The Web of Fear Episode 3

The one where we first meet the future Brigadier...

I always thought it was a real shame this episode was the one that didn't come back with all the other recovered film cans from Nigeria, because it's the first time the Doctor meets Nicholas Courtney's Lethbridge-Stewart. This is where a 40-year relationship between the Time Lord and the future Brig began. But the truth is, you don't actually see them meet for the first time, as is evident from listening to the surviving soundtrack of episode 3 and looking at the telesnaps. The two have already met by the time the episode opens, so perhaps we were never really meant to witness their first meeting?

The introduction of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is an interesting twist in an episode that, by and large, runs on the spot. He is a pretty cold and officious man, seemingly unmoved by the loss of his entire platoon at Holborn ("All the men dead, I'm afraid"). All he really wants to do is sort out the somewhat unregimented mess Captain Knight has been presiding over at Goodge Street HQ and move forward with a plan. He's a no-nonsense chap with no time for irritants like Chorley (his lack of respect for the media would also be witnessed in Spearhead from Space). He prefers "practical soldiering"!

There are characters in The Web of Fear who are portrayed as cowardly, but we all know that it is fear which often fuels cowardice, and being afraid is a very honest and truthful human reaction. Especially when you're being hunted down by a bunch of vicious robot Yeti! Harold Chorley might be your average narrow-minded Fleet Street hack who just wants to get his story, but he's also a scared man. Over and above getting his story out there to the masses, he just wants to escape from the Underground and back to the surface. And I think I'd be the same, to be honest!

The same goes for Driver Evans, who spends the entire episode wandering around the tunnels with Jamie doing precisely nothing (Jamie is particularly wasted in this episode). Evans admits he wants to return to the surface to save his own skin ("the only one I've got!") and justifies that by claiming he should never have been down in the Underground anyway. As he says, he's just a driver, not a proper soldier, so again, it's kind of understandable that he wants no part of this highly dangerous activity on the Tube. Remember, he saw all of his colleagues at Holborn massacred (except, it seems, for the Colonel) so he has every reason to want out. "You've got to take care of number one in this world!" he asserts to a mildly disgusted Jamie.

The Colonel's impromptu meeting, complete with slideshow and raked seating, serves to summarise the story so far, as well as the larger picture. All of the characters feed in to this summation of the situation, giving the audience a greater understanding of what's at stake and how long this fungal menace has been assaulting London. It's a nice touch that the Doctor makes a point of noting the Yeti Mark II design too. However, it did irk me that the Colonel falls into that irritatingly London-centric habit of referring to the UK as England. "If you fail, London's finished," he tells the Doctor. "England itself, perhaps." Oh right, so Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and beyond will be perfectly safe then? The Yeti menace will halt at Offa's Dyke!

Writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln also introduce the idea of a traitor in the ranks as we witness an unidentified person unlocking the door to the HQ and summoning the Yeti with the control model. Someone on the inside is feeding information back to the Great Intelligence, but who? Immediate suspicion falls on the Colonel, who claims to be going for a "look round" just before the door is opened, but there's also the possibility that Staff Sergeant Arnold is the one, as he has just left the room to fetch the trolley. But then plenty of people could be under suspicion, including my dear Craftsman Weams. I don't think it's Corporal Blake or Chorley though, seeing as they are together in the common room setting the journalist up as an ersatz "liaison officer".

By the end of the episode my heart is broken irreparably by the death of Weams - needlessly, it has to be said. Now the Yeti have infiltrated the base as they advance on Professor Travers!

First broadcast: February 17th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I like how Haisman and Lincoln are portraying people as fully-rounded, realistic characters, with fears and cowardice built in. It makes these characters seem more real and truthful.
The Bad: Jamie achieves absolutely nothing this episode, and it has to be said that it's a very talky installment.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 4...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; 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.