Planet of the Spiders
074 – Planet of the Spiders | |||
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Doctor Who serial | |||
Cast | |||
Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | Season 11 | ||
Running time | 6 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
First broadcast | 4 May 1974 | ||
Last broadcast | 8 June 1974 | ||
Chronology | |||
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Planet of the Spiders is the fifth and final serial of the
A Tibetan monastery in rural England, a stage magician with uncanny powers; these are the strands of the sinister web woven by the Metabilis spiders. The serial is set in England and on the planet Metebelis Three. Failed businessman Lupton (John Dearth) allies himself with a race of giant spiders with psychic powers, who call themselves The Eight-Legs, in order to seize power on Earth.
Plot
This episode's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (June 2017) |
Following the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, where he is subjected to mind control, Mike Yates is discharged from UNIT and joins a Tibetan meditation centre in rural England for therapy, to help him cope with the experience. He asks Sarah Jane Smith to visit him, to investigate a group organised by a resident named Lupton. Mike and Sarah witness Lupton perform an incantation that conjures up a giant spider, which takes control of him. The Spider has come to Earth to seek a certain blue crystal.
The Third Doctor has developed an interest in psychic ability, and his experiments include testing the blue crystal which he brought from the planet Metebelis Three, the blue planet in the Acteon Galaxy which he visited during The Green Death. The experiments show images of giant spiders. Sarah returns from the monastery, and she and the Doctor compare spider stories. Meanwhile Lupton's spider has traced the crystal to UNIT HQ, whereupon Lupton travels there and steals the crystal from the Doctor’s laboratory. A multi-vehicle chase ensues, with vehicles including Bessie, the Doctor’s Edwardian roadster; a Campbell Super Cricket gyrocopter, G-AXVK; the Whomobile, a futuristic-looking vehicle that combines the abilities of a hovercraft with the ability to fly; and a conventional hovercraft.
Lupton escapes by his Spider teleporting him back to the monastery, where it reveals that it too comes from Metebelis Three. Both the giant spiders and the crystal originate there. Before the Spider can contact Metabilis, the crystal is stolen from Lupton by Tommy, the monastery's handyman, a retarded innocent with mental difficulties, who is strangely drawn to the crystal. Sarah has recognised Lupton, and she and the Doctor quickly arrive at the monastery to warn the lama in charge, Cho-je, about Lupton's strange powers. Lupton is compelled to flee with the Spider to Metebelis, without the crystal. Sarah secretly follows, but is quickly captured by the Eight-Legs - as the spiders call themselves.
The Doctor arrives in the Tardis to rescue her, and begins organising a resistance movement among the human slaves, descendants of the crew of an Earth spaceship that crashed hundreds of years before, who the spiders prey on. The planet is ruled by the giant spiders, who also came from the crashed ship, but whose mental powers have been amplified by centuries of exposure to the strange blue crystals found in the mountains of Metabilis. The Queen Spider seems to be the supreme ruler, but in the Blue Mountains the Doctor encounters the Great One, an enormous spider who is really in control, who now desires power over other worlds too. She craves the crystal, which she insanely believes will expand her mental powers to infinity and give her dominion over the entire universe.
The Great One sends the Doctor to Earth to get the crystal for her. He flees with Sarah, unaware that the Queen spider - who also craves the crystal - has taken over Sarah's mind. At the monastery, Tommy has been cured by the crystal, which has expanded his intelligence too, just as it has for the spiders. He gives it into the safe-keeping of the abbot, K’anpo Rimpoche, an elderly Time Lord who has retired into a peaceful exile on Earth.
The Abbot uses the crystal to free Sarah's mind from the Queen's control. The crystal kills the Queen. A force of Spiders arrives, and a battle breaks out in the monastery for possession of the crystal. The Abbot advises the Doctor to give the crystal back to the Great One, as the Doctor has caused the entire problem by taking the crystal in the first place.
When the TARDIS arrives on Metebelis, Lupton tries to seize the crystal but is killed by the spiders, who are too much afaid of the Great One. The Doctor returns to her cave and warns her of the dangers of using the crystal to complete the feedback loop she has built, but she is now insane. The forces released are so powerful that a vast wave of deadly radiation floods the mountain, killing the Great One and all the other spiders. The Doctor, now very weak, dying from the deadly radiation, staggers back to the TARDIS.
The Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sarah are in the Doctor's laboratory when the TARDIS materialises. Upon emerging, the Doctor collapses to the floor. The Abbot K’anpo then also materialises, having regenerated into the form of Cho-je, who was a sort of projection. He tells them the Doctor can yet survive, by regenerating. Although he will look quite different. K’anpo initiates the process with a little push, and before their very eyes the Doctor begins to change...
Production
The final story of Season 11 (to have been titled The Final Game) was originally intended to write out the character of
The railway station at which Sarah Jane arrives in Part One is Mortimer, near Reading,[2] a major continuity error, as director Barry Letts' allows this to be identifiable on-screen in the establishing shot of the railway station, thereby placing the location of the Tibetan monastery in Berkshire, close to London. But the extensive location scenes in Part Two, filmed in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, imply a setting of 'darkest Mummerset' in the wilds of the West Country.
Producer and director
Cast notes
Ysanne Churchman had provided the voice of
Broadcast and reception
Episode | Title | Run time | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [6] | Archive [7] |
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1 | "Part One" | 24:40 | 4 May 1974 | 10.1 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
2 | "Part Two" | 25:02 | 11 May 1974 | 8.9 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
3 | "Part Three" | 24:58 | 18 May 1974 | 8.8 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
4 | "Part Four" | 23:53 | 25 May 1974 | 8.2 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
5 | "Part Five" | 24:01 | 1 June 1974 | 9.2 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
6 | "Part Six" | 24:43 | 8 June 1974 | 8.9 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
The story was edited and condensed into a single omnibus episode broadcast on BBC1 at 2:45 pm on 27 December 1974,[8] reaching 8.6 million viewers.[9] The compilation was included on the DVD release of the complete story.[10]
Commercial releases
In print
ISBN 0-426-10655-5 | |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in October 1975 as Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders. The novel's prologue shows Jo Grant and her husband Professor Jones in the Amazon jungle following the events of The Green Death. Harry Sullivan is referred to as Doctor Sweetman.
Home media
The serial was released on
References
- ^ "Doctor Who episodes and spin-offs that never happened". 19 June 2011.
- ISBN 0-426-20486-7.
- ^ "An Interview with Barry Letts". BBC Online. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ a b Mulkern, Patrick (28 March 2010). "Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders". Radio Times. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- ^ "The Green Death ★★★★★".
- ^ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ^ Shaun Lyon; et al. (31 March 2007). "Planet of the Spiders". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 12 December 2004. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ "Dr Who: Planet of the Spiders". The Radio Times (2667): 56. 19 December 1974 – via BBC Genome.
- ^ doctorwhonews.net. "Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for Planet of the Spiders".
- ^ http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/ [failed verification]
- ISBN 0-426-20442-5.
- ^ Sinnott, John (13 May 2011). "Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders". DVD Talk. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- ^ Berriman, Ian (15 April 2011). "Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders – DVD review". SFX. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- ^ Wilkins, Alasdair (1 January 2010). "Ranking The Regenerations Of Doctor Who". io9. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- ^ "21 Scariest Doctor Who Moments 4". SFX. 1 February 2009. Archived from the original on 21 November 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ^ "Planet of the Spiders". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ "April 2011 DVD – Planet of the Spiders". Doctor Who Online – Release Guide. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
- ^ Lambert, David (26 January 2011). "Doctor Who – BBC Announces 'Terror of the Autons' and 'Planet of the Spiders'". TVShowsOnDVD.com. para. 3. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
External links
- Planet of the Spiders at BBC Online
- That Doctor Who Episode with the Hovercraft Chase: A Retrospective — A tongue-in-cheek analysis of Planet of the Spiders Part Two.
- Planet of the Spiders on BBCWorldwideTV YouTube channel
Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database