[singlepic id=731 w=259 h=351 float=left]If anybody had told me this time last year that I would be sitting here reviewing The Web of Fear I wouldn’t have believed them. Yes the omnirumor was in full flow then but as far as I was concerned it was just that, a rumour. Then October 2013 came along and everything changed. No longer would I watch the excellent episode one and then have to resort to either watching a recon or listening to the BBC narrated soundtrack, The Web of Fear was back – minus episode three – and it was here to stay.
Okay, I’ll start with the DVD content, of which there isn’t much. The DVD includes a trailer for the story before, The Enemy of the World, which came out last year and that is it basically. There is no audio commentaries, no making-of documentary, no animated missing episode (it’s a recon) and no wild-card documentaries about Victoria’s knickers.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, the DVD range has been one of the best for any television series released on DVD, but I have to ask myself if it really needs it? All of the DVDs in this range I have bought mainly for the extras, all but the odd few episodes that have come back I own on video already, but not The Web of Fear, and the same could be said for The Enemy of the World. I really think that if you’re going to ever buy a classic series DVD just for the story, this is it.
Now on to the story itself. It’s a total joy to watch the story past the first episode after all these years, now we can see what happens next and it doesn’t disappoint. The story is well acted, well directed and the sets are fantastic, it really does have a very claustrophobic feel too it as the main characters are walking through the underground tunnels and the Great Intelligence’s evil web is closing in all around them. The story also has a sense of mystery to it as you never know who the Intelligence is controlling until the very end of the adventure and everyone is a suspect. The fourth episode is a great game-change episode as almost all the minor characters are killed off in a major battle sequence, staged and shot exceptionally well by the story’s director Douglas Camfield.
We shouldn’t forget here that this story also holds the important accolade of being the first appearance of the late great Nicholas Courtney as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. Courtney doesn’t appear until episode three but hits the ground running, putting in the kind of bravura performance that would ensure his character would remain a regular fixture in the series for years to come. There is a brilliantly played scene by Courtney near the end of episode four when the Colonel returns to the underground base, his troops killed, and is almost ready to accept defeat.
If I was to sum this story up I would say that this is one of those rare stories that sets the benchmark for all Doctor Who stories to follow, they don’t get much better than this.
Written by Nick Headley
