The Web of Fear Episode 6

The one where the Doctor is about to have his mind drained by the Great Intelligence...

A feeling of suspicion runs deep through The Web of Fear as each character has their own idea about who the traitor in their midst is. The viewer is constantly being fed red herrings by writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, so we're never quite sure who to not trust. Is it Evans, whose cowardice may all be a smokescreen? Is it Chorley, who has mysteriously reappeared after two episodes? Or is it Arnold, another sudden returnee?

The Doctor trusts nobody, especially the Colonel, but seems to blindly believe that Anne and Jamie couldn't possibly be the culprits. Yes, he trusts Jamie as a friend anyway, and Anne appears to be completely benign (albeit with very long claws), but how can he be sure that neither of them have been taken over by the Great Intelligence, as Professor Travers was?

The Web of Fear Episode 5

The one where the Doctor gains a pet Yeti called Fred...

"I. Am. The Intelligence!" The first five minutes of this episode comprise one scene in which the Great Intelligence - now possessing Professor Travers' body - imparts its dastardly plan to the surviving band of heroes (and Evans). Jack Watling is genuinely unsettling as the possessed Travers, with staring blank eyes and laboured blinks, and a rasping, croaky voice which sounds like it's being forced out of a dead man's throat. His zombie-like performance, complete with awkward motor control as the Intelligence deals with an unfamiliar human form, reminds me of that given by Dinsdale Landen 21 years later in The Curse of Fenric - and especially when we see Travers moving along gloomy tunnels with Yeti in tow, just like Fenric and his Haemovores.

The bit where the Doctor asks what the Intelligence wants, and Travers rasps: "Yooouuuuuuu!" has given me chills ever since they used it in the trailer for the DVD back in 2013. This is a lengthy scene, but the tension never lets up, thanks to the intensity of the acting and the subtle use of a twinkling, ethereal soundscape (Martin Slavin's ubiquitous Space Adventure (Part 2)) beneath it all. The whole thing must be horrifying for poor Anne, to see her father being used in such a way.

The Web of Fear Episode 4

The one with the Yeti attack on Covent Garden...

What a bloodbath this episode is! Starting off in the wake of the death of my lovely Weams (episode 3), this installment gets right on with the business by having the savage Yeti cut down both Professor Travers and his doting daughter Anne, before dragging the elderly man's body off with them. It sets the episode's stall out quite plainly, because over the next 25 minutes there will be a lot more loss of life to contend with. Luckily, Anne isn't dead, but we know no such thing about her father.

The abduction and possible death of Travers noticeably rattles the Doctor when he learns of it. As soon as he discovers his old friend Travers has been harmed, perhaps used in some way by the Great Intelligence, Patrick Troughton's entire demeanour alters, making the Doctor introspective, understated and thoughtful. No more histrionics, the Doctor has been slapped in the face by the sheer gravity of what he's facing. The loss of a personal friend rocks him, and he's the only one to react in any noticeable way to the news of the death of Weams.

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"!

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 Web of Fear Episode 1

The one where the menace is spreading and Londoners are fleeing...

Picking up right from the end of last week's episode, in which the Doctor's evil double Salamander was sucked out of the TARDIS and into the void, this episode opens full-pelt. There's some great "hanging on" acting from Patrick Troughton and Deborah Watling, and Frazer Hines is particularly good at pretending he's clutching onto the TARDIS wall, then "falling" onto the console. What bothers me most about all this is how the Doctor doesn't seem at all bothered or regretful of the fact Salamander is, as he puts it, "floating around in time and space". Evil he may have been, but surely he didn't deserve that?

We're also treated to another of those marvellous scenes which are becoming a hallmark of Season 5, in which the Doctor expresses childlike glee and enthusiasm for the adventurous life he leads. Previously touched upon in The Tomb of the Cybermen ("Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing") and The Ice Warriors ("Let's go in!"), I adore how Troughton expresses the excitement of the Doctor's peripatetic existence. "I wonder where it'll be this time?" says Jamie, to which the Doctor - in beautifully lit close-up - replies: "Yes, I wonder!" The look on his face says it all. This is how Doctor Who should be - fun, carefree, exciting and surprising - and not the soap opera gloominess it sometimes became in the 21st century.