A single blow from the giant, hairy paw smashes the explorer to the ground. Terrified, he flees from the monster’s glowing eyes and savage fangs…
Why are the peaceful Yeti now spreading death and destruction? And what is the secret behind the glowing cave on the mountain?
When DOCTOR WHO discovers that a long-dead friend is still alive, he knows why his visit to the lonely Himalayan monastery has led to a struggle to save the Earth!
Forty years the Yeti had been quiet – Collector’s item in a museum. Then without warning it awoke – and savagely murdered.
At about the same time patches of mist began to appear in Central London. People who lingered anytime in the mist were found dead, their faces smothered in cobwebs. The cobweb seeped down, penetrating the Underground System. Slowly it spread…
Then the Yeti reappeared, not just one but hordes, roaming the misty streets and cobwebbed tunnels, killing everyone in their path.
Central London was gripped tight in a Web of Fear…
In the summer of 1976 I learned a new word. Well in all probability I learned quite a few – one of which was probably ‘heatwave’ – look it up if you don’t get the reference. No, the word I’m thinking of is one of many that I learned from Terrance Dicks, words that gave a generation of kids like me a quite bizarre vocabulary – chaos, malevolent, capacious… The book was ‘Web of Fear’ and it was the first I ever bought with my own pocket money, something of a miracle in it’s own right in the 70’s as that was something which was both smaller on the inside and rarer than a Mandrell.
We didn’t really own books growing up, we didn’t have too much money floating about and in any case my Mum worked part-time in a library, so books were usually borrowed not bought. But Doctor Who was special, those early Target books were wondrous things that I wanted to own for myself and read again and again. How many of my generation of fans still have them all stashed away somewhere, unable to sell or giveaway such an important part of their childhood? I discovered the joys of the second hand book shop at a young age and the 5 or 10p Target book was a thing of joy, I even loved those inscribed by someone else’s Uncle. So as one child fell out of love with the show, I fell deeper in love – it was these books as much as anything that made me a fan.
‘Web of Fear’ though was brand new – mine alone, one careful owner – I’ve still got it here, it might just be my oldest possession – mauve spine, illustration of Sergeant Arnold caught in the beams of light from the eyes of a yeti on the cover. I read it from cover to cover and back again on a car journey to a holiday camp that year and fell in love – my first Target book. Age might have yellowed the pages, but for something I’ve owned for nearly 42 years, since I was 7, it is in pretty decent shape. Actually thinking about that, it isn’t my oldest surviving possession – I’ve got older things (I suppose those fossil ammonites are a fair bit older!) – the first Hartnell annual or a hardback of ‘An exciting adventure with the Daleks’, but I got those in my teens, no I think it is possibly the 1973 Pertwee annual, which I am pretty sure I got that Christmas and still have .
Anyway, despite being born a year after ‘Abominable Snowmen’ and ‘Web of Fear’ transmitted, I’ve known the Second Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, Professor Travers, Anne, Colonel Lethbridge Stewart, Captain Knight, Driver Evans and the Great Intelligence and the Yeti most of my life. At first all I had were the images conjured up by the prose of Terrance Dicks, the cover art of Chris Achilleos, line drawings by Alan Willow and a couple of photographs from the ‘Doctor Who Monster Book’. Over more than 40 years though, these stories have slowly revealed themselves. In 1982 I first saw ‘Web of Fear 1’ at a convention, then the only surviving episode from either story – and oh my I loved it so much. Later that year ‘Abominable Snowmen 2’ was found, but it would be years later until I saw it on VHS (‘The Troughton Years’ sometimes in the mid-90’s). Then we had the audio soundtracks released on CD – I’ve lost track of the times I’ve listened to ‘Web of Fear’ on long journeys. Then we had the telesnaps and recons. And finally 37 years after I first read it, ‘Web of Fear’ was found almost complete and magically available to download from iTunes.
The rumours began to filter through in 2013 of a possible missing episode return – MEW – Marco, Enemy and Web. I’m not even sure now how I picked up on the rumours, but through the summer of 2013 I was following the saga daily on GallifreyBase, PlanetMondas, Outpost Skaro and others. At first I found this world of Missing Episodes quite bizarre, full of very ANGRY people, but there are quite a few reasonable voices scattered in amongst the madness. All those vendettas that had built over the years were perplexing – I didn’t know who Paul Vanezis, Steve Roberts or Phil Morris even were – it was a whole new world to decode and it was often and still continues to be bewildering. Even on the night when the story made the BBC News site some people still refused to believe. I was optimistic that something was happening, but also realistic – it was exciting, but there were also a lot of other things going on that year. Then it was confirmed and then, well they were available to download. I got back late from Edinburgh that night and set both stories downloading and in the morning there they were waiting – where to start? A month later I happened to meet Phil Morris on the day of the anniversary at Excel and got to say thanks and say how much I’d enjoyed the two stories. By the way if you want something that sums up the optimism of that time, try this at your peril and then try to get the song out of your head:
For me, the 50th anniversary is also wrapped up with my story with ‘Web of Fear’. In my bag that day I had two books – ‘An exciting Adventure with Daleks’ to be signed by William Russell and Carole Ann Ford and that first copy of ‘Web of Fear’. The plan was to get Frazer Hines and Debbie Watling to sign it, but also Terrance Dicks. At the end of a long day as people started to leave the venue (we were staying for the evening to watch ‘Day of the Doctor’ on the big screen), I found myself with friends and their children having a drink at the next table to Terrance. We’d spoken to him earlier, my friend one of many who’d told the great man how he’d learned to read with his books – something that happens a lot to Terrance. Now though, he was sat with his wife and family and looked exhausted. I couldn’t face disturbing him to ask him to sign it. Later I watched as he wandered off, a bit uncertainly on his feet and suddenly felt very sad – this man had given us so much and unlike the Doctors and star actors, there wasn’t someone helping him or chaperoning him around the event – he just wandered off. And no he wasn’t accompanied by a wheezing, groaning sound, but as he trudged wearily towards the exit it might have been an appropriate soundtrack. Later that night surrounded by very happy fans, I heard the words ‘never cruel or cowardly’ – that’s what he gave to us.
By the way, the word was:
Spoiler
Incongruous.
‘Incongruous at they were, in the setting of the London Underground, the Doctor felt no great surprise at seeing the Yeti again‘
A Journal of Impossible Things 