#24 (11.21 - 11.26): Planet of the Spiders.

Sarah Jane Smith encounters a giant spider.

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 147 minutes. Written by: Robert Sloman. Directed by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

Mike Yates, now a civilian, is trying to find peace in meditation at a retreat run by Buddhist monks K'anpo (George Cormack) and Cho-Je (Kevin Lindsay). Even though he's no longer with UNIT, though, his investigative instincts remain. When he notices Lupton (John Dearth) and other students going to the cellar in secret, he follows and watches as they use the techniques they have learned to make contact with an otherworldly power.

Doubting that he'd be believed by his former colleagues at UNIT, he turns to Sarah Jane Smith. She interviews Cho-Je, ostensibly for a puff piece on the retreat, but she lingers with Mike to investigate Lupton's group. She watches as they repeat the ceremony from the previous day, this time summoning a giant spider that fuses with Lupton.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has received a gift from his former assistant, Jo: the crystal he had taken from Metebelis III. The crystal is the goal of the spider, which has come from that world to recover it for "The Great One." Metebelis is now under the total control of intelligent spiders, with the human population reduced to slave labor... and if they succeed in regaining the crystal, the next planet they conquer will be Earth!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: The first four episodes see the Third Doctor presenting his usual, indomitable front, whether investigating the retreat, pursuing Lupton, or searching for a way for the villagers on Metebelis to defend themselves from the spiders. The final two episodes introduce something new: fear. The Great One's psychic powers are such that it's able to easily pierce the Doctor's defenses, forcing him to turn in place, all the while assuring him that he is wise to fear her. Pertwee plays his final scenes particularly well, showing the Doctor's weakness as he stumbles out of the TARDIS at the end, an echo of how he arrived in Spearhead from Space. After years of railing against his exile on Earth, his words to Sarah are telling: "The TARDIS brought me home."

Sarah Jane Smith: Is paired with Mike in the early episodes, and Elisabeth Sladen and Richard Franklin play quite well off each other - so much so that I regret this being the only story in which they share any significant screen time. There's a bit of weak character writing in which Sarah, an experienced investigative journalist, somehow misses multiple cues by Mike to stop talking and leave. Outside of that, she gets a solid role. She's compassionate toward Tommy, the retreat's mentally challenged handyman. On Metebelis, with the Doctor injured and in need of medical supplies in the TARDIS, she doesn't hesitate to break the planet's curfew and go for them, putting herself in danger.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: There's an amusing bit in which a psychic (Cyril Shaps) describes the watch the Brigadier received as a gift from a woman in a hotel room, a story that the military man quickly cuts off. At the end, Sarah is certain that the Doctor is dead, but the Brigadier thinks otherwise: "One time I didn't see him for months... When he did turn up, he had a new face." Having met two Doctors already, he takes the regeneration in stride, remarking, "Here we go again."

Mike Yates: Given the circumstances of his departure from UNIT, he doesn't trust that the Brigadier or even the Doctor would necessarily believe him. I'm not sure why he'd expect Sarah to have a different reaction, given that her only interaction with him was at his worst while the others at least had seen him at his best. Still, while his reasoning seems odd, it at least allows for some entertaining scenes between him and Sarah. It's clear enough that while he's now a civilian, his investigative instincts remain intact... though his need to take action leads him to do something reckless near the end.

Lupton: Writer Robert Sloman realizes that the story needs a human villain, and John Dearth's Lupton works nicely in that role. We learn that he's a former salesman, and he's used his experience at persuasion to enlist others to help him in his pursuit of power. In a speech in Part Three, he recalls working his way up over a 25-year career, only to be made redundant: "Merger, takeover, golden handshake." His resentment is understandable, and it was likely shared by a fair number of parents in the viewing audience who had found themselves in or at least known people in similar situations. It doesn't change the insanity of his desire to take his anger out on the entire world, but it adds texture to an otherwise one-note baddie.

The Doctor confronts The Great One, the ruler of the spiders.

THOUGHTS:

Planet of the Spiders ends the Third Doctor's era, and it makes several nods at the entirety of his run.

The letter from Jo kick-starts the plot with the return of the crystal from Metebelis III, allowing this Doctor's primary assistant to have a presence (albeit offscreen) in his final story. The main conflict is crafted as consequences for the Doctor's trip to Metebelis III. The teacher that he has so frequently mentioned is invoked again, this time not for someone else's benefit but so that the Doctor may learn one final lesson. Finally, the Third Doctor's arc is brought to a true close in his final scene, as he refers to Earth - once a bitterly resented prison - as "home."

This is not to say that Planet of the Spiders is a story that's strictly about the Third Doctor's end. For its first four episodes, it plays almost entirely like a standard adventure. The first real sense that this Doctor may actually die comes in his first conversation with The Great One, midway through Part Five. But even in the early episodes, there are enough deliberate callbacks to give the sense of a narrative "summing up" of the era.

The first episode is the serial's best, establishing questions and raising a level of intrigue as Sarah and Mike investigate the retreat while the Doctor receives the crystal during an interview with a psychic. The two threads initially seem separate, but they merge as the psychic touches the crystal and sees a vision of spiders even as Lupton's group succeeds in summoning a spider. At this point, no answers are forthcoming, with only the questions and atmospherere being established.

The first half of the story focuses on investigations of the retreat, first by Sarah and then by the Doctor. This is the story's stronger half, with a setting and characters who feel convincing. The main action moves to Metebelis III for the second half, and the human village that the Doctor and Sarah push to rebellion seems like stock sci-fi stuff, with the villagers made up of familiar character types. The Metebelis scenes aren't bad, but they don't have the same sharpness... at least, not until the Doctor encounters The Great One and responds with fear, as the script begins building toward his exit.


THE REGENERATION:

The regeneration itself is arguably Doctor Who's plainest, a simple dissolve from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker with no other effects overlaid. Of more interest is the scene building up to it. Sarah Jane knows that facing The Great One would end in the Doctor's death, so she is already in mourning when she arrives at the lab. The Brigadier, who has known him longer, has faith in his friend's survival, recalling that the last time he was absent for a while he came back with a new face.

This is a smart bit of dialogue to include, not least because Jon Pertwee was very popular and his five year run was the longest yet for an incumbent Doctor. The groundwork starts being laid in Parts Five and Six, but this moment, just before the Doctor comes home to die, is a direct reminder that the Doctor has changed before. This story provides the process with the name "regeneration" and identifies it as a natural part of a Time Lord's existence, which also sets the stage for future changes. Working to further reduce audience resistance is the presence of the Brigadier and Sarah, popular characters who would provide direct continuity with the next story.

The Doctor pursues Lupton in Classic Who's most elaborate chase.

PLANES, BOATS, AND AUTOMOBILES:

As a farewell gift to Jon Pertwee, the series' production team crafted an elaborate chase scene. In Part Two, Lupton invades the Doctor's territory - UNIT - to steal the Meteblis crystal. The Doctor and UNIT pursue. The resulting set piece begins as a car chase. Then Lupton switches from automobile to helicopter, with the Doctor continuing the chase in the air. Finally, Lupton steals a speedboat and the Doctor a hovercraft as the chase moves to the water.

The sequence is long, but fan myth has exaggerated it. Before I ever saw the story, I recall reading on forums about a dreadful "episode long" chase scene. It actually takes up a little over ten minutes, just under half the episode's running time; and while I agree that it's overlong, it's far from an ordeal. It's kept fresh for some time with moments of humor, including a bewildered police officer who joins the chase and some picnickers who get startled by the Doctor's hovercraft. There's also a brief dialogue/exposition break before the chase moves from land to air.

I can only speak for myself, but it was only in the final shift, when the chase was extended yet again into the water, that I felt my attention begin to drift - and at this point, the scene was almost at its end.

It could have been cut shorter, but I don't find this chase to be a trial to get through. In fact, I mostly enjoy it. Car chases were a mainstay in 1970s and '80s detective shows - and I can frankly think of several of those that, even when occupying less screen time, still tested my patience more than this one does.


OVERALL:

Planet of the Spiders is a good story that manages to sustain tension while at the same time paying tribute to outgoing star Jon Pertwee's popular Third Doctor. It has its faults, notably sagging during the "slave village" scenes in the middle, but it makes up for it with several fine moments, notably Lupton's resentment-laden monologue and the Doctor's two encounters with The Great One. For the most part, it fills its six episodes comfortably.

A good story overall, in my opinion, and a solid exit for Jon Pertwee, whose Doctor I will miss.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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#19 (10.21 - 10.26): The Green Death.

The Doctor is helpless to stop Jo from falling for
young Professor Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan). 

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 154 minutes. Written by: Robert Sloman. Directed by: Michael E. Briant. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

After performing some maintenance, the Doctor decides to try again to reach Metebelis III - but Jo won't be going with him. She declines his invitation, telling him that she's going to Llanfairfach, a Welsh mining town that's now home to Global Chemicals.

The company and its director, Stevens (Jerome Willis), tout their new refinement process, which will produce 25% more fuel from crude oil while creating minimal waste. It sounds too good to be true - which is why Professor Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan) and his commune of hippie scientists at the nearby "Nut Hutch" are protesting, certain that any refinement process must be producing thousands of gallons of waste. Jo wants to help Professor Jones, while Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT are called in to investigate the death of a miner who was found with his skin glowing green.

By the time the Doctor arrives, after barely escaping alive from his "pleasure jaunt" to Metebelis III, Jo has already gone into the mine... where an act of sabotage by Global Chemicals disables the lift and leaves her stranded. The Doctor finds his own way down to rescue her, reuniting with Jo just in time to discover the source of the green infection: giant maggots, mutated by the waste that Global has been secretly pumping into the mine!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: This story is my pick as Jon Pertwee's single best performance as the Doctor. He essentially moves through the stages of grief at the prospect of Jo leaving. When she refuses to go with him to Metebelis III, he first ignores her refusal (denial) and then tries to persuade her to come (bargaining). While he never shows anger, there is a certain petty malice in his deliberate interruption of a romantic moment between Jo and the professor. Finally, the end sees him bid a gracious but subdued farewell to Jo (acceptance). These emotional beats are played with reserve and even subtlety, but the Global Chemicals plot allows Pertwee to display his showmanship, with him even using a couple of comedy disguises along the way.

Jo Grant: Whether intentionally or not, you can draw a direct line between the end of the previous story and the beginning of this one. At the end of Planet of the Daleks, Jo declined the Doctor's offer to take her to any planet, telling him that she was only concerned with one world - Earth. This story opens with her again refusing to travel, preferring to help Professor Jones to work for Earth's ecology. Jo describes Jones as a younger version of the Doctor, and her first meeting with Jones is a direct parallel to her introduction to the Doctor as she disrupts an experiment. Jo is as headstrong as ever, putting herself in harm's way multiple times. My favorite scene of hers is near the middle, though, when she mourns the death of a miner she had befriended.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: The buffoon of The Three Doctors is gone, thankfully, with him back to his usual competence. He is initially sympathetic to Global Chemicals, seeing the benefits of "cheap petrol and lots of it." However, he can sense that Stevens is hiding something, particularly when the executive interferes with his efforts to help Jo and the trapped miners. His superiors forbid him from taking action, so he sends Mike Yates to infiltrate the company in the guise of a Ministry official. He shuts down Professor Jones when he insists he's going down into the mine after Jo, flatly telling him to leave it to the Doctor: "My concern for Miss Grant is as deep as yours, probably more so," he says, and the combination of authority and compassion is enough to talk the younger man down.

Mike Yates: Richard Franklin does a fine job with Mike's scenes as he impersonates a smarmy government bureaucrat. He's limited in what information he's able to gather, communicating to the Brigadier that he's being watched at all times. He does gain a decent overview of the layout of the Global Chemicals building, which he puts to use to help the Doctor to locate Stevens' mysterious "boss." Then he has to get the Doctor out of trouble, exposing himself to danger in the process.

Professor Jones: Jo's love interest is a brilliant, occasionally prickly, proudly anti-authoritarian scientist who isn't afraid to put himself in danger to do good... which, as Jo observes, makes him basically an age-appropriate version of the Doctor. The script pulls off a tricky balancing act: Their scenes together are focused on the budding relationship, but every one of them also moves the story forward. As a result, the romance works without interfering with the overall pace.


THOUGHTS:

"Jo, you've got all the time in the world, and all the space. I'm offering them to you."
-The Doctor strives to keep Jo from moving on.

The Green Death ranks among the best stories of the Pertwee era. It effectively mixes two separate but related plots. The thread the story is most remembered for involves the giant maggots and the deadly infection they create. But maggots, even mutated ones, don't make for very interesting villains, so the story provides a callous human baddie: Stevens and Global Chemicals, who inadverdantly created the maggots by dumping waste into the mine tunnels.

The threads are closely linked in the first half. Global's determination to cover its misdeeds creates increasingly serious complications. The Doctor and Jo are trapped in the mine because Stevens orders a henchman to sabotage the mine lift. When their escape takes them into the Global complex, they have to flee from corporate security.

They plots separate in the second half. Global's agenda isn't related to the maggots, which were simply an unintended consequence, leaving the Doctor and UNIT with two problems to solve. Even so, the plots continue feeding each other, particulary when the final episode creates deadlines for both: the prospect of the maggots evolving into flying insects becomes pressing at the same time that Global Chemicals nears the culmination of its ambitions, and the growing sense of urgency in each individual thread adds to the tension of the other.

The plot works, and the story would be enjoyable enough on that level. What makes it stand out, however, is the authenticity of the emotion - not always Classic Who's strong suit. The Doctor/Jo relationship has grown steadily better as the seasons have gone on. In many of my Season 9 and 10 reviews, I described their interplay as "sparkling," with Pertwee and Manning elevating scenes and serials through amusing bits of screen business and ever building screen chemistry. This is the story that ends their partnership, and it was important for the series to get that right.

The script sets up Professor Jones as a life partner for Jo and as a replacement for the Doctor. Both men are shown to be protective of her, with the Doctor rescuing her from the mine in the first half and Jones putting himself in harm's way to save her in the second half. Most of Jo's screen time in the first half is with the Doctor, reinforcing the old relationship; most of her screen time in the second half is with Jones, building the new relationship.

I like that the Doctor is so resistant to Jo moving on. There's a desperation in his initial appeal to Jo when he's trying to convince her to go off in the TARDIS with him, and a forced cheerfulness when he interrupts her moment with Professor Jones. He may ultimately let her go, but it's clearly difficult, and that internal struggle is convincingly portrayed. I also love the final image: the Doctor driving away in Bessie, alone both physically and emotionally for the first time in years.


OVERALL:

I could raise a few quibbles. Though the early episodes benefit from Welsh locations that make this feel more grounded than most serials, later episodes look much cheaper. A few greenscreen shots are downright awful, notably when the Doctor deals with the maggots in the final episode. There are also cheesy moments, from overly earnest dialogue about replacing meat with fungus to scenes involving hypnotism and a blue crystal... though I'll also admit to finding The Green Death's brand of '70s cheese to be rather endearing.

None of this undermines the story's many strengths. The "A" and "B" plots work well together, each increasing the urgency of the other even when they cease to be directly related. The character material is strong, with the Doctor/Jo and Jo/Professor interactions working particularly well. It's also extremely well paced, with the character material advancing the plot rather than stopping it in its tracks.

Add in an excellent final scene, complete with perfectly judged final shot, and it all adds up to a serial that I'd rank as one of this era's finest.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

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#14 (9.21 - 9.26): The Time Monster.

The Doctor, Jo, and the Brigadier are
pitted against the Master. Again.

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 147 minutes. Written by: Robert Sloman, Barry Letts (uncredited). Directed by: Paul Bernard. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

The Master is passing himself off as "Professor Thascalos" in order to run experiments at the Newton Institute, located near Cambridge. Using his TARDIS as a power source, and with the aid of the unwitting Dr. Ruth Ingram (Wanda Moore) and her assistant Stuart (Ian Collier), he attempts to summon Kronos, the most powerful of the Chronovores, time creatures who were once worshipped as gods. With Kronos's power, the Master intends to control the universe!

The power from his experiments draws the attention of the Doctor and UNIT. The Doctor tries first to separate the Master from his TARDIS, then engages in tactics meant to delay him. In the end, though, he will have to chase the Master into the ancient past, to the lost civilization of Atlantis - where the Master has already found an ally...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Spends much of the first four episodes fidgeting with gadgets and spouting Technobabble. Fortunately, Jon Pertwee is back on form, his authority and charisma giving a significant lift to what might have been dry material. He also gets a particularly good scene in the final episode. As he and Jo await execution, he reminisces about a day in his youth when he decided that life was pointless, only to have an old man point out "the daisyest daisy (he'd) ever seen." It's a lovely monologue, very well performed by Pertwee.

Jo Grant: Though the Doctor's assistant, she seems to also regard herself as his protector. She insists on accompanying him to Atlantis even when he points out the danger, insisting that it's her job to help him. When the Master seems to have defeated him, she announces that she doesn't care what he does to her.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: After a pompous official starts talking about conducting an official inquiry, using that to berate a Cambridge professor, the Brigadier intercedes by declaring the exact law, subsection, and paragraph to compel secrecy. He quickly shuts the official down, and it's clear that the Brig enjoys using his position to squash a bully. Later, when Capt. Yates is endangered, he tries calling for Yates on the radio. When he gets particularly worried (in time for the cliffhanger), he switches from calling him "Captain Yates" to "Mike."

Sgt. Benton: While he's guarding the lab, the Master attempts to lure Benton away by impersonating the Brigadier's voice. The sergeant isn't fooled, using the opportunity to set a trap. It fails, of course, or the story would only be two episodes long, but it shows resourcefulness on his part.

Dr. Ruth Ingram: As the scientist who has assisted "Professor Thascalos" (The Master) with his experiments, actress Wanda Moore has the most prominent guest role for the first four episodes. Sadly, she also gets saddled with a lot of annoying "battle-of-the-sexes" dialogue. She talks about how spineless or patronizing the men around her are - then patronizingly tells Benton to "stand there and look pretty." I'm fairly certain the point was to show male viewers how annoying sexism is by reversing it... but it mostly comes across as forced, and I suspect it did in 1972 as well.

Queen Galleia: Ingrid Pitt, a regular fixture of British horror films of this period, appears in the final two episodes as the queen of Atlantis. She is instantly smitten with The Master, recognizing him as a man who will do anything to achieve power, and she begins plotting with him against her husband, King Dalios (George Cormack). This might have made for an engaging bit of court intrigue, had the serial reached this point at least one episode sooner. As it stands, the entire subplot is rushed, with Galleia's coup occurring offscreen. Still, at least Pitt acts her lines instead of shouting them, which helps her to stand out from most of the other actors in the Atlantis segment.

The Master: Speaking of shouting... This is almost certainly Roger Delgado's weakest performance as The Master. He spends the first two episodes adopting a wildly inconsistent accent while pretending to be a foreign professor. He then spends much of the back half of the story shouting most of his lines. Given how many of the guest cast also adopt this style, I wonder if this was less a case of Delgado having an "off" day and more a case of questionable directing choices.


THOUGHTS:

The Time Monster has not generally been well-regarded. I actually enjoy the story, but I'll admit that there's a lot to criticize.

The story is focused on Atlantis, but the Doctor and the Master spend four episodes marking time in a present-day lab before they manage to get there. When they finally arrive, the Atlantis sets are tacky even by Classic Who standards. Between the costumes and the stagey/shouty performances, I had the distinct impression that I was watching a Greek myth as staged by an underfunded community theatre.

With most of the actual plot reserved for the final episodes, the first four parts consist of... well, padding. A lot of padding. The Doctor turns down the chance to observe the demonstration in order to follow his device that goes "bing," which leads him and Jo to... um, the exact demonstration he decided not to go to. He spends a big chunk of Episode Three building a thing to delay the Master. When he finally succeeds, it causes a delay that lasts... maybe as much as thirty seconds.

Other bits are actually a lot of fun. Characters are aged and de-aged. Others get stuck in time, running slowly in place until they just plain stop. The Master brings soldiers from the past to delay UNIT. The Doctor and the Master find their TARDISes fused, each materialized inside the other.

None of these set pieces do anything to advance the story, but they are amusing and clever. I just finished watching and already barely remember the Atlantis/Kronos plot. But I recalled the TARDIS-in-a-TARDIS and "soldiers plucked out of time" moments from my last viewing of the story, even though that was a good two decades ago!


OVERALL:

At six episodes, The Time Monster is too long for its rather thin narrative. It's also bizarrely structured so that almost all of the story is packed into the final two episodes, leaving the rest extremely padded even by '70s Who standards. It also features guest performances that are uneven at best - and sadly, I include the usually excellent Roger Delgado in that assessment.

What saves it, for me at least, is that a fair amount of the padding is fun. The various time tricks the Doctor and Master pull on each other are often enjoyable to watch, showing a scene-by-scene inventiveness that keeps the whole thing alive. The two worst episodes end up being the last two - the two where the story finally happens.

In the end, while I can't call this a good story, I would call it a fun one. Within this same season, The Curse of Peladon is "better" - but I was more entertained by this.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

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