Production Code: QQ
First Transmitted
1 - 03/02/1968 17:25
2 - 10/02/1968 17:15
3 - 17/02/1968 17:25
4 - 24/02/1968 17:25
5 - 02/03/1968 17:25
6 - 09/03/1968 17:25
Plot
The TARDIS narrowly avoids becoming engulfed in a web-like substance in space. It then arrives in the London Underground railway system, the tunnels of which are being overrun by the web and by the Great Intelligence's robot Yeti.
The time travellers learn that this crisis was precipitated when Professor Travers, whom they first met in the Himalayas some forty years earlier, accidentally caused one of the Yeti to be reactivated, opening the way for the Intelligence to make another invasion attempt.
The travellers work alongside army forces - led initially by Captain Knight and then by Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart - as they battle against the alien menace, hampered by the fact that one of their number has fallen under the Intelligence's influence and is a traitor in their midst.
The Intelligence's ultimate aim is to drain the Doctor's mind. The Doctor manages to sabotage the device with which it intends to achieve this, so that he can drain the Intelligence's mind instead, but he is 'rescued' by his friends before he can bring his plan to fruition.
The Intelligence is repelled into space, and the Doctor and his friends leave the army to clear up the mess.
Episode Endings
In one of the Underground tunnels, the Doctor watches from hiding as two Yeti cover some crates with web fired from guns held in their claws. The crates contain explosives and, back at the army base, Captain Knight gives the order for detonation. The explosives are set off and the web-covered crates glow with light.
Making their way through the tunnels in search of the Doctor, Jamie and Private Evans see a wall of web surging towards them.
In a room within the army base, Professor Travers finds one of the model Yeti control devices beside the body of Craftsman Weams. He is suddenly confronted by a Yeti that has entered the room behind him.
Professor Travers reappears in the army base. He is flanked by Yeti and under the control of the Intelligence. 'I am the Intelligence,' he whispers...
Evans finishes dressing Sergeant Arnold's wounds and returns to the base laboratory, the walls of which are beginning to bulge under the pressure of the web outside. Suddenly one of the walls gives way, releasing a flood of glowing web.
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria return to the TARDIS at Covent Garden station. They hurry through the tunnels as the Doctor realises that although the Yeti have gone, the trains might soon start running again.
Roots
Quatermass and the Pit (alien menace in the Underground).
Evans sings Sospan Bach while wandering in the tunnels.
The Avengers The Cybernauts
The Thing (1951).
The Doctor plays the Skye Boat Song on his recorder.
Dialogue Triumphs
Professor Travers : [Speaking into microphone] "Erm. It's more than likely that we won't be able to defeat this menace. And that London, in fact the whole of England, might be completely wiped out." [To Chorley.] "There. Did you get that?"
Col. Lethbridge-Stewart : "This Intelligence. Exactly what is it?"
The Doctor : "Well I wish I could give you a precise answer. Perhaps the best way to describe it is a sort of formless, shapeless thing, floating about in space like a cloud of mist only with a mind and will."
Col. Lethbridge-Stewart : "What's it after? What's it want?"
The Doctor : "I wish I knew. The only thing I know for sure is that it brought me here."
The Great Intelligence : "Revenge is a petty human emotion. My purpose for you is far more interesting."
The Doctor : "And what's that?"
The Great Intelligence : "Through time and space I have observed you, Doctor. Your mind surpasses that of all other creatures."
The Doctor : "What do you want?"
The Great Intelligence : "You!"
Soldier : "What's a girl like you doing in a job like this?"
Anne Travers : "Well, when I was a little girl I thought I'd like to be a scientist, so I became a scientist."
The Doctor : "Shall we go out and have a look?"
Victoria : "Now, is it safe?"
The Doctor : "Oh, I shouldn't think so for a moment."
Double Entendre
The Doctor : "Can you do it?"
Jamie : "I'll try, Doctor, but I'll have to get to a better position."
Continuity
The TARDIS is trapped in space by the Great Intelligence's web like material [which the Great Intelligence can create anywhere and which has properties which interfere with the TARDIS systems]. It is indicated that the Intelligence has observed the Doctor's travels, and, thanks to Jamie and Victoria's rescue that aborts the Doctor's plan, is free to roam the universe again at the end of the adventure.
The Yeti are different from the Abominable Snowmen: they roar, have glowing eyes when attacking, and carry web guns. The army forces are led by Colonel Lethbridge Stewart, whom the Doctor meets for the first time (see The Invasion).
QV
Location
London (various tube stations within or on the Circle Line, including Covent Garden, Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Holborn, Goodge Street, Cannon Street and Monument), [c. August 1966].
The Abominable Snowmen is said to have taken place in 1935, which Travers says was over forty years previously [an approximation]. The Yeti has been in the museum for 30 years, and the Post Office Tower is now complete.
Links
Directly following the events of The Enemy of the World, reference is made to Salamander being sucked out of the TARDIS. The Doctor still has a plaster on: later a small scar is visible.
Trivia
John Levene makes his second Doctor Who appearance, as one of the Yeti. Levene later went on to play Benton, one of the regular UNIT 'team' during the seventies.
Jack Watling returns with heavy make-up as Professor Travers.
Nicholas Courtney (who had previously played Bret Vyon in The Daleks' Master Plan) makes his debut in Episode 3 as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, promoted to Brigadier in a later adventure (The Invasion). The Colonel's debut is actually in Episode 2, when only his boots are seen walking through the tunnels. For this sequence, the part was played by an uncredited Maurice Brooks.
The closing credits for each episode apart from Episode 6 are rolled against an image of the pulsing web.
The stock incidental music accompanying the Yeti attack at Covent Garden in Episode 4 is the same as that previously used as a theme for the Cybermen.
Goofs
The Yeti changes shape in the museum scene (not intentional, surely?).
When Jamie and the others are looking at the scanner in the first episode, Frazer Hines rests his hand on the console but withdraws it quickly as if he's burnt it.
When talking about 'underground trains', the Doctor says that this is 'a little after your time, I think, Victoria'. As Victoria comes from 1866 he's wrong: the underground line between Farringdon Street and Edgeware Road opened in 1863.
The 'explosion' at the end of episode one happens several times.
Fashion Victim
Victoria finds a swingin' short skirt plus beads in the TARDIS wardrobe.
The Colonel's tartan beret.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Victoria - Deborah Watling
Anne Travers - Tina Packer
Captain Knight - Ralph Watson
Col. Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Corporal Blake - Richardson Morgan
Corporal Lane - Rod Beacham
Craftsman Weams - Stephen Whittaker
Driver Evans - Derek Pollitt
Harold Chorley - Jon Rollason
Julius Silverstein - Frederick Schrecker
Professor Travers - Jack Watling
Soldier - Bernard G High
Soldier - Joseph O'Connell
Staff Sgt. Arnold - Jack Woolgar
Yeti - John Levene
Yeti - John Lord
Yeti - Gordon Stothard
Yeti - Colin Warman
Yeti - Jeremy King
Yeti - Roger Jacombs
Crew
Director - Douglas Camfield
The Web of Fear