That Time the Doctor Literally Tried to Punch a Yeti
The Web of Fear gave Doctor Who killer fungus, eerie Tube tunnels, and the Brigadier’s debut. But its wildest moment may be Patrick Troughton trying to fistfight a Yeti.
What The Web of Fear is about
The Great Intelligence unleashes the Yeti on the London Underground, luring the Doctor to Earth.
Notable for:
Follows directly from The Enemy of the World.
Recovered from a TV station in Nigeria. Episode three was supposedly recovered along with the other episodes in Nigeria, but is rumored to be stolen by a station employee and sold to a private collector.
Sequel to The Abominable Snowmen; second appearance of the Yeti and the Great Intelligence
First appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Lethbridge-Stewart (his second role in the series after appearing as Bret Vyon in The Daleks’ Master Plan.
Written before The Abominable Snowmen.
John Levene, who later appeared as Benton, plays a Yeti. This is his second “appearance” in Doctor Who after playing a Cyberman in The Moonbase.
Patrick Troughton was on holiday for episode 2, which is why the Doctor isn’t in it.
Pete commentary:
The Web of Fear is a great example of stretching a budget well past its limit to create something nice and atmospheric. The few, sparse sets add to the feeling of claustrophobia, and as the Yeti close in toward the end, you really feel it. The Tube sets are convincing, and the setup in episode 1 has elements of a noir thriller.
Like most Classic Who, it’s too long—far too many scenes in the Underground to keep track.
The fungus really does add something. It’s never fully explained exactly what it is, but it’s an interesting weapon of the Yeti and the Intelligence, and makes them more believably able to dominate, confuse, and ultimately defeat the soldiers.
There isn’t an explicit moment where it’s clear the soldiers are now cut off from the outside world. They establish that London—or at least this area of London—has been evacuated. There are a few moments where people consider going to the street level and are warned against it. But it’s not clear how isolated and squeezed the group is getting until the troops are all massacred by the Yeti.
Before that, there isn’t much of a sense that everybody is trapped here. Even the media guy seems to think he can get out and get to safety.
Also, what is the big readout of all the Underground stations that starts blinking when more fungus comes in? I guess you have to think they’ve installed sensors in each of those stations? In 1975 (or whenever this is supposed to be set)?
The Yeti are a little too immune to conventional weapons. Totally fine they’re bulletproof, but explosives should do more damage than just knocking them over. Sure, you can’t necessarily do a lot with the budget, but just one shot of a destroyed Yeti on the ground would have done a lot. As it is, you wonder why the Yeti don’t just invade their HQ as soon as the Doctor arrives, since they can’t do anything to them.
It’s actually a pretty violent episode. Even the Doctor tries to attack a Yeti at one point! He comes very close to dying right there.
The accents are all over the place, and I love it. The diversity is appreciated, and they all feel correct—the troops are all working class, more or less (Yorkshire, Welsh, etc.)—and Nick Courtney comes in with something more polished and officer-class. It all works. And there’s a nice payoff when Arnold is revealed to be the Intelligence’s agent when his accent changes.
Speaking of, there’s a cool whodunnit aspect to The Web of Fear since there’s the added mystery of who among the group is actually working for the Intelligence. By the end, the main contenders seem to be Chrorley or Col. Lethbridge-Stewart. Of course, when Arnold is revealed to be alive, he becomes a candidate too, but it’s cleverly misdirected to Chorley when he accuses him.
There is a problem, though: Because Travers is taken over by the Intelligence, it makes you wonder what the rules are? Was it possessing both Travers AND Arnold simultaneously? If so, why not possess everyone? Is there a range? I think you have to assume it can only possess one person at a time. And I think at this point Arnold is “dead” to the group, so it can just leave the body lying there.
The animation is OK. I appreciate how much work these are, and the way they can handle multiple characters on a “set” is impressive. But there’s something unreal about how the characters move. Still, better to have it than not.
The Yeti are pretty good, but not great. Their look is believably bulletproof, and the roar is great. But they’re ultimately a plodding guy in a suit.
What did Pete’s family think?
Grace made a point of saying how much she enjoyed this one. It’s a testament to how good the dynamic among the regulars is. She said the Yeti weren’t scary, but the noises were cool. She thought the characters weren’t differentiated enough. She liked Ann, thought she was cool. She thought Victoria was a bit useless and wished she had more to do.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Similar to Kinda, this is one half of a mini arc. The Randomizer is helping us us to appreciate how connections between episodes, when done well and not all-encompassing, can work. Feels like a plea for a soft reboot for the show.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? The Great Intelligence drains the Doctor’s knowledge. It now knows so much that it can conquer the world quite easily, plus it has knowledge of time travel. Over time, it realizes its origin necessitates the Doctor, so it solves the paradox by reviving his body and traveling back in time to create itself. However…
Where’s the Clara splinter? Governess Clara (in The Snowmen) is suspicious of the Second Doctor from the start and ends up being the catalyst for forming the Porternaster Gang. They unite to correct the timeline: Strax strings together the last of his Sontaran technology to send Clara forward to London in the future. There, she sacrifices herself to save Col. Lethbridge–Stewart from the Yeti attack, enabling him to assist the Doctor and turn the tables on the Intelligence.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Dalek. This is fine Doctor Who, if a little long. It’s also peak Yeti.
Chris commentary:
‘Yeti in the loo in Tooting Bec’ came from Pertwee – the collision of the scary and the humdrum would define his era but it sort of starts here
The confusing plethora of Tube stations in this reminds me of Mornington Crescent, a fake boardgame that has been played for years and years on the BBC radio improv comedy show I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue, the radio predecessor to Whose Line Is It Anyway. The idea – and why you could only do this on radio – was they were playing on a board you couldn’t see with rules you can’t understand. In actual fact they’re just calling out random tube station names (many of which, like Tooting Bec, are objectively hilarious) and the winner is the first one to “get to” Mornington Crescent.
The Underground setting, and the use of the army, are clues that this is all World War II “Nazi spy” nostalgia rather than typical 1950s or 60s Manchurian candidate-style Cold War paranoia
Lethbridge-Stewart (last name added at the last second) was originally played by someone else. Courtney was supposed to be Captain Knight, which means he was saved from the horrible fate of having to be sexist to Anne Travers.
L-S based on a Scottish officer, “Mad Mitch,” who “speaks in quotes” as Chorley might say, when the British were fighting in Aden around this time
Some say Chorley is based on David Frost, who was just about to transition from being an entertainment host to being a hard-nosed interviewer who would eventually take on Richard Nixon. But he sounds more like another TV presenter at the time, one whose voice was so distinctive he was parodied by Monty Python, one who actually HAD a Yeti on his show – Alan Wicker
The reveal of it being Staff Sergeant Arnold is very “the butler did it”, to the point that this is very Agatha Christie. Arnold is like a Jeeves type, hovering in the background everywhere, access to everything.
Was he killed and taken over in the tunnel? Confusing.
In the original script Arnold was in the “museum” at the start
What kind of museum has a yeti, a baby giraffe, and is lit by candlelight?!
Julius Silverstein, who won’t give the yeti back to Travers, comes across as a horrible Jewish stereotype – yet he was played by an Austrian who fled Hitler. (Terence Dicks tones it down by changing the name to Emil Julius)
I couldn’t help myself, I laughed long and hard every time the Yeti appear on screen. In part because the giant eyes make them look like the “stupid stupid rat creasures” in Jeff Smith’s long running comic series Bone
ASMR episodes 5 & 6
Three Questions to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here?
- Webber fear.
- I asked for something off the wall that only Who can do, and it gave us a Yeti in the loo (ish)
- Let’s Kill Hitler = WWII connection, many of these actors literally fought to kill Hitler
Where’s the Clara splinter? Explaining to Lethbridge-Stewart all about the Doctor before he meets him, that “this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” and also emphasizing that he’s got a really big head, so always act cool around him, and also he needs bossing around.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? An ASMR “most relaxing episodes” rating … no, a Cassandra-Zarbi rating … the plot was really stretched out.