The Web Planet

The Web Planet is the fifth serial of the second season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 13 February 1965 to 20 March 1965. The serial involves the time traveller the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companions Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) allying themselves with the former inhabitants of the planet Vortis, the Menoptra, as they struggle to win back Vortis from the malignant Animus.

013 – The Web Planet
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor and Vicki are captured in a web by the Animus.
Cast
Others
  • Catherine Fleming – Animus voice
  • Roslyn de Winter – Vrestin
  • Arne Gordon – Hrostar
  • Arthur Blake – Hrhoonda
  • Jolyon Booth – Prapillus
  • Jocelyn Birdsall – Hlynia
  • Martin Jarvis – Hilio
  • Ian Thompson – Hetra
  • Barbara Joss – Nemini
  • Robert Jewell, Jack Pitt, Gerald Taylor, Hugh Lund, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin – The Zarbi
Production
Directed byRichard Martin
Written byBill Strutton
Script editorDennis Spooner
Produced byVerity Lambert
Executive producer(s)None
Incidental music composerStock music by Les Structures Sonores
Production codeN[1]
SeriesSeason 2
Running time6 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast13 February 1965 (1965-02-13)
Last broadcast20 March 1965 (1965-03-20)
Chronology
← Preceded by
The Romans		 Followed by →
The Crusade

Plot

The TARDIS is forced to land on a planet which the First Doctor recognises as Vortis, but he is puzzled by the presence of several moons around the normally moonless planet.

A force acting through Barbara's gold bracelet draws her outside, leaving Vicki alone. The TARDIS is then pulled by an unseen force across the planet surface.

A Menoptra, on display at the Doctor Who Experience.

Barbara is drawn into a trio of the butterfly-like Menoptra who free her of the trance by removing the bracelet. She escapes but is captured by the ant-like Zarbi who use her to find the Menoptra. The Zarbi take Barbara and Hrostar, a Menoptra, to the Crater of Needles to drop vegetation into acid rivers which feed the Animus.

The Zarbi take the Doctor and Ian to the Carsinome where they find Vicki and the TARDIS. The Animus forces the Doctor to help track down the Menoptra invasion force. Ian escapes and meets a Menoptra called Vrestin. He learns the Menoptra and the Zarbi are native to the planet. The Animus took control of the planet and the Menoptra fled to one of the moons that the Animus had pulled into orbit.

The Doctor accidentally reveals the Menoptra spearhead plan to land near the Crater of Needles, giving The Animus the opportunity to ambush them.

Ian and Vrestin meet the Optera, descendants of the Menoptra who fled underground, and convince them to fight the Animus.

At the Crater of Needles, Barbara and Hrostar fail in their attempt to warn the Menoptra and the spearhead is massacred.

The Doctor deduces that the Animus uses gold to channel its mesmerising force and counteracts it to control a Zarbi and escape with Vicki. They meet Barbara and the Menoptra and devise a plan to attack the Carsinome.

The Doctor and Vicki are taken by the Zarbi to the Animus, a great spider-like creature. Barbara and the Menoptra attack the Carsinome from outside while Ian, Vrestin and the Optera reach the Animus from below. They defeat the Animus with a bomb.

Production

The story had the working title of The Webbed Planet. Episode six was initially titled "Centre of Terror". The novelisation restores this title for the sixth chapter.

Jacqueline Hill was written out of "Escape to Danger" in order to give her a week's holiday and was uncredited on-screen, though she was still credited in Radio Times. She requested that her credit be reinstated when the story was made available for overseas sales, but this was not acted upon.[2]

Daphne Dare created the unique costumes for the varied alien species.[3]

The music was by the French group Le Structure Sonore; it was not commissioned specifically for this serial.[4]

Cast notes

Noted choreographer Roslyn de Winter was hired to create the distinctive movements and stilted speech of the Menoptra. She was so successful that the production team asked her to take on the role of the Menoptra Vrestin (which she accepted). A special credit for de Winter, "Insect Movement by..." was included on the closing credits of "The Zarbi" to "The Centre".

This serial marked the television debut of Martin Jarvis.[5] He later appeared as Butler in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)[6] and as the Governor of Varos in Vengeance on Varos (1985).[7]

Broadcast and reception
EpisodeTitleRun timeOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions) [8]		Archive [9]
1"The Web Planet"23:5713 February 1965 (1965-02-13)13.516mm t/r
2"The Zarbi"23:2020 February 1965 (1965-02-20)12.516mm t/r
3"Escape to Danger"22:5227 February 1965 (1965-02-27)12.516mm t/r
4"Crater of Needles"25:506 March 1965 (1965-03-06)13.016mm t/r
5"Invasion"26:0413 March 1965 (1965-03-13)12.016mm t/r
6"The Centre"24:2820 March 1965 (1965-03-20)11.516mm t/r

The first episode of the serial was watched by 13.5 million viewers, the highest number for any Doctor Who episode in the 1960s.

The serial was believed lost in the BBC's early 1970s purge until negative film prints of all six episodes were recovered from BBC Enterprises in the late 1970s. Unedited prints of all six episodes were also discovered in Nigeria in 1984. The BBC holds two different versions of episode six; one in which the "Next Episode" caption referred to "The Lion" and the other with the caption naming "The Space Museum", which was the only story still available for sale by the BBC in 1974. (The different caption is not due to The Crusade being withheld from sale to Arab countries as is commonly thought, since the package of serials sold to Arabic countries did not extend beyond The Rescue.)[10]

In 2008, Mark Braxton of Radio Times acknowledged the effort put into the costumes and "superbly atmospheric" sets, despite the fact they did not hold up well. He felt that the story had an "almost total absence of excitement" and might not even work as a four-parter, but it did have ambition and a deeper meaning about good versus evil.[11] Neela Debnath of The Independent stated that The Web Planet was "enjoyable" with ambitious writing that "lacks impact given the poor quality of the visuals".[12] Den of Geek named The Web Planet as one of the ten most underrated classic Doctor Who serials, noting that it "is a joy for being so different" even if "the ambition might outstrip the execution".[13] Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping said the story was "Imaginative, ambitious, and, by modern standards, slow and silly looking. It's hard to judge a story that, at the time, was astonishing but has aged so badly." They nevertheless said "You've got to appreciate lofty ambitions."[14]

Commercial Releases

In print
Doctor Who and the Zarbi
Cover of the Target Books reprint
AuthorBill Strutton
Cover artistJohn Woods (original publication)
Chris Achilleos (Target reprint)
SeriesDoctor Who novelisations
Release number
73
PublisherFrederick Muller Ltd (original publication)
Target Books(reprint)
Publication date
16 September 1965(original publication)
2 May 1973 (Target reprint)
ISBN0-426-10129-4

The serial was the second to be novelised by the publisher Frederick Muller. It was written by Bill Strutton under the title Doctor Who and the Zarbi on 16 September 1965. In 1973 Target Books acquired the rights to the novelisation and reprinted it as one of the first in their long-running series of Doctor Who novelisations, although when the imprint began numbering the books in the series, The Zarbi was listed as Number 73 in the series. A Dutch translation was published in the Netherlands in 1974, and a Portuguese one in 1983.

In 2005 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as part of the Doctor Who: Travels in Time and Space audio book collectors' tin, read by William Russell.

Home media

The Web Planet was released on a double VHS in 1990. In North America it was released as a single VHS. It was released on DVD on 3 October 2005 in the United Kingdom (Region 2), 3 November 2005 in Region 4, and 5 September 2006 in Region 1.

References
  1. Bentham, Jeremy (1986). Doctor Who: The Early Years. London: W. H. Allen. p. 221. ISBN 0-491-03612-4.
  2. Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook – The First Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 92. ISBN 0-426-20430-1.
  3. "The Web Planet ★★★". Radio Times.
  4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3vlLQ6HZNtdM1bhfF595Wqs/the-fourth-dimension
  5. "BBC - Drama - Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing - Martin Jarvis as Leonard". www.bbc.co.uk.
  6. "BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Details". www.bbc.co.uk.
  7. "BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - Vengeance on Varos - Details". www.bbc.co.uk.
  8. "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  9. Shaun Lyon; et al. (31 March 2007). "The Web Planet". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  10. Molesworth, Richard (2010). Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes. Telos Publishing Ltd. pp. 316, 419. ISBN 978-1-84583-037-3.
  11. Braxton, Mark (21 December 2008). "Doctor Who: The Web Planet". Radio Times. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  12. Debnath, Neela (28 February 2012). "Review of Doctor Who 'The Web Planet' (Series 2)". The Independent. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  13. "Ten Under-rated Classic Doctor Who Stories". Den of Geek. 6 July 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  14. "BBC – Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide – The Web Planet – Details". www.bbc.co.uk.

Reviews

Target novelisation
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