The First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki explore the planet Vortis in one of Doctor Who’s most ambitious forays into an alien world. Can they defeat the spreading tendrils of the Animus.
Watch all 6 episodes on BBC iPlayer:
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Give your rating out of 10:
Can anyone really say that they have seen The Web Planet?
Yes, that is a stupid joke about the vaseline situation…
It’s imaginative and ambitious, and there is a good story there, but the sounds are really grating to me. Zaaaar-BI!
Still our regulars does a good job of it so I still enjoy it on a 3,5/5 
level 
Insect movement by Roslyn De Winter, not a lot of shows around I’ll wager that has that particular credit.
I refuse to rewatch The Web Planet for the TV Club. I flat-out refuse! I’m still recovering from my last rewatch a couple of years ago.
This is one of the most unbearable Doctor Who stories ever made. The six episodes feel like 15 episodes; the sound “design” gives me a headache; the supporting “cast” annoys me to no end; and the “story” is so boring that I have to watch the episodes on 2x speed to make it to the end!
I wish this story were missing!
Actually, no. Because that would make the telesnap reconstruction even worse to watch, making this a 1/10. But since it exists in its entirety, since I like the chemistry of the regulars, and since they’ve kind of created cool-looking sets and tried to do something ambitious (this includes the infamous “vaseline on the lenses” trick), I’ll be generous and give this a 2/10.
That’s all I have to say. Now, throw this abomination to the dog in the time vortex where it belongs, and give me some good Doctor Who stories instead!
Oh that would be a recon to rival the Celestial Toymaker with annoying sounds 
But imagine the colour animation we would get where a bit of sound editing jiggery-pokery has been applied! 
Possibly with a choice between a blurred vaseline version and a proper HD-level sharp version 
I feel your pain. I might watch it with the Audio Commentary - William Russell, Verity Lambert, Richard Martin and Martin Jarvis (Hilio) - to see what they think of it!
I watched this for the first time back in March and actually posted about it here, so no real reason for me to watch it again right now.
While I’m thinking about it, I should submit the quote I had in there:
PRAPILLUS: Hilio, the Menoptra have no wisdom for war. Before the Animus came, the flower forest covered the planet in a cocoon of peace. Our ancestors carved temples like this for resting places of our dead, but that was all the work we did. There were no other plans to make. Light was our God and we existed in light, flying above thought. Our banishment has taught us of enemies and weapons, and my captivity has taught me strategy. They tore my wings from me and I felt, as you feel, that all was lost. But if our Gods favour our survival, we must learn their lesson and use our brains and not our wings. This Earth woman we must trust, for she can show us how to exist without wings, to survive and flourish. What should we do?
Pretty much stand by what I wrote, in any case. The serial had great character moments early on between the TARDIS team, and they had good ideas, and they had a bunch of people in silly costumes running around saying “Zarbi! Zarbi! Zarbi!”.
I prefer them being too ambitious and failing, like they did here, to not being ambitious enough, so I’m good with them doing stuff like this.
This is an unbearable serial. Great costumes but, bad sound design, bad cinematography, squeaky sets, boring plot.
Gets a 2/5 from me, only because they succeeded in getting something on tape to show on TV.
The only story I couldn’t complete (it was too weird) in my big watch-through. Had to go back later and force myself to watch in order to say I’d watched everything.
It’s a 4/10 from me. Not great, terrible, terrible sound effects, but far from the worst of Doctor Who. I feel like this was a good example of the Doctor encountering something more alien than anything done in the show before, so I don’t hate Web Planet. I’m just extremely unmotivated to ever sit through it again.
I adore the ambition but find many elements of the story to be very challenging. Poor Richard Martin tried to do something different but was, I fear, out of his depth here. Moreover, the exposition… oh wow! The exposition! As demonstrated by @PalindromeRose above, that speech by Prapillus pretty much encapsulates a lot of the issues with the script. Show, don’t tell Mr Strutton. But then, when the best you can do looks like that, you’re probably better off not showing either.
I applaud the ambition, the idea of the thing, but the execution (from the writing of the script all the way through to what ends up on screen) is hugely problematic.
I don’t hate it, but I can’t manage it very often. It’s hard work. A shame, because I love ambitious and experimental stories as a rule!
Think you @'s the wrong person mate.
Though thank you for reminding me ‘The Web Planet’ existed.
I needed a good laugh, and remembering that the Zarbis run into the camera did that.
Oh my! Apologies in order. Yes, 'twas @SweetAIBelle. Oopsie! Apologies to you both.
An overbloated story, ambitious ideas with little effort behind execution, a PA spilling Vaseline on every lens in the BBC and a distinct lack of fun really don’t make The Web Planet a favourite of mine.
Right what’s all this with the Web Planet hatred!
It’s glorious!
Cards on the table, if you gave me a choice of sitting down to watch The Web Planet or the next story, The Crusade, I’d almost always choose The Web Planet.
I love Doctor Who when its ambitious. I love Doctor Who when it does something different to the norm.
The Web Planet has no other human or humanoid characters (unless you count the Menoptra, at a push). I love the concept of a planet inhabited by insectoid species and the Menoptra and beautiful especially when flying with those expansive wings. When Barbara sees a Menoptra’s wings being ripped away, the pain and horror is palpable. The Zarbi are clunky but actually I rather like them and the Venom Grubs/larvae guns. My favourite though have always been the devolved Optera. Their brilliant way of talking has a poetry that always amuses me:
HETRA: A silent wall. We must make m mouths in it with our weapons. Then it speak more light.
And the bit where Nemini sacrifices herself
NEMINI: The vapour sleeps at our feet. Move slowly.
HETRA: Nemini! Soon the mouth will appear. The walls are thin.
NEMINI: The liquid hate from above.
IAN: The acid pools. Get away!
HETRA: No, no! She must block the mouth or we will die. (Nemini sacrifices herself to stop the acid from getting in)
I love the alien names but the stroke of genius is having the aliens mispronounce Ian and Barbara’s names - Heron and Arbara.
The cliffhanger where the Doctor and Vicki are smothered in web always chilled me and the decision to give the Animus an alluring female voice is inspired (remember, at this time in the show, female villains were few and far between - Kala in one episode of The Keys of Marinus and that was it).
This story continues the concept of the early days of Doctor Who - rapidly forgotten as the series progressed into the later 60s and 70s - of not all aliens being monsters. The Menoptra and Optera are successors to the Sensorites and the Zarbi are only monstrous under the Animus’s influence.
The actors behind the aliens, I think, all do an excellent job, especially Arne Gordon as Hrostar and Roslyn de Winter as Vrestin.
When I first saw this on VHS I was convinced there was a problem with the picture which was all blurry and smeared in some scenes. Of course, I now know it was deliberate and whilst we have to admit Richard Martin may not always have been the best director Who ever had, he was at least ambitious and this story continues his habit of trying to find high shots and interesting angles.
And, as always, the regular cast is brilliant throughout and Maureen O’Brien has really settled in as Vicki.
I will admit that, the last time I watched this, I did find it a bit slow and was less enamoured with it but I can’t fail to look on it with fondness and acknowledge that it’s the sort of story no other show could really do. It’s very Doctor Who.
Oh and Barbara saves the day again.
Hate is far too strong a word where I’m concerned. I freely admit to being frustrated by many aspects of The Web Planet (as in my post above). Exposition can be very clunky and the execution visually is… challenging.
I do take on board your point about some of the poetic dialogue, however. This and other elements demonstrate that there was a concerted effort to make the alien feel truly alien and there is a real sense of trying to build an ecology for the planet. It isn’t wholly successful but I do applaud the attempt.
What I do love, however, is the animus. Genuinely weird and sinister. The name ‘carcinome’ for the place of its manifestation suggests that the animus is effectively a cancerous growth, destroying the biology of Vortis for its own ends… a deeply disturbing and rather clever idea.
I think that the story is very much DW, the ambition is top rank but I confess to frustration at the way it comes together.
Whereas I hate The Web Planet with a passion!
(Or perhaps I’m just exaggerating for comical effect … but that doesn’t make this story any better).
My thoughts on Episode 1 - The Web Planet
I’d say it was a perfect opening episode, even better than the one from “The Romans.” As in the previous serial, there was superb on-screen chemistry between the main cast. I loved the little scene where Barbara and Vicky talk about medicine.
The eccentricity of the Doctor is, at times, irritating when he dismisses what others say. But even that’s a plus because it is played so believably as part of his character. He is very impish, and I like it.
I really appreciated seeing non-humanoid aliens and think they are very well designed. The overall build-up of tension is excellent. Someone with the ability to catch the TARDIS mid-flight and drain it of all energy, strange sounds penetrating the TARDIS walls, and later on, mind-controlling Barbara via her bracelet, leading her to her death?
I could go on and on—it’s a really good start, and I am curious if the serial will be able to hold this positive impression it left with me or if it will grind it down in the five following episodes. 
Loving the love for The Web Planet - it was sorely missng from this thread
This is a Story that most would probably disagree with me. While I don’t think it’s bad, I don’t really think it’s good either. It’s something that is in a weird limbo for me, where I was never able to articulate my proper thoughts.
I do appreciate the ambition, even through it was clear that they were maybe a bit too ambition, then again for all its flaws, what is doctor who, if not trying (even if it doesn’t work much in this case).
Still there are things I love, I love the whole Planet of Vortis and all its inhabitants, the Costumes are a bit clunky, but I say if anything the sound design is probably the most clunkiest yet (but not the worst in the Hartnell era). I think our leads do great, especially Hartnell and his short moments, like when the Tardis is gone. Such an excellent Moment. The Animus while a bit clunky is very charming and is probably the Highlight of the new concepts here. I am not the biggest fan of the blurry picture, but it’s an interesting decision. Still I am not sure if this really needed 6 Episodes, don’t get me wrong I love long Stories, but this one could have used its time a little better (and it kinda hurts to say that when I defend longer Serials).
I definitely get why it’s not liked at all, there is a lot not to like. Clunky Execution, not the best of script, and maybe a bit too much ambitious for its own good. If anything I do give it credit for its ambition and unlike a certain story that comes later in Hartnells Run cough The Toymaker cough I think it is somewhat charming despite being definietly on the weaker side of his Era. And hey while it can get annoying (even for me) at times, at least I wasn’t bored about it and honestly that’s a big plus in my book (being boring is probably the worst a who story can be for me, personally speaking).
It’s a complicated one for me to review, but yeah that’s my quick thoughts about it.
Mostly this story just failed at keeping my attention on it and while this is a general problem for me, especially with the black and white episodes, this one was especially bad. The sound design was bad, and so was the camera flare(though theoretically a cool idea, if used more sparingly and with methods probably not available at the time). In my opinion it should also have been much shorter. The aliens are pretty good for the time and probable budget, but I think their voices at least would have needed more emotions. I feel like there are a lot of cool ideas with the world-building but to be honest I just couldn’t pay attention. I liked the scene with Barbara and Vicki in the beginning. I certainly don’t hate this story but I don’t really like it either.