Planet of the Spiders Part Five

The one where the giant spiders begin their invasion of Earth...

There's unrest among the giant spiders of Metebelis III. It's quite frustrating that the spiders don't have individual names because it's hard to identify them when writing about them here! Lupton's spider harbours treasonous thoughts of staging a coup to depose the queen spider, but what's interesting is that there's another arachnid which is even higher than the queen, some kind of deity figure called the Great One. The queen spider agrees to go and speak with the Great One to seek advice, and it's key that we don't actually see this scene, as the next time we see the queen, she is conspiring with Sarah Jane Smith.

The queen tells Sarah that all she wants is peace with the people of Earth, and her crystal back. Suddenly, the queen is a pacifist democrat who is open to the idea of abolishing slavery, but she's only been that way since visiting the Great One. I'm sorry, but I don't believe a word of the queen's supposed capitulations, and Sarah would be more wary than she is too.

The Metebelis villagers gather their lamentable forces ready to storm the spiders' domain and rescue the wet lettuce that is Sabor. It's typical of Doctor Who in the 1970s that when Rega says she wants to go with them, Arak stops her and states: "This is man's work." It's not even ironic: I genuinely think the Pertwee production team thought of women that way. While they were happy to allow Jo and Sarah to tokenistically espouse women's lib, it was rare that a female actually got to do what Arak says here is "man's work". Revolutions and battles are for men. Let the women stay at home sewing and wringing their hands, worried for the fates of their menfolk.

Which reminds me, how could Robert Sloman possibly have expected poor Jenny Laird to speak the lines she's given? "I've carried you to the field at my breast. I've dried your eyes. I've laughed at you through the short years of your boyhood. Now you're a man. Must you leave me alone to mourn?" It's perfectly good as prose in a novel, but to act out loud convincingly? Laird may not be the most convincing of actors, but the material she's given to work with is debilitating from the outset.

LuptonLuptonLuptonLuptonLuptonLupton

Meanwhile, the new, improved Tommy has been swotting up with his books (a book about the measurement of IQ by the sounds of it) and decides to seek advice from Cho-je. I love the bit where Tommy's face is vision-mixed with Sarah Jane saying "Lupton" over and over, faster and faster, like some kind of Lupton Remix! When Tommy asks why Cho-je is not surprised to see him changed, he replies with one of those handy Buddhist maxims: "When everything is new, can anything be a surprise?" Another veiled attempt to prep the audience for a big surprise renewal just around the corner...

The Doctor is lured into the CSO domain of the Great One, who he and we do not get to see but who sounds utterly crackers. Maureen Morris really pulls out the stops in her vocal portrayal of the spiders' deity, a spider with frightening power. The bit where the Great One forces the Doctor to turn and march on the spot against his will is quite unsettling, because we're just not used to seeing the Doctor forced to do anything against his will, especially this incarnation. It's an assault on the Third Doctor's pride, and Pertwee is really good at expressing the Doctor's fear and frustration. He even has a tear in the corner of his eye.

I've always winced at scenes like this because, as a Doctor Who fan, I don't like seeing my hero debased like this. It's fine when he's being shot at or knocked unconscious or tied up, because you know he'll always be OK in the end, but when the Doctor's will is broken like this, I find it fundamentally upsetting. There's a similar moment in Pyramids of Mars when Sutekh makes the Fourth Doctor kneel before him in abject pain, and another that really had an effect on me (and still does) is when the Seventh Doctor is brought to his knees by Morgaine through the scabbard in Battlefield. McCoy looks like he's about to expire, and for a 13-year-old who adored that Doctor, it was hard to watch.

The episode cranks up even more as the spiders start to transfer to Earth and take control of Barnes and his cronies, arming them with lightning bolts and moving in force to try and regain the crystal. The spiders look great in these scenes, scampering along the floor and creeping around in the cellar. What's interesting though, is that Tommy seems impervious to the spiders' lightning bolts, as if his mental progression has gone hand in hand with a physical transformation too. Tommy has gone from the childlike innocent of part 1 to the determined, educated defender here. He's experienced his own form of regeneration.

The Doctor and Sarah go to see the abbot K'anpo Rimpoche, although I'm not sure why because the Doctor really should be trying to figure out a way to stop the spiders at this point. However, there's an inkling that the Doctor may have met K'anpo before, although he fails to recognise him initially. Can K'anpo be another Time Lord (let's hope he's not the Master).

First broadcast: June 1st, 1974

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: More praise for the spider props, and the voicework by Churchman, Delgado and Morris ("You must hurry back and fetch the crystal. I must have it, don't you understand? I must have it, I must, I must, I must! Go now! Go! Go! Go noooooooooow!")
The Bad: Everything about the character of Neska.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 35 - "Now listen to me, both of you. Listen!" the cocooned Doctor instructs Sarah and Sabor.
Neck-rub tally: 17

NEXT TIME: Part Six...

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