The Art of... The Web of Fear

The Web of Fear was novelised by Terrance Dicks and was published in paperback in August 1976. Cover art was by Chris Achilleos, and it was another of his favourite pieces as he liked the way the web motif held the piece together. For the Troughton image he used a photograph from The Three Doctors, whilst the Yeti derives from a location shot of the original Mark I type, with the ribbon of skin added to the midriff. Staff Sergeant Arnold comes from a publicity image of the character, played by Jack Woolgar. 

The beams of light were pure imagination though their glowing eyes do feature in the text, and the artist did like adding effects to help pull the overall image together. 

A close up on just the Doctor with web behind provided the cover for DWM issue 114, which included an interview with Achilleos.

This was the last time that the Second Doctor appeared on a new release until 1993, due to the introduction of the "Current Doctor Only" rule.

The book was reissued in 1983, with artwork by Andrew Skilleter. He also elected to use the light beams from the eyes so probably looked to Achilleos' original art for inspiration. It's clearly another Mark I. A close-up of the TARDIS caught in web in the background was used as cover for the 1986 Doctor Who diary.

A third version followed in December 1993 and the artist this time was Alister Pearson. The Troughton image came from The Mind Robber, and the TARDIS covered in web is direct from a screen capture. The Yeti is a proper Mark II this time, taken from one of the publicity photographs depicting Jamie, Knight and Arnold surrounded the the creatures.

The soundtrack was released as part of the BBC Radio Collection in March 2000, with linking narration provided by Frazer Hines. Only the photo of Anne Travers comes from the story itself. The Yeti shows that the designer had access to other images from the story as it is a passable depiction of the web gun it is holding.

This was later repackaged with The Abominable Snowmen as the "Yeti Attack!" set in July 2003.

The orphan Episode 1 was released on VHS in November, with a photomontage cover. That photo of Arnold which Achilleos had used featured on the back cover. 

It was accompanied by the two surviving instalments of The Faceless Ones and formed part of a box set packaged with the incomplete The Reign of Terror. This release brought the VHS range to an end in the UK as stories were already beginning to be issued in DVD format.

Both tapes were released in the US as part of the 11 tape "End of the Universe" set, which also closed the video range there.

That Yeti is another Mark I type with glowing eyes photoshopped on, and the Troughton image is well known from The Ice Warriors publicity images.

Episode 1 was later released on the "Lost in Time" DVD set (November 2004).

When four of the missing episodes turned up in late 2013, the story was quickly released onto DVD the following February, with cover art by Lee Binding. The still missing Episode 3 was covered by soundtrack and telesnap images but it was otherwise a vanilla release, lacking even a commentary.

There was also a Region 2 limited edition sleeve by the same artist, which came with a free T-shirt.

As the earlier DVD release had been devoid of extras, a Special Edition was released in August 2021 with Lee Binding once again providing the artwork - one of his best single story covers. The missing episode was available in three formats - soundtrack / telesnap as before, colour animation or B&W animation. Of the three stick to the first as the animation is truly abysmal. Terrible likenesses and characters move around so much it can induce motion sickness. You have been warned...

A steelbook was also available, with a web-covered TARDIS oddly parked in a tunnel rather than on a station platform. Atmospheric at least.

The novelisation was released as an audiobook in August 2017, using the Chris Achilleos artwork and read by David Troughton.

And finally, Radio Times produced a movie-style poster to tie in with the rediscovery of the missing episodes in October 2013, designed by Stuart Manning.