The Web of Fear

After regaining control of the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers that he has been trapped by a web in space and drawn back to present-day Earth. The TARDIS materializes in an Underground station where soliders are attempting to halt the spread of a fungus substance through the tunnels, and a killer mist in the streets overhead. With central London evacuated, the Yeti are found roaming the streets and the tunnels. 30 years after his expedition to Tibet, Professor Travers has accidentally reactivated a control sphere and allowed the Great Intelligence to return to Earth, and its plans are more thorough than before; this time it is ready for the Doctor and plans to suck all the knowledge and experience out of his mind for its own use. As with The War Machines, the Doctor is co-opted into helping the local military repel the invasion attempt, liasing with Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart of the army.

Episode 1 is all that remains of this story, which is as always a crying shame, but it is good that there is something to go on as opposed to no material whatsoever. There is a prolonged street battle with the army fighting the redesigned Yeti in episode 5, but it translates very poorly on audio; thankfully there is a short clip of it that cencors cut out of the original broadcast and it made its way to the Lost in Time DVD along with the intact episode itself. Other surviving material includes the Yeti roaming the tunnels of the London Underground and the bodies of dead soldiers covered in the Intelligence's web.

Placing the Yeti in such a familiar site as the Underground would have a profound impact on the viewers of the time, seeing something they recognize on televsion being overrun with monsters just like the London scenes in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Small children watching were suddenly afraid of taking the Tube for fear of running into them down there, resulting in more complaints against the show for being too frightening for small children. Indeed, the Yeti are much more fierce than they were in their debut story and this time have been given a roar to go with their new look. In an unusual move, perhaps out of concern over the level of fear in the show, the BBC aired a short trailer just before episode 1 of Patrick Troughton on the Underground set advising young viewers that the Yetia re making an appearance and they are much more frightening than before, so they might want to hold their parents' hands to keep them from getting scared. Ah if only they had found that trailer as well when they found the one for The Power of the Daleks.

Bringing back Travers after a few episodes but making the gulf many years was an interesting move. This time he has a daughter along with him, who is all grown up and has inherited her father's scientific curiosity. Travers makes an interesting observation that the Doctor and Jamie are all the family that Victoria has in the world, reminding us again of the grim circumstances surrounding her joining of the crew in the first place. After being menaced by Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti, Ice Warriors, human thugs and now the Yeti again, it's time to wonder how much more of this she is going to be able to take. The other character of note is Lethbridge-Stewart. A no-nonsense military man, he is keen to take charge of a situation and do what he feels he must to turn it around. He'll be back. So will the Yeti, but not for a very long time.

Time to take a break from the televised series and look a couple of novels; one from the Virgin Books range and a relatively new one from the BBC Books range. It's nice weather outisde right now, may as well go find a tree and do some reading.

NEXT EPISODE : THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS