Beneath the Planet of the Spiders (unproduced novel)
Beneath the Planet of the Spiders was an unproduced Doctor Who novel pitched by Lawrence Miles to BBC Books' Past Doctor Adventures range.[1] The title was a pun, as the story would have followed Planet of the Spiders just as Beneath the Planet of the Apes followed Planet of the Apes.
In Miles' prior novel, Interference, Faction Paradox had killed the Third Doctor on Dust and preempted his regeneration on Metebelis III in Planet of the Spiders; this story would have continued with the Fourth Doctor's confrontation of Eight Legs in the Third Doctor's place.
After resigning from writing Doctor Who, Miles planned to feature "Metebelis-style" spiders in an unproduced The Faction Paradox Protocols audio story. However, years later,[statement unclear] he said he had no memory of the Beneath the Planet of the Spiders proposal.[2]
According to The Book of the War contributor Helen Fayle, Miles collaborator Simon Bucher-Jones' "version of what the 'Enemy' might have been" was spiders.[3] In The Book of the Enemy, which was edited by Bucher-Jones, several stories hinted at a link between the Enemy and Eight Legs or spiders in general.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Lawrence Miles: The Last Ever Interview (28 May 2000)
- ↑ Josephine, Please: My Interview with LM
- ↑ Helen Fayle. The Book of Taliesin. SFF Net. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. “Thanks to Simon Bucher-Jones for allowing me to play with his version of what the "Enemy" might have been.”
