Doctor Who: The Web Planet (Story 13)
by Richard Martin
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DVD details
Actor: Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O'Brien, William Hartnell, William RussellDirector: Richard Martin
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 146 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2666
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- "Somewhere, somehow we are being slowly dragged down!" When Doctor and his friends stray from their astral plane and the Tardis materializes in eerie alien surroundings, a mysterious force prevents them from leaving. Is it a natural phenomenon or some malevolent intelligence? Uncanny occurrences are followed by encounters with the deadly Zarbis and their unknown leader, to whom the travellers fall
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Web Planet (Story 13)
DVD Review: Lengthy dramas from the Doctor Who vaults
Summary: 5 Stars
Another two adventures with the intrepid Time Lord Doctor Who join the ever expanding library of DVD releases, this time focusing on two earlier eras from the original BBC series featuring Doctor's number one and three - William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee. The Web Planet and Inferno are both lengthy stories which have achieved iconic status in the show's history, albeit for very different reasons.
The earlier story, The Web Planet, a six-part epic from the show's second season, broadcast in the late Winter of 1965 was at the time the most expensive and indeed the most popular story the series had produced. In a very daring move for its era, the story is set in a completely alien world featuring no humanoid characters at all, save for the four regular cast members. The inhabitants of the planet Zarbi are in fact all insect based life forms and the budget for creating all of the required costumes, special effects and unworldly scenes was far higher than the show's normal allowance. Unfortunately, nothing ages faster than special effects and alas, forty-one years later, the cutting edge and innovative design of the show is now somewhat risible. In addition, it has to be said that the storyline itself is somewhat lacking. Early Doctor Who was so much slower than the fast paced drama we expect from modern TV, but even taking that into account The Web Planet certainly drags along somewhat tediously. Yet despite this, viewers at the time lapped it up and it achieved the highest ratings ever recorded for the show until 1975 and indeed only three Doctor Who stories have ever out-stripped it in the audience figures.
Inferno, the fourth and closing story from Jon Pertwee's first season as the Doctor, originally broadcast in the UK in the Spring of 1970, is also hampered by length, stretching to an even longer seven episode count. But somehow, despite the misgivings of the production team, the longer format does in fact work particularly well for this story. Set on present day Earth, the Doctor is worried by a deranged scientist's plans to bore through the Earth's crust to un-tap a new energy source. Inadvertently slipping sideways into a fascist run parallel Earth, the Doctor meets all the same characters in their Nazi-like alter-egos and witnesses the end of the world. Thankfully he gets back to the real Earth in time to stop the project. This split storyline works incredibly well and it's clear that the regular cast completely relish the opportunity to play what are in effect two completely different characters in one story. It does drag, there's no getting away from that, but the separate story strands do keep the pace going and although the ratings took a big dip while it was on air, the audience appreciation figures were the highest for the entire season.
It's usually the extras that are included with each Doctor Who DVD that make the discs so worthwhile, including the stunning restoration work for the original tapes. Both stories have indeed been restored to their original broadcast quality and are very impressive prints as a result. Alas, I was somewhat disappointed with the other extras that were included. For The Web Planet, there's a commentary track featuring the show's original Producer Verity Lambert along with the story's Director Richard Martin. They are joined by one of the regular cast, William Russell Enoch, and guest actor Martin Jarvis. They all contribute elsewhere, along with the other surviving member of the regular cast, Maureen O'Brien, with a 37 minute documentary on the making of the show. Alas, there is so much duplication in this documentary and the commentary, that it almost makes it redundant. Everything else included in the DVD are either sound or picture files, including a 56 minute audio story featuring the Zarbi and an alternate Spanish soundtrack for episode six. For Inferno, all the extras are bundled onto a second disc and include two 35 minute documentaries, one on the making of the show and one on the early days of the UNIT team that supported the Doctor during his exile on Earth. The commentary for the story is provided in the main by Producer Barry Letts, Script Editor Terrance Dicks and actor Nicholas Courtney who played the regular supporting role of The Brigadier. For two episodes, the commentary is given over to John Levene, who played the role of Sergeant Benton regularly from 1968 to 1975 and makes his biggest appearance in a story to date in Inferno. Letts, Dicks and Courtney always provide an interesting commentary and they work so well together, but I do feel they are being a bit overused. I was particularly disappointed that Caroline John, who played the Doctor's assistant Liz Shaw, was not part of the commentary team as she was the leading lady for this entire season, but only featured in four stories. Not utilizing her seems a missed opportunity to me, particularly as Courtney makes many, many more appearances in the show so there is enormous scope for him to be used on future soundtracks. As this was her fourth and last story, Ms. John should have had a lot to contribute and indeed she is featured in both documentaries. The remaining extras are mainly again pictorial files and it has to be said that they are somewhat lackluster. The focus on this release is clearly the story itself - and that's nothing to complain about.
Inferno is often cited as one of the fan's favorite stories from the Pertwee era and I certainly agree with that line. Producer Letts makes it fairly clear he's not in that particular camp, but he admits at the end of the final episode that it's perhaps not as bad as he thought! The Web Planet team is also very proud of their work and given what they had to work with at the time, this seems fairly justified. Both are welcome additions to the Doctor Who DVD library and make entertaining viewing for sure.
Description of Doctor Who: The Web Planet (Story 13)
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