Planet of the Spiders
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| 074 - Planet of the Spiders | |
|---|---|
| Doctor | Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) (uncredited) |
| Writer | Robert Sloman Barry Letts (uncredited) |
| Director | Barry Letts |
| Script editor | Terrance Dicks |
| Producer | Barry Letts (uncredited) |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | ZZZ |
| Series | Season 11 |
| Length | 6 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | May 4–June 8, 1974 |
| Preceded by | The Monster of Peladon |
| Followed by | Robot |
Planet of the Spiders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 4 to June 8, 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's last serial as the Doctor and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker in the role.
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[edit] Synopsis
Mysterious goings-on at a meditation retreat run by Tibetan monks are linked to the blue planet Metebelis III, and a colony of monstrous, evolved spiders. The Doctor must reflect on his past and reconcile with his present to defeat a deadly and possibly fatal challenge...
[edit] Plot
Following the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Captain Mike Yates was discharged from UNIT and is now attending a Tibetan meditation center in rural England. He is visited by Sarah Jane Smith and they witness some curious happenings at the center, seemingly organized by a resident called Lupton, a middle aged former salesman, and his cronies. Mike and Sarah stumble across Lupton performing an incantation which conjures up a giant spider into the middle of the basement room. It jumps on Lupton’s back and then disappears. The spider manifests itself in Lupton’s head, telling him to seek out and locate a certain blue crystal.
The Third Doctor has developed an interest in psychic ability, but his testing of a clairvoyant called Professor Clegg backfires when his subject has a heart attack. It is triggered when Clegg comes into contact with a blue crystal from Metebelis Three (sent back from the Amazon by Jo Grant), which caused him to see the image of deadly spiders. Sarah returns from the retreat, having left Mike to watch things there, and they share spider tales. Meanwhile Lupton has also arrived at UNIT HQ and steals the crystal from the Doctor’s laboratory. A multi-vehicle chase ensues which Lupton escapes by teleporting himself back to the monastery. Once there, the spider reveals that it is plotting against some of its sisters back on Metebelis Three. The spiders and the crystal originate from the same blue planet in the Acteon Galaxy which was none too hospitable to the Doctor the last time he visited (during The Green Death).
The Doctor and Sarah now make for the monastery and tell the deputy abbot, Cho-Je, that something is very amiss. The crystal now strays again when it is taken by Tommy, the simple-minded handyman of the retreat, whose mind is opened and improved by the power of the crystal. Lupton is teleported to Metebelis Three, unconsciously allowing Sarah to follow him. She soon meets the human slave inhabitants of the planet, a generally dispirited bunch, other than the rebellious Arak, who flees to the mountains.
The planet is ruled by the Eight-Legs or giant spiders, and their Queen is the supreme ruler. They govern using guards chosen from amongst the human population and their own phenomenal mental powers, amplified by the blue stones of the planet. The Doctor arrives on the planet and he makes contact with Arak, who explains that the Metebelians are the descendants of the crew of an earth space ship, which crashed hundreds of years before. A spider on board found its way to the Blue Mountains where, through the effect of the crystals, its progeny grew larger and larger and cleverer and cleverer. The Doctor works out that a “negative” stone can absorb and reject the power of the blue crystals and starts a revolt amongst the humans, but this is defeated and the Doctor ventures to the Blue Mountains. There he encounters the Great One, a giant spider which controls the world of Metebelis and desires power over other domains too. She knows the crystal is still on Earth and sends the Doctor there to get it for her. He flees back to Earth with Sarah – not knowing the Queen spider has now implanted itself in her mind.
Tommy has given the crystal to the abbot, K’Anpo Rinpoche, who is an elderly Time Lord and the one-time hermit mentor of the Doctor. He now lives in peaceful exile on Earth. He tells the Doctor of Sarah's control and they work together to expel the Queen Spider. A fight breaks in the monastery between Lupton’s cronies and the Abbot’s men. The Abbot advises the Doctor to take the crystal to the Great One: the Doctor started this chain of events by removing the crystal in the first place, and it is up to him to put it back. He departs in the TARDIS with the crystal.
On Metebelis Three, Lupton has been killed by the spiders after falling out with the Spider Queen. When the TARDIS lands, the Doctor heads to the cave of the Great One and gives her the crystal, which she uses to complete a lattice that begins to magnify her mental powers. However, the forces unleashed are too strong for the Great One and the positive feedback kills her and the other spiders. A vast radiation wave from the blue cave spills over the Doctor, destroying his cells and weakening him…
Three weeks later, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sarah are in the Doctor's laboratory when the Doctor returns and promptly collapses. The abbot K’Anpo arrives in his new body, having regenerated into the form of Cho-Je, who was a sort of forward projection of his soul. He tells them that the Doctor will change too and before their eyes the Doctor starts to regenerate.
[edit] Cast
- Doctor Who — Jon Pertwee
- Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart — Nicholas Courtney
- Captain Mike Yates — Richard Franklin
- Sergeant Benton — John Levene
- Lupton — John Dearth
- Land — Carl Forgione
- Keaver — Andrew Staines
- Moss — Terence Lodge
- Barnes — Christopher Burgess
- Tommy — John Kane
- Cho Je — Kevin Lindsay
- K’anpo Rinpoche — George Cormack
- Professor Clegg — Cyril Shaps
- Policeman — Chubby Oates
- Soldier — Pat Gorman
- Man with Boat — Terry Walsh
- Hopkins — Michael Pinder
- Tramp — Stuart Fell
- Sabor — Geoffrey Morris
- Tuar — Ralph Arliss
- Arak — Gareth Hunt
- Nesta — Jenny Laird
- Rega — Joanna Munro
- Guard Captains — Walter Randall, Max Faulkner
- Spider Voices — Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado, Maureen Morris
[edit] Cast notes
- This story marks the final appearance of Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates. Franklin would reprise his role in The Five Doctors (1983) and Dimensions in Time (1993), although on both occasions they were illusory versions of Yates. After his departure from the series, Franklin would go on to become a stage and television director.
- Kismet Delgado, the widow of Roger Delgado, who had played the Master during the Third Doctor's era, was one of the voices for the Spiders.
- Gareth Hunt, who would go on to play Mike Gambit in The New Avengers, appears here as a human rebel on Metebelis III. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
[edit] In print
| Doctor Who book | |
 |
|
| Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders | |
|---|---|
| Series | Target novelisations |
| Release number | 48 |
| Writer | Terrance Dicks |
| Cover artist | Peter Brookes |
| ISBN | 0 426 10655 5 |
| Release date | 16 October 1975 |
| Preceded by | Doctor Who and the Green Death |
| Followed by | The Three Doctors |
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.
[edit] Continuity
- This story was the second and last appearance of the "Whomobile".
- The character of Harry Sullivan, the UNIT medical officer, is referred to by the Brigadier who calls for him when the Doctor falls into a daze after staring into the crystal. Sullivan would not actually appear on screen until Robot, where he was played by Ian Marter.
- This story introduces the character of K'anpo Rimpoche, the previously unnamed Time Lord hermit from the Doctor's childhood, first mentioned in The Time Monster. K'anpo has the power to travel through time without the use of a TARDIS, to make a corporeal projection of a potential future incarnation (Cho-Je) of himself, and to stimulate the regeneration process of another Time Lord. Whereas a Time Lord was seen to travel without a TARDIS in Terror of the Autons and the Doctor has met two future potential incarnations of himself: the Watcher in Logopolis (1981) and the Valeyard in The Trial of a Time Lord (1986), no other Time Lord has been shown to stimulate the regeneration process (although it can be argued that the Time Lords stimulated the Doctor's regeneration in The War Games; and that the Doctor's companion Romana may have stimulated her own regeneration or projected possible future incarnations for the Doctor to choose from in Destiny of the Daleks). K'anpo was referenced again in the Fourth Doctor serial State of Decay as the man who told the Doctor about the legends of the Great Vampires.
- The Spiders of Metebelis Three make further appearances in the short story "Return of the Spiders" by Gareth Roberts (in the collection More Short Trips) and a brief appearance in the Eight Doctor Adventure The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks.
- The Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Interference by Lawrence Miles has the time-travelling voodoo cult Faction Paradox changing history so that the events of this story never happen and instead having the Third Doctor regenerating on a planet named Dust after being shot. A later novel in the series, The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, resolves this paradox and restores the Doctor's timeline to its previous state. The canonicity of the novels is unclear.
- This is the first story to feature a Time Lord (other than the Doctor) regenerating on screen. To date, the only other Time Lord seen to regenerate in a television story is Romana in Destiny of the Daleks (1979); although The Master was also shown changing appearance on two occasions (in The Keeper of Traken and the 1996 TV film), neither was an actual regeneration.
[edit] Production
The final story of Season 11 (entitled The Final Game) was originally intended to write out the character of the Master, with the villainous Time Lord sacrificing his life to save the Doctor's. Due to the tragic death of actor Roger Delgado, script editor Terrance Dicks abandoned the project in favour of a new story, which eventually evolved into Planet of the Spiders.
[edit] DVD and video releases
This story was released on VHS in April 1991 as a double pack, and a commentary has been recorded for a future DVD release. It is widely believed among Whovians that the DVD will be released in mid to late 2007.
[edit] External links
- Planet of the Spiders episode guide on the BBC website
- Planet of the Spiders at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- Planet of the Spiders at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- That Doctor Who Episode with the Hovercraft Chase: A Retrospective — A humorous analysis of Planet of the Spiders Part Two.
[edit] Reviews
- Planet of the Spiders reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Planet of the Spiders reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
- On Target — Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders
| UNIT television stories | |
|---|---|
| Second Doctor: | (The Web of Fear) • The Invasion |
| Third Doctor: | Spearhead from Space • Doctor Who and the Silurians • The Ambassadors of Death • Inferno • Terror of the Autons • The Mind of Evil • The Claws of Axos • The Dæmons • Day of the Daleks • The Time Monster • The Three Doctors • The Green Death • Invasion of the Dinosaurs • Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: | Robot • Terror of the Zygons • The Android Invasion |
| Seventh Doctor: | Battlefield |
| Tenth Doctor: | The Christmas Invasion |
| Minor appearances: | The Time Warrior • The Seeds of Doom • The Five Doctors • Aliens of London/World War Three |
| See also: | UNIT dating controversy |
| Television stories dealing with Regeneration | |
|---|---|
| First Doctor: | The Tenth Planet |
| Second Doctor: | The Power of the Daleks • The War Games |
| Third Doctor: | Spearhead from Space • Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: | Robot • Logopolis |
| Fifth Doctor: | Castrovalva • The Caves of Androzani |
| Sixth Doctor: | The Twin Dilemma |
| Seventh Doctor: | Time and the Rani |
| Eighth Doctor: | Doctor Who (1996) |
| Ninth Doctor: | The Parting of the Ways |
| Tenth Doctor: | Children in Need special • The Christmas Invasion |
| See also: | Destiny of the Daleks • The Ultimate Foe • The Curse of Fatal Death |
