Invasion (The Web Planet Episode 5)

The one where Barbara takes control of the Menoptera's plan...

No, not The Invasion, the eight-part Cyber-story from 1968. And no, not Invasion, the first ambiguously named episode of the 1974 six-parter involving dinosaurs. This is Invasion, episode 5 of The Web Planet, in which no invasion takes place!

However, episode 5 is the one where the beginning of the end is apparent, and there's some relief to be found in that thought. Barbara and Prapillus happen upon an abandoned Temple of Light, the beauty of which the ancient song-spinners of the Menoptera sang. Just this little glimmer of Menoptera ancestry and cultural history adds weight to these funny little furry wasps, but what's most astonishing is that Bill Strutton's suddenly very lyrical dialogue does not end there:

Prapillus on the Temples of Light: "Sewn into the craters and plateaus of Vortis... slowly unwoven by the silence of time and their entrances long forgotten by our species. But our Gods have not forgotten us. This was indeed deliverance. 

"The Menoptra have no wisdom for war. Before the Animus came, the flower forest covered the planet in a cocoon of peace. Our ancestors carved temples like this for resting places of our dead, but that was all the work we did. There were no other plans to make. Light was our God and we existed in light, flying above thought. Our banishment has taught us of enemies and weapons, and my captivity has taught me strategy. They tore my wings from me and I felt, as you feel, that all was lost. But if our Gods favour our survival, we must learn their lesson and use our brains and not our wings. This Earth woman we must trust, for she can show us how to exist without wings, to survive and flourish."

Isn't it just beautiful? And Jolyon Booth delivers these lines like he's reciting poetry, giving the entire scene a mesmeric quality, like the very best bedtime stories. In fact, Strutton writes the scenes involving Barbara and the Menoptera with great care and delicacy, not something that springs to mind when fans first think of The Web Planet. I also like how Captain Hilio and Barbara become instant opposites: Hilio is negative and pessimistic about the Menoptera's chances against the Animus, whereas Barbaras prefers to stay upbeat. When Hilio says he does not trust her, she snaps: "You have no choice!" (which puts him straight back in his chrysalis!), and when he says Barbara's "mock attack" plan will fail, she demands to know what his plan is. She's not putting up with any pessimism, not after her run-in with the remorselessly downbeat Jenny in The Dalek Invasion of Earth!

Strutton's creative use of language is evident again in the scenes with the Optera. Although Ian's story strand is beyond dull (he fell down a hole into the ground, now he has to dig his way out), the funny little grubs have their own unique way of describing their life too: "The tunnels breathe hate," grunts Hetra, "and in the centre grows the root of all evil." When they have to bash through some stalagmites, they say: "Break the teeth of stone!", and when they try to dig through a wall: "The wall is not friendly, we must break it... [It's] a silent wall. We must make mouths in it with our weapons. Then it will speak more light." It reminds me of Anthony Coburn's dialogue for the cavemen in 100,000 BC, another story people do not associate lyrical dialogue with.

A quick aside: poor Nemini! She plugs the gap in the wall to stop the flood of acid pouring in and killing them all. It's a self-sacrifice which is easy to miss or misunderstand in the commotion, but it is desperately tragic. Nemini must die horribly, face first in a well of burning acid (we saw what it did to Ian's school tie in episode 1!).

The Doctor, meanwhile, uses the mysterious power of his ring to enslave a Zarbi (or a Zarb, as he calls them at one point!) using the gold handle, and they use the sedated monster ant to get out of the Carcinome. Vicki nicknames the Zarbi "Zombo", much to the Doctor's bemusement, but it's in character for a girl who had a sand beast called Sandy as a pet on Dido.

At last the Doctor and Vicki are reunited with Barbara and her waspish army and they intend to implement Barbara's mock attack by using the Menoptera's Isop-tope (we're in the Isop Galaxy, so that otherwise clumsy nomenclature can pass). Hilio only entrusts the Doctor with the Isop-tope in exchange for control of Zombo, which means he has to part with his ring. Just what properties this ring possesses remain mysterious, but the Doctor always seems very reluctant to part with it (he traded it for a new outfit in A Change of Identity), and was gleefully proud of it in episode 1 of this story.

The episode ends with the Doctor and Vicki returning to the Carcinome but being enveloped in a frosty web by one of those lethal wall tendrils. To be honest, the parting image we're left with - of Hartnell and O'Brien rendered helpless beneath an icky cobweb - is a pretty strong one for youngsters, who would probably have that creepy final frame etched onto their memory for an entire week. I'll stop now though, before I turn into Mary Whitehouse!

First broadcast: March 13th, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Bill Strutton's lyrical, poetic dialogue for the Menoptera, and the visually descriptive lines he gives the Optera.
The Bad: Again, William Russell and Maureen O'Brien are given so little to do that's it's actually starting to offend me!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: The Centre...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Web Planet (episode 1); The Zarbi (episode 2); Escape to Danger (episode 3); Crater of Needles (episode 4); 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