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
- Dr. Who - William Hartnell
- Ian Chesterton - William Russell
- Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
- Vicki - Maureen O'Brien
- Zarbi - Robert Jewell
- Zarbi - Jack Pitt
- Zarbi - Gerald Taylor
- Zarbi - Hugh Lund
- Zarbi - Kevin Manser
- Zarbi - John Scott Martin
- Animus Voice - Catherine Fleming
- Vrestin - Roslyn de Winter
- Hrostar - Arne Gordon
- Hrhoonda - Arthur Blake
- Prapillus - Jolyon Booth
- Hlynia - Jocelyn Birdsall
- Hilio - Martin Jarvis
- Hetra - Ian Thompson
- Nemini - Barbara Joss
Crew
- Writer - Bill Strutton
- Director - Richard Martin
- Producer - Verity Lambert
- Script Editor - Dennis Spooner
- Designer - John Wood
- Assistant Floor Manager - Elisabeth Dunbar
- Assistant Floor Manager - Gillian Chardet
- Costumes - Daphne Dare
- Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton
- Film Editor - Gitta Zadek
- Insect Movement - Roslyn de Winter
- Make-Up - Sonia Markham
- Production Assistant - Norman Stewart
- Special Sound - Brian Hodgson
- Studio Lighting - Ralph Walton
- Studio Sound - Ray Angel
- Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
- Title Music - Ron Grainer
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
Discontinuity
- In episode 3 one of the Zarbi can be heard hitting the camera
- In episode 4 as Ian is burried in a rock fall someone can be heard laughing
- For most of the story shadows can be seen across the sky
- When Vicky asks for a sedative Barbara gives her an Aspirin
Quotes
Animus - "What Vortis is, I am. What you are, I will become."
Story Arcs
Similar stories
Venusian Lullaby - Another attempt to set Human characters in a completely alien environment
References
To be addedd
More Info
DVD, Video, and Other Releases
DVD Releases
Released as Doctor Who: The Web Planet.
Released:
- Region 2
- PAL - BBCDVD BBCDVD1355
Video Release
Released as Doctor Who: The Web Planet over two seperate cassette cases held togther by a band of plastic.
Released:
- PAL - BBC Video BBCV4405
- NTSC - CBS/FOX Video 8142
- NTSC - Warner Video E1265
Notes: The 'Next Episode' caption has been removed from Episode 6.
External Links
BBC Episode Guide Page with video clips
Story synopsis at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
A Brief History of Time Travel
