Planet of the Spiders Part One

The one where the Doctor gets a present from South America...

The first few minutes of this episode consist of a series of quick cuts between different scenarios featuring Mike Yates and the Doctor, and don't appear to be related at all. In fact, the entire episode runs along on parallel storylines which don't have anything to do with each other until the very end, which is a clever little touch.

By far the least engaging storyline involves the Doctor, who goes to see a variety show at the theatre with the Brigadier. There's a lame comedian, then a belly-dancer who certainly grabs the Brig's attention, followed by one particular act that the Doctor is most keen to see - Professor Clegg's demonstration of extra-sensory perception.

Because for some undetermined reason, the Doctor is conducting experiments into ESP and psychokinesis, which is a rather strange thing for him to be doing when he's got a machine in the corner which travels through time and space and would be a much more interesting way for him to pass the time. After all those years desperately trying to regain the use of the TARDIS, it seems odd to find him conducting experiments into the untapped potential of the human mind. I mean, why?

There's a lovely little turn from the ever dependable Cyril Shaps as "Professor" Clegg, a man tortured by the very real power of his mind. Clegg can move objects with a thought, and is expert in psychometry, even managing to establish the back-stories of the Brigadier's wristwatch (including a nice foreshadowing of the Brig's wife Doris, who we'll finally meet in 1989's Battlefield), and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver (Clegg's visualisation of the scene from Carnival of Monsters is disappointing, seeing as it would have been possible to show the screwdriver's first appearance in Fury from the Deep at this stage - the master tapes of that serial were not junked until late 1974).

The business with the Doctor and his experiments on Clegg in his lab are pretty inconsequential, although it's nice to have the continuity of a letter arriving from Jo in South America sending back the blue crystal of Metebelis III the Doctor gave her as a wedding present in The Green Death. Apparently, the crystal is "bad magic", and by the end of the episode it seems to be channelling, or amplifying, the psychic bond summoned by the chanters of Mortimer Meditation Centre.

And that's where the other, much more interesting, storyline is taking place, with Mike Yates calling in old friend Sarah Jane Smith to help him investigate what he thinks is strange goings-on at a Buddhist retreat. Mike checked himself in there to try and sort himself out after the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, when he was outed as a traitor to his country and relieved of his job. Mike is reluctant to call the Brigadier or the Doctor, afraid that they will still think ill of him, but Sarah seems to have forgiven Mike for his misdeeds remarkably easily. It's nice that we can catch up with Mike like this, as it would have been too easy for him to be forgotten about after the events of Operation Golden Age.

Mike thinks that his fellow residents at the meditation centre are somehow summoning up a psychic power by reciting Buddhist chants in the cellar. He doesn't have an awful lot of evidence to go on, but when a tractor appears in the road in front of their car - and then disappears in a flash - it's enough to convince Sarah that something fishy is going on, and to convince Mike that a man called Lupton is trying to kill them. All this is quite poorly developed by writer Robert Sloman, with Mike and Sarah leaping to improbable conclusions on the weakest of evidence. They're not reaching conclusions in an organic way at all. I mean, what makes Mike think Lupton conjured the phantom tractor? And why would Mike think Lupton wants to kill him? Sloman has failed to show his working, and expects the viewer to accept what they're told.

Elsewhere, there's an unfortunately cast Tibetan monk in the form of Cho-je, played by Australian actor Kevin Lindsay. I'm more than ready to turn a blind eye to the way ethnic roles were cast somewhat inappropriately in the 1970s - that's just the way things were, and that's that - but I still can't help wondering why the production team didn't cast an actual Asian actor. They cast appropriately for The Mind of Evil for instance, but puzzlingly failed here. If nothing else, they could have cast Burt Kwouk, who was ubiquitous in parts such as this at the time.

Lindsay plays Cho-je with the stereotypical heightened vocal tone and beaming smile, but thankfully manages not to be too offensive in his portrayal of a Tibetan. I do like the clever foreshadowing of the story's finale though: "The old man must die and the new man will discover, to his inexpressible joy, that he has never existed." Move over, Jon. There's a new man just around the corner...

The episode ends with the chanting men summoning a giant spider into the circle before them, which quivers repulsively as the credits roll. I say repulsively, because I'm a terrible arachnophobe, so anything to do with spiders repels me! However, quite how - and why - they have managed to manifest a dog-sized arachnid through the power of Buddhist chant bewilders me.

By the way, all but two members of the cast of this episode appear in another Third Doctor story, making this like a reunion for the departing Jon Pertwee (only John Kane and Carl Forgione are newcomers).

First broadcast: May 4th, 1974

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: It's nice to see Sarah Jane out and about as a journalist again, working for Metropolitan magazine. And it's also nice to have Jo's presence felt in Pertwee's final story.
The Bad: It's all quite choppily edited, moving back and forth between unconnected scenarios, leaving the viewer mildly disorientated and puzzled.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 34
Neck-rub tally: 16

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/06/planet-of-spiders.html

Planet of the Spiders is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Planet-Spiders-DVD/dp/B004P9MUK0