The Web of Fear

Dear Gary—

The Web of Fear (or Return of the Muppet Yeti) is such a well written story that it is only afterwards in trying to recall it that I realize nothing in it really makes sense. Of course, this can be said of many Doctor Who stories, but this one in particular leaves me scratching my head wondering what this web was that the Yeti sprayed everywhere and that caused such fear; and what did the web have to do with the relentless fungus that was spreading throughout London and in particular the underground; and what is with the fog following in the fungus’ wake that swallows people; and how did one reactivated 30 year old sphere multiply into an army of Yeti; and how does any of this really aid the Great Intelligence who just after all wants the Doctor’s mind and could easily accomplish that by simply kidnapping Victoria and/or Jamie without this elaborate mishmash of a plot?

But this elaborate mishmash of a plot is the whole point, isn’t it? If the ultimate denouement doesn’t quite tie all the elements together, who really cares? As long as it is entertaining, well written, and ably acted?

I wish I had seen this story back in the 80’s when I was in Washington and we were running around the Crystal City metro stop playing out our Doctor Who scenario. Doctor Who naturally seems to lend itself to the underground.

Earth also seems to lend itself to Doctor Who. “Funny, isn’t it?” “What?” “How we keep landing on your Earth.”

The Web of Fear takes place some 30 years after The Abominable Snowmen (at least by all written accounts that I can find; although I swear that Professor Travers says that it was over 40 years ago—either the reconstruction audio is faulty, my ears are faulty, Travers’ memory is faulty, or the written accounts are faulty). Professor Travers from that story returns, 30 years older, and with a daughter Anne. We also get the return of Nicholas Courtney who had played Bret Vyon back in The Daleks’ Master Plan of the Hartnell era. Here he makes his first appearance as Lethbridge-Stewart, except he is a Colonel in this story and not yet a Brigadier and no mention is made of UNIT.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria are in the TARDIS when something seems to be amiss. “Can’t control it? We’ll see about that,” the Doctor huffs in a rather familiar TARDIS refrain. After being suspended in space as a mysterious web engulfs it, the TARDIS lands in the London underground where our Yeti/web/fungus/fog/Great Intelligence adventure begins. We again get the one-two-three heads peaking around a corner, which seems to be something of a Doctor-Jamie-Victoria trademark, before the adventure really takes off.

The adventure of The Web of Fear takes place mostly in the London underground as the Yeti, our three travelers, the military, and Travers and his daughter run about in various groups, tangling with Yeti, getting webbed, being threatened by advancing fungus, working out ways to reprogram Yeti spheres, trying to explode things, and regrouping at HQ. (The London underground is much darker than the Crystal City metro stop.)

All the while they try to figure out who amongst them is working for the Great Intelligence. I have to admit, Gary, that throughout I suspected Anne Travers, and I was rather disappointed to learn that it was really Staff-Sergeant Arnold. That is another loose end that needed more explanation. Was he the traitor all along or only after he entered the fungus? And if he was the traitor all along, was it of his own free will or was he being controlled? If of his own free will—why? If he was being controlled, why wasn’t he acting robotic as Travers was when he was controlled?

No, I could much more readily see Anne Travers having had 30 years of stories from her father about the Yeti and the Great Intelligence and the spheres to work out some sort of plot to use this to her own advantage. But this is one Doctor Who story without a human scheming to use the monsters for his or her own end. This story has monsters enough without adding a madman to the mix.

“Let’s get down to some practical soldiering.” Ah, Leftbridge-Stewart.What a refreshing addition he is to Doctor Who. The Doctor flying by the seat of his pants; chaos erupting all around; cast members scattering into various groupings, getting kidnapped, searching for lost members, fighting monsters. “Let’s get down to some practical soldering.” Simple. Direct. Leftbridge-Stewart.

But as always, in the end it is not practical soldiering but the Doctor who winds things up. For all of the Yeti and fungi and fog, it is the Great Intelligence that needs to be defeated. This “formless, shapeless thing floating about in space like a cloud of mist only with a mind.” The Great Intelligence, much like the Elders in The Savages, has studied the Doctor; his reputation precedes him. “Through time and space I have observed you, Doctor. Your mind surpasses that of all other creatures.”

The Great Intelligence wants the Doctor’s intelligence.  It has a contraption for just such a purpose. The thing about contraptions and the Doctor, though—the Doctor can tinker with them. That is exactly what he does, too, with this contraption. Unfortunately he doesn’t let anyone else in on his plan and just when he thinks he is succeeding in wiping the Great Intelligence’s mind, Jamie, Leftbridge-Stewart, and the rest get down to some ‘practical soldiering’ and destroy all the machinery. Great for the immediate threat, but that still leaves the Great Intelligence lurking out there somewhere in space just aching for another Doctor Who serial to come along and resurrect it.

The Web of Fear has all the elements of great story telling thrown together in a grab bag and comes out a winner despite its incomprehensibility.

That is life, Gary, in the Doctor’s time swirl. All the elements are there, swirling about, and most times they come out a winner.