Day 195: The Web of Fear Episode 4

I suppose that I should probably mention the monsters for this serial. It's the Yeti again, and they make a good impression. Part of this is due to being directed by Douglas Camfield, who has a good eye for action and making sure that what appears on screen is both axciting and tense. But it's also due to their location as well. Jon Pertwee once famously said that the scariest thing about Doctor Who is that it happened in the real world, not on some distant alien planet. The exact phrase that he used was a "Yeti on the loo in Tooting Bec". This is because we're able to see the unfamiliar in the familiar, and there is a strong air of terror to be found in watching the army fight hordes of monsters through the streets of London, as we realise that this is a threat that could happen in our backyard, not something that's removed from the real world by virtue of being set on some distant alien planet.

But a really interesting thing about the Yeti is their weaponry. Previously, they worked with just mauling people to death, but now they've taken to firing Web guns at the hapless soldiers. Because the Yeti and webs have a long connection through history, as every little child knows. Future showrunner, Russell T Davies, stated in an interview that this is the sort of thing that would never get past a modern meeting, because it doesn't actually make any sense. But it's a testament to the production of the episode that it doesn't have to make sense, because so much else is happening that we don't necessarily care that the Yeti have web guns.