The Web of Fear episode 1 discussion:
SP: Ah, Ma. Yetis again?
A: Yeti balls.
E: <laughs>
Sp: Why did the Yetis have web guns?
H: To get to the other side.
Sp: Which Yeti could shoot the TARDIS in space from the ground?
H: How do you know it was a Yeti who did that?
A: It must have been a web cannon.
P: Maybe it was Salamander on the way out?
R: <old man “Watto” voice> These-a giant dust bunnies are ruining my museum!
H: One of the criticisms of this episode is the extremely stereotypical greedy Jew character, who thankfully buys it within 10 minutes. No pun intended.
R: Yeah, that was a bit sad.
P: And why is it when people hear a beeping sound they can’t figure out where it is.
K: Did you never had your cell phone dying, beeping every minute, and it still takes 20 minutes to find out because you can’t tell where it’s coming from?
P: Yes. You can locate low pitched sounds easier than high pitched sounds. But that was a low pitched sound.
K & H & R: Sounded high pitch to me.
Sp: I was highly amused by the stalking Yeti ball.
H: That is a band name.
R: Yeah. Anyone in a horror movie or horror episode who says “I am not a fool!”…
P: Is a dead fool.
E: I believe that is called tempting fate, yes? Which this episode seemed to have quite a bit of.
P: Maybe they should rename it.
R: When will people in Doctor Who learn – no touch pod!
H: To be fair, none of them actually touched it. Travers got the thing working, but they didn’t touch the Yeti.
R: They didn’t touch the Yeti. But they obviously touched the pod / ball. Pod. No touch. Simple rule.
K: That Tom Baker comes up with 8 years later.
Sp: So speaking of touching pods, how about that opening sequence.
K: I believe Victoria got double groped. By the Doctor “on top” and Jamie “behind.”
H: The Doctor didn’t go above or below the waist.
P: So stayed at the waist?
Sp: Less Yeti, more leg. I could have had an episode of that.
P: Was it ratings week? Is there such a thing?
H: No.
P: Because she was definitely showing the legs. More than the kilt.
H: It was 1967. Note the beads as well.
Sp: Victoria’s adventuring outfit was more adventurous than outfit. It’s dark, it’s cold, we have no idea what we are. Wear something skimpy with a thing around your neck that can strangle you.
H: Two points to make. The one point excusing it, and the one point continuing on with what you are saying. Excusing it – she got dressed before they knew where they were going.
R: She knew she was going to a quarry. They’re always going to a quarry.
<laughter>
H: Continuing on with what Spoo was saying, it’s just one story removed from Victoria being scandalized at a woman’s short skirt. And yet suddenly she’s wearing one herself.
K: Every episode she gets a little more…
E: Adventurous?
P: She’s only 4 episodes from her nude scene.
H: Not in this story. Not when she’s acting opposite her dad. Speaking of which, I think this is the first time in Doctor Who, since the second appearance of the meddling monk, that we’ve had a recurring secondary character.
P: Who?
H: Professor Travers. Same character from The Abominable Snowman. And the same actor, who happens to be Deb Watlings’s father, Jack.
K: They were both in both.
Sp: And he’s got his coot on.
H: And lots and lots of age makeup.
K: That explains his weird looking mouth.
Sp: That was not makeup that was coot. That was acting!
H: So what did you all think of the Yeti redesign.
K: I didn’t like it.
A: I didn’t like it either.
E: The face looked like a giant furry angry owl to me.
Sp: Yeah. I thought Owlbears.
P: Okay. I liked it.
E: I didn’t say I didn’t like. I just said it was really weird.
H: So the redesign was done because the producer thought the old design looked scary enough and looked cuddly. Which we complained about when we saw the first story. Which shows you that he was right about it, I guess.
R: So I kind of found that reporter, Snidely Nasalington-Snivel, vaguely familiar. Do I know him from somewhere? The actor?
H: It’s Harold Chorley, I think.
R: There was a lot in this episode I liked.
Sp: Victoria?
R: Lots of really cute Doctor moments. “Huh, that wasn’t as bad as I thought…” Blam! Eee! Eee! Eee! Eee!
R: I also loved, and I think I’m going to have to get a tattoo of this “When I was a little girl I thought I’d like to be a scientist… so I became a scientist.”
H: “Just like that?” “Just like that.”
E: I can see her not taking crap from anyone.
H: I think the whole Captain Knight is really great. It’s shorthand and it’s done really well. Instantly in that scene you can see the dynamic between the two of them.
K: When he started with the “girl” like I was cringing… back to 1960’s attitudes about women. And then she got her line out and I was like “cool. Okay, I can watch this.”
H: It’s banter.
R: You could kind of tell that he was winding her up about it, but they had had this sort of conversation before, and there was a kind of respect.
H: So you guys want to hear something surprising about this episode.
E: Yes.
P: No. Seriously, who’s ever said no to that?
A: You can leave to room if you don’t want to hear it.
P: <gives her a look>
H: So… absolutely none of this episode was shot on location.
E: What?
P: Well, they had to shoot somewhere. That is surprising.
H: Those were all sets constructed in studio.
K: Well, you’d never get the Underground empty otherwise.
R: So they shot on film in studio?
H: Everything on film was shot at Ealing Studios, instead of their normal tiny studio. But they actually wrote to the London Undergound asking for permission to film. And they were told “sure, you can film. Give us a huge amount of money, and you can only film for an hour at this time at the dead of night.” And the production office said “no, we’ll build out own sets.” Which were so convincing that midway through the run of this story, the BBC got an angry letter from the Underground accusing the BBC of sneaking in and filming illegally.
R: Yeah. Because when you’re walking on the metal rails in those subway tunnels it makes that plywoody sound.
P: As opposed to that fry sound?
K: Yeah. They sound have know it was a set when they saw Jamie walk on the rail.
H: It was midway through the story. They might not have watched it all that closely.
R: It’s sad that Victoria has become pretty much inured to death.
H: I dunno, she was pretty freaked out by the old dead guy.
R: She said “Ugh, did you see his face. I’d rather no go back into the tunnels right now.” Where I think most people would say “God, bugs bugs! Get ’em off me! Get ’em off me now!”
H: And that would have made for awesome television?
R: I think so, but then again I watched Lost.
Sp: I liked the Doctor’s throw away line about how it’s funny that they seem to keep coming back to Earth.
K: Yep.
P: Yes, I was thinking that too.
H: Although this is the first time on contemporary Earth since Evil of the Daleks. Which, admittedly, was only at the beginning of this season.
K: At least it wasn’t, you know, snowing.
H: Or, not snowing, as they case may be. The only ones that didn’t take place on Earth were Tomb of the Cybermen and part of Evil of the Daleks, I think.
K: Yup.
P: Maybe now is a good time to mention the landing in the middle of space. Because, like what? What is the web going to stick through? It just didn’t make sense to me.
H: Something was clearly trying to delay them and then trying to track them to see where they landed. Which is why the Doctor pushed them off to the side for a bit.
K: I was confused by the half mile away line.
H: The Doctor was figuring out that someone was trying to put them somewhere. So whatever it is held them in place, so it could figure out where exactly where they were going to land. So that’s why the Doctor built his machine that moved them about half a mile from their predicted landing place. Make sense?
P: The Doctor’s line where he said “Whatever’s holding us must let go sometime” really just did not sync well with me at the time that I heard it.
Sp: Yeah, that didn’t make sense to me either.
K: Me too. It was confusing.
H: It wound up making sense to me when I took into account the idea that he’d figured out that something was trying to delay them, and then intercept them when they landed. So round when he made the device.
K: I though the device was to help them break out from the web.
R: I’ve seen dumber McGuffins on this show.
H: I don’t even know if it was important enough to count as a McGuffin.
R: Hey, I’m supporting your argument here.
H: But the device itself was just a minor point.
K: I thought the time passing was done well, for once. There was a jump from “death of annoying old Jew” to “Scientists helping soldiers” and obvious a lot of time had passed. And going from band aid on the Doctor’s face, to cut, to scar, and showing the sandwiches, etc. A good, surprising non-confusing indication that a bunch of time had passed. I suppose it also helped that Jamie said “gosh, a bunch of time has passed.”
H: Yeah, it’s a great observation. I think both writing and direction wise, this episode was really well put together. And it’s the only time we’ll get to see Douglas Camfield’s direction for this story, so we should enjoy it while we can.
Sp: It’s also the only time that we will get to see Travers in full motion coot mode. So we should appreciate that too.
R: Don’t worry, we’ll be able to hear the coot clearly enough.
H: We’d kind of missed the coot-age. I mean, I don’t know about you, but occasionally I do miss Billy and his “Chesterfields.”
Sp: I do also. I do also. I do also. I do also.
<laughter>
Sp: I mean, yes yes yes yes!
H: It’s been so long!
Sp: Yes! It’s been so long! <sobs>
P: But we gained a flute out of it.
K: Recorder.
Sp: Oh! Alright.
H: Final thoughts? There’s plenty to say about this episode, but I think it’s time.
E: My interest has been piqued. Although at the start I was a little bit confused.
K: Alas, long break between stories.
E: I also enjoyed the various instances of tempting fate in this story.
H: E.g.?
E: Like the guy going “I am no fool” that I mentioned earlier. It’s right up there with “What could possibly go wrong?”
H: Altair?
A: It was awesome.
H: That’s it?
A: That’s it.
H: Okay. Photobug?
P: Dude! They had spray on webs. How cool is that?
E: Spider-man did it better.
P: Also, oh my God, they’re going to blow up the Doctor.
K: They didn’t blow up the Doctor.
P: It sort of… glowed.
E: It’s just charging its lasers.
P: You already had your chance to go, smart aleck. I’m done.
H: Alright. Spoo?
Sp: If they were saving money with sets, I’m guessing the museum was just a storage room or something.
H: Well, they spent a ridiculous amount of money on the sets. I have a story about the museum. The original wanted to film it in the National Museum and they were turned down.
Sp: They were told they could only film there for one hour in the middle of the night.
<laughs>
H: Nope, they were straight up turned down. So they rewrote the script to move it to a private museum in the guy’s home.
Sp: Any Easter Eggs hiding the background in the museum? Any Cybermen hiding around?
H: Nope.
R: Although that giraffe was an extra in The Celestial Toymaker.
Sp: So If they changed the Yeti costume to make it scarier, and less cuddly, why did they fade from the older cuddlier Yeti why did they fade from the cuddly one to the scary one when the Yeti woke up. Just have an empty scary costume there.
H: Because continuity?
K: In Doctor Who? Continuity? Never!
H: Remember that it had only been a couple months since the last Yeti story. The idea was that when the Yeti was activated it transformed into the new form. So it was less a fading than a transformation kind of thing.
Sp: So, riddle me this: how many other times have they linked two stories together by having the Doctor jump forward to a character’s person future?
H: Do you specifically mean Travers?
Sp: Yes. How many other…
H: This is the first time. Other than the Monk and monsters, I’m pretty sure Travis is the first secondary character to reappear from one story to another.
P: In the Ark.
H: But it’s a significant period of time in the future, within the same story.
<Discussion of future stories where that occurs. Not so much before this point in the TARDIS Project, however.>
Sp: So, neat. There’s monsters. There’s timey wimy stuff. There’s Victoria. There’s menacing silver balls. You can’t really ask to start a Doctor Who story better than that. yay.
H: Ronelyn?
R: You know if only Travers had thought to fill the control sphere cavity on that Yeti with cement, all these countless deaths in this whole episode could have been prevented. Boop boop boop boop boop boop ponk! Boop boop boop boop boop boop ponk!
Sp: Let it be said, for the record, that Ketina typed all that out without copy pasting, and she made sure to count her boops. The TARDIS Project – Commitment to Excellence.
K: Would you tell my boss that?
Sp: Mister Mother couldn’t make it today.
K: Remind him next week. My turn?
R: Oh yeah.
K: Let’s see. I think I got my main observations out already. I’m liking this story so far. I haven’t seen the story before, but I do know a few spoilers. I am anticipating some significant violence.
R: Better than an old man being choked to death by spider webs.
K: Yes… two young scientists being… choked to death.. by.. spider webs. Okay.
H: And you know what violence means! Footage! Footage in recons!
<cheers>
K: We’ll talk about that more when we get there, I’m sure. Anyway, good story so far. I’m looking forward to more. Your turn, Historian.
H: Unsurprisingly, I love this episode. Full Stop. The direction is fantastic. The pacing and the building tension is great. And it’s just well acted and well written. And well designed. The sets are great. It’s yet again a tragedy that this is, as of the time we’re watching this, the only episode currently held by the BBC.
K: I know we want the rumors to be real, but if they’re true does that mean we have to restart the Project all over again?
H: No.
Sp: We can pick and choose, right?
H: Exactly. Anyway, this is one of my favorite Troughton stories. And I really hope you guys continue to enjoy it. Can’t wait until next episode. Really can’t.
K: We could just watch it now!
H: Bad Ketina. No biscuit.
K: 😛
