The Web of Fear Episode 2

The one where suspicion falls on our time-travelling heroes...

The Yeti in The Web of Fear are ten times better than their earlier versions in The Abominable Snowmen. Their new, slimmer look makes them more agile, so they're quicker to get to you than their lumbering, waddling Tibetan versions. They're pretty ferocious things too, roaring their way along the dimly lit tunnels, their eyes blazing in the gloom. Their attack on the soldiers is pretty brutal stuff ("Will nothing stop them?"), as they chop people down without mercy, or spray their web guns right in people's faces. Early in the episode we listen to the massacre at Holborn, with soldiers obviously being slaughtered by rampaging Yeti. Then the sound stutters and cuts out... so eerie! When journalist Chorley says "Great stuff!", the withering look on Captain Knight's face says it all.

The presence of the Yeti can mean only one thing, as pointed out by Jamie, who comes over as much more intelligent this week because the Doctor's absent! If there's Yeti, the Great Intelligence must be controlling them, and it's probably the Intelligence which captured the TARDIS in space and brought them there. But what does the Great Intelligence want? Well, revenge, I'll wager! But I'm not sure why its vengeful plan involves the London Underground just yet...

The reunion between Travers, Jamie and Victoria is a lovely moment, with the slow realisation crossing Deborah Watling's face a real joy. It seems The Abominable Snowmen took place 40 years ago, in 1935, which would make The Web of Fear set in 1975 - seven years in the future at this point. Jack Watling was 44 when he played younger Travers, so this older Travers is apparently in his mid-80s! His performance has come down a little since episode 1 and the "old man acting" isn't quite as stylised. The scene where he asks his daughter for help with the welding is really quite sweet.

I'm about to declare my love for two characters in The Web of Fear. First up there's the fiery, no-nonsense Anne Travers, a woman who knows her mind, is pretty sure of other people's, and takes no prisoners. Her dressing-down of poor Harold Chorley - a stereotypical tabloid hack, but played with some sympathy by Jon Rollason - is a scorcher:

CHORLEY: ... Any theories?
ANNE: On what?
CHORLEY: On what the Doctor and these two kids were doing in the tunnel.
ANNE: Mushrooming?
CHORLEY: No, seriously.
ANNE: Ask a silly question.
CHORLEY: Hasn't she [Victoria] told you anything?
ANNE: Nothing that you could print, Mister Chorley.
CHORLEY: Oh, for goodness sake, why is everybody being so evasive? Why won't anybody answer any questions?
ANNE: Perhaps they're afraid you'll interpret them in your own inimitable style.
CHORLEY: And what does that mean, pray?
ANNE: It means you have a reputation for distorting the truth. You take reality and you make it into a comic strip. In short, Mr Chorley, you are a sensationaliser.
CHORLEY: You smug little redbrick university...
ANNE: Don't say it, Mr Chorley. I have a very quick temper and very long claws.
CHORLEY: There's no sense in us losing our temper, Miss Travers. I'm sorry that my journalistic style doesn't appeal to you, but there are millions of people it does.
ANNE: Yes, the gutter press has a very large following.
CHORLEY: Yes, it does. It does indeed. And you'd do very well to remember that, because I intend to print all the facts when we get out of here.

It's sparkling writing from Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, perhaps some of the strongest writing for a female character to appear in Doctor Who to this point. It made me realise that there's been a real surge forward in the representation of what is nowadays referred rather tiresomely as "strong women" in the Troughton era. In the Second Doctor's era so far, we've had Janley, Jean Rock, Samantha Briggs, Kaftan, Miss Garrett, Fariah and Astrid, all characters it'd be hard to place in a William Hartnell story. I do think the positive representation of women regresses and suffers somewhat in the Pertwee era, but for now, the programme is giving us some rattlingly well-written women. I mean, Anne gets Victoria to make her a cup of tea in this episode. Wonderful!

Of course, it's easy for writers to fall into the trap of writing "strong women" as bolshie, unreasonable harridans, when in real life, women are strong and vulnerable, opinionated and generous, ambitious and lacking in confidence (Danaerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones is a case in point, as is Doctor Who's own Donna Noble). But for now, strong women who know their mind and know it in a short skirt will have to do!

The other character for whom I'm claiming undying love is Craftsman Weams, who has such an interesting, handsome face, and is written as a proper, fully-rounded person. All too often, soldiers in Doctor Who are merely cannon fodder, people who are just there to die. But if you're clever enough a writer to humanise your soldiers, when they do die at the claws of a ferocious alien creature, the audience cares so much more (a good example of this in New Who is UNIT's ill-fated Ross Jenkins in The Sontaran Stratagem). Here, Haisman and Lincoln spend a lot of time building up Weams, and his confidante Corporal Blake, so that we might care if they meet a sticky end later on.

Actor Stephen Whittaker has a very sweet, open face, and gives Weams a vulnerability that lets us in. His chat with Blake is a lovely little scene in which we learn that Weams is scared, and why shouldn't he be? Soldiers might be trained for combat, but they're certainly not trained to tackle big hairy alien robots in underground tunnels. I love the little debate between the two about the origin of the menace. Weams says they're from outer space, while Blake is more grounded in thinking they're the robot army of a foreign power, threatening bacteriological warfare with their fungus. In the event, of course, Weams's more fantastical explanation is closer to the truth.

Suspicion begins to fall on the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria, who Anne quite rightly points out always seem to appear when the Yeti do. The obvious link between one and the other is a very natural, human reaction to ponder, and although Anne soon dismisses the thought, Victoria overhears her, and decides to run away and find the only two friends she has in the world. After hearing Anne's assumed betrayal, Victoria must feel very scared and alone without her "boys".

Right at the end we're introduced to yet another new character, the extremely Welsh Driver Evans, who sings when he's scared and has a cheeky way of speaking out of turn. Already the audience loves him because he's silly, and very, very Welsh! At least actor Derek Pollitt was Welsh and wasn't just putting on an accent!

The episode ends with some great model effects of the web-like fungus (which looks suspiciously like soap suds) oozing its way along the tunnels and into Monument station. Jamie and Evans seem to be trapped!

Wherever has the Doctor got to? Incidentally, this is the first time Troughton hasn't appeared in an episode (barring the reprise) since he took on the role. He was on holiday during filming of The Evil of the Daleks, but still appeared in pre-filmed inserts. It's one of only four times during his tenure that Troughton isn't around for filming (the others being The Wheel in Space and The Seeds of Death). No wonder he was exhausted by the end!

First broadcast: February 10th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard

The Good: Anne Travers is a spiky ball of feminist fire. I love her! And handsome Weamsy too!

The Bad: I'm not sure there's anything, except for the unfortunate absence of Troughton, who isn't really missed.

Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 3...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5; Episode 6

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-web-of-fear.html

The Web of Fear is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Web-Fear-DVD/dp/B00FRL73G6.