Doctor Who: The Web Planet

A serial that has been called too ambitious.

I once saw a fellow who called himself Scarecrow Cenobite (this was on a horror movie message board) describe the Doctor Who serial The Web Planet as an attempt to do "something more alien than James Cameron's Avatar, on a budget of fifty pence". That description seems rather accurate to me. The Doctor (still being played by "First Doctor" William Hartnell at this point) and his travel companions find themselves on a very strange alien world in this one, and even though the show did not have the budget to make the special effects that the serial required look convincing, the production still dove right into it.

While continuing to make its way through time and space, the Doctor's vehicle known as the TARDIS (which is still stuck in the form of a 1960s England police box) materializes for a moment, and that's just long enough for it to get dragged down to the surface of a planet that has a strong gravitational pull. We'll come to find out that this planet, which has no vegetation and looks like a moon, is called Vortis, and it's inhabited by giant insects that are at war with each other.

The Doctor and companions - 1960s London school teachers Ian (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), and 25th century teenager Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) - eventually find themselves siding with the Menoptera or Menoptra, which are sort of butterfly-like winged creatures, but of course were played by people in butterfly-like costumes. We see these things fly on a couple occasions, but many of the Menoptera in the story have lost their ability to fly, which I'm sure was written in so the production wouldn't have to deal with flying effects too many times.

They can't fly because their wings are pulled off by the Zarbi, which are giant ants... and are clearly people wearing giant ant costumes over the top of their bodies, while walking around on their very human two legs. The Zarbi are the mindless servants of something called the Animus, an evil alien force that came from the darkness of space, tapped into the planet's magnetic pole, and is now spreading a fungus-like web called the Carsinome around the entire planet.

The Menoptera and Zarbi lived peacefully on Vortis until the Animus arrived, and now the butterfly creatures are planning to attack the Animus and reclaim their planet. Our heroes get all wrapped up in this plot, and writer Bill Strutton managed to make the situation last six episodes (titled The Web Planet, The Zarbi, Escape to Danger, Crater of Needles, Invasion, and The Centre). Along the way, Ian and Barbara join and befriend Menoptera; we find out there's another species called the Optera, which are compared to woodlice and worship the Menoptera; the Doctor and Vicki find a way to take control of a Zarbi, which Vicki names Zombo; and the Doctor is questioned and menaced by the Animus, which hopes to use the TARDIS against its attackers. The Animus speaks to the Doctor through a communication tube that looks like an old school salon hair dryer; it lowers from the ceiling and hangs over his head.

I can't say I'm very fond of The Web Planet - in fact, I had so much trouble getting into it that it was one of the serials that disrupted my first Doctor Who binge back in the day. Six episodes were too many for this one, as far as I'm concerned, but it was a commendable effort. The serial has been put down as being "too ambitious", which definitely isn't the worst thing a project can be. Apparently the driving idea behind making this serial was the merchandising potential of all the creatures that were packed into it. The producers had seen how viewers had caught Dalekmania, now it seems they were hoping viewers might want to buy some Zombo toys,.

The Web Planet did not become a pop culture sensation like the Dalek serials did, but the first episode of the serial was the most viewed episode of the Hartnell era, catching the eyes of 13.5 million viewers, so that was a success.