Planet of the Spiders (TV story)
Well, here we go again...
Planet of the Spiders was the fifth and final story of Season 11. It marked the final appearance of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and the first appearance (uncredited) of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. The character of Mike Yates also makes his final appearance.
Synopsis
The blue crystal that the Doctor took from Metebelis III in a previous adventure is desperately sought by the Eight Legs, a race of mutated spiders, as the final element in their plan for universal domination. With help from an old mentor, the Doctor realizes the only way to foil the plot is to make the ultimate sacrifice. The Doctor must risk death to return to the cave of the Great One and save the universe.
Plot
Part One
In the basement, Lupton's men are once again chanting around the Mandela.
The chanting grows in power, Lupton's voice becoming fierce in concentration.
Part Two
Sarah Jane and Mike Yates are investigating the mysterious events at monastery in rural England. They watch as a group of men, led by the enigmatic Lupton, chant around a Mandela. And amidst a bright blue glow, a giant spider materializes.
One of the men tries to run but the spider blasts him down with a flash of blue lightning. Lupton tries to banish it but it speaks to him! It promises to give him the power he seeks. It instructs him to turn around and then, to everyone's horror, leaps on his back. It disappears and Lupton turns around with a strange smile on his face.
The police have removed Clegg's body from the lab. The Brigadier asks what Clegg died from -- was it the crystal? The Doc realizes that Clegg was connected to the IRIS machine when he died. Perhaps it recorded his thoughts. He switches it on and watches as spiders appear on the screen.
Lupton's unconscious colleague is carried away. They ask him where the spider has gone but he doesn't answer, telling them to go back to their rooms and not talk to anyone. Barnes asks if he's all right and Lupton replies that he's never felt better.
The Doctor switches off the IRIS and decides to look into the crystal for himself. The Brigadier worries about the danger and Benton suggests he try first, since he's expendable. But the Doctor doesn't want to risk the Sergeant's life now that Clegg has been killed.
Mike helps Sarah out a window and urges her to tell UNIT what's going on. She realizes she doesn't really know what's going on, but Mike tells her to just tell them what she saw. He will try to speak to the abbot.
But then he sees Barnes and Lupton in the hallway. Barnes asks if the spider is a demon and Lupton assures him it isn't. He explains that the spider is still there and that, if he concentrates, he can hear it speaking in his mind. The spider tells him that Barnes is stupid -- he should be sent away. Lupton tells Barnes the spider has said he looks tired and should get some sleep. Barnes worries that he won't be able to sleep after what he's seen.
Lupton is about to head to his room but the spider stops him. She can feel the crystal. She explains that she has come to get a crystal -- one that will give them immense power. She tells him to concentrate and he sees a man staring into the blue light of a crystal.
He is seeing the Doctor staring into the Metabilis crystal in a rapture. The Brigadier calls out to him, but the Doctor is unresponsive. Benton arrives with coffee as the Brigadier calls the Medical Officer (a certain Lt. Sullivan). But even as he calls the MO, the Doctor begins speaking, revived by the smell of Benton's coffee.
Before Benton can explain how he makes his coffee, the Brigadier asks about the spiders. The Doctor instead launches into a story about his youth. He tells them that when he was a young man, a hermit lived in a mountain behind his house. He spent some of the best hours of his life with the hermit. It was there he first learned to look into his own mind. And when he looked into the crystal, all he could see was the face of his old teacher.
Yates goes to talk to the abbot K'anpo, but is stopped by Tommy. He threatens to hit Mike if he bothers K'anpo. He notices a necklace Mike is wearing and Mike gives it to him. Tommy, delighted, goes away with one last order for Mike to got bed. Yates waits, then starts heading back up the stairs. But he is stopped by Lupton, who tells him to heed Tommy's advice. Mike retreats beneath Lupton's confident gaze.
The next morning, Sarah tells her story to the Doctor as he continues to examine the crystal. But the Time Lord is not really paying attention, concentrating on the crystal lattice, realizing that it reflects thought. But he suddenly realizes Sarah has gotten to the part of the story about the spiders. He eagerly asks her to repeat it.
Lupton arrives at UNIT and speaks to a soldier working on the Whomobile. He asks about the Doctor and is pointed in the right direction. But the UNIT man then asks for a pass. Lupton responds with a bolt of blue lightning that knocks him to the ground.
Sarah gazes at the crystal as the Doctor explains where he got it. He tells her that it has strange properties -- it can affect the mind, clearing and amplifying it. She wonders if the giant spiders want it back but the Doctor explains there weren't any spider on Metabilis 3.
Benton sees Lupton in the hall and tries to stop him. But Lupton knocks him out with another bolt of lightning.
The Doctor realizes that the spiders could be coming from a different time on Metabilis 3. As he speaks, Lupton peers in and sees the crystal. The spider tells him to concentrate.
As Sarah muses on how calmly they can discuss such outrageous things, the crystal vanishes. It appears in Lupton's hand, who knocks out the recovering Benton again and runs out of the building.
The Doctor and Sarah find Benton in the hall and he explains what happened. Lupton exits the building and sees the Brigadier. As the Brigadier opens fire, he races across the lot and finally jumps into the Doctor's car and races off. Benton starts up Bessie and they all jump in to give chase.
They drive the Doctor over to a tiny helicopter and then begin a long chase after the Whomobile. The Doctor directs the chase from the copter. They race past a policeman who roars after them.
They finally track down the Whomobile, only to find it empty. The constable tries to get an explanation while Lupton watches from hiding. The spider urges him to steal the helicopter. He doesn't know how to fly it, but she insists they can figure it out. He breaks cover, jumps into he helicopter and takes off. The Doctor and Sarah pile into the Whomobile, which launches into the air in pursuit.
The constable tries to report in, decides no one will believe him and instead reports in sick.
Sarah spots Lupton's helicopter and they pursue him until he runs out of fuel. The spider makes him land and he then steals a motorboat. The Doctor and Sarah reach the shore as he leaves and the Time Lord jumps into a hovercraft. He cuts across the land, racing over a vagrant and closes the gap.
The spider is frustrated and tells Lupton to concentrate. The Doctor closes in and makes a bold leap into the motorboat. But Lupton has vanished into thin air!
Part Three
Lupton re-appears at the meditation center, secretly observed by the simple-minded handyman Tommy, who later steals the crystal to add to his collection of 'pretties'. The Doctor and Sarah Jane investigate the meditation center. Exploring the basement Sarah steps on Lupton's mandala and is transported to Metebelis III, where a small group of humans are held in bondage by the giant spiders, who refer to themselves as the Eight Legs. The Doctor follows in his TARDIS to rescue Sarah Jane, but is incapacitated by the Eight Legs' human guards.
Part Four
On Metebelis III, the Doctor lingers in a coma. Tommy's brain is healed when he looks deep into the crystal. Lupton becomes embroiled in a plot led by his spider host against the Eight Leg Queen. The Doctor recovers thanks to a machine Sarah retrieved for him from the TARDIS. In doing so however, she is captured by the Eight Legs. Thrown into a cell with a man named Sabor, Sarah learns the history of Metebilis 3: The humans are descendants of survivors of a crashed spaceship, and the Eight Legs were common spiders onboard that became mutated by radiation from the blue crystals. The Doctor finds a type of stone which nullifies the effects of the Eight Legs' energy rays, which the humans will use in their rebellion. The Doctor attempts to rescue Sarah Jane, but is captured again by the Eight Legs as well.
Part Five
The Doctor escapes from his cocoon, and reaches the mouth of the cave of the Great One, who warns him not to enter due to the lethal radiation within. She orders him to return the blue crystal that he stole, and humiliates him by forcing him to march in a circle like a tin soldier via her psychic power. The Doctor is too overcome by fear to face her, and escapes with Sarah Jane back to Earth in the TARDIS. They meet the leader of the meditation center, the Abbott K'anpo Rimpoche. Meanwhile Lupton's followers, possessed by the Eight Legs, fire telekinetic force at Tommy, the only person standing in the way of their taking the crystal.
Part Six
Sarah Jane is revealed to be under the control of the Queen, which explains how she and the Doctor escaped so easily. With the blue crystal, which Tommy had given to K'anpo, the Doctor is able to free her mind. The Doctor is astounded to discover an old friend; K'anpo is his former mentor, a fellow renegade Time Lord now enjoying peaceful exile on Earth. The attack of Lupton's followers is repulsed with the help of Tommy, but K'anpo is injured and forced to regenerate by merging with his assistant, Cho Je, who was a projection of K'anpo's own conscience. The Doctor realizes his greed for knowledge and his theft of the crystal has set all these events into motion, and that he must face his fear and probable death by returning it. He pilots the TARDIS to Metebelis III and enters the cave to confront the Great One, an enormous spider, who desires the blue crystal to complete a crystalline web that will amplify her psychic power to infinity. However, once the crystal is in place, the web overloads and destroys both her and the Eight Legs. The Doctor receives a lethal dose of radiation from the cave, and barely manages to escape in the TARDIS. He eventually arrives at UNIT (after being gone, from their perspective, for three weeks), collapses on the floor, and appears to die. As Sarah weeps, K'Anpo/Cho-Je appears and with a little 'push', induces the Doctor's third regeneration.
Cast
- The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
- Fourth Doctor -Tom Baker (uncredited at the end of Part 6.)
- Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
- Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
- Sergeant Benton - John Levene
- Professor Clegg - Cyril Shaps
- Lupton - John Dearth
- Barnes - Christopher Burgess
- Moss - Terence Lodge
- Land - Carl Forgione
- Keaver - Andrew Staines
- Cho Je - Kevin Lindsay
- Tommy - John Kane
- Policeman - Chubby Oates
- Soldier - Pat Gorman
- Man with Boat - Terry Walsh
- Hopkins - Michael Pinder
- Tramp - Stuart Fell
- Spider Voices - Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado, Maureen Morris
- Arak - Gareth Hunt
- Sabor - Geoffrey Morris
- Neska - Jenny Laird
- Rega - Joanna Monro
- Tuar - Ralph Arliss
- Guard Captains - Walter Randall, Max Faulkner
- K'anpo Rimpoche - George Cormack
Crew
- Assistant Floor Manager - Graeme Harper
- Costumes - L. Rowland Warne
- Designer - Rochelle Selwyn
- Film Cameraman - Fred Hamilton
- Film Editor - Bob Rymer
- Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
- Make-Up - Deanne Turner
- Producer - Barry Letts
- Production Assistant - Marion McDougall
- Production Unit Manager - George Gallaccio
- Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
- Special Sounds - Dick Mills
- Studio Lighting - Ralph Walton
- Studio Sound - John Holmes
- Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
- Title Music - Ron Grainer
- Visual Effects - Bernard Wilkie
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor is familiar with Tibetan customs.
Crystals
- The Doctor receives a package from Jo Grant containing his Metebelis crystal, which he picked up during his previous visit to Metebelis III.
Foods and beverages
- The Doctor likens Sergeant Benton's coffee-making skills to that of Mrs. Samuel Beakes.
- Lupton offers Sarah tea.
Individuals
- The Doctor mentions being taught in the ways of escapology by Harry Houdini.
- Mike Yates refers to the last time he encountered Sarah "that business with the Dinosaurs".
- The Brigadier's watch was given to him 11 years ago in Brighton by Doris.
- The Brigadier phones Sullivan, the UNIT Medical Officer.
Periodicals
- Sarah has worked for Metropolitan magazine.
Story Notes
- This is the first time the term "regeneration" is mentioned on screen.
- This is the first time we see someone other than the Doctor regenerate (K'anpo Rimpoche).
- This story features a large chase scene featuring: Bessie, the Doctor's car (known as the Whomobile), a police car, a gyrocopter, a hovercraft and a boat.
- Tom Baker is uncredited in the conclusion of Planet of the Spiders, when Jon Pertwee transforms into Tom Baker. Since no regeneration was shown at the end of The War Games (although we do see the apparent beginning of it), this marked the first time since William Hartnell changed into Patrick Troughton in 1966's The Tenth Planet that an on-screen hand-over of the role had occurred. End-of-episode changeovers would become the norm for the next few regenerations until the regeneration from the Sixth to Seventh Doctors at the beginning of Time and the Rani (and both played by the same actor) broke the pattern.
- Parts of this story were recorded at the same time as parts of Robot. This not only meant that Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were literally playing the Doctor at the same time, but also that Elisabeth Sladen — and to a lesser extent, Nicholas Courtney and John Levene — were having to rush back and forth between the two productions.
- The Time Beetle featured in Turn Left shares some similarities with the Eight Legs; It too is a giant-sized insectoid that can latch onto a victim's back, disguising it's prescence at the same time.
Ratings
- Part 1 - 10.1 million viewers
- Part 2 - 8.9 million viewers
- Part 3 - 8.8 million viewers
- Part 4 - 8.2 million viewers
- Part 5 - 9.2 million viewers
- Part 6 - 8.9 million viewers
Myths
- Roger Delgado's Master was originally to have been written out in Planet of the Spiders, and after the actor's death the story was revised to incorporate Lupton in place of the Master. It is true that had Delgado had not died he would have been written out in the final story of season eleven. He had informed Barry Letts that he would only appear as the Master in one more story during the filming of Frontier in Space. Letts agreed to the request, seeing it as an opportunity to dramatically end Season 11. Thus, he asked writer Robert Sloman to help him write a story which would at last define the relationship between the Doctor and the Master, before having the Master sacrifice himself to save the Doctor. Sloman delivered at least an initial round of scripts, called The Final Game, before Delgado's death halted the complete suspension on the story line. Planet of the Spiders was a wholly different story, save perhaps for Barry Letts' desire to incorporate certain Buddhist philosophies.
- A frequent corollary to the above is that The Final Game would have also incorporated the regeneration of the Third Doctor. One of the impetuses for Pertwee's decision to resign was Delgado's death. Had Delgado not died, but merely relinquished his role, it is unlikely Pertwee would have looked on Delgado's absence a motivation to quit. More to the point, though, Sloman had delivered scripts to Letts two weeks prior to Delgado's death on 18th June 1973. Pertwee didn't announce his retirement until after his request for a raise was denied in December 1973. The Final Game could not logically have included any elements pertaining to the Doctor's regeneration, because writer Robert Sloman didn't know Pertwee was going to leave.
Filming Locations
- Tidmarsh Manor, Tidmarsh, Berkshire
- Bloomfieldhatch Lane, Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire
- Membury Airfield, Membury, Wiltshire
- River Severn, Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire
- Mortimer Station, Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire
- Mereoak Lane, Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire
- Le Marchant Barracks, London Road, Devizes, Wiltshire
- BBC Television Centre (TC1, TC6, TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London
Production errors
- The Doctor's flying car is a different colour in the studio (gold rather than silver).
Continuity
- Jo Grant sends the Doctor a package containing the blue Metebelis crystal (DW: The Green Death), which the spiders covet, making this serial a sequel of sorts to The Green Death.
- Mike Yates refers to his last appearance in DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
- The Doctor previously mentioned the hermit who lived behind his house in DW: The Time Monster.
- EDA: Interference - Book Two presents an alternate regeneration sequence.
- The Eight Legs returned in ST: Return of the Spiders, BFA The Eight Truths and BFA Worldwide Web.
- The Fifth doctor in the ST: Light at the End of the Tunnel tries to fight of his phobia of spiders when he goes inside a large pipe making this story as a reference.
- The Eighth Doctor still has a phobia of spiders in EDA: The Scarlet Empress.
- Professor Clegg divines that the Brigadier's wristwatch was given to him eleven years earlier in a hotel room by a woman named Doris, prompting a somewhat embarrassed reaction from him. In DW: Battlefield, the retired Brigadier is married to a woman named Doris.
- This isn't the same sonic screwdriver as in DW: Carnival of Monsters, Clegg shouldn't associate it with Drashigs.
Timeline
- This story occurs after ST: An Overture Too Early
- This story occurs before DW: Robot
- ST: Ancient Whispers takes place during episode 6 of this story.
DVD and Video Releases
DVD releases
An audio commentary for Planet of the Spiders was recorded in 2007 with Actors Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney and Richard Franklin, Producer/Director Barry Letts and Script Editor Terrance Dicks for a future release date. Planet of the Spiders is being released in late 2010 in a two-disc set featuring a number of documentaries, a 5.1 mix, CGI effects, comentary and a special never-seen before feature.[source needed]
Video releases
Novelisation
- Main article: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders
- Novelised as Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders by Terrance Dicks in 1986.
See also
External Links
- Planet of the Spiders at the BBC's official site
- Planet of the Spiders at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Planet of the Spiders at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
- Planet of the Spiders at The Locations Guide
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