Fabula
Season 5 · Episode 26
S5E26
Tragic with glimmers of defiance
Written by Henry Lincoln & Mervyn Haisman
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The Web of Fear Part 4

The Doctor and his companions must uncover who is in league with the Great Intelligence as it unleashes Yeti and a web-like fungus on the London Underground, threatening to paralyze the city and claim more victims.

Following the Yeti attack, the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria find themselves embroiled in a desperate struggle to uncover the source of the Great Intelligence's influence over London. With the city paralyzed by a web-like fungus spreading through the Underground, suspicion falls on Professor Travers, who has been abducted by the Yeti, and Chorley, who went missing in the tunnels. As the Doctor investigates, he realizes someone within their ranks is aiding the Intelligence.

Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart's troops attempt to regain control of the situation, but their efforts are thwarted by the relentless advance of the fungus and the Yeti. The Doctor, meanwhile, focuses on understanding the Intelligence's strategy, deducing they seek to control Professor Travers' research with a control sphere. Anne, Travers' daughter, joins the Doctor in his efforts to counteract the Intelligence's influence.

As the Colonel orders a mission to secure the TARDIS, which he believes can offer an escape, the Doctor uncovers a crucial clue: a model Yeti. He realizes these devices are being used as homing beacons, and that someone secretly provided him with one. Suspicion further intensifies, especially towards Evans, a seemingly simple driver. The mission to rescue the TARDIS ends in disaster as the soldiers are ambushed by Yeti, reducing their numbers. Meanwhile in the tunnels, Staff Arnold and Lane are engulfed by the fungus that kills Lane, leaving Arnold missing and confirms the Intelligence's deadly power.

Back at headquarters, the Doctor seeks the electrical components to counteract the sphere. While gathering supplies with Captain Knight, they are attacked by the Yeti, killing Knight and steals the model yeti from Knight's pocket. The episode closes with Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart's team struggling against the Yeti in Covent Garden, while the Doctor continues searching for a way to stop the Intelligence, knowing time is running out.


Events in This Episode

The narrative beats that drive the story

32
Act 1

The episode opens with immediate peril as a Yeti attacks Professor Travers and Anne, subsequently abducting Travers from the Goodge Street Fortress. The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria navigate the tunnels, attempting to reach the TARDIS, only to find their path to Covent Garden blocked by the rapidly spreading, pulsing web-like fungus. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart's forces also encounter the fungus, confirming its relentless advance. Returning to a devastated HQ, the Doctor's team discovers Anne unconscious amidst the wreckage. Upon her recovery, Anne confirms the Yeti took her father, prompting the Doctor to deduce their motive: they require Travers for his research, specifically his work on a control sphere. This revelation shifts the focus from simple survival to understanding the Intelligence's strategic objectives. Meanwhile, the Colonel, initially skeptical, becomes convinced by the Doctor's claims of a time-space craft (the TARDIS) and orders a rescue mission, viewing it as their only potential escape route. The Doctor, while examining Travers' control sphere, is given a model Yeti by Evans, found near the deceased Weams. The Doctor immediately recognizes it as a reprogrammed homing device, realizing someone is actively aiding the Intelligence from within their ranks, intensifying the internal suspicion and setting the stage for betrayal.

Act 2

This act escalates the conflict and introduces significant losses. The Colonel dispatches two teams for the TARDIS rescue: a ground unit led by himself and a tunnel team comprising Staff Arnold, Lane, and Evans. Before their departure, the Doctor discovers the web sample he collected is missing from Evans' tobacco tin, solidifying his suspicion of Evans' involvement. Concurrently, the Doctor, needing specific electrical components to modify Travers' control sphere, ventures to a street-level electrical shop with Captain Knight. In the tunnels, Arnold and Lane heroically attempt to push a trolley through the encroaching fungus. Lane succumbs to the deadly web, and Arnold goes missing, presumed lost, as Evans flees in terror. This incident confirms the fungus's lethality and the mission's extreme danger. Simultaneously, the Colonel's ground team faces a brutal ambush by Yeti at Covent Garden, suffering heavy casualties. In the electrical shop, two Yeti attack the Doctor and Knight. Knight is killed, and the model Yeti previously given to the Doctor (and subsequently found in Knight's pocket) is stolen by the attacking Yeti. The Doctor returns to HQ with Knight's body, explaining the model Yeti was likely planted on Knight, further deepening the mystery of the traitor and the Intelligence's precise, almost prescient, targeting.

Act 3

The episode reaches its climax with the full-scale decimation of the Colonel's remaining forces. Trapped in a warehouse at Covent Garden, the soldiers bravely attempt to repel the relentless Yeti assault. Their ammunition dwindles, and their grenades prove ineffective against the creatures. One by one, the soldiers are overwhelmed and killed, highlighting the futility of conventional military tactics against the Great Intelligence's forces. Corporal Blake is clubbed down, and the Colonel, witnessing the complete collapse of his command, makes a desperate sprint across the yard, jumps a wall, and escapes, becoming the sole survivor of the ill-fated TARDIS rescue mission. Back at the Goodge Street Ops Room, the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, and Anne confront Evans, who vehemently denies any involvement in the theft of the model Yeti or the web sample. The Doctor, however, focuses on the larger problem: two model Yetis were missing, and with one having been planted on Knight and subsequently stolen, the location and purpose of the *other* missing model remain unknown. The episode concludes with the Colonel's forces annihilated and the Doctor still racing against time, searching for the final missing piece of the puzzle to stop the Great Intelligence, its identity and methods still largely a mystery, but its destructive power undeniably confirmed.