The Web Planet
From BroaDWcast
Revision as of 04:24, 9 February 2017 by Jon Preddle (talk | contribs)
| 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. It's unknown what happened to the prints, but it's likely they were junked by the NZBC along with many others in late 1974.
|
|
- 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 on the prints they held 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.) If these alternative prints of parts 1 and 6 were indeed prepared for that purpose, it's clear they were ultimately never used since there were no further sales of the serial after Nigeria in 1973.
- 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.)
- Was the "Next Episode The Space Museum" caption lifted from a print of The Crusade part 4? If so, the caption could perhaps be classed as a clip from a now-missing episode?
- 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 from Iran?
- The prints sold to Nigeria in 1973 (part six of which had the correct "The Lion" caption) were recovered from that country in 1984.
- 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.
