In Defence of The Web Planet - Episode 4: Crater of Needles:
- Ian and Vrestin having their hands sealed together by the Optera. William Russell’s scream sells the moment really well.
- I love the way the Optera speak. It’s another attempt at making them distinctly alien through performance.
- I rather like the whole Crater of Needles setting and how this is the focus of a lot of this episodes exposition about the Menoptera invasion plan.
- The Menoptera and Barbara escaping the crater is fun - especially the bit where a venom grub/larvae gun is crushed against a wall like someone stepping on a woodlouse!
- I love how Vrestin basically goes all superior towards the Optera because she’s a proper Menoptera and they are mud-crawling primitives. It’s so funny when she springs her wings and they bow down to her.
- Menoptera even die like an insect would die. It’s properly been thought about.
- The battle scene with flying Menoptera is ambitious and just about pulled off. It reminds me of the way Richard Martin films the battle scenes between the Daleks and Mechanoids in The Chase.
Two more to go.