The Web Planet

The very first time I saw William Hartnell as the Doctor, was when I saw a clip of this story. Likewise, the Marshall Cavendish History of the 20th Century showed a still from this story when describing Doctor Who, so it is this story (and not a more obvious one like An Unearthly Child or The Daleks) that shaped my vision of 1960s Doctor Who when I was a child. Which is strange, as this story is an oddity in an era where every story tried to be different from the one before. We have the planet of Vortis, where the intelligent life forms are the Menoptra who are similar to giant butterflies. The planet has been taken over by a malignant intelligence called the Animus that has control over one of the indigenous animals, the Zarbi, who are like giant bipedal ants. The larval Zarbi are living cannons, shooting…something…out of their proboscides that acts like a laser beam. The Animus is spreading over the entire planet, causing the vegetation to wither and the surface water to vanish, leaving a barren landscape with pools of formic acid. The immense power it uses has caused other planets to appear near Vortis and orbit round it, and most of the Menoptra have fled to one of them. During that time the Menoptra left on Vortis have speciated into the Optera, who resemble giant caterpillars.

All this sounds fantastic on paper, but it has to be realised on screen, and it is this which is the problem with The Web Planet. The production team try to make it look good. The facial make-up for the Menoptra breaks up the lines on the actors’ faces very well. The Menoptra’s communication device is a lattice of crystal that has to be manipulated. The costume for the Zarbi is detailed beyond what is required for 405-line television. The studio scenes on Vortis are shot with a diffusing filter to show the rarefied atmosphere visually and the backdrops show a good deal of imagination.

But the wings of the Menoptera look like cellophane kites and they fly on visible Kirby wires. Every time a Zarbi touches anything, the clunk of its fibreglass body is all too obvious. The backdrops are reasonably effective until someone casts a shadow on what is meant to be the sky. The Animus is excellently voiced by Catherine Fleming, but disappoints visually. Admittedly, most Doctor Who stories require one to suspend one’s disbelief but disbelief here weighs several tonnes and requires not so much suspension, but structurally sound load bearing support from beneath.

The performances by the regulars are solid, but Hartnell fluffs a great deal and he seems to be utterly bemused by his surroundings at some points. The Menoptra speak in thin reedy voices and seem to be waxing large invisible moustaches. The Optera speak in staccato grunts throughout. Richard Martin’s direction is variable. At some points he does succeed in convincing us that we are looking at a totally alien world. At other points Zarbi crash into the camera. The editing ranges from the adequate to the awful, meaning that the pacing is severely affected. Martin even fumbles the first appearance of the Zarbi- they simply wander on screen for a totally pointless scene.People might claim that it must have looked better when broadcast as the audience had lower expectations of special effects, but the audience must have had some reservations about the visual effectiveness of the story.

In places the script is fantastic. The dialogue given to the Optera has been rightly praised as being an attempt to show alien thought patterns and there is lyrical dialogue throughout. In fact, the world-building of Bill Strutton is intoxicatingly imaginative, a world that directors like Jean Cocteau and Hayao Miyazaki would have a field day with. However, it is poorly paced and far too long, and could have worked far better as a four parter.

Again, this is not a bad story per se, but I cannot say that it is one I genuinely enjoyed. Like Ian, I probably won’t be returning to Vortis.

NEXT: The Crusade