DW STORY #74 – PLANET OF THE SPIDERS [THIRD DOCTOR]: The fifth and final story of the eleventh season was a six-part adventure broadcast over six Saturdays from May 4th to June 8th, 1974. It was the Third Doctor’s final adventure as he regenerated at the end of the final episode. PLOT: Mike Yates (formerly Captain Mike Yates before the events of “Invasion of the Dinosaurs”) contacts Sarah Jane because he’s alarmed by what’s happening at a Tibetan meditation center he’s visiting. After she arrives at the center, they witness a man name Lupton telepathically summon a giant spider that climbs onto his back and then disappears – mentally merging with the man. It turns out that there are giant intelligent spiders on the planet Metebelis Three intent on finding the blue crystal the Doctor had taken from the planet during the story “The Green Death”. They need it to complete a crystal lattice made from the blue crystals of Metebelis Three – crystals that have focused and amplified the mental abilities of these once-ordinary spiders. Following many plot twists, the Doctor makes his way to the cave of the spiders on Metebelis Three to return the blue crystal – knowing that the full power of the crystal lattice will actually destroy the spiders. It does just that, but the Doctor is exposed to so much radiation while in the caves that after returning to Earth, he collapses and begins to regenerate … Obviously, the most important element to the ongoing saga of Doctor Who was the regeneration of Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor into the Fourth (complete with the Brigadier’s improvised line at the end: “Well, here we go again!”). However, the story also saw the second and final appearance of the Whomobile (the futuristic vehicle introduced in “Invasion of the Dinosaurs”). As it was the property of Jon Pertwee, when he left the show, so did the vehicle. According to many reviewers, this is NOT one of the Third Doctor’s better stories – however, I actually like it and regeneration stories are always fun because of what we know is coming. In particular, I like that they redeemed Mike Yates’s character and I like that they decided to include so many Buddhist concepts and elements – all seamlessly woven into the story (Producer Barry Letts was a practicing Buddhist at the time and chose to include such elements). In fact, it’s one of my favorite Third Doctor stories. Naturally, the show’s not perfect. No story is. The spiders alternate between being very well realized in some scenes to being just really bad puppets in others. The lighting of the Metebelis Three sets is WAY too bright (when your sets aren’t very good – don’t over-light them!). And several of the episode cliff hangers aren’t resolved satisfactorily. However, what diehard Whovian expects perfection? Not this one! I think you should watch it! COMPANIONS IN THIS STORY: Sarah Jane Smith (also: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sergeant Benton, and Mike Yates [no longer a captain]) Up next: “Robot” … ~ CL
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:26:40 +0000
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