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Lethbridge-Stewart #6.2
Lethbridge-Stewart: The Laughing Gnome - Fear of the Web
Dame Anne Bishop learned a long time ago that for every fixed point in time, this a fracture point, an event that is susceptible to catastrophic changes in the timeline. And when she is catapulted back in time, she discovers first hand that February 1969 is one such point.
Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is on manoeuvres with the Scots Guards in Libya. Only, he’s about to receive a call from his old commanding officer, Colonel Spencer Pemberton. A call that will drag him to London, and set him on a direct course for destiny!
The London Event, the trap set for the Doctor by the Great Intelligence, changed the course of human history, and for Anne Travers it set into place a series of events that would see the death of her father barely a year later.
Now, waking up in the body of a woman she barely knows, Dame Anne is faced with the idea that perhaps she can change things – not enough to damage the timeline, but enough to save her father.
Future and past are set to collide, which could have irrevocable consequences for the timeline…
Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is on manoeuvres with the Scots Guards in Libya. Only, he’s about to receive a call from his old commanding officer, Colonel Spencer Pemberton. A call that will drag him to London, and set him on a direct course for destiny!
The London Event, the trap set for the Doctor by the Great Intelligence, changed the course of human history, and for Anne Travers it set into place a series of events that would see the death of her father barely a year later.
Now, waking up in the body of a woman she barely knows, Dame Anne is faced with the idea that perhaps she can change things – not enough to damage the timeline, but enough to save her father.
Future and past are set to collide, which could have irrevocable consequences for the timeline…
- GenresDoctor Who
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2018
4 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 16, 2023
Few Doctor Who stories cast a greater shadow than The Web of Fear. If you're a fan of stories featuring the Brigadier, UNIT, or an alien invasion of contemporary Earth, you have that 1968 serial to thank. To call it influential, even with it having gone missing for decades, feels like an understatement. It's no surprise that Candy Jar's Lethbridge-Stewart range has revisited elements of it across various titles. Alyson Leeds's Fear of the Web goes one step further, offering a full-on sidequel to the serial by having two characters revisit events decades on.
The mechanism for this is the Laughing Gnome behind this particular strand of novels in the range. If (like this reviewer) you missed out on the opening installment of the Laughing Gnome run, the opening pages will bring you up to speed. For that matter, Fear of the Web comes with references up and down much of the Lethbridge-Stewart range and also to things like the River Song audio set during these same events. To the credit of Leeds and editor Andy Frankham-Allen, the references are done in a passing fashion or with just enough detail to fill in readers concisely. All of this makes this novel quite accessible to someone who might be picking up on the back of its tying into The Web of Fear.
Indeed, The Web of Fear looms large over the novel, not just because of its reworked title. The narrative Leeds creates builds upon it in many ways, starting with the Yeti in Silverstein's museum and reintroducing many secondary characters from the TV serial. Given that the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrived well after the Great Intelligence had established its presence, there was room for a story exploring what came before from the references made. And, more than fifty years later, Leeds does so in fine form, with readers meeting Colonel Pemberton (mentioned in the TV serials opening episode) and getting a fuller picture of Anne Traver's involvement before the TARDIS crew arrived. All the while, Leeds captures the atmosphere of the TV serial's early (and best) episodes with a sense of creeping danger that borders on horror. It's a wonderfully done expansion of things hinted at on-screen, realized in vivid prose.
Leeds also does that through her choice of points of view. In keeping with the Laughing Gnome's theme of characters out of time, Fear of the Web drops Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart into his younger self, serving as a colonel in Libya. Anne, meanwhile, finds herself not as her younger self but as the fiancé to Silverstein's son. Both face a choice: to let events play out as best they can remember or to try and alter the past in some ways.
That dilemma drives the narrative, with Anne seeking to change her father's fate while dealing with the consequences of living the life of a woman she barely knew existed. Fear of the Web is very much Anne's novel, with her older self casting a knowing eye over the times and the events that unfold. An early scene featuring Anne in this younger woman's body dealing with a male doctor is a case in point. Overall, Leeds plays into the familiar Doctor Who trope of "will or won't she change the past" question right to the novel's oddly abrupt ending. It also contrasts with Lethbridge-Stewart's portions, watching how he reacts to things and ultimately acts with his foreknowledge. Even if readers guess the ultimate conclusion, the tension still works well, thanks to Anne's characterization and how much Leeds plays into The Web of Fear.
The result is an immensely readable novel. One that neatly expands on an influential Doctor Who serial while also telling its own story. No mean feat, by any means.
The mechanism for this is the Laughing Gnome behind this particular strand of novels in the range. If (like this reviewer) you missed out on the opening installment of the Laughing Gnome run, the opening pages will bring you up to speed. For that matter, Fear of the Web comes with references up and down much of the Lethbridge-Stewart range and also to things like the River Song audio set during these same events. To the credit of Leeds and editor Andy Frankham-Allen, the references are done in a passing fashion or with just enough detail to fill in readers concisely. All of this makes this novel quite accessible to someone who might be picking up on the back of its tying into The Web of Fear.
Indeed, The Web of Fear looms large over the novel, not just because of its reworked title. The narrative Leeds creates builds upon it in many ways, starting with the Yeti in Silverstein's museum and reintroducing many secondary characters from the TV serial. Given that the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrived well after the Great Intelligence had established its presence, there was room for a story exploring what came before from the references made. And, more than fifty years later, Leeds does so in fine form, with readers meeting Colonel Pemberton (mentioned in the TV serials opening episode) and getting a fuller picture of Anne Traver's involvement before the TARDIS crew arrived. All the while, Leeds captures the atmosphere of the TV serial's early (and best) episodes with a sense of creeping danger that borders on horror. It's a wonderfully done expansion of things hinted at on-screen, realized in vivid prose.
Leeds also does that through her choice of points of view. In keeping with the Laughing Gnome's theme of characters out of time, Fear of the Web drops Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart into his younger self, serving as a colonel in Libya. Anne, meanwhile, finds herself not as her younger self but as the fiancé to Silverstein's son. Both face a choice: to let events play out as best they can remember or to try and alter the past in some ways.
That dilemma drives the narrative, with Anne seeking to change her father's fate while dealing with the consequences of living the life of a woman she barely knew existed. Fear of the Web is very much Anne's novel, with her older self casting a knowing eye over the times and the events that unfold. An early scene featuring Anne in this younger woman's body dealing with a male doctor is a case in point. Overall, Leeds plays into the familiar Doctor Who trope of "will or won't she change the past" question right to the novel's oddly abrupt ending. It also contrasts with Lethbridge-Stewart's portions, watching how he reacts to things and ultimately acts with his foreknowledge. Even if readers guess the ultimate conclusion, the tension still works well, thanks to Anne's characterization and how much Leeds plays into The Web of Fear.
The result is an immensely readable novel. One that neatly expands on an influential Doctor Who serial while also telling its own story. No mean feat, by any means.
October 8, 2020
I always loved the Doctor Who story Web of Fear. In this story we get the build up to the events that happened the TV story. We see how the fog and web start to appear around London, how the public react. We get some of the background on the men sent to tackle the problem.
Sir Alistair has been projected back into the body of his younger self. He knows what should happen but soon finds out that for him it doesn't have to. He has a choice, does he make sure that he stays on track and help defeat the Yeti? Or does he choose to stay where he is and avoid having to fight Aliens for the rest of his life?
Anne Travers has also been projected back but not in to her younger self. But she is planning to change the past so that she can save her father from being taken over the The Great Intelligence!
So will history change?
A really good read for any classic Doctor Who fan!
Sir Alistair has been projected back into the body of his younger self. He knows what should happen but soon finds out that for him it doesn't have to. He has a choice, does he make sure that he stays on track and help defeat the Yeti? Or does he choose to stay where he is and avoid having to fight Aliens for the rest of his life?
Anne Travers has also been projected back but not in to her younger self. But she is planning to change the past so that she can save her father from being taken over the The Great Intelligence!
So will history change?
A really good read for any classic Doctor Who fan!
October 23, 2022
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/fear-of-the-web-by-alyson-leeds/
I have generally enjoyed this whole sequence, and was a bit dismayed when I rather bounced off the previous installment, Scary Monsters; but I’m glad to say that order has been restored, and I very much enjoyed this rewriting of what is already alternative history, where the Brigadier and Anne Travers find themselves projected back in time to the events of The Web of Fear, with a danger thatDoctor Who continuity history could go off the rails.
I have generally enjoyed this whole sequence, and was a bit dismayed when I rather bounced off the previous installment, Scary Monsters; but I’m glad to say that order has been restored, and I very much enjoyed this rewriting of what is already alternative history, where the Brigadier and Anne Travers find themselves projected back in time to the events of The Web of Fear, with a danger that
March 18, 2021
Extremely atmospheric, a good expansion on the build up to the web of fear. Would be 5 stars, but the ending is a bit abrupt. I know the answers will probably be given later in the series, but at the time it feels like the author got to a point and said ‘enough’.
July 25, 2019
An absolutely brilliant revisitation of Web of Fear. The nostalgia is strong for this one. For our full review, visit: http://travelingthevortex.com/?p=8777
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews