DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 11th MEET-UP - THE WEB PLANET

Sunday 8th June 2014

This time we returned to Michael house for the second time to watch the six parter "The Web Planet" - it seemed such a shame on such a sunny day.  But we're committed - or at least should be!  So after the usual "Hoozahs" we got on with some damn Who!

The crew land on a very foggy planet (Vortis) with very strange goings on.  They soon encounter lots of bizarre large ants, moths (we discussed this - I thought the big stripy insects were bees at first but they were called "Menoptra" (which sounds a little bit like the scientific name for the group that includes moths and butterflies "Lepidoptera")).

Photo 1: Thanks to the wife we have a group photo!
Jim (holding DVD cover) Jason, Leigh & Michael (with the sign) and Mark
WITH HIS EYES OPEN!!  HOOZAH!

Anyhow the crew get ill, lost or just weird things happen to them.  I have to be honest, I had really enjoyed the story when I'd first seen it many years ago, but re-watching it with the guys I did found it drag and a lot of things seemed very silly.

One thing was Ian being constantly called "He-ron" (or similar) by on of the "Menoptra".  Also there were some annoying sound effects.

Photo 2: Jim (holding DVD cover), Leigh & Mark (with the sign) and Jason
MARK HAS HIS EYES OPEN AGAIN!

It didn't help that it was a glorious day outside and the story did seem to drag.  Positives for me were the costumes and sets.  I thought they were really good for the time and the budget.  also I did find the little underground grub-men amusing!

Photo 3: Jim (holding DVD cover), Leigh & Mark (with the sign) and Michael
MARK HAS HIS EYES OPEN AGAIN!

So let's hear what comments people have - and we have a few this time.  They must all be positive, yes?....

LEIGH: "I didn't like it at all - I didn't really know what was going on for the first episode and a bit - when the antagonist (ANTagonist) were revealed, they quickly became annoying with the overused sound effects and I found the protagonists rather unsympathetic - I can't help but think if they hadn't all been so wet then their planet wouldn't have been taken over! Worst storyline since that caveman one at the start of the first series in my opinion."

JIM:  "In my opinion, the biggest mistake in this episode was taking a considerable amount of screen time off of the regulars and giving it to the natives.  I thought they were annoying, grating and pretentious depending on which bug/man hybrid you look at.  Everything seemed to take an age to say and the whole story could have been condensed into 2/3 episodes.  I tried hard to like it, but I just thought it was really, really bad."

Oh well, at least Mark should have something to say - oh no, what's this?....

MARK: "I wanted to like this one but unfortunately the doctor took a backward slide with this story.  He's become more doctor like in the last few stories being the guy that knows more than anyone else in the room but he was back to slightly useless doddery old man in this one, which wouldn't have been so bad if the story held up.  However this was at least 2 episodes to long and I didn't care much for what was going on.  Also was a badly done swap of good guy to bad guy of the ant people.  I have to agree this was the worst story since we suffered the quest for fire in a cave, at least there was no talk of orb."

Wow that's some really negativity there!  I asked Jason if he thought it was total poo as well and he seemed to think it was unfair dismissing it completely. So maybe it was just two episodes too long and would have made a better four-parter.
Well let's hope next time's episode fairs better.  We shall meet again in a few Sunday's time.
Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 11-06-14