A Tangled Web (comic story)

On a windswept moor the Doctor takes Clara to investigate why people have been disappearing on the spot for hundreds of years. Passing a nearby cave they are suddenly taken by a strange web that immediately sends them both to sleep. They awake to find themselves deep underground surrounded by a motley selection of artefacts taken along with missing people who are cocooned in similar webbing. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to release himself and Clara from the web just as giant spiders with red eyes return for them. Clara remembers her father telling her that spiders were more afraid of "us" than we are of them. The same seems to true of these underground spiders. When challenged they cower and explain that they are treasure hunters who never intended on hurting anyone and that they have kept the missing humans safe in a suspended seep, some for hundreds of years. All of the artefacts the spiders have collected along the way they regard as great and valuable treasures. With the Doctors help all the sleeping humans are returned to their respective times and the spiders (along with their collection of everyday "valuable" items to an asteroid in space where the spiders open up a space museum.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor compares the moor to the Bermuda Triangle.
Clara mentions her father, who apparently told her that spiders were more scared of her than she was of them.
The Doctor helps the spiders open a Space Museum.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Original print details[[edit] | [edit source]]

Publication with page count and closing captions

DWA 339 (4 pages) More adventures next time

No reprints to date.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor has dealt with alien spiders before. (TV: Planet of the Spiders, et al.)