Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep

This is another story that is missing all six parts, but I think this is the last one with not one existing episode. We're closing in on the end of the missing episode era. The TARDIS lands in the ocean, and they have to row to shore. A few interesting things happen at the beginning of the episode. The Doctor says that the TARDIS can float. Victoria notes that they keep landing on Earth, and Jamie specifies that they keep landing in England. This is the second time recently that they've mentioned that they keep landing on Earth.

Jamie, the Doctor, Victoria

After wading through a large amount of sea foam, they find a box and the Doctor opens it using...the sonic screwdriver! The design is more simple than later sonic screwdrivers. He says it operates using sound waves. Anyway, they get taken inside a gas refinery and then sea foam goes insane, gets inside, and tries to get Victoria.

The Doctor insists to Robson, head of the pumping operation, that he heard something in the pipes that could be a heartbeat. Other people have heard it, too. Robson says it's a mechanical fault and they aren't turning off the flow.

The Doctor and Victoria do some tests and determine that the weed is alive. Wouldn't it be alive anyway, since it's a plant? Hm. Meanwhile, some creepy people are going around spewing toxic gas and knocking people out.

This episode is pretty slow, even by early Doctor Who standards. Victoria is freaking out the entire time about how they're always in danger. It's heavy-handed foreshadowing of the fact that this is her last story. After the Doctor defeats the weed creature, she decides to stay with a couple at the refinery.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: Second
Companions: Jamie, Victoria
Episode: #42, "Fury from the Deep," six parts
Adversary: Weed creature

Classic Lines: Victoria: "Every time we go anywhere, something awful happens...Why can't we go anywhere pleasant? Where there's no fighting. Just peace and happiness."

Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: This episode is the first time the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver.
Next Up: "The Wheel in Space"

Doctor Who: The Web of Fear

This story is a sequel to The Abominable Snowmen. It's 40 years later, and Professor Travers has reactivated one of the Yeti control units he brought back from Tibet. Then it disappears. Oops! It seeks out the Yeti he brought back from Tibet and brings it to life, and soon Yeti are taking over the Underground.

the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria

The TARDIS gets encased in a web in flight, but they manage to land on Earth, in an Underground station. Soon they're reunited with Professor Travers, who is shocked to see people from 40 years ago looking the same and relieved because he thinks the Doctor can help with this Yeti issue.

Victoria, Travers, Travers' daughter, and Jamie

The army has a base in the Underground and is doing what they can, but they aren't very successful. Then a new commander arrives. Look who it is!!

Yes, it's him!

It's the Brigadier! Except, he's not the Brigadier yet. He's Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, commanding a group of the Scots Guards of the British Army. He gets promoted and moves to UNIT later. I was disappointed that the first footage of Lethbridge-Stewart was lost. This story is six episodes, and episode three is missing. The story I watched had a re-creation of the third episode with audio and photographs. The Brigadier was awesome right from the start. Fair, direct, brave, and smart, with his trademark bit of gruff.

the Doctor and Professor Travers

So there are webs everywhere, Yeti everywhere, and the Great Intelligence is controlling it all. The Doctor better figure out how to fix this, fast. The soon-to-be Brigadier leads a patrol to break out on to the streets of London, but they find Yeti there, too, and head back to the Underground base.

the Yeti don't look so snuggable anymore

You may notice that the Yeti look different than in the last story. The Doctor mentioned it himself. I guess they knew the old Yeti looked like giant, huggable teddy bears and wanted something more menacing? They still don't look that menacing, but I like the Yeti. I wish they were in the show more.

So the Great Intelligence takes over Travers and reveals that this was all a trap to catch the Doctor. Oh no! How will they ever get out of this? I'm sure it won't be something kind of anticlimactic after you've watched six episodes of this story. Nope. Not that. But watch it anyway to see the Yeti and the Brigadier.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: Second
Companions: Jamie, Victoria
Episode: #41, "The Web of Fear," six parts
Adversary: the Great Intelligence and the Yeti

Classic Lines: the Doctor: "Funny, isn't it?"; Jamie: "What?"; the Doctor: "How we keep landing on your Earth."

Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: The is the first appearance of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, but he wasn't yet the Brigadier; he was a colonel. 
Next Up: "Fury from the Deep"