Crater of Needles (The Web Planet Episode 4)

The one where Ian goes underground and meets some grunting worms...

Is that really someone laughing hysterically that you can hear as this episode opens? It sounds like someone's just cracked The Funniest Joke Ever during the rockfall reprise. Whoever it is, their mirth has been captured for posterity on the soundtrack for Crater of Needles and it kind of sums up how most people watch this serial generally - in fits of laughter!

The beautifully named Crater of Needles sees us reunited with Barbara (or "Abara" as the Menoptera insist on calling her), who takes exception to having to cart a load of vegetable matter around. What they're being forced to do is feed vegetation into the acid streams which lead to the Carcinome and help to nourish the Animus, which in turn spreads its evil influence around Vortis. I like how writer Bill Strutton has made an analogy between the Animus and cancer, with the Carcinome growing like a tumour on the planet's surface and spreading its poison across Vortis. Battling the fungal infection are the airborne Menoptera and (very soon) the subterranean Optera, which could be analogies for radiation or chemotherapy and antibodies respectively.

Abara's exploits with the enslaved Menoptera are the most fast-moving and engaging of the three story strands, even though the action scenes only lead to more clumsy careering about and confused collisions. However, when the Menoptera attack the Zarbi, we get to see a giant ant upended and then brutally stabbed to death by a crystalline rod, and a larvae gun is also lifted off the ground and crushed to death against a wall. I've done that to a woodlouse many a time.

From Abara and Hrostar's point of view, the Doctor must be to blame for alerting the Animus to the planned landing ground of the Menoptera invasion force, who are swarming on the moon of Pictos ready to push back against the Zarbi. And they're right - the Doctor has told the Animus some key facts which give the evil intelligence a massive advantage, and which ultimately leads to the massacring of Captain Hilio's spearhead at the end of the episode. An example of how what the Doctor thinks is best can actually have a lethal consequence for others.

The arrival of the Menoptera invasion force is actually done really well. We saw some pretty ropy wirework in earlier episodes, but here the choreography is well done and the giant wasps actually land and take off with convincing skill and grace. And there does seem to be quite a few of them, giving the illusion that this spearhead from space is a force to be reckoned with. Sadly, it seems the Menoptera are no match for what amounts to two Zarbi and a larvae gun, despite the giant wasps having the advantage of the air. The Menopteras' weapons sound like car horns too, which only adds to the aural madness which runs through The Web Planet like a jugular vein.

Meanwhile, not a lot is happening with the Doctor and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien must have been bored to tears during the making of this story). The Doctor manages to let slip too much information about the Menopteras' forces to the Animus, thus making the situation so much worse and deadlier. Vicki gets morphotised a couple of times with the Zarbi's golden handle, and the face O'Brien pulls when she's under the influence is probably the same one I imagine she pulled when she first read the script for The Web Planet. After a strong third episode, the Doctor is reduced to standing under the Animus hair-dryer and fiddling with his Astral Map machine, which is a shame, as the plotting in Escape to Danger was much more dynamic (as dynamic as The Web Planet gets) and forward-moving.

Finally, there's Ian. Poor William Russell. It was during the production of The Web Planet that Russell decided to leave Doctor Who at the end of his contract, and I can well imagine it was this episode which clinched it for him. Ian gets nothing to do, and barely anything to say. The few scenes with him in principally involve exchanges between Vrestin and the newly introduced Optera. I think if I was William Russell, I'd have made the same choice. Russell was an actor with impressive experience and a CV prior to Doctor Who which demonstrated why he shouldn't be playing third fiddle to a bunch of grunting worms.

The Optera are an interesting diversion, even if their manner is somewhat comical. They jump violently on the spot to emphasise certain points like moody teenagers, and speak in monosyllabic grunts which really slow down the already pretty sedate pace (again, like teenagers!). Their design has come in for criticism in the past, but I think - as with all the monsters in this serial, except perhaps the larvae gun - they look exactly how you'd expect a giant-sized grub to look. They also have a believable society, of sorts - they worship their ancestors, the Menoptera, demonstrated by their cave drawings, and they have a healthy fear of light and the world above. Silly they may be, but within the context of The Web Planet's all-consuming ludicrousness, they're actually quite well-drawn by Strutton.

After a lift in storytelling quality in episode 3, this fourth installment plunges us back to the doldrums of The Web Planet's opening episodes. Can it be saved, or will The Web Planet become The Worst Doctor Who Story To Date? Brace yourself, Planet of Giants... soon you might not be the lowest-ranked serial.

First broadcast: March 6th, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Menoptera invasion is well-directed and the wirework impressive this time.
The Bad: Again, nothing really happens. We meet some grunting worms, and an invasion of wasps is thwarted, but this episode really is pretty empty.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Invasion...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Web Planet (episode 1); The Zarbi (episode 2); Escape to Danger (episode 3); Invasion (episode 5); The Centre (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/2013/07/the-web-planet.html

The Web Planet is available on DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Web-Planet-DVD/dp/B0009WT5BY