Doctor Who and the Web of Fear

An eminently readable, but also very ordinary, Target adventure. I don't want to besmirch Terrance Dicks' name in any way, or the excellent legacy he left of inspiring a generation of children to read - indeed, I would still very gladly put this book in a ten year old's hand. However, I also know that Dicks wrote other, far more exciting Target novels. This one is starting to indicate the direction of his books in the late '70s, which he wrote at too great a speed for a lot of the more interesting detail he had worked into earlier volumes. In particular, it suffers in comparison to its "prequel," the earlier Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen, which is a wonderfully atmospheric book.

Having said that, there are still some nice little show more touches and tweaks to this one, including an extended meeting between the Doctor and Col. Lethbridge-Stewart that never happened on screen, and the quiet rewriting of an anti-Semitic stereotype and muffling of a Welsh one. Pound for pound the TV serial is simply better, especially as there's no real way for Dicks to replicate Douglas Camfield's well-directed action sequences (and he doesn't really try) - but it's still a very likeable book, and as I said, one I'd be happy to hand to a budding Doctor Who fan. show less

The Web of Fear is one of those Doctor Who stories you can`t say anything wrong about it. Not because it`s flawless (far from there) but all of it`s flaws somehow contribute to its charm. The Doctor against the yetis in the tunnels of the London Underground plus the first appearance of the Brigadier? What not to love about it?

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it's another good one, again from the time when Terrance Dicks was still taking it seriously. He wisely strips out a lot of the chasing up and down bits of the Underground, but actually puts in a couple of crucial scenes that weren't in the original story - most importantly, the first meeting between the Doctor and the future Brigadier, but also the sinister initial encroachment of the Web on central London. It's rare that I will say this, but Dicks has actually improved a good original story here.

It is exactly 50 years since this classic Doctor Who story, featuring Yeti emerging from deadly mists and roaming in the London Underground, one of the iconic images of 1960s Doctor Who. This novelisation is adequate, but not one of the particularly outstanding ones, and is little different from the TV version, except for a bit of shuffling scenes round, with little or no deeper characterisation. It would have been nice to have seen some effects of the terrifying events on those living and working in central London.

Audiobook listen. This one was entertaining to listen to - and it's the Brigadier first appearance!

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria encounter killer robot Yeti again--this time with the added bonus of killer fungal growths! I love when time travellers meet people they knew at some other point in time.