Planet of the Spiders - Episode 3

I am reminded a little bit of the issues with the second half of the previous episode when we get a repeat of the Bond sequence but the idea that Lupton disappeared off a moving boat is still impressive. There is a scene which has a roomful of spiders which is a little bit creepy. Up until now it there has been a lack of spiders and their planet hasn’t appeared but that all changes in this episode. I like how the spiders consider themselves to be superior to humans and call humans ‘two legs’. The Great One is mentioned in this episode and just from a few mentions the impression is created that the Great One is going to be an impressive set.

The CSO of Lupton in the Spiders chamber is very good but the shot of the spider that was on Lupton moving across the floor just looked poor. Other poor CSO shots include when Sarah Jane is looking at Lupton it’s clearly a CSO shot.

There is a nice bit of backstory about Lupton which isn’t something that Doctor Who does very often when it doesn’t concern a monster. Basically it boils down to him being snubbed and decides that he wants to take over the company, then the country and then the world. The scene where the spider tries to hurt Lupton and then he does the same to the spider is a great little moment and shows that there is something more to Lupton than what first appeared.

The episode sees the action change direction a little bit with the action moving to Metebelis 3 where there is a human village and they seem just as scared of the spiders as I am. Just as the spiders call the humans two legs, the humans call the spiders eight-legs and it seems to be frowned upon to use the word spider. I don’t know why they have decided to create Metebelis 3 with CSO screen instead of doing what they did in ‘Planet of the Spiders’ and use every plant in the garden centre. On the matter of the two legs, I think there is an interesting mix of strong characters and rather ordinary characters. I am hoping that the stronger ones will be the more memorable ones at the end of this story.

Whereas in the previous episode, there was a fair amount of airtime given to indulge Jon Pertwee. Here there a short but sweet fight scene which is very much of Pertwee’s era but it doesn’t last anywhere near as long as the Bond stuff so I don’t mind it. The episode ends in a good way with the Doctor collapsing in front of the TARDIS. This episode takes a substantial step in terms of plot and I found this episode to be very exciting and the story has really found its feet and Pertwee’s final story could be a fitting end to his tenure in the role. It wouldn’t be a review if I didn’t mention stats and todays stat is that this is the 38^th episode for Richard Franklin who has now appeared in more episode than Roger Delgado did.