“The Web Planet” is an adventure of the second season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1965. It follows “The Romans” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Bill Strutton and directed by Richard Martin. At that time the various episodes of each adventure had individual titles, in this case:
- The Web Planet
- The Zarbi
- Escape to Danger
- Crater of Needles
- Invasion
- The Centre
The story
An unknown force takes the Tardis off course making it materialize on the planet Vortis. The First Doctor (William Hartnell) and Ian (William Russell) explore the area to find out who or what brought them to that planet. Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) has to help Vicki (Maureen O’Brien), who seems disoriented, but is influenced by something that makes her move against her will.
Soon, the travelers will discover that the planet was taken over by the Zarbi, a species of insectoids that look like ants controlled by an evil intelligence called Animus. The Menoptra, another species of insectoids that look like butterflies, want to take back what was their planet.
Extras
This DVD contains a limited amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track moderated by Gary Russell by protagonist William Russell, producer Verity Lambert, director Richard Martin and actor Martin Jarvis.
Tales of Aesop. Cast and crew remember the production of this adventure.
The Lair of the Supreme Zarb. William Russell reads this story published in the first “Doctor Who Annual” where the Doctor returns to Vortis.
The Doctor Who Annual. The first in a series of Doctor Who annuals published in the ’60s and ’70s in PDF version.
Spanish Soundtrack. The option to see the last episode of this adventure with Spanish audio.
Give-A-Show slides. The reproduction of a series of slides that formed an cartoon adventure of “Doctor Who” based on “The Web Planet”.
“The Web Planet” is one of the most infamous “Doctor Who” adventures because it’s extraordinarily ambitious for the ’60s, too much for the resources available for the production and the results are often ridiculed by those who watch it.
The great challenge in “The Web Planet” production was to set it on a planet inhabited by insectoid creatures and was the first “Doctor Who” story to have no humanoid characters except for the protagonists. Obviously, this required the creation of costumes for all the insectoids and this created considerable problems. The budget available didn’t allow very sophisticated solutions and the results left much to be desired in particular concerning the Zarbi constumes.
While the actors playing the Menoptra essentially had the problem of being careful with their wings, those who played the Zarbi had to work in a costume that was uncomfortable, bending over all the time and with a limited ability to see around them.
The Zarbi eventually appeared as clumsy creatures with legs that were totally useless because they were actually appendages hanging from the body of the costume. Due to the actors viewing problems there was one of the embarrassing moments of “The Web Planet” when one of them collided with a camera during the shooting because he couldn’t see it. At the time, they tried to avoid shooting a scene again as much as possible so that moment became part of the adventure.
The need to create many costumes and also the sets for an environment that seemed alien led the production to go over-budget. In such a situation it was inevitable that an adventure was produced as long as possible but six parts are really a lot and “The Web Planet” is often very slow paced even by the ’60s standards. Unfortunately, after a first episode in which the audience are initially intrigued by a planet that looks alien and the initial mysterious events they end up getting bored in the later episodes.
Basically, “The Web Planet” is the story of the Normandy landings brought on an alien planet during a war between insectoid species. At the time however it was impossible in “Doctor Who” to produce a true alien war story so eventually only a few limited fights between the insectoid were created. The rest of the adventure is made up of the protagonists vicissitudes after they’re separated: the Doctor and Vicki remain together while Ian and Barbara must face the dangers of the planet each on their own.
The part where Ian is in Vortis’s underground trying to reach Animus base helped by the Optera, another species descended from the Menoptra, is virtually a copy of the parallel part of “The Daleks” in which Ian and a group of Thals are trying to reach the Daleks city through the caves of Skara.
The screenplay for “The Web Planet” was certainly not improved by the need to exclude Barbara from the third episode because actress Jacqueline Hill was on vacation, even less because of the many changes made at the last minute for various reasons.
“The Web Planet” had the highest audience of all the adventures of the ’60s but even then many people were puzzled watching some very unconvincing costumes and this adventure’s bad reputation increased over the years. It’s all too easy to bash it but it was an interesting experiment which however wasn’t supported by sufficient resources. In the early years of “Doctor Who” they tried various new ideas but inevitably some of them turned out bad. If this story was produced today for the new series adapted to one episode only to be produced with today’s production values it might be interesting.
Curiously, a few years ago Big Finish produced the audio adventure “Return to the Web Planet”, a sequel featuring the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and Nyssa, available on Amazon UK
Considering that the extras on the DVD are far from extraordinary, this is definitely a purchase I recommend only to those who want to have the complete “Doctor Who” collection.
