The Web Planet (TV story)

Summary

The TARDIS is pulled off course by a mysterious force and trapped on the barren, desolate low-oxygen world Vortis in the Isop galaxy. The Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Vicki are soon swept up in the struggles of the butterfly-like Menoptra, the original denizens of Vortis who were forced to flee the planet for the moon Pictos to escape the encroaching web of the Animus and its mind-controlled minions, the ant-like Zarbi and their living weapons, the Venom Grubs. With assistance from the caterpillar-like Optera, the devolved descendants of the planet's original inhabitants, the TARDIS crew and the Menoptra are able to destroy the Animus at the center of its web complex with the secret Menoptra weapon, the isotope-powered living cell destructor

Cast

Uncredited Cast

Crew

Notes

The first and so far only television story in which all the characters, other than the regulars, are entirely non-humanoid
All episodes exist in 16mm telerecordings
Negative film prints of both episodes exist and were recovered by the BBC in 1978
The Zarbi was held by the Film & TV Library when it was audited in 1978
Believed lost in the BBC's early 1970s purge, negative film prints of all six episodes were recovered from BBC Enterprises in the late 1970s. These prints appear to have stemmed from a 1973 sale to Algeria and as a result the final episode was amended so that the "Next Episode" caption referred to The Space Museum instead of The Lion, as the next story The Crusade was not sold to Arab countries. There were also some edits to the first episode. Unedited prints of all six episodes were also discovered in Nigeria in 1985
This story was originally entitled The Zarbi and was made under the working title The Centre of Terror
Episode six was initially titled "Centre Of Terror". The novelisation restores this title for the sixth chapter
The costumes for all of the aliens who appeared in this story were created by Daphne Dare
Jacqueline Hill does not appear in Escape to Danger as she was on holiday while it was filmed. She is not credited in this episodes closing credits and later complained to the production team about this
Noted choreographer Rosalyn de Winter was hired to create the distinctive movements and stilted speech of the Menoptra. She was so successful that the production team asked her to take on the role of the Menoptra Vrestin (which she accepted).
The first episode of the serial was watched by 13.5 million viewers, the highest number for any Doctor Who episode in the 1960s.
The serial was only the second to be novelised by Frederick Muller. It was written by Bill Strutton under the title Doctor Who and the Zarbi in 1965. This novel introduced the concept of the "Zarbi Supremo", a vast Zarbi with a role similar to that of a queen bee. In 1973 Target Books acquired the rights to the novelisation and reprinted it as one of the first in their long running series of Doctor Who novelisations. For more information see Story Novelization

Influences

50s giant insect movies
Capek's The Insect Play
The Outer Limits episode The Zanti Misfits

Ratings

The Web Planet - 13.5m viewers
The Zarbi - 12.5m viewers
Escape to Danger - 12.5m viewers
Crater of Needles - 13.0m viewers
Invasion - 12.0m viewers
The Centre - 11.5m viewers

Myths

The misty effect over the planets surface was created by applying Vaseline to the camera lense (The effect was actually created with the assistance of special camera lenses)
The butterfly creatures in the story are called the Menoptera (The correct spelling is Menoptra)

Location Filming

The story was filmed at Riverside Studio 1, Hammersmith, London

Continuity

The Second Doctor returns to Vortis in Twilight of the Gods
In Bad Wolf the Face of Boe is stated to be the oldest living inhabitant of the Isop galaxy
Venom Grubs are again referred to in Boom Town
It is revealed in All-Consuming Fire that the Animus was actually a Great Old One, one of several supremely powerful creatures that escaped the destruction of the prior universe by shifting into a later universe. The Great Old Ones are from the Cthulhu mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft and expanded on by other writers. Specifically, the Animus was identified as Lloigor, a Great Old One created by August Derleth and Mark Schorer.
Other examples of Great Old Ones include the Great Intelligence (The Abominable Snowmen), The Nestenes (Spearhead from Space), Fenric (The Curse of Fenric) and Cthulhu (White Darkness)
In the Doctor Who Annual 2006 it is revealed that the Animus (here called the Greater Animus) was destroyed during the Time War
The Doctor has heard of Vortis but has never visited previously
Barbara is wearing the braclet she was given by Nero in The Romans