041 The Web of Fear

Started 4-Nov


Doctor Who does not get much better than this.

Peter Bryant now is officially in the Producer's chair. New script editor is (recently passed away) Derrick Sherwin, his assistant Terrance Dicks.

This has these the very best elements:

• The mystery, what is happening? Right from the early scenes.... "Londoners flee, menace spreads..."
• The mood, odd versus familiar...everyday Tube stations with sappers everywhere and no commuters...
• The not what it seems... when does Arnold succumb to the Intelligence's influence, what is the motivation behind what he says to Travers in ep5?
• The call back to a previous episode (which was almost a new thing at this point),
• Characters with uncertain and probably shifty motives... Chorley, Travers, even Lethbridge Stewart at one point.
• Characters with nervous or unsure positions... Evans and Chorley.
• Characters who are sensible but still get scared witless... Anne and Lethbridge-Stewart... his wobble in ep4 is so dramatic.
• There is a direct example of the main fault with the philosophy of Utilitarianism ("it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong") (as founded by 18th century Jeremy Bentham, not the DW superfan) in a line spoken by Evans in ep5 ("if the Intelligence will let us go why can't we let it have him (the Doctor)?" (Why do you trust the Intelligence? and Surely the greatest good is to eliminate the Intelligence not feed it?)
• The quiet climax with the an almost benign and pathetic villain (in the burned animated cadaver of the victim Sergeant Arnold who in turn was a not nice person when he was alive),
• The absence of any pretence this is about or for children,
• The hollow wooden clunking footsteps in the tunnels...
• The subtlety of the way the scenes in ep6 have changed into completely bizarre scenes whereas in ep 1 it seemed almost normal.

Directed by the master of spooky short form television direction. Douglas Camfield. There's no cutaway to stock footage crap in this. The episodes of the Sweeney that you remember are his. The episode of Blakes 7 he did would have been a Moloch like runaround except for him. There's a classic serials version of Beau Geste he did which is actually interesting. The guy was just bloody good.

Go find this bit, right now: Episode 4 from about 7m12s to 8m25s. It's so awesome....this would be banal exposition in any other director's hands. Of course Troughton and Courtney are helping a lot. The other two are Richardson Morgan (who'll be back in The Ark in Space) and Ralph Watson (Monster of Peladon, Horror of Fang Rock). Look at the framing and use of the music. We're standing around talking in a railway station... but this flies through the deep space of the imagination in a scary, scary way...

Read the article below for more.


This makes a strong pitch for the best ever DW.


Another new no.1


ABM Rating 3.95/4.00 

LJM Rating 4.80/5.00

SPJ Rating 8.60/10.00
 

No. 1 (out of 41)


Link to Cumulative Rankings



Rankings Scoreboard

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https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/doctor-who/252140/doctor-who-breaking-down-a-key-scene-from-the-web-of-fear

Accessed 18-11-09

Doctor Who: Breaking Down a Key Scene from The Web of Fear

by Andrew Blair   Jan 20, 2016


"The Web of Fear" was commissioned after a positive response to "The Abominable Snowmen" by then Story Editor (soon-to-be producer) Peter Bryant, with the intention that it would close out Doctor Who’s fifth season. Rewrites for "Fury from the Deep" resulted in it becoming the penultimate story (one of many variables that resulted in Nicholas Courtney playing the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart). Previously available as an audio soundtrack narrated by Fraser Hines, the film of "The Web of Fear" was returned to the BBC archives in 2013.
.....

It’s become something of an in-joke that UNIT are somewhat useless against any sort of invading force, be it a giant robot or Mike from The Young Ones, but here—before UNIT, but still in a reality where at least one soldier looked like Derek Ware—there’s nothing funny about their fight. In a deserted London, they look for the TARDIS—left in Covent Garden—as a means of escape, only to be intercepted by a group of Yeti. Bullets have some effect on them—breaking with tradition before it even started—but explosives do the job. Then the group begin running out of ammo, and are surrounded. Only Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart escapes with his life.

Filmed on December 17, 1967 and January 14, 1968, the fight between soldiers and Yeti was done under pressure of a tight schedule. The lack of daylight hours meant director Douglas Camfield wasn’t able to complete the shots he wanted in December (the rest of the film sequences took place in Stage 3 at Ealing). The actual location is North of the market (made famous, of course, by its appearances in "The War Machines" and "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs") around Shelton Street, with filming also taking place on Neal Street and Old Brewer’s Yard. Permission to use the yard (owned at the time by the grocers TJ Poupart, whose name simply isn’t funny) was most likely gained by Production Assistant Gareth Gwenlan, later to be BBC Head of Comedy and an insult in Red Dwarf.

What makes this scene work so well is that you get a sense of the soldiers' desperation in the face of a seemingly unstoppable opponent. That they do manage to destroy some of the Yeti robots (in redesigned costumes for this serial, to make them look less cuddly) but still succumb makes it worse: they’re clearly competent but out of their depth in a way that makes later UNIT-era fight scenes seem more like Golden Age comic knockabouts. Derek Ware and HAVOC staged some brutal fights in the Pertwee era (and also a fair few in the Hartnell era), but this is his best work. It unfolds like a horror film: the introduction of the threat, the attempt to fight it, the realization that you can’t as the cast is whittled down.

Douglas Camfield is rightly lauded as one of the show’s great directors, famed for his military-precision and preparation. From what we know of his approach, we can be sure that he’d have planned this meticulously. To film a seven minute action sequence on location in Central London involving men in monster costumes, gunfire, explosions, and special effects—on the budget of Doctor Who—seems like a minor miracle, especially with the rapidly dwindling daylight, plus the distraction of Fraser Hines and a Yeti-encased John Levene doing a ballroom dance around Covent Garden.

In fact, with studio scenes interspersed between location segments, you can see that Camfield is enjoying the freedom of the space. The contrast in camera work is significant, with studio scenes largely static due to the limited space. On location whips and zooms rush towards the oncoming Yeti, following the soldier's gaze, almost double-taking in shock. Multiple shots of the few Yeti costumes (six actors are credited as Yeti in the story) emerging from every conceivable nook and cranny give the impression of an unstoppable army that will keep on coming. There's a quick cut to the locked gates being attacked from the outside, one of many ways the editing conveys the fight's constant movement.

While the scene cuts back to the Doctor and Captain Knight, you can hear the gunshots in the background. Brian Hodgson added a roar to the Yeti to make them seem fiercer—a slowed-down and reverberated toilet flush, try it at home—but it seems so quiet compared to the din of the previous scenes. Lethbridge-Stewart shouts over the sound of gunfire, explosions, and roars. The scene is backed with stock music. M. Slaven's "Space Adventure (Parts 1-3)" was most likely selected because of its track record in augmenting Doctor Who monsters slowly advancing towards people. More commonly associated with Cybermen (it was used in "Tomb of the Cybermen" for the famous scenes of the waking Cybermen breaking free of their tombs), it was part of the 'Classic Series Medley' at the 2013 Doctor Who proms. Its rhythm is like stop-start footsteps, complimenting the Yeti's inexorable movement, the ominous brass alerting more sluggish viewers that there's reason to be wary.

What sets this apart from other Doctor Who fight scenes is the length, and that it's not any sort of grand last stand. It's a desperate gambit, sure, but it's to get to the TARDIS so that they might try to escape in it, rather than the final stage of a masterplan. We know it's a brutal story, as we've seen soldiers die in valiant rearguard actions out of foolish bravery (attacking a Yeti) or bad luck (their friend attacks a Yeti, and then their gun jams), but this attempt to fight back just gets nearly everyone killed.

Yet it's not the soldiers' fault. They fight well against overwhelming numbers, toppling several Yeti with explosives in well-framed and edited shots (kudos to film editors Philip Barnikel and Colin Hobson, and cameramen Alan Jonas and Jimmy Court). By keeping the frame compact and cutting before the Yetis hit the ground, it keeps the sense of movement and chaos going, while maintaining a steady pace that lets you follow the action. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is the focal point, when he cries out in warning to his soldiers but they fight on til the bitter end, you feel his pain as he returns to base and snaps at the Doctor. We understand. We know exactly what he's been through.

That's why it's a great scene. It's thrilling and horrific. And Lethbridge-Stewart feels every death.