on to drive the story without him. But when the Second Doctor was absent, Jamie and the other companion were not of the same caliber so the story would slow with placeholder information. In this case, we see sporadic fighting and the introduction of several characters, but nothing that couldn't have been compressed within other episodes if the Doctor had not been absent.

That was the only real flaw that was part of the story itself. The second nit to pick is just the fact that Episode Two is still missing. It's an annoying interruption, made worse by the fact that the Doctor isn't there so moving pictures might have helped keep the flow of the story going. Also, Episode Two is where Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is introduced in this episode and it just feels wrong that such a major character's first appearance is only in still form. That's no one's fault, but it is still aggravating

The colonel also is the basis of my third and final nit. I mentioned earlier that there is a "traitor among us" element to this story in the middle stages. Throughout the story, three characters are thrust prominently forward as being the candidate for the traitor. The first is the reporter Chorley. He's a bit of a jerk and you want it to be him, but he legs it about halfway through and gets dropped as a candidate. Driver Evans is also put forward as he is something of a coward and wants nothing to do with the fighting. He is played with a slight over-the-topness to make you think it's him in the classic red herring style. Kids would have keyed on that, but anyone familiar with this style would have easily seen this as a misdirection. That leaves Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and there is a lot of subtle suspicion placed on him. The viewer is clearly meant to suspect him from the start and then get gobsmacked by the true reveal at the end. Of course, anyone who knows anything about Doctor Who knows about how Lethbridge-Stewart will be promoted to the head of UNIT and become a great friend of the Doctor. It's an unfortunate side effect of knowing the future that undercuts both good direction and good acting in this story. That's obviously not the story's fault, it's just a fault of future developments.

All in all, this is a very good story and I'd happily watch it again. The lack of Episode Two and the absence of the Doctor drags it down from ideal, but still something that's quite watchable a few times around.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5