Return to the Web Planet (Daniel O'Mahoney)

December 2007 sees another free subscriber release. Called "Return to the Web Planet" it is written by Daniel O'Mahoney and is directed by Barnaby Edwards.

This story was recorded on the 22nd August 2007 and stars Peter Davison, as the Fifth Doctor, and Sarah Sutton, as Nyssa. Joining them are guest stars: Sam Kelly (from Allo, Allo! and previous audio "The Holy Terror") and Julie Buckfield (from Hollyoaks) as a renegade Menoptra. Also starring are: Matthew Noble and Claire Wyatt.

In a break with tradition Big Finish Productions has commissioned an original piece of line art, by Doctor Who Magazine artist Anthony Dry, the cover.

As revealed by Executive Producer Nicolas Briggs ‘We thought it would be exciting to have something in the style of the Target book of the original "Web Planet" story for our sequel and Anthony Dry was the obvious artist to do it’.

Fifth Doctor

The Doctor and Nyssa arrive on the planet Vortis. The Doctor has been to this insect world before but for Nyssa it is her first visit. It has been hundreds of years and several regenerations since The Doctor last visited and much has changed and not necessarily for the better. Before Vortis was a craggy, forbidding world but now it is a green and pleasant place.

 Nyssa is soon to discover that Vortis though is not the paradise it first appears. Soon after arriving she becomes separated from The Doctor, by a stampede of Zarbi – large ant like insects, and meets Hedyla – a butterfly-like Menoptra who has lost the ability to fly but desires to do so. Meanwhile The Doctor is rescued by Acheron – who it turns out is Hedyla’s father.

A Zarbi

 Something malevolent is living out in The Desolation which The Doctor discovers is a strange fertile area, for some unknown reason, strewn with wrecked space ships. But what force would cause such an event and why should the Zarbi be so interested in creating a huge underground colony there?

 The Doctor discovers a Human Being controlled by the Zarbi and who reveals to be a speaker for the colony and explains the Zarbi are seeking the lost Load Seed - a gravitational attractor that is being used to enrich the land but which The Doctor deduces is what is responsible for the crashed space craft and why the TARDIS was attracted to Vortis.