A Bluffer’s Guide to Doctor Who: The Web Planet
Saving the Menoptra is the ant-hill to die on
Describe The Web Planet in six words:
Alien surrealism mapped onto traditional yarn
This is… the one with giant ants.
Episodes: 58–63 out of 862
First broadcast: 13 February — 20 March, 1965
What Happens:
The TARDIS is drawn off-course to Vortis. There, the time-travellers encounter several strange alien creatures, either subjugated by, or rebelling against the Animus.
The time-travellers make independent journeys to the Animus with the aid of various creatures and destroy it.
Why was this made?:
Writer Bill Strutton met with Producer Verity Lambert to discuss monsters that could rival — but be distinct from — the very successful Daleks. Strutton suggested giant ants and Lambert and outgoing Story Editor David Whitaker liked the concept. The scripts were written and edited by then-current Story Editor Dennis Spooner.
Director Richard Martin, who had previously directed Dalek stories (The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth) returned to direct the Zarbi. As part of his desire to create an alien environment, he hired dancers as various aliens and smudged Vaseline over camera lenses. It wasn’t a smooth production for Martin, with recording days overrunning, various problems with Zarbi costumes and technical disasters.
The Zarbi have not yet returned.
Observations / Things to Say:
- The TARDIS being dragged down. Not the traditional malfunction but an attack. Ep 1 mostly dedicated to this.
- Ep 1: The fifth occasion of an episode with no speaking parts for anyone apart from the main cast (The others being “An Unearthly Child”, “The Dead Planet” and both episodes of “The Edge of Destruction”.)
- Atmospheric Density Jacket: I’d love to see these make a return.
- Vicki complaining about taking a Certificate of Medicine and a Certificate of Physics at the age of 10 reminds me of our students.
- Nice to see Barbara and Vicki talk about their lives, and their recent trip to Rome (even if Vicki doesn’t believe Barbara). It shows that adventures matter. Same later on in the story, where Ian pauses by the corpse of Nemini the Optera, taking in her death.
- Vortis is very strange and alien. Quite a frightening planet. Zarbi are also kept to a minimum in Ep 1. There’s a shot of a Zarbi, pan quickly to a Venom Grub, then quick pan to the TARDIS: a police box on an alien world. The entire thing is confronting the audience with the surreal.
- The Doctor knows about Vortis. First instance, I think, of the Doctor knowing information that isn’t Earth-based, rather than working it out.
- Females! Not just an all-male species. Obviously, Who had female Thals to counter the all-male Sensorites. But it will lose this when species gets replaced by “monsters”. Note that this is why the Zarbi don’t work as the new Daleks: They’re not evil. They’re cattle. Like how the Ood have to always be possessed to be evil, the Zarbi don’t offer themselves up as genuine replacements in their audition (if you think the Zarbi are meant to be the new Daleks)
- Go Barbara! Doctor hesitant to give Menoptra his ring until Barbara thinks it’s a good idea.
- Barbara kills the Animus, after seeing Ian. The implication that this inspires her? The time-travellers have never had to work so hard to win before. Story has momentum because they are heading towards a destination (first, the Crater of Needles, then the Centre). I really wish there was music playing during the battle scenes and the climax.
- The Animus: quite a Lovecraftian monster but also really interesting in the way it isn’t. In terms of how it impacts Vortis, it’s almost a tumour.
Between You and Me:
While hard to love, I will defend The Web Planet. It gets mistaken as trying to do convincing bug monsters, as if it was a B-movie horror about GIANT INSECTS! But it really isn’t that.
Everything from smudging Vaseline onto the camera lens, to the soundscape, to having no human characters except the TARDIS team, all works to create something unlike anything else on television. Is the end result enjoyable? Kinda. Is it the best Doctor Who can offer? No. But was it worth doing? Yeah, it was. For the show not to do this would be it to retreat from interesting ideas.
And look, if you’re going to dismiss this story because of budget and special effects, then you need to acknowledge that one of Doctor Who’s greatest strengths is how it heads towards interesting ideas.
Recommended / Further Reading: