The Web Planet (TV story)

The Web Planet was the fifth story of Season 2 of Doctor Who. It is unique in Doctor Who history as the only television story where there are no humanoid characters aside from the regulars.

Summary
On the planet Vortis, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki are swept up in the struggles of the butterfly-like Menoptra, 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 Venom Grubs.

The Web Planet (1)
An unknown force pulls the TARDIS off course and onto the planet Vortis, in the Isop Galaxy. The Doctor and Ian investigate and try to find the source whilst Barbara tends to a disoriented Vicki who has been affected by the natural high-frequency communications of the ant-like Zarbi monitoring the TARDIS. Vortis is a thin-atmosphere planet with natural crag-like rock formations and what appear to be pools of acid. The Doctor recognises the planet from the remains of a dead grub-like creature, however he is puzzled by the presence of moons around what should be an otherwise moonless planet. Meanwhile, inside the ship, Barbara is influenced by an unknown force through her gold bracelet. This force mesmerises her and draws her outside, leaving Vicki alone in the untended TARDIS. When the Doctor returns to the TARDIS's position, he finds it has vanished.

The Zarbi (2)
The Zarbi have dragged the TARDIS away. In her trance, Barbara walks into a trio of Menoptra – all that remains of a reconnaissance force sent to prepare the way for an invasion spearhead. They free her of the trance by removing her bracelet, and then debate what to do with her. Barbara escapes; however, she is immediately captured by the Zarbi and brainwashed through the use of a gold neck-harness. The Zarbi take her back to the Menoptra, killing one and capturing another, whilst the third escapes. The Zarbi take Barbara and a Menoptra called Hrostar to the Crater of Needles, where they are forced to gather vegetation and drop it into rivers of acid, thereby feeding the central force of the Zarbi, called the Animus. The Doctor and Ian, having investigated the theft of the TARDIS and a trail leading away, begin tracking it. They are captured by the Zarbi and are taken to the Carsinome, where they find Vicki and the TARDIS. There they indirectly meet the Animus, who talks to the Doctor through what appears to be a mental communications device.

Escape to Danger (3)
The Animus forces the Doctor to help it track down the Menoptra invasion spearhead and the following main invasion force of the Menoptra. Ian escapes, whilst the Doctor, who has already worked out the invasion plans of the Menoptra, and Vicki try to bide their time. Ian, trying to find Barbara, meets with a Menoptra called Vrestin, the only escapee of the Zarbi ambush. He learns from Vrestrin that the Menoptra were native to the planet Vortis along with the Zarbi, until a great evil force, the Animus, slowly and gradually took control of the planet through the mindless Zarbi. By the time the Menoptra had noticed this it was too late, and they had to flee the planet. The Menoptra fled to the moons that had been pulled into orbit around Vortis by the great evil force of the Animus – the same force that had pulled the TARDIS off course. The Zarbi soon locate Ian and Vrestin, but as the pair try to hide, the ground below them gives way.

Crater of Needles (4)
Ian and Vrestin fall down into an underground tunnel, where they meet the Optera. Ian soon realises that the Optera are descendants of the Menoptra, who had fled underground. The Optera had lost their wings through the generations and consider the Menoptra as gods, although they don't recognise Vrestin as a Menoptra. Ian and Vrestin convince the Optera to join them in fighting the Animus. Back in the Carsinome, the Doctor accidentally releases a bit of information about the Menoptra invasion force, particularly that the spearhead plans to land at Sayo Plateau just north of the Crater of Needles. The Animus uses this information to ambush the spearhead. Barbara and Hroster escape from the Crater of Needles and try to meet up with the spearhead and also to warn them of the ineffectiveness of their weapons against the Zarbi. They fail to convince the spearhead force of the uselessness of the weapons, and the spearhead Menoptra are massacred by the Zarbi forces. The Zarbi prepare to attack Barbara, ready for the kill.

Invasion (5)
Barbara and a few Menoptra survive the massacre, and manage to hide in one of the Menoptra's old temples. There they try, without success, to radio the main force and warn them that their weapons are useless against the Zarbi. Meanwhile, the Doctor works out that the Animus uses gold as a conductor to channel a mesmerising force. He counteracts this force and then uses the hidden power of his ring to control one of the Zarbi. The Doctor escapes with Vicki and his captive Zarbi, and meets up with Barbara and the Menoptra. They all devise a plan to attack the Carsinome, with the Menoptra acting as a diversionary force whilst the Doctor and Vicki try to reach the Animus with the Isop-tope device, a living-cell destructor.

The Centre (6)
The Doctor and Vicki make their way back to the Carsinome, where they are taken to the centre to see the Animus, a great spider-like creature. Here they are mesmerised and made helpless by the Animus. Meanwhile, Barbara and the Menoptra attack the Carsinome from the outside, using the Doctor's ring to control a Venom Grub, the Zarbi's living weapon. At the same time, Ian, Vrestin and the Optera try to dig their way to the Animus from below. They all make it to the centre and to the Animus where, with a singular act of willpower, Barbara manages to use the Isop-tope device on the Animus, destroying it. In the end, with the Zarbi free from the control of the Animus and the Menoptra and Optera free to live on Vortis, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki leave in the TARDIS.

Cast

 * The Doctor - William Hartnell
 * Ian Chesterton - William Russell
 * Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
 * Vicki - Maureen O'Brien
 * Zarbi - Robert Jewell, Jack Pitt, Gerald Taylor, Hugh Lund, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin
 * Animus Voice - Catherine Fleming
 * Vrestin - Roslyn de Winter
 * Hrostar - Arne Gordon
 * Hrhoonda - Arthur Blake
 * Prapillus - Jolyon Booth
 * Hlynia - Jocelyn Birdsall
 * Hilio - Martin Jarvis
 * Hetra - Ian Thompson
 * Nemini - Barbara Joss

Uncredited Cast

Production Crew

 * Writer - Bill Strutton
 * Director - Richard Martin
 * Producer - Verity Lambert
 * Script Editor - Dennis Spooner
 * Designer - John Wood
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Elisabeth Dunbar
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Gillian Chardet
 * Costumes - Daphne Dare
 * Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton
 * Film Editor - Gitta Zadek
 * Insect Movement - Roslyn de Winter
 * Make-Up - Sonia Markham
 * Production Assistant - Norman Stewart
 * Special Sound - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Ralph Walton
 * Studio Sound - Ray Angel
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Producer - Verity Lambert
 * Director - Richard Martin

Story Notes

 * This story was originally entitled The Zarbi and was made under the working title The Centre of Terror.
 * The Centre was initially titled "Centre of Terror". The novelisation restores this title for the sixth chapter.
 * The first and so far only television story in which all the characters, other than the regulars, are entirely non-humanoid.
 * Jacqueline Hill does not appear in Escape to Danger as she was on holiday while it was filmed. She is not credited in this episode's closing credits and later complained to the production team about this.
 * Noted choreographer Rosalyn de Winter was hired to create the distinctive movements and stilted speech of the Menoptra. She was so successful that the production team asked her to take on the role of the Menoptra Vrestin (which she accepted).
 * The costumes for all of the aliens who appeared in this story were created by Daphne Dare.
 * Believed lost in the BBC's early 1970s purge, negative film prints of all six episodes were recovered from BBC Enterprises in the late 1970s. These prints appear to have stemmed from a 1973 sale to Algeria and as a result the final episode was amended so that the "Next Episode" caption referred to The Space Museum instead of The Lion, as the next story The Crusade was not sold to Arab countries. There were also some edits to the first episode. Unedited prints of all six episodes were also discovered in Nigeria in 1985.

Influences

 * 50s giant insect movies
 * Capek's The Insect Play
 * The Outer Limits episode The Zanti Misfits

Ratings

 * The Web Planet - 13.5m viewers.
 * The Zarbi - 12.5m viewers.
 * Escape to Danger - 12.5m viewers.
 * Crater of Needles - 13.0m viewers.
 * Invasion - 12.0m viewers.
 * The Centre - 11.5m viewers.


 * The first episode of the serial gained the highest number of viewers for any Doctor Who episode in the 1960s.

Myths

 * The misty effect over the planets surface was created by applying Vaseline to the camera lens (The effect was actually created with the assistance of special camera lenses)
 * The butterfly creatures in the story are called the Menoptera (The correct spelling is Menoptra)

Location Filming

 * The story was filmed at Riverside Studio 1, Hammersmith, London

Discontinuity

 * In Escape to Danger one of the Zarbi can be heard hitting the camera.
 * In Crater of Needles as Ian is buried in a rock fall someone can be heard laughing.
 * For most of the story shadows can be seen across the sky.
 * When Vicky asks for a sedative Barbara gives her an Aspirin.

Continuity

 * The Second Doctor returns to Vortis in the novel Twilight of the Gods. The Fifth Doctor visits Vortis in the audio play Return to the Web Planet.
 * In  Bad Wolf the Face of Boe is stated to be the oldest living inhabitant of the Isop galaxy.
 * Venom Grubs are again referred to in Boom Town.
 * It is revealed in the novel All-Consuming Fire that the Animus was actually a Great Old One, one of several supremely powerful creatures that escaped the destruction of the prior universe by shifting into a later universe. The Great Old Ones are from the Cthulhu mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft and expanded on by other writers. Specifically, the Animus was identified as Lloigor, a Great Old One created by August Derleth and Mark Schorer.
 * Other examples of Great Old Ones include the Great Intelligence (The Abominable Snowmen), The Nestenes (Spearhead from Space), Fenric (The Curse of Fenric) and Cthulhu (the novel White Darkness).
 * In the Doctor Who Annual 2006 it is revealed that the Animus (here called the Greater Animus) was destroyed during the Time War.
 * The Doctor has heard of Vortis but has never visited previously.
 * Barbara is wearing the bracelet she was given by Nero in The Romans

Quotes
Animus - "What Vortis is, I am. What you are, I will become."

Story Arcs
Great Old Ones Arc

Similar stories

 * Venusian Lullaby - Another attempt to set Human characters in a completely alien environment.
 * Return to the Web Planet - Big Finish audio story starring Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton which sees the Fifth Doctor visit the planet Vortis in a sequal to this story.

DVD, Video, and Other Releases
DVD Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Web Planet.

Released:
 * Region 2 3rd October 2005
 * PAL - BBCDVD BBCDVD1355


 * Region 4 3rd November 2005
 * Region 1 5th September 2006

Contents:
 * Tales of Isop - The original cast and crew recall the making of this story, featuring William Russell, Maureen O'Brien, Martin Jarvis, Verity Lambert, Richard Martin, John Wood and Sonia Markham.
 * The Lair of Zarbi Supremo - William Russell reads the short story from the first Doctor Who Annual.
 * Doctor Who Annual - The first ever Doctor Who Annual from 1965 is presented in its entirety (DVD-ROM only - PC/Mac)
 * Spanish soundtrack - An option to view Episode 6 in Spanish.
 * Give-a-Show Slides - A set of 1960s Doctor Who slides, based on The Web Planet.
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Subtitles
 * Commentary (moderated by Gary Russell): William Russell, Verity Lambert, Richard Martin and Martin Jarvis

Rear Credits:
 * Starring William Hartnell
 * By Bill Strutton
 * Produced by Verity Lambert
 * Directed by Richard Martin
 * Cover by Clayton Hickman

Video Release

Released as Doctor Who: The Web Planet over two separate cassette cases held together by a band of plastic.

Released:
 * UK September 1990
 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV4405


 * US August 1994
 * NTSC - CBS/FOX Video 8142
 * NTSC - Warner Video E1265

Notes: The 'Next Episode' caption has been removed from Episode 6.

Target Novelisation

 * The serial was only the second to be novelised by Frederick Muller. It was written by Bill Strutton under the title Doctor Who and the Zarbi in 1965. This novel introduced the concept of the "Zarbi Supremo", a vast Zarbi with a role similar to that of a queen bee. In 1973 Target Books acquired the rights to the novelisation and reprinted it as one of the first in their long running series of Doctor Who novelisations.