Give The Web Planet Another Chance
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- Опубліковано 27 бер 2024
- The 1965 Doctor Who serial The Web Planet is often seen as a lesser product in the show's history, but I vastly disagree. Here is why.
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Title card designed and animated by Delan Stinson
Footage used from:
The Web Planet
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Metropolis
Inferno
Earthshock
Music:
"City Music 1 and 2" by Tristram Cary
"Signals", "The Secret Place" and "Drift" by Brian Eno
"Dream" by Michael Freckelton (hey, that's me!)
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The Web Planet is still one of the most ambitious imaginative stories ever. Everyone criticizes its technical limitations but overlooks its imagination.
The Web Planet isn’t a story that ranks highly for me, it’s kind of middle of the road as far as Hartnell’s go for me, but it is one that I find myself rewatching a lot. There’s something very captivating about it, and likewise I find it has a relaxing atmosphere in a way.
I appreciate its ambition and I totally get why it was the most viewed episode for about 15 years, it probably had the same effect on 60s audiences, kept them coming back week after week. It’s just so unique, it’s alien, it’s what doctor who should be.
I always loved the web planet. Ever since I was about 6.
this is a story i absolutely fell in love with reading the novelization. the illustrations really sell Vortis in a way the TV show couldn't have ever hoped to achieve.
No tolerance for people criticizing the effects on Web Planet, they're beautiful. It's the most ambitious story in all Who, period, and the only one which really tries to depict a truly alien planet, with a wonderful Lovecraftian villain. It's in my top five stories 🙂
"No. I don't think I will" couldn't resist but on a serious note it's a story I can never really get into, it's very ambitious and I definitely respect that especially for the time but I just can never get into it, it just doesn't work for me unfortunately but it's nice to see others appreciate this story that I'm not a big fan of, that's the wonderful thing about Doctor Who is that every story has it's fans as does every era and every season and that's one reason I love this show!
You perfectly found the words I s searched for myself when I learned that many don't like this serial. Everytime I asked myself why I like it the only answer was that it feels artsy and I apreciate artsy but I can't argue with that only ashure others that they are not alone with liking it for some reason. Now I have a video to reference. Thank you.
Loved the Zarbi and Menoptra, remember Doctor Who was pretty much a kids programme at that time and looked at from a kid's point of view it did its job.
Everytime I watch it, I watch it with the same mindset I watch all early Doctor Who episodes with.
I enjoy most of the others.
This one derails my watchthroughs every. single. time.
Also, the seadevil's sound track has a special place for it in hell, lol.
I read the Target novelization well before I got to see the story. Needless to say, the TV version was disappointing to me. Now, a totally alien world with no humans except for the Tardis crew makes it unique. I find the Operta annoying and just there for Ian to have something to do. The butterfly people (the Menoperta) are OK but look like men in suits as do all the bug people. It deserves credit for trying. Good analogy saying it's like Expressionist film.
That was my experience with Time-Flight. Loved the Target novelisation, then watched the show and was viciously disappointed
Personally, I think The Web Planet is bloody brilliant!
The ambition to tell a story that is totally alien on a limited budget is remarkable - and the visual effects are pretty awesome. Plus it has the first look at the Astral Map (which as a child reading the Target novel of The Zarbi made me think it was a continuing prop).
Nestled between two historicals, it provides a welcome change of pace - though the story itself is basically a retread of The Dalek Invasion of Earth on many levels.
The main issue for me is just the Zarbi bleeping. Given how sensitive I am to sound in general (to the extent that I can frequently hear our not-next-door neighbour’s dog barking over the television that’s in the same room!), that just makes the entire experience actively *physically* painful to the extent that I literally can’t focus on anything else whenever that noise is happening.
(insert clip from _The War Games: Episode Nine_ of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor complaining about the alarm in the War Room) ⬅️ That’s me and my fellow autistic friends whenever the Zarbi are on-screen!
Oh, I deeply understand. While I don't know what my deal is and remain undiagnosed (though my autistic friends without fail clock me as also autistic, make of that what you will), I also have massive sound sensitivity - particularly to crowds and people. Genuinely can't go to a mall without sound cancelling headphones these days, for example. For reasons unknown to me Doctor Who sound effects don't set me off the same way, but I completely understand the feeling you're describing so absolutely valid reason not to like this one
I appreciate immensely the effort to defend something often so maligned. While I couldn't stand the Web Planet myself when I watched it, that mostly boiled down to the noises of the Zarbi and the echo effect while on the planet's surface giving me a massive headache, and I think that caused me to tune out of a lot of the plot elements as a result. This does make me want to give it another chance, going into it while knowing to put up with the Zarbi SFX and anticipate that sort of thing. Sometimes, you can just miss out on cool things if you're too distracted, like missing story beats like Ian reacting to death or the cancerous allegory, when too focused on annoying beeping.
I totally get your feeling with watching an episode, loving it, and then finding out the fan consensus is wildly different from your own. I greatly enjoyed the Dominators when I watched it, it was one of my favorite 2nd Doctor serials, and finding out it was despised completely shocked me. The same thing happened with the 10th Doctor's Fear Her, which I thought was pretty fine and not absolutely abysmal like it's made out to be. For that reason, even if I wind up disagreeing, I always love hearing people's takes on things, especially when they go against the usual grain. It's so interesting to see what people saw in things that I didn't.
There will absolutely be an "In Defence Of..." for Fear Her down the line. The hatred that episode cops is utterly mystifying to me, I don't think it's honestly that much more silly than anything else in series 2 and is (scorcher incoming) one of my favourites of Tennant's first year on the show
Love the surreal, dreamy nature of this story. THANK YOU for adding your opinion. I feel the same about Season 24 in many ways.
Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen are likely to recieve the In Defence of treatment down the line. The latter I fully recognise probably isn't good, but it's just so funny I can't have a bad time watching it
It was iconic at the time of transmission. It had one of the highest audience figures. Visually with the choreography of the actors movements it keyed into modern dance at the time so would have been appealing to the teen audience. It also featured one of the only times where there were no other humans other than the doctor and his companions. It has an uncanny quality of horror/monster movies at the time, strange camera angles and that blurry streaky lighting on the planet surface was deliberate. People in the early sixties would also watch TV with the lights out so the dark tone and odd sounds would have made the whole thing so much more impactful. You can see how popular it was from the toys and merchandise at the time. They featured in the annual and in a projector toy. No costumes or toys that I can remember. The Zarbi were striking visually and so were the insect gun things that looked like woodlice. The animus was well realized and a great concept as a malevolent cancer on the planet like a spider at the center of its web. The meoptara were less well realized, but overall when studio TV at this point was little more than a televised stage plays. It was an ambitious production for a weekly serial to attempt. I was born in December 65 so wasn't born when it was transmitted - it still delights me.
If you follow the “the costumes were meant to evoke live theatre” concept then they work brilliantly… much like the cats costumes in the stage musical “Cats” so I totally get your point and it’s a very interesting idea that I’d not considered.
Plus, who can’t love the sheer insane inventiveness of most of the First Doctor’s stories. The majority were certainly “out there” as the show tried all sorts of things that would / could never work in any other show.
The first four years were some of the most inventive in the history of the show. Going from Daleks to a two parter set entirely in the TARDIS to a seven episode sprawling epic in China is just audacious television
It was very theatrical there was a lot of avantgarde dance at the time that was very in vogue, beatnik was still fashionable. Alot of black catsuits and odd noises. Them 1954 about giant ants would have been in the zeitgeist and the ants made those that kind of odd noises so it would have been expected that they made them to. I remember a rule at the time that any film shown on British TV had to be at least seven years old. They were also usually shown more than once when the rights were bought. So it is likely that a film already 10 years old would have been shown fairly recently on British TV for the first time. I remember seeing a lot of films from the sixties premiering in the seventies on TV, things like the Bond films were event TV.
I love the absence of alien humanoids.
I don't like The Web Planet. But not for the same reasons as most, apparently.
It looks great, the effects are incredible (they *fly*. They actually *fly*. AND IT LOOKS GOOD.)
I just don't click with the scripts.
Still better than Dalek Invasion of Earth though (I'm with you on that one). And I don't buy the "Classic Who has a pacing issue" excuse. Marco Polo, The Aztecs, The Sensorites, The Reign of Terror, The Romans are great serials, and they are all of the longer kind. And there are also the shorter serials like The Rescue.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth or Planet of Giants just aren't as good.
Oh I didn't mean to say it's a pacing _issue_ per se, just that in general the Hartnell years had a much more methodical approach to storytelling. And by in large, i like it that way. The opportunities that slower pace gives for eerie atmospheres is well utilised
@@michaelinlofi Yeah, I really like that approach too. My comment wasn't directed at you, but rather at the general consensus there seems to be in a large part of the fandom that "Classic Who has a pacing issue". Most serials don't really, some do. And some of the ones that do happen to be regarded as unquestionable classics (see The Dalek Invasion of Earth).
@j.b.c.a. oh yeah the idea that Classic Who is paced badly drives me nuts, especially the six parter hate I see a lot. It's true that some six parters go on a bit but stuff like The Seeds of Doom or The Mutants are paced perfectly. Same goes for Hartnells years. Some six parters could have been four (Dalek Invasion) but some earn their runtime
@@michaelinlofi The War Games is a MAMMOTH 10 Parts but when I watched it, it felt like it went by so quickly, it's so well paced despite being so long! I love that story
@@friendlyotaku9525 The War Games is incredible television. There's a whole video in why to be sure, but writing a four hour war epic that earns every second of it, even though it was originally only meant to be six episodes (a four parter fell through last minute) is unreal talent. Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks were some of the finest writers the show ever had and this is proof
The one thing I have to disagree with is the "they probably didn't have politics in mind" notion. This is the season after THE DALEKS. The second ever story of the show was deeply political and it wasn't the only one before The Web Planet.
This was really hard to watch because of the sound/back ground noise. Gave me a head ache. If someone could do something about that, it would be much more watchable. Most if the plots in the first series were actually very thought orovoking on a whole range if subjects. Petty they lost the plot in more recent times.
I should rewatch Colony In Space some time because I agree with all this but the Hulke stan in me remains bristled af every time you knock it.
If it's any consolation besides that and Sea Devils I too am a Hulke stan. One of my "hear me out guys it's actually good" opinions has been Frontier in Space for years
Whilst it isn't necessarily popular with the fandom I do think quite a lot of fans have a degree of respect for the Web Planet. There's a conceptual element to the Web Planet similar to a very abstract work of art. I think the viewer needs to be in a specific mind frame when watching.
I watched it when I was about 8 and just didn't get it. Tried it again when I was 14 and found it a chore. Watched it again a few weeks ago and thought it was great.
I also really like the cliffhangers in this story. Episode 1 is powerful, and both episodes 2 and 5 are haunting and atmospheric. I also really like the end of episode 6 where all the creatures are buzzing on the surface.