The Web Planet

"My ship... my TARDIS..."

Writer: Bill Strutton
Format: TV
Broadcast: 13th February - 20th March 1965
Season: 2.05

Featuring: First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Vicki

Synopsis

On the planet Vortis, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki are swept up in the struggles of the butterfly-like Menoptera, 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 larvae guns...

Verdict

Ahh, The Web Planet. This is one of the few points I was desperately not looking forward to when it comes to re-watching Doctor Who from the very beginning. I was hoping that my already poor opinion on the serial would change, but it didn't really. It seemed a slight improvement on my last viewing which was back in July 2012, but nonetheless, the plot wasn't great. There were quite a few highlights however. I particularly enjoyed the banter between the Doctor and Ian once more, this time regarding Ian's Coal Hill school tie, a nice reference to An Unearthly Child. The cliffhanger at the end of part one was by far the best of the serial for one reason only. The Doctor's heartbreaking reaction to losing his ship. His TARDIS. I continued to enjoy the relationship between the Doctor and Vicki continuing on from The Romans, and also the humour between Barbara and Vicki over who met Nero in the previous story. Well, that was the highlights but the story as a whole was poor and the plot was average at best. The Zarbi and the Menoptera were really bad. The props and costume were horrendous and the movement was pretty poor also. At times the serial was just boring with not much actually happening. The thing that saved this serial from absolute disaster and actually improved it was the Animus. I liked the mystery behind the being and also the appearance once entering the story physically in the final part. The way the Animus was defeated wasn't all that great. I think more could've been done! Things were just a bit silly, but the highlights gave the story my probably generous rating.

Rating: 6/10