Doctor Who 60th Anniversary: "The Web Planet" (Hartnell)

In "The Web Planet," the TARDIS is unexpectedly dragged to the surface of the planet Vortis, and when the Doctor (William Hartnell) and his companions, Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) investigate, they are surrounded by giant-like aliens known as “Zarbi.”

After escaping these insect creatures, the Doctor and his friends meet the kindly butterfly-like people of the planet, the Menoptera.  They once ruled the world, until the Zarbi fell under the influence of an evil life force known as “Animus.”

While plans are afoot for the Menoptera to re-take the planet from the Zarbi, the Doctor learns that Animus is housed at the center of the planet’s “magnetic pole” and is harnessing the energy of the planet to attract other energy sources, like the TARDIS. 

The Doctor is captured by Animus -- a sort of giant spider monster -- while Ian and the Menoptera hope to destroy the monster using a “living cell destructor.”

A tempting target for negative criticism because of its excessive duration (at six parts) and at times incomprehensible action, “The Web Planet” is one of Doctor Who’s most daring visual experiments.  

Although its ambition is greater than its often-faulty execution, “The Web Planet” is a stunningly-original serial in terms of design, and a good-faith attempt, at least, to create a truly alien environment on a TV budget.

Specifically, the Menoptera, the Zarbi, Animus, and the planetary landscape are all completely out-of-the-norm in terms of their designs, and therefore fully removed from the restrictions of our earthbound reality.  

Today, the effects, costumes, and make-up of "The Web Planet" may look silly or fake, but in terms of 1965 technology this show is just…crazy inventive. 

The surface of Vortis looks like the pock-marked moon, the Menoptera glide about on wires (!) and the Zarbi are created by men operating large insect-like exo-skeletons.  Again, the imagination on display here is simply staggering, even if the narrative is familiar: yet another "Time Machine Syndrome" tale of two cultures in seemingly perpetual conflict.

Again, I want to point out a neat visual flourish (or perhaps expedient...) seen in early Doctor Who.  Here, to provide the texture or feel of an alien world, the camera lens is smeared with some kind of jelly or Vaseline.  This affectation makes the visuals a little indistinct and a bit blurry, but also successfully creates -- literally -- an alien “air” to the fantastic world of Vortis.  

Today, digital effects can create creatures, landscapes, and atmospherics with relative ease, but in 1965, when “The Web Planet” aired, everything had to be constructed or devised for “in camera” execution. Every time I gaze at what was attempted here, on a TV schedule and budget, I'm astonished at the level of imagination on display.

Critic John Baxter wrote positively about “The Web Planet" in his book Science Fiction in The Cinema, commending "the brilliance of imagination that produced creatures like the Zarbi, ant-like monsters that preyed on humanoid butterflies in an Aubrey Beardsley catacomb of art nouveau screens." (A.S. Barnes Company, 1970, page 186).  

Baxter's comparison to Beardsley (1872 - 1898) is illuminating, as that artist was renowned for his use of black and white spaces and contrasts (a key element here, considering the surface and sky of Vortis). Beardsley is also remembered for his dark, twisted, macabre visions of the human form.  Although the artist's work tended towards the erotic and outrageous, one can see how the designers of "The Web Planet' re-purpose the human form towards similarly grotesque ends, vis-a-vis the costumes.

So -- yes -- there are better-written Hartnell serials out there, but“The Web Planet” is an experiment worth checking out purely because of its visual distinction..  The serial would be considered a greater success today if the story were more original, if some of the wire-work wasn’t so obvious to our better-trained eyes, and if the creature vocalizations were easier to understand.  But by my estimation, the problem with so much television programming is its utter, mind-numbering same-ness in terms of visualization and approach.

Love it or hate it, “The Web Planet” is like nothing else in Doctor Who, or in cult-TV history.  Sometimes an ambitious failure is a lot more fun to experience than a safe, utterly predictable "success."