The Web of Fear will be released again on DVD, Blu-ray, and Steelbook next year, this time with its missing third episode animated.

This Second Doctor classic reintroduced the Great Intelligence, who wasn’t heard from again on screen until 2012’s The Snowmen. Episode 3 of The Web of Fear will be animated, completing the partly missing adventure, produced by Big Finish Creative in collaboration with BBC Studios, with animation created by Shapeshifter Studios.

It’s created using the surviving audio-only recordings, while the release further includes the serial’s 5 surviving episodes.

Here’s the blurb:

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…

While it’s great to hear something about the missing episodes, this does seem a little… off.

Firstly, episode 3 does exist – Philip Morris recovered it alongside the other five episodes, but it was missing when the shipment from Nigeria arrived back in the UK. We can infer that someone stole it in transit, perhaps knowing that episode 3 in particular holds extra significance for Doctor Who fans because it introduced popular sort-of-companion, Colonel (soon to be Brigadier) Lethbridge-Stewart.

Secondly, it was only released in 2013, albeit without animation, so this feels like a cash-grab, making one animated episode to get the DVD/Blu-ray out faster than if they were to animate other partly- or wholly-missing serials like The Crusades or Marco Polo.

I’m on the fence, but what do you think, DWC readers?

The Web of Fear will be released in 2021 as a DVD, Blu-ray, and Steelbook.