Day 63: The Centre

When looking at the way this serial has been plotted, an interesting point comes up. To explain, let us look at the three major plotlines for this serial:

1. The Doctor and Vicki converse with the Animus. They are trying to escape from its clutches and go off and find Ian and Barbara.

2. Barbara encounters the Menoptra, with whom she allies herself with and together they, with help from the Doctor and Vicki, defeat the Animus

3. Ian, along with a sole Menoptra, encounter the primitive Optera and attempt to reach the surface.

My major point is that Ian's plotline is almost completely standalone, whereas the other two begin to merge towards the end. My major two thoughts on this are as follows. Firstly, it comes across as bad plotting. Ian turns up for the concluding battle with the Animus, however he brings nothing to the table. His storyline, in terms of the grand overarching plot, means nothing and instead acts as a side step, whilst we concentrate on the real plot. But, that's not to say that it shouldn't have been there. Ian's plotline brings depth and character to the planet. We learn about the culture of the Optera, and through extension the Menoptra. It's a brilliant idea that there are two races, both sharing a common ancestor, but one race are gods to the others, who are just skulking away in the dark, unaware of their potential. To reiterate, this plot is actually quite good. The problem is the decision to shoehorn it, or to be more specific, Ian, into the conclusion. Because Ian is worthless when it comes to the conclusion of this story, and so by extension, the gut reaction is to say that his entire story strand is worthless. But it is not. It serves as world building for this planet, and allows us to act as explorers, looking at other cultures, other worlds, and learning about these places with a sense of wonder, discovering alien worlds and creatures no matter how poorly they are created. Because if there is one thing that The Web Planet has brought us, it is the discovery of an entire planet, hidden away within our televison screens.

Day 62: Invasion

This story features a contribution that is either from Bill Strutton, the writer, or Dennis Spooner, the story editor. It's to do with the Doctor's ring, and given Spooner's fondness for it in The Reign of Terror, and it cropping up most notably in stories that he had an involvement with, I'm inclined to say that it's Spooner's addition to the script. The main point is, the Doctor's ring has become like a sonic screwdriver, able to get out of all sorts of scrapes and do all manner of things, with no idea how it does these things. First of all, it's nice to see wonder and magic brought into the series, as the audience further sees the Doctor as a magical grandfather hero. He has evolved from grumpy old man to a more charming man, with a twinkle in his eye as he performs little magic tricks for us. They're all scientific, of course, but they're of a high enough technology to be indistinguishable to our feeble human minds from magic.

But the really nice point that I want to make, is that the Doctor's ring has been visible in almost every episode so far in the series, and it has rarely been commented on. So to see this thing that we take for granted being used in ways that we couldn't imagine, it's showing that the series is able to build on its mythology, and create new mythologies from existing things. It's Dennis Spooner once again bringing fun into this series and it is very much appreciated.

Day 61: Crater of Needles

It's quite a poorly directed episode, this one. There are multiple ways that the direction of this just doesn't work, for instance the Zarbi themselves who, unlike the Daleks who were able to glide into rooms with a sense of menace, decide to dash about the place in a panicked mode, high pitched beeps frequently coming from them that completely fail to give any sort of menace to these creatures. Them there's the alien environment itself, which, whilst other episodes are content with just showing otherworldly sets, here vaseline is spread over the camera lens to create the impression of an alien atmosphere. Also, it fails to give an impression of what the hell is going on, making it difficult to distinguish characters from eachother, particularly when you have characters that are under strongy similar costumes. And I haven't even got started on the Menoptra!

Day 60: Escape to Danger

Doctor Who has now been going on long enough for it to steal from itself. An awful lot of the ideas in this story can be found elsewhere in the past. There's for instance giant insects, which can be found in Planet of Giants, acidic bodies of liquid found in The Keys of Marinus and forces affecting the TARDIS, much like in The Edge of Destruction. But it all feels original, because their implementation is different. Before, giant insects were a curiosity to be looked at, here they fulfil the role of being both monstrous threats and rounded characters, with motivations and everything! The acidic liquid is also made more into a danger for characters, whereas before it was a world building tool, never fully followed up on.

There is at least one idea we haven't seen in the series before, and that is the faceless villain, here taking the form of the Animus, an ever present voice that has captured our heroes. It's a force that's one of the good things about this serial, being cool and menacing, as it exercises it's hold over the characters. There is no escape from the unknown, it would seem.

Day 59: The Zarbi

This story is unique, in that it is the only episode in the complete and utter history of Doctor Who to feature no other human, or humanoid characters, save for the TARDIS crew. Everything else is alien, the ant like Zarbi, the butterfly-esque Menoptra and even the Venom Grubs, all are alien creatures. This would be impossibly brave in the television of today. People from up high would decree that because there are no human characters, there is noone for the main characters and therefore the audience to relate to. But in those days, it does actually make sense, and indeed, it still should make sense today. To explain, the focus on alien environments lends a strong sense of wonder to the proceedings. Building on the sense of curiosity that we saw in the last episode, now we can further have a sense if wonder as we see these completely alien creatures. We can admire these creatures and look and them with a sense of curiosity. Because you can go down the street and encounter someone that looks like a Thal. But you can't go down to the chemists and find a giant butterfly staring back at you. But if you do, you probably need to get some medicine while you're there.

Day 58: The Web Planet

The first episode of a serial fulfils an absolutely vital function, that has sadly been neglected in time as the time allotted to this function gets shorter and shorter. It exists to set the scene, so that we become familiar with the world before the plot can get going. As an example, this episode features the TARDIS being affected by an outside force, which has taken over Barbara. Meanwhile, we have seen giant ants on the barren planet, encountered acidic seas, and found a gigantic pyramid like structure. All of this may seem like a lot, but when you get down to plotting, there isn't actually that much that has been done this episode. The ant-like creatures have no perceivable motivation, aside from getting the TARDIS, we have no idea of what has taken over Barbara, why it has done so or indeed how it has done so. The primary function and motivation that we have received so far is explore. Explore the surroundings, and become familiar with the world. It is a vital function because it means that the audience can get a sense of immersion within the surroundings, as they discover things at the same time as the TARDIS crew. It means that when the plot does begin, we start on a level footing, because there are still a lot of things that need explaining, but we have their context already, and so we are able to consider things for ourselves. And that's another function that first episodes bring. They plant ideas in heads in the form of questions, curiosity, if you will. We have no idea what is happening but we have seen it and we want to explore. Like the TARDIS crew, we have been granted the opportunity to witness a world unlike ours and so we as we experience it, we gain their sense of curiosity, and so we are explorers on a distant alien world that is hidden within the television set.