Doctor Who: The Web Planet Review

Classic Doctor Who is usually seen as being something that has alot of really good episodes in it and while that is true there indeed some shockingly bad episodes in it as well. Case in point the very episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today as this is a episode that is one of the few episodes in early classic Doctor Who that is just straight up dull to watch with the episode even having some of the worst looking villains in it as well and so then join me as I review the episode that sees The Doctor go up against what can only be best described as being giant alien ants with the episode in question being called simply just "The Web Planet" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is when The Doctor , Ian , Barbera and Vicki land on the planet Vortis they find themselves drawn into the war between the planets original inhabitants the Menoptra and the evil Animus and it's slaves the Zarbi. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad however tho this episodes plot really isn't all that good as to be frank nothing happens in this episodes plot that makes it interesting or even worth watching in the first place as the plot of the episode is so thin that at times it truly does feel like that your just watching the characters seemingly doing these random things for little to know reason when even in the worst episode of Classic Doctor Who you could at the very least say that there was some attempt at making a decent plot out of it's concept where as here there's none of that with this episode feeling like that it was made on the cheap with everything about the episode reflecting that approach with the episodes plot not even getting alot of focus alot of the time as they set up something that whenever the Zarbi are basically talking to each other Vicki gets a headache which would be a good thing to bring back into the plot in a meaningful way but it's gets dropped around the halfway point which makes that plot point seem pointless with the episodes plot on the whole being one of the more weaker plots from classic Doctor Who with the plot of the episode not even being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , William Russell as Ian Chesterton and Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright. Also starring in this episode is Maureen O'Brien as Vicki , Roslyn De Winter as Vrestin , Arne Gordon as Hrostar , Arthur Blake as Hrhoonda , Jolyon Booth as Prapillus , Jocelyn Birdsall as Hlynia , Martin Jarvis as Hilio , Ian Thompson as Hetra , Barbara Joss as Nemini and Catherine Fleming as The Voice Of Animus.

Now then inters of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With this episodes acting being an awful lot better then what this episode really demanded that it be as by all rights this episodes acting should have been really bad as nothing regarding the episode says that it demands good acting and yet that's exactly what all of this episodes actors give us with them all turning in some really good performances all throughout the episode with the regular series leads really just out acting all of the episodes guest actors which is something that really does make alot of sense as they would have been playing there characters for alot longer and would therefor have a better grip on how there characters would act in any given situation and heck even Maureen O'Brien who joined the show in the series that this episode is in has a solid grip on her character and acting does reflect that with the best actor in the whole entire episode not even being any of the main four series regulars as rather it's Catherine Fleming as even tho she just voices a character in this episode there really is a certain amount of threat and menace behind her voice that really does make the character of Animus seem to be all the more threatening with it being made clear as day that she really had a blast in playing this character in this very episode with the acting that's in this episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Whilst Doctor Who was always known for being a very cheap show there was a certain inventiveness that made the show charming to watch with that being shown again here in this episode as to show the effects that the planet has on itis habitants the only thing that the crew did was rub Vaseline on the camera. Which granted is very inventive thing to do especially when you have a really small budget and therefor can't afford to make the set itself look all that visually interesting but at the same time tho it does make it kind of hard to see what's going on in screen as just looks like they just poored a whole tub of it on the camera when only adding a very small amount would have worked just as well and yet because they chose not to do that it does come across as being more of a detriment to the episode as all us the audience are now left doing is wondering what's actually happening on the screen because it really is so hard to work out just what's going on in the scene but to give the episode credit where it's due doing something like this in the early to mid sixties was a new thing to do as alot of shows back then really didn't do that sort of thing and in this regard it does make the makers of this episode seem to be all the more forward thinking then what they actually were as all they were doing was using something that would have most likely have been cheap to find in any shop back in the sixties and working well within there budget but in saying that tho this is the kind of episode that really didn't need anything added to it to make it seem more visually interesting with this being due to the fact that it doesn't make the episode on the whole any better it just makes us the audience confused as to what's actually happening on screen at that point in time.

This episode was made at a time when the BBC were trying any and all villains that could possibly replace the Daleks. With none of there experiments working with it being worse here as the helpers for the villain of the episode are basically just giant alien ants and that's it with the original habitants of the planet Vortis the Menoptra basically being nothing more then either giant alien bees or giant alien wasps and that's it with being obvious that the Zarbi themselves are just men in costumes which doesn't make them look scary it makes them look more comical then anything else and it makes the episode come across as being all then more cheap to make then what it most likely already was in the first place this is despite the fact that the Zarbi on the whole aren't a bad concept they just needed to be better executed as the idea of having these giant bug like creatures that can only communicate through these clicking noises which yes granted does get to be really annoying really fast it doesn't change the fact that they are a good idea it just would have been more effective of an idea if they were smaller and made to be less obvious that they were just men in costumes as then you could play with the fear that people do have for bugs and have that be what makes them scary as people are afraid of bugs and so so it would work as a really good and creepy idea for their first outing on the show as for the Menoptra they are literally just people in bee costumes and because of that there's really no way to fix it as there always going to look cheap and you can't remove them from the plot as they play a pivotal role in the episodes plot.

Look just to be frank here this episode is so boring as for alot of the episode it's either just stuck on repeat mode at best or nothing happens to advance the episodes plot. Which would be fine if this was say a twelve part episode as then you could argue that it's like that due to the episodes pacing and that the better stuff would be coming later on in the episode however this is only six episodes long and it's really something that could have benefitted by being alot less boring and alot more exciting to watch as there are whole segments of this storyline that could have been cut out as we don't need to see Barbara and a Menoptra go to this one specific place and see there entire journey across the planet itself just like how we don't need to see Ian possibly have a love interest with Vrestin either as while there journey to try and find Barbera and catch up with The Doctor and Vicki is an exciting part of the episode it also adds nothing to the episode on the whole as if anything this is an episode that could very easily do with the treatment that both The War Games In Color and The Daleks In Color gave to there respective stories where they just cut down in certain bits of the story and presented in a new feature film like format as this is something that would stop the episode from being less boring to watch and then there would be chance that things would actually be happening instead of just having whole episodes where the characters go from being held prisoner by one group of people to them escaping to them being captured by the same group of people as that makes the episode feel like it's a chore to sit through this is despite the fact there are some impressive shots and effects done in this episode all of which do make the episode a decent watch.

It could ever be argued that The Doctor himself doesn't really play that big of a role in the episode as both he and Vicki spend a good chunk of the second half of the episode being held captive by the Animus. Which is a creature that's bit hard to describe as it looks like a giant brain in some shots which to be to the episode is a fitting design for the character to have as it does make the character look all the more creepier then what it already is in the first place but what lets that design down is the fact that the character doesn't really have that much of a plan to begin if since all it really wants to do is just make the Menoptra leave the planet and that's really it which if anything that just makes it look selfish and isn't really much of an evil plan with it feeling like that the episodes writer Bill Strutton really couldn't be bothered to come up with a plan for his evil villain either that or he saw the design that they were going with and he realized that the creature couldn't really do much either way there needed to be something done to make sure that the Animus had an evil scheme as it just looks like that it's being evil purely for the sake of being evil where as with creatures like the Daleks or even the Cybermen there was a method behind the madness as it were and it's that method that made those characters seem all the more scary then what they already were where as here despite Animus having a really creepy design it comes across as being less scary because of the fact that all of the ideas behind the character can't be fully realized due to the fact that the character doesn't really have an evil scheme to think of in any way whatsoever.

Now then I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was but I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running of roughly two hours and twenty minuets. With the episode being made up of six episodes all of which are twenty five minuets apiece with the episode having the right amount of running time there to fully cover that amount of running time and while the episode does use it's running time wisely by developing it's plot as well as it could have done this is an episode that really could have done with being one or two episodes shorter as that would then make the episode be more of a tighter episode to watch and we wouldn't have scenes that go nowhere and might actually finish plotlines that it starts as the episode could have something interesting with Vicki getting a headache every time that the Zarbi talk like maybe that's how they work out the Zarbi are actually just underlings for a much more bigger threat or something like that rather then just dropping the plot line all together and pretending that it never happened in the first place but in saying that tho if the episode was shorter then it would risk not developing any of the episodes characters as while the episodes regular characters of course don't really need character development in this episode as they have several other episodes in which to get it it's the episodes guest characters that would suffer as they would come across as being very one dimensional and while there not that well developed in this episode there is still something given to the important guest characters that does make them stand out like the fact that Vrestin is someone that does want to some good no matter the cost and that is something that might be lost if this episode was shorter then what it already is in the first place but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episodes action being the best part of the episode simply because of the fact that's when the episode gets to be actually exciting and it's when things actually happen as alot of the time you really can't tell what's happening even in the episodes action packed cliffhanger endings alot of which are really good like the ending to episode three "Escape To Danger" where Vrestin accidentally causes a cave in in the case that she and Ian are forced into hiding in when there being chased by Zarbi but the best action scene in the whole entire episode being the one in the episodes third act when Barbera has to use a machine that The Doctor had invented to take out the Animus which yes is a simple action scene but given that this era of the show didn't really do action scenes not like Doctor Who does these days then it's a wonder that the episode had some really good action in it's own right with this episode having alot more better action then what it really should have done as by all rights this episodes action should have been really dull due to the fact that the Zarbi can't really do all that much and Animus can't do anything at all and yet even with that in mind this episodes action was alot more better then what it really should have been something that the episodes third act action scene can really attest to in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this episode might just be the worst William Hartnell episode of Doctor Who out there as despite it's ambition what lets the episode down is it's lame script and budget which only limits the episode to a few locations all of which look exactly the same with the episodes script nit being bad but needing a re-write to make it be all the more then better then what it ultimately ended up being in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . UK , the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.