The Web Planet

Story Code: N / Season 2	UK Airdate: 13 Feb to 20 Mar 1965	Doctor: William Hartnell
First airings by location	UK Repeats / Foreign Cable and Satellite	Previous Story / Next Story

This story aired in the following countries. They are listed in chronological order according to known airdate. If no month is noted, the actual airdate is not confirmed, and is a close approximate. (Refer also to Selling Doctor Who for expanded airdates.)

Australia	Feb 66	b/w
Gibraltar	May 66	b/w
Singapore	Jul 66	b/w
Nigeria	Sep 66	b/w
Zambia	Nov 66	b/w
Barbados	May 67	b/w
Mauritius	Nov 67	b/w
Mexico	Apr 68?	b/w
New Zealand	did not air	b/w
Sierra Leone	Jun 68	b/w
Venezuela	Nov 68	b/w
Jamaica	Feb 69	b/w
Chile	Nov 69	b/w
Iran	May 70	b/w
Ethiopia	Nov 71	b/w
Costa Rica	Mar 72	b/w
Nigeria (again)	Apr 73?	b/w

• New Zealand received prints in mid-1967, but the serial was not screened due to censorship issues.

Dr Misterio

• In the Spanish dub, the Animus speaks with a male voice, whereas in the original English, it was female.

• In the Spanish edition of part six, the "Next Episode" is given by voice-over as "EL LION" to match the caption - and yet The Crusade did not screen in any Spanish-language countries.

• Besides a full set of uncut negatives, in the late 1970s, the BBC also held two 'odd' prints from this serial: a copy of part 1 from which the cliffhanger reprise from The Romans part 4 had been removed, and a print of part 6 that had a different "Next Episode" caption that read "The Space Museum" rather than "The Lion". It was thought that these two different prints existed so that the BBC had two different versions to offer overseas buyers, especially any that didn't also acquire The Crusade... and it was thought that this was on account of some Middle Eastern countries not being offered The Crusade due to the story's content and subject matter -- but that idea doesn't really work because only nine serials from A to L were ever dubbed into Arabic by the BBC, and The Crusade was never sold outside the Commonwealth. There's also the fact that the edited prints are in English not Arabic and that there is no corresponding negative with the alternative caption, as there would have to be in order for any prints with the other captions to exist. Besides, the Next Episode captions weren't actually translated or even acknowledged in the Arabic narrations that played over the closing credits anyway, therefore it wouldn't have mattered to Arabic viewers that the episode had the "wrong" caption. The caption must therefore have been changed for other reasons... These are some of the points to note:
  • The BBC was still offering Inside the Spaceship, The Web Planet, The Space Museum, The Time Meddler and Galaxy 4 for sale as late as 1974. Therefore, the BBC may have amended the reprise and the caption at that point, to reflect that The Romans was no longer available and that The Space Museum was now the next serial after The Web Planet in terms of the limited package that was available. (On that basis, the "Next Episode" captions for the last installments of the other serials would also have been amended accordingly.)
  • The BBC's existing master negative of Inside the Spaceship part two has a splice five minutes before the cliffhanger ending. The negative is a Stored Field telerecording, but the last five minutes is from an earlier Suppressed Field recording. This might indicate that the ending was re-edited as part of this 1974 package, and that the full ending was later replaced by splicing from the earlier inferior copy. (The BBC also holds a version of Inside the Spaceship without the final cliffhanger link to Marco Polo, but this edit appears to have been made in the mid-1980s, along with similar edits to other stories, when the reissued package of 17 William Hartnell stories was released for syndication to the United States.)
• A print of part five was apparently returned from the "Far East" in 1978, but no countries in that region would have still held a broadcast print as late as that. Was it perhaps an Audition print, or a print from Australia?
• A complete print of part six with the correct caption was recovered from Nigeria in the mid-1980s; a TV station in Nigeria had bought the serial in 1966, but it was a different broadcaster in the same country that had aired the serial in 1973.
• See Hartnell Junkings

Reissue

• The serial was reissued by the BBC in late 1985, and sold to:

United States	from Sep 85	b/w
Canada	1990s	b/w
New Zealand	Jul 00	b/w

US TV Guide descriptions

More Information
Title: The Web Planet

• Episode 1: A mysterious force draws the Tardis to the planet Vortis, where ant-like aliens known as the Zarbi have seized power.
  
• Episode 2:
  
• Episode 3:  
  
• Episode 4:  
  
• Episode 5:  
  
• Episode 6:  
  
• Compilation: A mysterious force draws the Tardis to the planet Vortis, where ant-like aliens known as the Zarbi have seized power.

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