Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 202: The Web of Fear, Episode Four

Dear diary,

That sense of paranoia just keeps on growing in this episode - literally everyone is falling under suspicion at one point or another. Today’s suspects are mainly Chorley (absent here, but possibly off in the tunnels and up to no good), The Doctor (he’s always going to be under suspicion), Evans (Who’s acting stranger and stranger by the scene - there’s something up with him, even if he isn’t either working for the Intelligence, or an operative of Torchwood), and Travers, Who actually gets to turn up in the final scene, all possessed.

What’s quite nice is that I’m still trying to piece this all together - even though poor Travers is a pawn of the Intelligence now, has that been the case all along? Surely it wasn’t him steering the Yeti into position all this time? I’m expecting that things will be brought to a head in the next episode, so we’ll possibly be getting some answers pretty soon, just in time for the big climax.

I’m also rather pleased that having worked my way this far into the story, suddenly there’s a lot more of Downtime that makes sense to me. I said during The Abominable Snowmen that I’d never understood vast parts of the spin-off, but that story didn’t really help to put things straight for me. Here, with the Yeti figurines being used more as homing beacons than anything else, things are starting to slot into place more, and it’s all helping to form the rest of my big ‘Great Intelligence Timeline’, which I started in the entry for The Abominable Snowmen Episode Four, and will be continuing in tomorrow’s update.

It’s strange to see the Doctor bringing the Colonel up-to-speed on the TARDIS as quickly as this, as I’d always assumed that he didn’t find out all that much about it until the Third Doctor came to work for him - specifically, I’m thinking of The Three Doctors being the Brig’s first look inside the ship. Here, though, he’s willing to accept the Doctor’s description of his ‘craft’ at face value, telling one of his soldiers that he ‘doesn’t intend to leave any escape route unexplored’ no matter how ‘screwy’ it might seem!

Lines of comic relief like this have been peppered throughout the story so far, and they’re really helping to walk the line of this story being just the right balance of light and dark. So far, smiles have been raised by the description of the Yeti coming from Outer Space (How did they get here? Through the post!) and Evans stopping to pick up a chocolate bar from a conveniently-placed vending machine. In a story where things could be getting very sinister and brutal, they’re helping to keep things at least a bit jollier.

Which is necessary, really, because things are quite brutal in places. Today’s Yeti attack in Covent Garden is lost somewhat by appearing only on audio - the telesnaps for the scene, coupled with knowledge of Dougie Camfield’s direction, make it look fab - the new style Yeti even look imposing when outside. Last year, the Mirror newspaper published online a load of photos from this scene, with the Yeti menacing a man and his dog - they do look great!

The main problem I had with the scene was the use of music - its Space Adventure! That’s the Cybermen theme, not the Yeti! Have to admit (shamefully) that it did actually put me off a little for a few minutes. Sadly, though, it’s also the last time we’ll be hearing Space Adventure in Doctor Who, it’s retired after this use, I believe. A shame, as I think it’s always going to be one of my favourite pieces of music used in the series. Brilliantly, it was played as part of the Doctor Who Prom last week - and didn't it just sound wonderful?

a