Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia was the fear of spiders.

Several incarnations of the Doctor displayed this fear. When faced with the Great One, the Third Doctor was noted to have been afraid of her. (TV: Planet Of The Spiders)

The Eighth Doctor had to partially overcome this fear to befriend a giant Hysperon spider. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress)

The Tenth Doctor later also showed an aversion to them, as he edged away from larger spider webs on the planet Hurala. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)

The Eleventh Doctor also exhibited signs of arachnophobia, such as when Amy compared Cybermats to being worse than spiders, he asked her to "change the subject". (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen) On the planet Veestrax, when faced with mechanical spiders made from wreckage of the Last Great Time War, the Doctor mentioned how a combination of the two were a "psychiatrist's couch" moment for him. (COMIC: Outrun)

However by the time of reaching their fifteenth incarnation, the Doctor seemed to have overcome this fear, as the Thirteenth Doctor dealt with giant spiders invading Sheffield in late 2018. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)

Constantine Oliver suffered from arachnophobia. (PROSE: The Stone House)

Bernice Summerfield made mention that at certain points of her telling of the story of an encounter with arachnoids, arachnophobes in the audience would begin twitching and flicking at imaginary things on their shoulders. She invited these arachnophobes to sue her for not informing them beforehand, but warned them she had little money. (PROSE: Steal from the World)

Lola Montez's Spider Dance was called "an event of essential arachnophobia". (PROSE: Whiskey and Water)

Both Ryan Sinclair and Jack Robertson had a fear of spiders. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)

Behind the scenes

• In his work of modern British history, State of Emergency, Dominic Sandbrook notes that the Church of England blamed Planet of the Spiders for an increase in arachnophobia among young children during the 1970s.