Friday 2 April 2010

'Killer Mist Panic - Londoners Flee!'


Spent a jolly afternoon gassing on about nothing in particular (except our gassy bowels) round Robin's house. Watched the surviving episode (1) and remaining clips of The Web of Fear, not only one of the best ever Who adventures but also one of the best Target novelisations. Here is my own battered copy bought on publication in 1976 when I was 12. Terrance Dicks was still making an effort with the novelisations in those days and he succeeds in crafting quite an effective Whodunnit (pardon the pun) from the 'Who is being controlled by the Great Intelligence' sub-plot.


One thing the book can't convey though is the extraordinarily scary early sequence in which collector of rare objects Julius Silverstein snuffs out candles in a dark corridor crammed with stuffed animals, Egyptian sarcophagi etc as Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra builds and the Yeti comes back to horrible, glowing-eyed life unobserved behind him. Eek-a-roo! Will Steven Moffat succeed in crafting a scene so splendid in the upcoming season? Well, if anyone can, he can.

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