The Web of Fear episode 1 discussion:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SP: Ah, Ma. Yetis again?<\/p>\n
A: Yeti balls.<\/p>\n
E: <laughs><\/p>\n
Sp: Why did the Yetis have web guns?<\/p>\n
H: To get to the other side.<\/p>\n
Sp: Which Yeti could shoot the TARDIS in space from the ground?<\/p>\n
H: How do you know it was a Yeti who did that?<\/p>\n
A: It must have been a web cannon.<\/p>\n
P: Maybe it was Salamander on the way out?<\/p>\n
R: <old man \u201cWatto\u201d voice> These-a giant dust bunnies are ruining my museum!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
R: Yeah, that was a bit sad.<\/p>\n
P: And why is it when people hear a beeping sound they can\u2019t figure out where it is.<\/p>\n
K: Did you never had your cell phone dying, beeping every minute, and it still takes 20 minutes to find out because you can\u2019t tell where it\u2019s coming from?<\/p>\n
P: Yes. You can locate low pitched sounds easier than high pitched sounds. But that was a low pitched sound.<\/p>\n
K & H & R: Sounded high pitch to me.<\/p>\n
Sp: I was highly amused by the stalking Yeti ball.<\/p>\n
H: That is a band name.<\/p>\n
R: Yeah. Anyone in a horror movie or horror episode who says \u201cI am not a fool!\u201d…<\/p>\n
P: Is a dead fool.<\/p>\n
E: I believe that is called tempting fate, yes? Which this episode seemed to have quite a bit of.<\/p>\n
P: Maybe they should rename it.<\/p>\n
R: When will people in Doctor Who learn \u2013 no touch pod!<\/p>\n
H: To be fair, none of them actually touched it. Travers got the thing working, but they didn\u2019t touch the Yeti.<\/p>\n
R: They didn\u2019t touch the Yeti. But they obviously touched the pod \/ ball. Pod. No touch. Simple rule.<\/p>\n
K: That Tom Baker comes up with 8 years later.<\/p>\n
Sp: So speaking of touching pods, how about that opening sequence.<\/p>\n
K: I believe Victoria got double groped. By the Doctor \u201con top\u201d and Jamie \u201cbehind.\u201d<\/p>\n
H: The Doctor didn\u2019t go above or below the waist.<\/p>\n
P: So stayed at the waist?<\/p>\n
Sp: Less Yeti, more leg. I could have had an episode of that.<\/p>\n
P: Was it ratings week? Is there such a thing?<\/p>\n
H: No.<\/p>\n
P: Because she was definitely showing the legs. More than the kilt.<\/p>\n
H: It was 1967. Note the beads as well.<\/p>\n
Sp: Victoria\u2019s adventuring outfit was more adventurous than outfit. It\u2019s dark, it\u2019s cold, we have no idea what we are. Wear something skimpy with a thing around your neck that can strangle you.<\/p>\n
H: Two points to make. The one point excusing it, and the one point continuing on with what you are saying. Excusing it \u2013 she got dressed before they knew where they were going.<\/p>\n
R: She knew she was going to a quarry. They\u2019re always going to a quarry.<\/p>\n
<laughter><\/p>\n
H: Continuing on with what Spoo was saying, it\u2019s just one story removed from Victoria being scandalized at a woman\u2019s short skirt. And yet suddenly she\u2019s wearing one herself.<\/p>\n
K: Every episode she gets a little more…<\/p>\n
E: Adventurous?<\/p>\n
P: She\u2019s only 4 episodes from her nude scene.<\/p>\n
H: Not in this story. Not when she\u2019s 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\u2019ve had a recurring secondary character.<\/p>\n
P: Who?<\/p>\n
H: Professor Travers. Same character from The Abominable Snowman. And the same actor, who happens to be Deb Watlings\u2019s father, Jack.<\/p>\n
K: They were both in both.<\/p>\n
Sp: And he\u2019s got his coot on.<\/p>\n
H: And lots and lots of age makeup.<\/p>\n
K: That explains his weird looking mouth.<\/p>\n
Sp: That was not makeup that was coot. That was acting!<\/p>\n
H: So what did you all think of the Yeti redesign.<\/p>\n
K: I didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
A: I didn\u2019t like it either.<\/p>\n
E: The face looked like a giant furry angry owl to me.<\/p>\n
Sp: Yeah. I thought Owlbears.<\/p>\n
P: Okay. I liked it.<\/p>\n
E: I didn\u2019t say I didn\u2019t like. I just said it was really weird.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
R: So I kind of found that reporter, Snidely Nasalington-Snivel, vaguely familiar. Do I know him from somewhere? The actor?<\/p>\n
H: It\u2019s Harold Chorley, I think.<\/p>\n
R: There was a lot in this episode I liked.<\/p>\n
Sp: Victoria?<\/p>\n
R: Lots of really cute Doctor moments. \u201cHuh, that wasn\u2019t as bad as I thought…\u201d Blam! Eee! Eee! Eee! Eee!<\/p>\n
R: I also loved, and I think I\u2019m going to have to get a tattoo of this \u201cWhen I was a little girl I thought I\u2019d like to be a scientist… so I became a scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n
H: \u201cJust like that?\u201d \u201cJust like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
E: I can see her not taking crap from anyone.<\/p>\n
H: I think the whole Captain Knight is really great. It\u2019s shorthand and it\u2019s done really well. Instantly in that scene you can see the dynamic between the two of them.<\/p>\n
K: When he started with the \u201cgirl\u201d like I was cringing… back to 1960\u2019s attitudes about women. And then she got her line out and I was like \u201ccool. Okay, I can watch this.\u201d<\/p>\n
H: It\u2019s banter.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
H: So you guys want to hear something surprising about this episode.<\/p>\n
E: Yes.<\/p>\n
P: No. Seriously, who\u2019s ever said no to that?<\/p>\n
A: You can leave to room if you don\u2019t want to hear it.<\/p>\n
P: <gives her a look><\/p>\n
H: So… absolutely none of this episode was shot on location.<\/p>\n
E: What?<\/p>\n
P: Well, they had to shoot somewhere. That is surprising.<\/p>\n
H: Those were all sets constructed in studio.<\/p>\n
K: Well, you\u2019d never get the Underground empty otherwise.<\/p>\n
R: So they shot on film in studio?<\/p>\n
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 \u201csure, 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.\u201d And the production office said \u201cno, we\u2019ll build out own sets.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
R: Yeah. Because when you\u2019re walking on the metal rails in those subway tunnels it makes that plywoody sound.<\/p>\n
P: As opposed to that fry sound?<\/p>\n
K: Yeah. They sound have know it was a set when they saw Jamie walk on the rail.<\/p>\n
H: It was midway through the story. They might not have watched it all that closely.<\/p>\n
R: It\u2019s sad that Victoria has become pretty much inured to death.<\/p>\n
H: I dunno, she was pretty freaked out by the old dead guy.<\/p>\n
R: She said \u201cUgh, did you see his face. I\u2019d rather no go back into the tunnels right now.\u201d Where I think most people would say \u201cGod, bugs bugs! Get \u2019em off me! Get \u2019em off me now!\u201d<\/p>\n
H: And that would have made for awesome television?<\/p>\n
R: I think so, but then again I watched Lost.<\/p>\n
Sp: I liked the Doctor\u2019s throw away line about how it\u2019s funny that they seem to keep coming back to Earth.<\/p>\n
K: Yep.<\/p>\n
P: Yes, I was thinking that too.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
K: At least it wasn\u2019t, you know, snowing.<\/p>\n
H: Or, not snowing, as they case may be. The only ones that didn\u2019t take place on Earth were Tomb of the Cybermen and part of Evil of the Daleks, I think.<\/p>\n
K: Yup.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t make sense to me.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
K: I was confused by the half mile away line.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s why the Doctor built his machine that moved them about half a mile from their predicted landing place. Make sense?<\/p>\n
P: The Doctor\u2019s line where he said \u201cWhatever\u2019s holding us must let go sometime\u201d really just did not sync well with me at the time that I heard it.<\/p>\n
Sp: Yeah, that didn\u2019t make sense to me either.<\/p>\n
K: Me too. It was confusing.<\/p>\n
H: It wound up making sense to me when I took into account the idea that he\u2019d figured out that something was trying to delay them, and then intercept them when they landed. So round when he made the device.<\/p>\n
K: I though the device was to help them break out from the web.<\/p>\n
R: I\u2019ve seen dumber McGuffins on this show.<\/p>\n
H: I don\u2019t even know if it was important enough to count as a McGuffin.<\/p>\n
R: Hey, I\u2019m supporting your argument here.<\/p>\n
H: But the device itself was just a minor point.<\/p>\n
K: I thought the time passing was done well, for once. There was a jump from \u201cdeath of annoying old Jew\u201d to \u201cScientists helping soldiers\u201d and obvious a lot of time had passed. And going from band aid on the Doctor\u2019s 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 \u201cgosh, a bunch of time has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n
H: Yeah, it\u2019s a great observation. I think both writing and direction wise, this episode was really well put together. And it\u2019s the only time we\u2019ll get to see Douglas Camfield\u2019s direction for this story, so we should enjoy it while we can.<\/p>\n
Sp: It\u2019s also the only time that we will get to see Travers in full motion coot mode. So we should appreciate that too.<\/p>\n
R: Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll be able to hear the coot clearly enough.<\/p>\n
H: We\u2019d kind of missed the coot-age. I mean, I don\u2019t know about you, but occasionally I do miss Billy and his \u201cChesterfields.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sp: I do also. I do also. I do also. I do also.<\/p>\n
<laughter><\/p>\n
Sp: I mean, yes yes yes yes!<\/p>\n
H: It\u2019s been so long!<\/p>\n
Sp: Yes! It\u2019s been so long! <sobs><\/p>\n
P: But we gained a flute out of it.<\/p>\n
K: Recorder.<\/p>\n
Sp: Oh! Alright.<\/p>\n
H: Final thoughts? There\u2019s plenty to say about this episode, but I think it\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
E: My interest has been piqued. Although at the start I was a little bit confused.<\/p>\n
K: Alas, long break between stories.<\/p>\n
E: I also enjoyed the various instances of tempting fate in this story.<\/p>\n
H: E.g.?<\/p>\n
E: Like the guy going \u201cI am no fool\u201d that I mentioned earlier. It\u2019s right up there with \u201cWhat could possibly go wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
H: Altair?<\/p>\n
A: It was awesome.<\/p>\n
H: That\u2019s it?<\/p>\n
A: That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
H: Okay. Photobug?<\/p>\n
P: Dude! They had spray on webs. How cool is that?<\/p>\n
E: Spider-man did it better.<\/p>\n
P: Also, oh my God, they\u2019re going to blow up the Doctor.<\/p>\n
K: They didn\u2019t blow up the Doctor.<\/p>\n
P: It sort of… glowed.<\/p>\n
E: It\u2019s just charging its lasers.<\/p>\n
P: You already had your chance to go, smart aleck. I\u2019m done.<\/p>\n
H: Alright. Spoo?<\/p>\n
Sp: If they were saving money with sets, I\u2019m guessing the museum was just a storage room or something.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sp: They were told they could only film there for one hour in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n
<laughs><\/p>\n
H: Nope, they were straight up turned down. So they rewrote the script to move it to a private museum in the guy\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Sp: Any Easter Eggs hiding the background in the museum? Any Cybermen hiding around?<\/p>\n
H: Nope.<\/p>\n
R: Although that giraffe was an extra in The Celestial Toymaker.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
H: Because continuity?<\/p>\n
K: In Doctor Who? Continuity? Never!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sp: So, riddle me this: how many other times have they linked two stories together by having the Doctor jump forward to a character\u2019s person future?<\/p>\n
H: Do you specifically mean Travers?<\/p>\n
Sp: Yes. How many other…<\/p>\n
H: This is the first time. Other than the Monk and monsters, I\u2019m pretty sure Travis is the first secondary character to reappear from one story to another.<\/p>\n
P: In the Ark.<\/p>\n
H: But it\u2019s a significant period of time in the future, within the same story.<\/p>\n
<Discussion of future stories where that occurs. Not so much before this point in the TARDIS Project, however.><\/p>\n
Sp: So, neat. There\u2019s monsters. There\u2019s timey wimy stuff. There\u2019s Victoria. There\u2019s menacing\u00a0 silver balls. You can\u2019t really ask to start a Doctor Who story better than that. yay.<\/p>\n
H: Ronelyn?<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 Commitment to Excellence.<\/p>\n
K: Would you tell my boss that?<\/p>\n
Sp: Mister Mother couldn\u2019t make it today.<\/p>\n
K: Remind him next week. My turn?<\/p>\n
R: Oh yeah.<\/p>\n
K: Let\u2019s see. I think I got my main observations out already. I\u2019m liking this story so far. I haven\u2019t seen the story before, but I do know a few spoilers. I am anticipating some significant violence.<\/p>\n
R: Better than an old man being choked to death by spider webs.<\/p>\n
K: Yes… two young scientists being… choked to death.. by.. spider webs. Okay.<\/p>\n
H: And you know what violence means! Footage! Footage in recons!<\/p>\n
<cheers><\/p>\n
K: We\u2019ll talk about that more when we get there, I\u2019m sure. Anyway, good story so far. I\u2019m looking forward to more. Your turn, Historian.<\/p>\n
H: Unsurprisingly, I love this episode. Full Stop. The direction is fantastic. The pacing and the building tension is great. And it\u2019s just well acted and well written. And well designed. The sets are great. It\u2019s yet again a tragedy that this is, as of the time we\u2019re watching this, the only episode currently held by the BBC.<\/p>\n
K: I know we want the rumors to be real, but if they\u2019re true does that mean we have to restart the Project all over again?<\/p>\n
H: No.<\/p>\n
Sp: We can pick and choose, right?<\/p>\n
H: Exactly. Anyway, this is one of my favorite Troughton stories. And I really hope you guys continue to enjoy it. Can\u2019t wait until next episode. Really can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
K: We could just watch it now!<\/p>\n
H: Bad Ketina. No biscuit.<\/p>\n
K: \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Web of Fear episode 1 discussion:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weboffear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morelikethisindustries.com\/tardisproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}