Web of Fear

There’s so much to love about the Troughton era in total, but as a result of the travesty that is the bemoaned “lost episodes”, we have limits to the amount of televised footage that we can truly enjoy in its full form, as it aired. At this point in our trip through the (nearly) complete classic Doctor Who stories, the episodes we spin up are like little 22-minute gifts. And I (Keir, hullo!) may be speaking for myself here, but this is one of the greatest gifts we can unwrap. The TARDIS Team is in great form, the supporting characters are diverse and wonderful, the challenge of getting to and confronting the “big bad” is circuitous and complicated because of a genuinely challenging game of finding the traitor amongst the troop, and the Yeti are…well, let’s face it. They’re adorable killing machines, aren’t they? Almost like Sweetums, from the Muppets…

This week, we square off once again with the Great Intelligence, but with the newly arrived Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, as we face “The Web of Fear”. With twists and turns (both figuratively and literally), deaths and danger, scientific development under pressure, and a Welsh comic relief that deserves Shakespearean praise, this is one you can enjoy time and again. And we do. Often.

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2 Thoughts on “Classic Rewatch: The Web of Fear”

  • Almost 200 wow. It’s hard to believe that when I started binge listening to this that I would ever get caught up. The show makes my week.

    Luckily for me in the great white north of Canada, Dr Who, well new Who at least, is still on Netflix. It’s is odd how the regions can have some stuff and not another. Thankfully this is the case since Canada doesn’t have access to the streaming services of Prime. Which means the only reason I have Prime is shipping costs, which is has saved me a pretty penny, (which we also don’t have anymore), on shipping for the multitude of Sonic Screw Drivers I was recently compelled to buy. I wonder if us Canadians are still able to watch Dr Who on Netflix as a result of us being on “good” terms with the empire of Britain.

  • A few Quick Notes :

    1) I have long had the germ of an idea for a fanfic where one of the Doctor’s more rubbish villains (possibly the Meddling Monk) tries to bedevil one of the Doctors (in this case, 10th and Donna) by bringing back out of time past monsters, only he keeps screwing up and getting harmless versions of them. In one chapter, he would trap them in a cave with a Yeti, except instead of bringing back the evil robot Yeti, he would get one of the Himalayan Yeti on which the robots were based, whose reaction to anything is to run and hide behind a rock. Donna would adopt him as a pet and call him Sweetums.

    2) Prof. Travers is played by Jack Watling, father of Deborah Watling who plays Victoria.

    3) Re. Chronology … the 11th Doctor faced the Great Intelligence (and in fact gave him the idea for the London invasion when he gave him the map to the London Underground) chronologically before the 2nd Doctor faced him but later in his own timeline, but had more or less forgotten him. At the end of The Snowmen, the 11th Doctor tries to recall something about the Great Intelligence in connection with the London Underground, but ultimately blows it off.

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