November 23rd, 2020
153 comments
Doctor Who – Web of Fear Steelbook New Edition
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk
Also available to order from www.zavvi.com
This release includes all 5 surviving episodes, plus a brand new fully animated reconstruction of the missing 6th episode created from the surviving audio-only recordings.
In order to escape an attack in space, the TARDIS makes an unscheduled landing and ends up deep inside the London Underground. Here the travellers soon find themselves engulfed in a thrilling battle with the Great Intelligence and the Yeti, a deadly enemy set to invade the Earth. But as events take a turn for the worse, it becomes clear that the golden prize is not just the Earth, but the Doctor’s mind too…
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James
May 7th, 2021 - 12:11pmAnother reconstructed story to look forward too.. GALAXY 4 to be animated in colour. Today’s Daily Mirror reports (Friday 7th May 2021 edition page 25).
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/lost-doctor-who-episodes-starring-24056014.amp
Anonymous
May 7th, 2021 - 1:48pmI think it’d be news if they didn’t do it in colour at this stage
Gordon
May 7th, 2021 - 5:51pmWe can add that to the rumour pile.
Anonymous
May 9th, 2021 - 3:36pmYes, it’s a rumour, but it’s a very likely choice for an animation, and while officially unannounced, there’s heavy evidence they’re doing Evil and Abominable, which the same reporter initiated.
James
April 10th, 2021 - 10:27pmPreorder was done in the day with Zoom but due to them changing owners it was cancelled last month. So preordered again with HMV.
Has been almost 5 months since the announcement, but nothing since. I know there has been the pandemic to deal with but season 8 still got made and realased all be it a few weeks later.
Surely even just a small update “due to the current climate we are aiming to get this released xxxxxxxxx”. Just to give us some info, please
Gordon
April 11th, 2021 - 2:11pmThe season sets are produced differently to the animations. When the season sets are announced they have all the new extras and footage has been shot and in the can. It’s therefore possible to give a release date if they desire. When the animations are announced the animation isn’t anywhere near ready and in most cases the special features haven’t been filmed yet. Putting a vague release date would effectively be putting a deadline on the animation and special features. I’d rather they would reveal the date when it’s ready.
James
April 11th, 2021 - 6:00pmGordon. I get that but they could give us something. There is a teaser so some of it has been done. Just an update be nice. What to look forward to. ” We’re doing extra features x y z, the cover will be shown on xxXx”
Auton
April 11th, 2021 - 7:41pmThe teaser was made based on the original trailer so it doesn’t mean that they had started the actually animation back then
Anonymous
April 12th, 2021 - 2:33pmHow much longer will the wait for any information be
Gordon
April 12th, 2021 - 10:12pmGoing by how they reveal the covers and content for the animated releases (cover disc content and final release date release date all at the same time in 1 press release) I doubt they would drip feed info. Plus In the case of announcing disc content that’s not going to be finalised till late on as there is a chance that there might be clearance issues or a space issue if it turns out there isn’t room (like the highlanders audio on the power special edition) . Fury didn’t get much updates between the 10 months of being announced and the press release with cover and content being revealed (bar Gallifrey one when Gary Russell gave an interview). We are at half that time period . They will update things when they are ready. Mark Ayers today said it’s 1 of many things they are currently working on. So I don’t think there is a need to worry about lack of updates
Anonymous
April 7th, 2021 - 10:11pmI’m starting to think this project has been shelved. Very sad it is now April 7th and still no significant updates since Nov 23rd…
Anonymous
April 2nd, 2021 - 2:02pmApril now. “Early 2021” is almost over.
Gordon
April 2nd, 2021 - 3:34pmWhere did it say that it was coming early 2021?
Anonymous
April 3rd, 2021 - 2:50amI thought I had read it somewhere, must have simply been a case of seeing people say “Likely early 2021.”
Would’ve thought we’d have *some* news by now, given it’s been over four months since the announcement, and it’s only one episode being animated.
Tardis
April 3rd, 2021 - 9:12amI’d just say remember due to pandemic every schedule will be all over the place.As things start to return to a bit more stability things should be announced but just give it time.
Gordon
April 3rd, 2021 - 9:23amThere is also the special features that will need filming. Bit difficult considering we have been locked down since Christmas. The commentary has been done for the surviving episodes but that can be done remotely from home. Filming on camera interviews isn’t as easy
Anonymous
April 3rd, 2021 - 10:21amNow this is a thing I don’t understand, why are the animations announced so early in the process of making anything? It’s one factor that contributed to the original Power of the Daleks animation feeling quite rushed
Gordon
April 3rd, 2021 - 11:46amBecause there are leaks and in some case they want to announce things to coincide with certain events. For instance test footage of the original power animation was leaked a month prior to its announcement. Regardless of when they announced it power would have had the release date it had as they wanted it out on the 5th November 2016. Shada got leaked early by Daniel hill who told everyone on Instagram. Faceless ones also got leaked early too via 1 of the actors at a convention (can’t remember which) saying to someone they had seen their likeness for an animation. Macra terror had been mentioned by the mirror but due to there being no actual leaks it was announced when it was supposed to be. The power special edition despite being briefly listed for sale early on simplyhe a couple of weeks early was announced when it was supposed to. In the case of fury from the deep and the web of fear special edition was down to timing. Fury was announced at a London film comic con event. The web special edition was announced to coincide with doctor who day.
Anonymous
April 4th, 2021 - 1:32amI know there are things like wanting to time release dates and avoid leaks, but really the upmost priority should be giving the animators as much time and money as possible
Anonymous
March 17th, 2021 - 6:42pmWhile there could be improvements, such as giving the Doctor a sense of “weight” and making him look more realistic, I think this may be the greatest missing episode animation so far, speaking just from the trailer.
The existing episodes are 3D. Well, they are. So I think they really should stick with this. You can do far more with 3D animation than 2D. In recent animations they’ve had to make sacrifices and cut scenes out because the 2D animation restricted them from doing it. Such as the “Rough and Tumble” scene or Polly’s clothes in Macra Terror. Or removing the patterns from the Second Doctor’s trousers and Jamie’s kilt. Or removing Samantha Briggs’ hat in Faceless Ones.
With the 2D animations, every element of a character has to be drawn from different angles, and the lighting has to be manually drawn over. This isn’t a deal when it comes to 3D models of people and clothing, where it’s one object that you can turn around and manipulate as you please, and naturally, the lighting is adjustable. Look at this trailer, the Doctor’s bow tie, hankerchief and trousers are patterned (inaccurately, because I don’t recall the bow tie being spotty in Web of Fear, but ah well, they’re sill patterned anyway, so you see my point)
I saw what this trailer looked in black and white, cropped to 4:3 (they really need to stop putting the black and white ones in widescreen. If it’s in black and white to match existing episodes, why is it still in widescreen. In colour, it makes sense) and put next to a clip from an existing episode in the story, and it flowed nicely.
Clearly this animation is being done as a small side-project to the rumoured and very likely animation of Abominable Snowmen, and I don’t imagine this project has anything to do with the status of the technically-missing-but-also-technically-existing Episode 3. I guess that means Abominable Snowmen will have 3D animation just like this.
I would like them to continue the 3D animations, making the character models more realistic and giving the episodes (the B/W versions anyway) a videotape/film look to match the existing episodes. I feel that would soften the blow of the missing episodes.
Anonymous
March 15th, 2021 - 1:55pmHalf way through March and still radio silence since November 23rd…
Considering their animating just one episode, they seem to be taking their time.
Anonymous
March 15th, 2021 - 8:15pmYeah, I thought we would’ve at least had the DVD cover and special features list by now
James
March 16th, 2021 - 11:06amIt is odd to have nothing yet. My preorder still said 31/12/2099 for zoom before it was cancelled.
As the previous reply said even just a cover be something.
Plus it’s been even longer since first news broke of 2 more animated release’s. Evil of the Daleks and The Abominable Snowmen news was mentioned in August 2020. And nothing after then
Gordon
March 16th, 2021 - 12:21pmDon’t forget there is a pandemic and we have been locked down since Boxing Day. That could have an effect on any special features that they have planned for the web special edition. News hasn’t broke on evil and abominable as neither have been officially confirmed by the bbc. Both are still only rumoured at present
Anonymous
March 16th, 2021 - 6:11pmMakes sense about the special features but didn’t they find a solution with the extras on the Collection box sets? I know the Collection range has almost nothing to do with the animated range (different producers) but I imagine the principal is the same.
At the very least, I’m begging for the DVD cover at this point haha
Gordon
March 17th, 2021 - 12:39amThey were able to find a way of filming collection extras but they still have work around the Covid restrictions. For season 8 and 24 things weren’t as restrictive as they are currently. They actually lucked out with season 24 as it was a few weeks before Christmas just before everything and in the case of the doctor’s table the 1 week in December that restaurant’s in London were open. If it had been any other week that month they wouldn’t have been able to film it.
It was mentioned at a zoom interview last month the commentary for the surviving episodes of web of fear have been recorded and they are waiting on the animation to do the commentary of episode 3. I’m sure when all the extra content has been filmed and finalised they will reveal the cover and extras along with a proper release date
James
March 6th, 2021 - 11:53pmJust a thought. As there are quite a few missing episodes from Hartnell and Troughton era could they remake them like they were filmed originally? David Bradley portrayed Hartnell amazingly in Adventure and Twice. He and the actors who also played the companions are already doing BigFinish audios so why not remake some of the lost episodes but filmed as they were back in the 60s to as true as possible. If not instead of animations OR aswell as?
Mission to the Unknown (I know it’s a Doctor Lite episode) was remade like the original as looks fantastic.
Reece also played Troughton in Adventure so he could possible step into the role to do some of the 2nd epsiodes. Just a thought
Anonymous
March 7th, 2021 - 12:49pmI’d absolutely love to see it, though I’d say they should get different actors for the Doctors and companions. I can accept David Bradley in a sort of “this is his take on the role” way, and he’s great at that, but for a project like this, you need an actor around Hartnell’s age who also looks and sounds much more like him.
James
March 15th, 2021 - 10:36amAnonymous: can see your thought but surely it make it less canon/convincing to have another actor take in the role? Like Dads Army; had the original.
cast for tv and film, then another set (obviously as was years later) for the story of, then another cast for a new movie, then another cast for 3 missing episodes.
Be simpler to keep David as he’s done 2 eps plus all the Big finish audios, in my opinion.
Anonymous
March 15th, 2021 - 12:25pmIt’d only be less canon/convincing if the only experience you have of the First Doctor is the David Bradley stuff. He’s quite different from Hartnell, down to appearance, voice and portrayal. Add to that, he’s 20 years older than him.
He’s a very good First Doctor, but you can’t deny he’s quite different from Hartnell in those regards. I wouldn’t find him totally convincing in a missing episode recreation because he comes across more as someone else’s take on the role than a straight-up recreation of the role. Look at the David Bradley audios, they’re made with the mindset that “these are David Bradley First Doctor stories” and less so “these are just First Doctor stories” and he’s good in that way, but I’m not convinced that he’s THE First Doctor, more so the role of the First Doctor being played by an actual older actor and not a slightly younger actor playing an old character
the ergon
March 16th, 2021 - 3:26pmI don,t think David Bradleys Portrayal of the first doctor is such a bad thing if you were to remake a lost classic as long as he isn,t doing an Hartnell impersonation. Hes older than Hartnell in years yes but that doesnt disqualify him as long as he embodies the role of what the first doctors character is all about. Hurndalls take on the first doctor captured certain characteristics and he was fine in The Five Doctors.
Reece Shearsmith seemed slightly miscast in the second Doctor part and didn,t quite convince in bringing the eccentricity and little idiosyncrancies that make or sound like what you want despite his enthusiasm. Anonymous and James, Who would you cast in these roles just out of curiousity?
the ergon
March 16th, 2021 - 3:28pmDiscounting Shearsmith for second Doctor choice of course.
Prof Horner
March 16th, 2021 - 5:00pmRegarding remakes are concerned, they could easily do the Smugglers and maybe The Savages with David Bradley . What do people think?
Auton
March 16th, 2021 - 5:40pmTheir is no point doing remakes with David Bradley or anyone else as it would just feel wrong to replace the original cast. The David Bradley big finish stories are amazing and some of my favourites but it’s because it’s audio and you can easily imagine the original cast but with remakes of episodes visually then it just doesn’t work in my opinion.
Anonymous
March 16th, 2021 - 6:08pmIn response to Auton, they have the resources and it’d be an utter waste for them not to do it. Mission to the Unknown was wonderful –
almost like the episode came back. I’d like that experience again. Perhaps there could be a disclaimer credit (“This is a recreation of an episode of Doctor Who originally starring William Hartnell”) before the beginning to provide context for new viewers.
In response to the Ergon, I want to be able to watch the missing episodes as if they weren’t missing, and it would be weird watching a recreation of an episode that originally starred William Hartnell, but the First Doctor’s being played by an actor who’s clearly very different. David Bradley’s great as the First Doctor, but more as his own First Doctor. I’m talking about recreating the missing episodes bearing the context of the original in mind (Hartnell being a younger actor playing an older man or the TARDIS console room being one wall and a console for instance) rather than reimagining them in a modern context. Like restaging them.
Auton
March 16th, 2021 - 6:34pmMission to the unknown was different as it didn’t have the main cast in but I still felt that it wasn’t right. I much prefer animations, tele-snaps and soundtracks as they use the original soundtracks and they feel much more authentic.
the ergon
March 16th, 2021 - 9:31pmAnonymous. Unless they recreated the full story it would be pointless anyway filling in the gaps with a new actor in which case just leave well alone and manage with the animation and the snaps. In the case of ‘mission’, the prequal to masterplan it didn,t matter as UClan faithfully recreated that story practically shot by shot using existing scripts and in the style it would have been made in the 1960s. I thought it was tremendous for an amateur production and recieved a lot of support to make it as authentic as the original.
Anonymous
March 16th, 2021 - 10:08pmAnd it would be taking away from those…how? If people prefer those, they can watch or listen to those. Nobody’s stopping them.
All I’m saying is that they should just do it because they have the resources to do it (when the pandemic is a thing of the past, of course), 60s Who was made with a low budget, ergo, this would be a financially viable project, and you never know, if technology moves in the right direction, they could replace the “stunt” actors’ faces in the future in whatever way, be it deepfake or some other algorithm, and lay over the original soundtracks, and it’d be like having the *real* thing.
I don’t like to criticise the animations too much because of all the effort that goes into them, and they’re great, but I feel that the episodes look and move totally differently from the existing ones (and from each other across releases) and unless they stick with 3D and evolve it into at least a somewhat realistic style, then it’ll still always feel like that episode is missing.
The soundtracks on their own are just half the experience personally, and the telesnap recons have always been good, but there’s that thing of “it’s a slideshow with very few photos” but credit where it’s due for the effort to make them move (I love the CGI work for the Wheel in Space recon; I wish there was a whole missing story animated like that)
Speaking of Wheel, I don’t think many people have heard, but apparently there’s a university in Nottingham that are doing a Wheel in Space deepfake project with the original soundtrack? If this is the case, I’m very much looking forward to it.
I’d love the ability to watch every 60s Who story as if every episode existed (grainy videotape, small sets and all) and it would soften the blow that there’s missing episodes in the first place.
They could either do that by straight-up refilming the episodes with actors as close to the originals in appearance, age and voice as possible, refilm them BUT replace the actors’ faces and the soundtrack with the original ones, or recreate the episodes in 3D and give it the appearance of an existing episode 🙂
Auton
March 17th, 2021 - 7:03amAnonymous you make it sound so easy but it really isn’t. Just because the 60s episodes were made cheaply compared to now doesn’t mean it is easy to remake them. It will take forever to find actors that look and sound like the real people and in the end even if they do find people who do sound and look the same it will take forever to recreate the sets accurately. Remember mission is only 1 part so even if they do a 4 parter like galaxy 4 that’s 3 more episodes more which makes it even more difficult to make. They really don’t have the resources to make it so it’s much better to focus on completing the animations and look for anymore that exist in private collections.
E404
March 17th, 2021 - 7:59amDo you have any links on this reconstruction of the university of nottingham?
Anonymous
March 17th, 2021 - 6:10pmE404, apparently it was said in an issue of Celestial Toyroom. If true, it would be nice for the BBC to make it a somewhat official project like they did with Mission to the Unknown. Hopefully it’s good enough for a DVD release (they should stick the Mission to the Unknown remake on DVD with a telesnap recon so that at least gets one DVD release out of the way and pleases everyone). Animations are good substitutes, but in the long run, I can’t imagine them being *the* actual thing. They’re too different from the existing episodes, and from each other (e.g. The Ice Warriors Episodes 2 and 3 looks completely different from Fury from the Deep). I want an experience as close as possible to having the actual episode. I guess the telesnap recons are, by default, the closest experience possible, but they (mostly) don’t move.
Auton, I don’t think the amount of episodes really has anything to do with it. Mission to the Unknown was a small scale project made by a university which the BBC happened to stumble across. On a fully professional scale, it would be far easier and financially viable to recreate the episodes. As for sets, An Adventure in Space and Time had no problem recreating one of the sets from Marco Polo (which is well known for it’s highly detailed set design) for one very short scene, and of course, the tracking room and Cyberman ship sets from Twice Upon a Time, which ended mostly getting cut from the final episode anyway, so I don’t know why it should be a problem for *professional* missing episode recreations, where the set recreations would have even more use. I don’t understand how it would take forever to build the sets when it would logically take around the same time as it did originally.
And I don’t think they’d have much of a problem with the casting process. While David Bradley looks older than William Hartnell, I thought that Jemma Powell, Jamie Glover and Claudia Grant looked a lot like their 1963 counterparts. Especially Claudia Grant. Ellie Spicer wasn’t bad as Anneke Wills either, considering she was just an extra non-speaking part. The rest admittedly didn’t look much like the original actors but again, they were extras.
All I want is to be able to experience the missing episodes as if they were existing, and the BBC are fully capable of doing it. Or at least will be when everything’s safer, of course. I’m not making it sound easier than it is, they are literally capable of doing this. And later on, they can always have a go at replacing the faces and the soundtrack, when it’s technologically feasible to do so.
E404
March 17th, 2021 - 7:52pmThanks Anonymous, it looks very interesting!
Prof Horner
February 22nd, 2021 - 2:45pmSo do we think that the next issue of DWM will have some news regarding the release date of this and season 24?
Gordon
February 24th, 2021 - 1:30amSeason 24 quite possibly. Web of fear I expect they will reveal the cover extras and date all at the same time via press release so probably not
James
February 19th, 2021 - 5:14pmAnyone heard of a release date for this title yet?
Any news on Evil of the Daleks OR the Abominable Snowman?
Anonymous
February 20th, 2021 - 9:20amNot yet for evil of the Dale’s or abominable snowmen
Gordon
February 20th, 2021 - 12:10pmWeb of fear shouldn’t be too far away as it’s only 1 episode needing animated. Evil and abominable still haven’t been confirmed by the bbc
anon
February 4th, 2021 - 6:47pmZoom earlier today cancelled my order that I placed on the 23rd Nov. And gave me a full refund.
With this and the season 24 Blur Ray, I’m wondering if they are having supply problems?
booboo
February 4th, 2021 - 7:02pmThey are either closing or merging so they are cancelling / not listing everything due after the end of March
Gordon
February 4th, 2021 - 12:37pmAnd that’s my steelbook been cancelled. Hmv it is
Stewart
February 4th, 2021 - 4:25pmMine too 🙁
Pete X
February 4th, 2021 - 5:42pmJust received a cancellation of the DVD from Zoom.
Gordon
February 4th, 2021 - 1:07amPaul vanesis and Peter Crocker did a zoom interview for fantom events. A question about any additional restoration for the web of fear special edition (I asked).
There will be some additional restoration work to the surviving episodes. There won’t be a night and day difference but there will be improvements especially with better encodes on Blu-ray. It was also mentioned that the commentary for the 5 surviving episodes has been completed and will include 11 different people as well as Toby hadoke moderating. The haven’t done the commentary for ep3 as they are waiting for the animation to be finished before doing it
Auton
February 4th, 2021 - 8:21amI wonder if the commentary for episode 3 will have just the animators commentating on it
Gordon
February 4th, 2021 - 12:27pmCould possibly be.
Luck4UNow
February 4th, 2021 - 5:44pmI wonder if this restoration and better encodes on surviving episodes of Web will give us a preview into what The Collection 60s Who-Rays will look like once they get to Seasons 1-6.
Oh my giddy aunt, I can’t wait.
Anonymous
February 3rd, 2021 - 6:21pmThe release has been pulled from zoom
Zoom are apperantly closing in the uk?.
Any truth to this?
booboo
February 3rd, 2021 - 6:23pmClosing or merging, zoom are not talking other than from script
Deano
February 3rd, 2021 - 8:41pmInteresting mine is still listed as pre ordered but have ordered with Amazon as it appears from what others are saying it has indeed been pulled from there schedule but I should imagine that season 8 collection will be ok hopefully.
James
February 3rd, 2021 - 5:29pmJust had an email from Zoom. They ha e had to cancel my preorder for WebOfFear steel book due to unforeseen circumstances. Hopefully season 8 isn’t delayed.
Bobby
February 3rd, 2021 - 5:33pmSame. Wonder if it’s just the steelbook that’s affected
booboo
February 3rd, 2021 - 5:36pmprobably for now as its clear that probably wont arrive in March
James
February 3rd, 2021 - 5:49pmBOBBY. They had already removed the dvd and standard Blu Ray versions last week.
booboo
February 3rd, 2021 - 5:50pmsteel book now gone
Error_404
February 1st, 2021 - 10:45amHi, I recently uploaded a video in which I discuss the situation of the web of fear dvd and its cancellation on zoom.
Philip Morris commented. Does anyone know if it’s really him or someone who wants to troll?
Obviously this message is not
absolutely written to spam my video, just want to know if the real phil morris commented, thanks
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VIMXE_UzlW8
Gordon
February 1st, 2021 - 2:44pmIt does sound like 1 of his comments but I’ve stopped paying much attention to what he says as he says 1 thing 1 day and something completely different the next. He’s already back-pedalled the “you may think that but I couldn’t possibly comment” by saying today the zoom removal is “ Probably some kind of clerical error..nothing to see here”
Error_404
February 1st, 2021 - 4:37pmOh interesting, thank you very much!
Gordon
January 28th, 2021 - 12:19pmHopefully we will find out more information about this release soon. I’m itching to find out more about it and the releases after it. It’s been well over a year since the last animation was officially confirmed by the bbc that wasn’t a special edition.
Erato
January 31st, 2021 - 4:18pmHead over to the missing episodes proboards forum. Two days ago, PM tweeted “a good day at the office” and an image of the contents of a 16mm film can; needless so say, it has sparked a few rumours…
Gordon
January 31st, 2021 - 5:51pmIt may have been posted there 2 days ago but That wasn’t 2 days ago when Philip posted that on twitter. Look at the original date of that tweet. It was 27th of July. The animation has been announced since then
Star Lord
January 20th, 2021 - 12:43pmAnyone know if Lee Binding is doing the artwork for the steelbook as well as the regular DVD/Blu-ray?
Gordon
January 21st, 2021 - 8:42amHe’s doing a cover. Whether or not it’s the dvd steelbook or both is unclear. I’m sure things will be clearer when the cover, contents and release date will get announced
Sam
January 12th, 2021 - 1:35pmI think it’d be really nice if this game with The Snowmen following on from how the Macra Terror had Gridlock and it’s special features 🙂 would just be a nice touch
Gordon
January 17th, 2021 - 6:48pmDepends on what else is on the bonus disc. There might not be space