Synopsis:
As Barbara walks towards a pool of acid in an hypnotic trance, the Doctor has returned to the TARDIS to seek help for Ian, who has been ensnared in a stinging web. He finds that his ship, with Vicki still on board, has disappeared...
Barbara suddenly turns away from the pool, guided by the strange force which has taken hold of her. The Doctor returns to Ian, only to find him already free. He explains that the web simply dissolved back into the ground. The Doctor tells him of the ship's disappearance. They both go to the landing site and find odd animal tracks and marks on the ground showing that the TARDIS was dragged away. They decide to follow.
Barbara is intercepted by a bipedal butterfly-like being, which guides her towards a nearby cavern. There are more of its kind here - creatures called Menoptra.
They remove the gold bracelet from her arm - tossing it into an acid pool - and the trance is broken.
Barbara is threatened by one of the Menoptra named Hrhoonda, who suspects that she is a spy and thinks she should be killed. Vrestin and Hrostar disagree. As they argue, she takes the opportunity to dash out of the cave.
The Doctor and Ian follow the tracks, and Ian comes across the discarded chrysalis of some large insect. They see on the horizon a huge structure stretching as far as the eye can see. It appears to be organic in nature. The tracks lead straight towards it.
They are suddenly surrounded by Zarbi - the gigantic ant-like creatures which have been generating the strange high-pitch noises they have heard since they landed here. They have a chirruping language which the Doctor cannot translate. The Zarbi force them to move towards the structure. As they approach closer, they see that it is indeed organic in nature, and it is continuing to grow and spread.
The TARDIS has been left in a large chamber. Vicki emerges and is overjoyed to see the Doctor and Ian brought in. A Zarbi attempts to enter the ship but some force prevents it, and the Doctor suspects that Vicki has managed to accidentally reset the systems. The power is back.
Barbara is captured by Zarbi, who use a gold wishbone-shaped device around her neck to return her to a trance-like state. She is compelled to take the creatures back to the cave where the Menoptra are trying to send a warning to their people. The Zarbi enter and Hrhoonda is killed by a Larvae Gun, whilst Vrestin manages to escape. Hrostar removes the gold device from Barbara, but is then held down by the Zarbi as they bite off his wings.
In the chamber of the Zarbi lair an opaque hood descends from the roof and the creatures manoeuvre the Doctor beneath it. It encloses his head and he hears a commanding female voice, demanding to know why the travellers have come here now...
Next episode: Escape to Danger
Written by: Bill Strutton
Recorded: Friday 29th January 1965 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:40pm, Saturday 20th February 1965
Ratings: 12.5 million / AI 53
Designer: John Wood
Director: Richard Martin
Additional cast: Roslyn de Winter (Vrestin), Arne Gordon (Hrostar), Arthur Blake (Hrhoonda), Catherine Fleming (Animus voice), Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Hugh Lund, John Scott Martin (Zarbi).
Critique:
There were four Zarbi costumes built by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge - the firm who made the bulk of the programme's VFX needs. They had previously provided the Daleks, Slyther and Koquillion mask amongst other things.
John Wood had designed a costume that was intended to obscure the human form, apart from the legs. It comprised three dark brown fibreglass sections - head, thorax and abdomen. The operator was mainly concealed within the thorax, which had a gauze panel they could see through between the two front arms. Wires connected to the mandibles allowed the operator to open and close these, and thus pick up items like the control devices or weapons.
The large abdomen section was attached to the operator's waist by a thick belt. They had to walk about bent over otherwise the weight of this section would cause them to tip over backwards. Thinking he might be able to use it like a shooting stick to rest on, John Scott Martin found this not to be the case. Whenever the operators fell over, they couldn't get back up themselves and had to be helped - which led to delays in recording. Large wooden blocks were provided for the abdomen to rest on at breaks.
The legs were given vinyl wader-like coverings.
It had originally been hoped to build the costumes using pliable Styrofoam, to make them lighter and allow for greater movement, but this was thought to be not strong enough to last six weeks of filming.
Robert Jewell was used as the model for all four costumes as he was the bigger of the four performers.
The Larvae Guns comprised a hard fibreglass shell, brown in colour, and the operator crawled around on all fours with this on his back. Orange tendrils of foam hung down to obscure him, over a black curtain of material. The nose held a flash charge which could be operated electronically when they fired. For some scenes the operator knelt on a trolley and was pulled along, for when the Larvae Gun required a greater turn of speed. At other times an empty costume was used, such as when a Menoptra squashed a Gun against a rock face.
The Menoptra had made their first appearance at Ealing, for filming requiring the use of flying harnesses. The body was composed of a black vinyl suit, with bands of white fur attached. At Ealing the faces had been made up with monochrome make-up, beneath a helmet-like headpiece with antennae. The actors' eyes were obscured by large round meshes to simulate an insect eye. There were eight costumes made in all, some including large polythene wings. These could be held closed and opened with a trigger mechanism, but once activated it was difficult to reset them - taking up more recording time. When Hrostar gets his wings bitten off, Arne Gordon simply did a quick costume change to one with only stumps in place of wings.
Once filming had taken place, Richard Martin had a rethink and ordered a redesign. The face had extra fur attached to get rid of the identifiable human-like features and make them look more alien. In the finished programme the difference can be noted in close-ups during the invasion sequence.
Williams Hartnell and Russell discarded their white ADJs as they were no longer needed for VFX shots, and the studio was too hot to have them worn any longer than necessary. The script simply has their air supply run out, but the travellers adjusting to the thinner atmosphere anyway. Note how neither Barbara nor Vicki needs any breathing assistance - as they didn't feature in any of the mirror-photograph VFX scenes.
The TARDIS console room set was put up next to the Zarbi control chamber, so that it could be seen through the open doors. When a Zarbi attempts to walk into the ship, we are actually seeing two different Zarbi. One is seen on the chamber set approaching the Police Box prop, and the other is seen in the TARDIS set's doorway.
One wall of the chamber had flashing lights behind it, to indicate the controls operating.
The evening's recording was hit by a number of problems. There were seven retakes, contributing to a 16 minute overrun. One actor spoke over a film sequence (like music and sound effects, these were played in to the studio live during recording) and crew twice walked into the background of shots. There were technical breakdowns, costume breakages and forgotten lines.
William Hartnell hated the Zarbi costumes as the performers had such limited visibility and movement. He had to be especially accurate in landing on his marks, or adapt to them being in a position they hadn't rehearsed.
On completion of the night's work, Jacqueline Hill went off on holiday for a week, as Barbara did not feature in the third instalment.
This episode sees the debut of John Scott Martin (1926 - 2006), operating a Zarbi. He is working alongside some of the experienced Dalek operators, like Jewell and Manser, but in the years to come he will supplant them and come to be known as the "real Dalek Supreme". He will become the classic series' best known monster performer, as well as getting a handful of more visible roles in stories such as The Daemons, The Green Death and Robot.
The episode also sees the first of Roslyn de Winter's additional credits for "Insect Movement", which have become a bit of a joke amongst fans ever since. She choreographed the other Menoptra performers in hand and body movement, along with vocal mannerisms, to give them a distinctive continuity of performance. Part of this was to have them pronounce names in an odd manner - such as "Ian" becoming "Heron" or "Barbara" becoming "Arbara".
Trivia:
- The viewing figures fall back from The Web Planet, but remain in very healthy double figures.
- Catherine Fleming was a drama teacher and voice coach at RADA.
- A stage direction refers to a "Husperon Ejector", and no-one is entirely sure to what this refers. It is thought that it might possibly be a name for the gold wishbone-shaped control devices.
- The response from the public varied greatly depending on your age. Adults were not impressed with the production, according to Fleet Street, but children were loving it, according to Junior Points of View - though they found the weird Zarbi noises annoying.
- The 'Complete History' partwork published by Doctor Who Magazine maintains that Menoptra fur was yellow, yet the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure In Space And Time depicted them with white fur. Below is the only contemporary colour photograph of a Menoptra that I'm aware of, from the Australian Woman's Weekly magazine of 24th March 1965 - and it shows white fur.
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