The A-Z of Classic Who | Planet of the Spiders: Talking 'bout Regeneration

 

I'm not sure I trust anyone who doesn't like the Pertwee era. Sure, it's not Doctor Who at its absolute best, but frankly, its a lot closer than its historically been credited with. The first four seasons of the seventies are consistently solid in a way only the Hinchcliffe era has surpassed since. I mean, sure, there are some duds (the last story I covered for instance) but very rarely did they really reach for the very bottom of the ratings scale. Held up by its enigmatic and likeable leading man and complemented by a cast of primary and secondary characters who only were interesting and entertaining in their own right but also were given growth in a way that hasn't happened since. Several later companions aren't as memorable and rounded as the Brigadier or Benton for instance. Indeed, the consistency of this era is perhaps a result of the show's only real format change in its near six decade history. Unless you count going from 'being on TV' to 'not being on TV' as a format change of course. The character and storytelling opportunities of both the Earthbound format and the return to TARDIS travel at the beginning of Season 10 were seized and thats what made the stories work.

You'll notice though that I said first four seasons. Pertwee's fifth season was quite the drop in quality from what had come before. The reasons for this are both well known and pretty understandable - the main star and the production team were burnt out and tired, and in mourning over the death of Roger Delgado. If Pertwee, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks decided between production ending on Season 10 and starting on Season 11 that they had done all they could with the show, well, kudos to them for realising it and stepping aside and not continuing through sheer stubbornness and inertia. 

Yes, the floating tray is impressive, but what about that thing slightly beyond it the Brigadier is looking at?

The thing is though, this inevitable meant there would be 26 episodes of Doctor Who made by a production team who didn't want to make them and this ended predictably. It's telling the best received story of the season is The Time Warrior which was written by Robert Holmes who retained his passion for the show enough to become its script editor for the new era, and introduces Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen brings much needed freshness to the whole season in fact. Otherwise, there's the bland and forgettable (Invasion of the Dinosaurs), the godawful (Death to the Daleks), the unspeakably boring (The Monster of Peladon)... and then this story.

Now Planet of the Spiders was never intended to be the finale to this season - that was meant to be a story known as The Final Game, the climactic final appearance of the Master, culminating in his sacrifice to save the Doctor. It's an interesting conjecture as to what would have happened had Delgado survived to make the story - would the character have returned so soon in The Deadly Assassin? Would he even have returned at all? It's all moot though because of Delgado's tragic death and the original story obviously had to be dropped, not least because Pertwee called it quits after Delgado died. Letts and Dicks commissioned Robert Sloman, who had finished Season 10 with The Green Death to write this story, with Letts deciding to draw on his own Buddhist faith to explore the Doctor coming to terms with and facing the consequences of his own shortcomings: his greed and lust for knowledge. The Doctor's human (for lack of a more fitting term) fallibility has been an element explored very successful at times - the two Davison era masterpieces, Earthshock and The Caves of Androzani both had this as their thematic centrepiece for instance - hell, even NuWho's biggest successes have lent on this idea. The idea of the brash, confident, action hero Third Doctor being the victim of his own hubris is a brilliant idea - it's just a pity the execution doesn't work.

I don't know where the dual ideas to link this to a minor plot point from The Green Death and to bring in a bunch of giant spiders to act as the villains came from, but both contribute to the potential of this story just not being realised. Yes, it is with regret I announce that Spiders is a less than impressive curtain fall for the Third Doctor - awful? No. Bad even? Not really. It is just very lacklustre and flat, as if someone had forgotten to wind up the story before letting go. It just meanders through several pointless and mediocre plots, none of which are given any real development or relate to what it supposed to be the central point of the story - meanwhile, this central crux, the Doctor's own failings catching up with him, falters because his sin is something he could have had absolutely no idea about and only avoids being ridiculously trivial because of the way the plot is set up. Oh, and the Doctor meets the guy he mentioned in the 'daisiest daisy' speech in The Time Monster, someone who we've been led to believe was an enormous influence on the Doctor becoming the person he is throughout the series... in a pretty minor scene where its played like he's meeting an old mate he went on a camping holiday to the Lake District with once. With the ridiculous convenience of the two Time Lords on Earth being caught up in the same business about a crystal, and being within an hour's drive of each other added on as a bonus.

Sarah decided to make the most of her railcard and use the train instead

That's the thing with this story - it can be frustrating watching stuff like the boring oppressed humans prance about or the Wonderous Tale of Mike Yates vs The Cardboard Cutout Villains, thinking about how it could have been time used to explore the Doctor's fallibility or his relationship with a fellow Time Lord who influenced him greatly (bear in mind the Doctor had only been seen having negative relationships with members of his own species at this point - it could have been a fresh angle to explore). But no. We get the delightful images of spiders preparing to eat people alive. And a car chase. Great.

The biggest issue with this story is so much is here that is totally irrelevant to the main theme of the story. Yeah, I know, it's a six-parter, some irrelevant padding is more than inevitable, but what makes this an issue is that, as I alluded to, this is at the expense of developing the main theme of the story. A story that doesn't have time to give a good reason the hero's fallibility and greed is going to lead to this death shouldn't have anything like enough for a car chase of any kind, never mind one that takes up most of a pissing episode.

The car chase is something I would no doubt rant for hours at if it was in NuWho, so its only fair I give it its proper due here - luckily, I don't need to justify ripping into this to myself, because its extremely stupid. It comes about because Lupton the Dull Villain steals the crystal from UNIT Headquarters. Now obviously the Doctor would leave his vehicles unlocked and ready to start, that's just what we expect from out super smart hero, so Lupton jumps off in his hovercraft, with the Brig, Sarah and Benton in quick pursuit in Bessie. Now, Bessie has obviously had some mods, but these are only scientifically plausible things (if beyond the reach of technology at the time) like remote control. Sending a car like that at nearly 100mph (as the comedy policeman tells us) is absolutely ludicrous. Yes, a show with a time machine that looks like a POLICE box is not always going to be the most scientifically accurate, but being vaguely aware of the concept of 'air resistance' would be nice - when it's so obviously wrong even I'm noticing you're in trouble. This isn't helped by the hilariously bad speed ramping to achieve the effect, which combined with some awful CSO to achieve the flying scenes that follow make this whole affair a frankly pathetic spectacle to look at. As I've said before and doubtless will say again, if you're watching Classic Who for the effects you're an idiot, but when they are worse than a) average, b) should be expected for the time it was made or c) both, they deserve to be called out and this firmly falls into c). The chase itself is also unbelievably sedate and unexciting - they just drive around following each other, with occasional cuts to comedy policeman (who doesn't quite get that if two people in military uniform are chasing someone, it might be an idea to help them instead of quibbling) and a change of mode from road to air then water. It's worse than stupid - it's boring. Say what you like about the motorbike chase in the TV Movie, and I will because it's stupid and unnecessary to the plot, it was at least a well executed but of action, despite being stupid and unnecessary to the plot (did I mention that bit). This is not. The worst thing though, is that it is utterly pointless. At the start Lupton has the crystal... and at the end, Lupton has the crystal, rendering the entire sequence completely moot. The resolution is also stupid, as the spider that was controlling him just teleports him away... which does rather beg the question of why she couldn't have done that in the first place.

They see me rolling etc. and so forth

Now, I know what some of you are thinking, and yes, I know why this was included - Jon Pertwee wanted some action with fast vehicles so he could have a bit of fun in his last story. And you know what? That's not the bit I have an issue with. I mean, yeah, it's far from Doctor Who as I like it, and in an ideal world it wouldn't be here at all, but if a star on his way out who has always given his all wants a car chase, then I'm not made of stone. It just needed to be a) shorter, b) not quite so fucking boring and c) actually matter to the story.

The car chase is a symptom of a bigger problem. There's so much stuffed in this story that it becomes a battle of competing plots, all less interesting than the last and none getting to the crux of what this story should be about - the death of the Third Doctor. I barely even want to talk about the plot with the humans enslaved by the spiders because its so uninteresting. The characters are all cardboard cutouts, utterly lifeless with flat characterisation. This guy has a feud with his brother because he's too reckless blahddy blah blah blah who gives a fuck. It's just dead air, that does nothing except establish the spiders are, in fact, the bad guys and wastes time that should have been used elsewhere. On the first point, yeah, obviously the spidesr are the bad guys, when they started controlling people and talking about conquering Earth I kind of got that impression and as for the time wasting - why? There's barely any time to explore what this story should be about, so why is there any time to waste? The only thing it kid of adds is a political metaphor, that these humans came here as colonists and got enslaved by the locals, some kind of reversal of what usually happened when colonisation happened in real life, but honestly its so flimsy I might just be looking into it too deeply, and even if I'm not I can't even tell what the message is supposed to be beyond the surface level description so it's barely worth considering. I just don't care about this storyline at all, and its the most obvious example of how time and potential was wasted over nothing.

As I said, this story should have been about the death of the Third Doctor, and the biggest faliling it has is that it just isn't. Now, 'about' doesn't mean dominated by or the only storyline, it means it needs to be a defining theme of the piece, and this, even at this relatively early point, was not unprecedented. A prominent part of The Tenth Planet is the First Doctor's slow deterioration throughout the story - at the start, he's his usual brash, confident self, yelling at both General Cutler and the Cybermen as only the First Doctor could. But as the story goes on this fades, he becomes weaker, less able to be himself, culminating in the admittance during the last episode that his body is 'wearing a bit thin'. It's also a mirror of the Cyberman plot - decline and renewal. Thus, despite his regeneration having no obvious reason to it, it works within the story. In The War Games, the Second Doctor meets something he's never come up against before - the no win scenario. Every other time, this Doctor has talked, schemed and fought his way through thereats and foes, but this time it never comes close to feeling like he's in control - this is too big for him. Whenever it feels like he may be close, a new development yanks that feeling away. This is supplemented by the presence of the War Chief, a reminder of his past and what he's been running away from. We thus believe the fear he has when the Time Lords are brought in, and the conclusion feels natural to what has happened.

Planet of the Spiders does have a set up that should work just as well. The idea is that, as I said earlier, the Doctor's own failings led him here, that his greed and thirst for knowledge mean he has disrupted things and the only way to set it right is to sacrifice his own life - this is fantastic stuff. Remember, in the remaining two proper regeneration stories of the Classic era, the Doctor sacrifices himself, and both Logopolis and The Caves of Androzani build up to this and feature it in their themes. It should work here. But it doesn't.

The Doctor had had quite enough of the The A-Z of Classic Who's complaints

Firstly, simply not enough time is dedicated to it, not even remotely close. You'd think as a 6-parter it would have the time, but these ideas are barely mentioned at all until Part Five, and then they're given only really token development because of everything else that needs wrapping up. "Oh no, I've done a whoopsie" is about the extent of it, despite the fact that up to this point there's been basically no indication this is the case. Most of the story has played out without indication this is the state of affairs and the stakes are what they are - the audience has been treating this story as normal, and the sudden shift to this Doctor coming to the end of his life is jarring and leaves it feeling shoved in and undeveloped. Aside from Time and the Rani, which for structural reasons doesn't really count (and let's be honest, there are far far bigger problems with Time and the Rani), it's the only regeneration story that feels like the regeneration is just tacked on to the end of a normal story - say what you like about the NuWho regeneration stories, and believe me I can and will, but this is not a mistake any of them make.

Secondly, the way this theme is structured does it no favours. The Doctor's great sin, the one he must die to correct... is that back in another mostly unrelated story a year before he nicked a special crystal from an alien planet which in said story gave absolutely no indication whatsoever of being part of some grand plan. Now to start with, I'm generally fine with story to story continuity if its for characterisation or to provide a hook or ongoing arc (such as Tegan trying to get back to Heathrow in Season 19). But for plot points like this its usually a mistake, especially when it was never planned that way. Remember that the Metebelis stuff in Season 10 wasn't some grand story arc - it was a gag. The Doctor constantly trying and failing to get there, only to do so in the final story and find out it's a shithole is a bit of humour, and a bit of humour that's also both well crafted and funny, as rare as that is. The crystal he picked up as dual purpose - first to act as a MacGuffin for the later parts of the story, and at the end, to act as the symbol of Jo's moving on from the Doctor as her wedding present. The idea was that she'd moved on from needing his help but still had something to remember him and how he changed her life.

Making what was essentially a season long joke and a visual metaphor for the end of a character arc for someone who had left the series a year before was just a baffling decision that makes the whole thing seem like a continuation of a story that had already finished. Worst of all, the very idea that the Doctor needs to atone for his grave sin of picking up this bloody thing is frankly ridiculous - he nabbed a crystal from a planet that had no intelligent life he could observe, that had seemingly no purpose - that's it! How the fucking hell could he have even begun to know what the crystal's true purpose was - he's not giving his life because of his flawed greed for knowledge, he's giving it away because he left his crystal ball back in the fucking TARDIS. It makes the sacrifice feel cheap and empty, essentially this Doctor died because of the effects of a MacGuffin from a year earlier that he had no plausible way of foreseeing. What a weighty sacrifice.

Finally, the actual circumstances of his regeneration are unclear. He's killed by radiation exposure of all the crystals coming together.... but why? Why does this thing suddenly start giving off radiation, why does the Doctor get irradiated by it - the only answer is because the plot demands it. You may think this sounds like the beginning of a colossal nitpick, but how vague an undefined the actual cause of regeneration is further contributes to how empty it ends up feeling. To use an example of comparison, Spectrox Toxaemia in The Caves of Androzani is a similarly made up MacGuffin with the sole purpose of killing the Doctor - the difference is that Spectrox T is built up throughout the story, is a constant source of threat for our heroes, is linked in with one of the main drivers of the plot and is seen realistically and naturally progressing as such a disease would, while Metebelis Crystal Radiation comes more or less out of nowhere and just kills the Doctor because, well, something has to kill him. Yes, I know, a comparison to one of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time is unfair, but the point is that a Doctor-killing MacGuffin can still have weight to it -  but this doesn't and it makes the Third Doctor's end feel even cheaper.

Almost as cheap as this set heh

There are some good things about the way the Third Doctor's demise is portrayed, and it's only fair to give them their due. Firstly, a secondary theme of this Doctor's regeneration is that of his fear - the Great One makes it clear how amusing she finds the Doctor's fear of her and he says to Sarah on his deathbed that giving his life to face his fear was important to him. Now on the surface, this seems pretty stupid - I thought this was supposed to be about the Doctor's greed coming back for him and his repentance for that, not fear. Likewise, his comment to Sarah seems ab it stupid - facing one's fears is can be am important thing, but not at the cost of a life. But there is more to it than that in my eyes - see he's not actually afraid of the Great One, he's afraid of the consequences of his own failures. He's afraid because he caused all of this, everything that's happened so far is on his conscience, and if he fails a great deal more will be on it as well - he's terrified of failing when he's always succeeded. The Great Ones mistakes this for fear of her, which plays into what he know of her and her ego, so that works from a character standpoint as well... but more on that later.

This Doctor is one we rarely see in fear - he's too brash, too confident, too assured. The only other time is in The Mind of Evil when he's being forced to feel fear in the Keller Machine, otherwise its just not in his nature, at least in terms of showing it. That's what makes this all the more effective - the unflappable Doctor, showing visible terror at a desperate situation... and all because its of his own making. It also means his decision to go back makes far more sense in terms of facing that fear - going on living was not more important than facing his feat of the consequences of his own actions, and his need to put things right is more important to him than his life. This works, and it's a pity it couldn't have been explored more.

Another positive is the regeneration scene itself. Now, while it would obviously be massively improved by the Doctor making a long-winded and meaningless monologue to ridiculously overdramatic music before this regeneration blows up UNIT HQ (hah, just kidding), it's a nice low-key sequence that touches on the previously mentioned stuff about his fear also what his regeneration means to the people around him - Sarah's sad resignation as his presumed end showing what he meant to her even after a short time, while the Brigadier's confidence in his return betrays his true belief in the Doctor, the kind of thing that would later be explored so successfully in Mawdryn Undead. Likewise, when the TARDIS returns, Sarah shows her belief in him, mourning the fact that he had to do the right thing. His final words ("a tear Sarah Jane... no, don't cry, while there's life, there's...") is not only a touchingly performed moment, it's a confirmation of Sarah's grief, that he tries to reassure here, but he dies before he can say the one word which he wants to give her but can't... hope. It therefore feels earned when K'anpo Rimpoche pops up to exposit - but only to Sarah and the Brigadier, which is what helps it avoid feeling clunky. The audience obviously know he'll regenerate, but the characters don't, and their reaction further add to their characters - in Sarah's case, daring not to hope, followed by relief, while in the Brigadier's case showing that despite how much he believes in the Doctor, he still gets annoyed with his quirks ("here we go again"). It's a pity a better visual effect than a crappy dissolve couldn't have been found as that would have completed the scene, but overall it works very well, the most credit going to Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney who are all faultless - no bored Tegans in this one. The only other problem I have with it is that's where the story ends - a brief scene, even if just a few lines, with the new Doctor could have given the final scene a sense of closure. To be fair though, the value of such a scene wouldn't be realised until The Caves of Androzani, so it very much is what it is.

What else works about this one? Jon Pertwee is up to his usual standards for sure, especially when he's in the parts of the story that aren't completely useless. The rest of the regulars do a good job as well - Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney are as dependable as ever, and say what you like about Richard Franklin's off screen life, but he knew how to play Mike Yates. Speaking of Yates, he's in this quite a lot, as his silly character arc from Invasion of the Dinosaurs gets a conclusion - he's clearly learnt from that experience, accepting the monastery isn't a quick fix to this problems and that loyalty to his friends is a better bet in the long run. I do wish however that he wasn't so prominent at the expense of the Brigadier, who disappears after Part Two and doesn't appear again until the regeneration - it's a pity he's not more prominent in the finale of an era of which he was such an important part. Courtney is great when he's in it though, particularly at the start of the story when gets a couple of solid jokes. Speaking of the early part of the story, Professor Clegg is a likeable presence whose ESP poses an interesting question that's frustratingly never really - again, I'd trade all the stuff with the oppressed humans for more on Clegg, especially as the story is interested in exploring human differences. Also, the Doctor should feel much much worse about his death (a preventable one he more or less caused) than anything to do with that sodding crystal, but I digress. Finally, the titular spiders are handled much better than the silly concept suggests. The idea they can invisibly control humans is one that's used to intriguing effect a few times - when Sarah is taken over by the spider, it's not immediately obvious but there are behavioural hints that she's not herself. Likewise, the only good moment with The Oppressed Humans™ is when they lure the Doctor into the spider's hands - again presenting a situation where the Doctor should feel safe, but not quite. The spiders themselves  also have an interesting power strucutre, with internal arguments and conniving that does give them the feeling of being a rounded and realistic threat, and avoids the astonishing lameness of having an army of spiders all threatening to eat us all, wooo.... That would have been crap. I also like that by avoiding a single big bad, they appear more of an overwhelming threat - the Queen seems to give the orders but she clearly requires the confidence of the others and has to back down if demanded, while the Great One is clearly the biggest threat, the fact she's disconnected enough from the others and is treated by them more or less as a deity, it gives her an aura of menace while not relegating the others. For me personally, the Great One doesn't get quite enough attention, but as I alluded to earlier, her ego is obvious and it both makes her seem like a greater threat (what if she's right to have it?) and someone with an obviously exploitable weakness (what if she isn't?), and her interactions with the Doctor play into this. Her demise also mirrors the Doctors - her greed for the crystal without thinking of the consequences plus facing her fears (of powerlesness). Yeah, because of the stuff I mentioned earlier, it doesn't gel quite right (the Doctor's 'greed' for knowledge is just not the same no matter how you put it) but the overall effects just about works.

The spider had decided in future it would stick with the regular tube map to get around London

So, with these positives in mind, it's time to talk about Tommy. Tommy, see, is a resident of the monastery who has learning difficulties (unspecified) until the crystal resolves them. Note I am not using the phrases that the story uses like 'cured' or 'returned to normal' because they are not appropriate to describe it in my view. Perhaps expecting an examination of such things and the psychology surrounding it is too much from 1974, but I'd be lying if I said Tommy's presence in this story wasn't deeply conflicting for me.

The thing is, I want to believe Tommy wasn't just intended to be the disabled guy we're supposed to laugh at who then gets 'cured' to show how great this crystal is, I really do, as sometimes the story tries to make out like its doing more with than this. Tommy is very much portrayed positively - his good nature is evidently his most endearing trait, and it's made very clear that his learning difficulties are not causing him to be a good person, as once they are gone these traits remain - his personality is not shown as a by-product of them. I also like the line when his new state is referred to by Sarah as 'normal, just like everybody else' - he replies 'I hope not'. Despite losing his disability, he hasn't lost what made him a unique person. Furthermore, it's clearly shown that all the crystal did was fix his learning difficulties, it doesn't make him a super genius or anything, which I like - his impediment is gone, but he still has to learn things most people know, which gives him a unique perspective. It also lets him feel more rounded and like he's a positive character of his own accord, rather than just what the crystal has done.

The thing is, it's difficult to square all that with how he's generally portrayed. When he has the difficulties it's shocking frankly - a dim witted idiot obsessed with shiny things. It's deeply uncomfortable to watch and horrifically offensive to people who actually have similar conditions - you have to keep thinking to yourself '1974, they wouldn't to this today, I'm sure they weren't be intentionally cruel, 1974,' but it's going to have a mixed success rate, at least for me. The way he's treated by others is also unpleasant - sure, he's treated badly by the villains in an bid to make them look more villainous, but Sarah and the Abbot (i.e the good guys) condescendingly treat him like a child, and only take him seriously once he's able to speak without impediment, which sure makes our heroes look good - "we'll only take a disabled person seriously when he's not disabled anymore, go us!" The overall message of this is also deeply insulting frankly - 'Tommy was disabled, but a magic crystal meant he isn't anymore so he can live life without those challenges anymore.' Great. What about people who live in the real world and don't have a magical crystal to spare? What are they supposed to do with the challenges such difficulties can bring? What does Doctor Who have to say for them? 

I guess Tommy's arc does tie into the themes of change and renewal - but isn't the idea that the Doctor is supposed to be facing his own failures and fears, which leads into said change and renewal, rather than having impediments one has entirely because of poor luck in the genetics department solved by much better luck in the pilfering magic crystals department. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Tommy should have stayed as he was, as for personal reasons I find that 'disability as a superpower' attitude pretty insulting frankly. I just wish it had fit better, that it had said more for people like Tommy. I'm also just not sure enough of their intentions being in the right place.

I suppose I should move on. While I did say I liked the execution of the spiders, said execution can only go so far in redeeming the silliness of the concept and how at odds it is with what they're trying to do here. 'We're going to have a story that looks at the Doctor's fallibility and fears, leading to his redemption for a past sin, and the villains will be giant spiders that eat people' just doesn't work for me. To put a silly villain like that in a story like this is just a massive clash of styles. If you want to do a giant spider story, fine, and it doesn't automatically have to be goofy and silly either. The Green Death is after all best known as 'the one with the giant maggots' and it tells a mature and complex story at the same time. The maggots though not only play into the themes of the piece (environmentalism, change, etc.) they're also not really the villains - they're just mindless monsters, with BOSS as the, er, boss. The spiders are the main villain of this story though, which means there's no greater menace for the Doctor to reckon with, which means he's facing his failures up against a plot from a 50s b-movie. Yes, the execution is much better than the concept, but it still feels out of place with what this story is supposedly trying to do and contributes to the themes not feeling as weighty as they should.

Of course, for all we know, the Great One could be a normal sized spider and she's actually just closer to the camera than the Doctor. Alright, maybe not...

So, best move on to another prominent part of the story, all the Buddhist stuff at the monastery. Now as I previously mentioned, Barry Letts wanted to work some of his Buddhist beliefs into the story, and this does show in the themes of the story - repentance, renewal, etc. and so forth. Why they then decided to be more literal about it and put an actual monastery (there's not an actual connection to Buddhism in the story) to drive the point home a bit more literally I have no idea. First of all, it provides the main villain Lupton (yeah his name either sounds like a brand of tea bags or some spreadable butter but whatever) who is a staggeringly dull villain who's boring one-note interest in power is so bereft of depth he has to come out and state it outright, and his potentially interesting backstory is squandered as a result. His credibility is hit by the pathetic car chase, the face he seems to think the height of all power is being in a monastery (don't ask me how he works that out) and the fact his interactions with the spiders amount to 'take me seriously' to which the spiders reply 'no, go away' and frankly, the audience is inclined to agree.

So less an annoying waste of space, and the generic no-ones for Yates to fight who are dull as dishwater, what does the monastery stuff provide? Well, to be honest, they're not the main point of this plot, and neither is Tommy. It's about the resident Time Lord, K'anpo Rimpoche or Cho-Je or the Abbot or it all gets very confusing so let's be simple about it and call him Dave. Anyway, Dave is meant to be the hermit the Doctor refers to in the 'daisiest daisy' speech in The Time Monster. In that speech, the Doctor recounts his encounter with this mysterious hermit, which is implied to have had a great influence on his worldview, and consequently, have had a great influence on making the whole series actually happen - the person the Doctor is and we've seen since 1963 is because of this encounter showing the Doctor how to open his eyes and see the universe in a new way. It's also a sign of Time Lord society being more diverse than we'd seen previously - in The War Games and Terror of the Autons where Time Lords had appeared, they'd been portrayed as powerful but bureaucratic, an obvious foil against the Doctor and reason why he'd leave, and indeed their appearance in The Three Doctors between that story and this one was very similar. The only other Time Lords we'd seen were the Monk, the War Chief and the Master, who'd shown the darker, more nefarious side of Time Lord nature. We'd seen nothing of the kind of Time Lord that would have actually inspired the Doctor and helped shape him into what he is by his third incarnation. This speech was therefore a sign of what a Time Lord could actually be, that was far more than we'd seen, to the point where one hermit could be all that was necessary to set off the adventures of the most famous Time Lord of all. But because of its nature as a descriptive monologue, it keeps an element of mystery that would otherwise make this seem too ordinary. It's a rightly lauded scene, from one of the lesser stories of this era let's not forget.

Why on Earth they then decided 'let's actually show this guy on screen' and believed it would be anything except a disappointment is baffling. I do think the idea of tying in Buddhist spirituality with Time Lord society has potential, but it, and that familiar theme is cropping up again, isn't given enough time or development. Dave is on Earth, away from Time Lord society... because that's how he likes it damnit, no reason needed, don't ask questions. Same as to why this human spirituality appealed to him. As previously mentioned, his meeting with the Doctor is a disappointment ("Hi, you really inspired me" "Yes, I did" "Great, back to Arachnids in the UK 44 years early!") and it really, really doesn't help both versions are supposedly Asians (obviously they're actually Time Lords but the portrayal is obvious) played by white guys in yellowface. No, it's not as bad as The Talons of Weng-Chiang or anything like that, the characters are played respectfully, it's clearly just cultural dissonance rather than active racism, but it's uncomfortable nonetheless, especially as there was precedent under this production team to cast Asian actors as Asians in The Mind of Evil (such a low standard, I know...)

His attempts to cast force lightning were unfortunately unsuccessful

What I do like about this character though is his dual nature. See, the younger Dave turns out to be a projection of the older Dave's future regeneration. This works in a number of ways - first, it works as a clever twist to a character(s) we thought he was sussed and does go a small way to preserving that sense of mystery about this character. Secondly, it demonstrates to the audience the concept of regeneration, showing it on screen so they recognise it when it happens to the Doctor, and makes clear the changing of appearance we've seen twice already is something that happens to all Time Lords, not just the Doctor, something that seems obvious now but wasn't at the time. Finally, I like that it ties into the themes of the story - as the Doctor confronts his past, Dave literally confronts his future etc. I also shows that renewal and change is a natural part of Time Lord life, and that it should be welcomed (take notes Russell T Davies/Steven Moffat). Overall, I do like this element of this character - I just wish it could have been portrayed without a white man in bad makeup spreaking Engrish in a frunny ray.

So, what of Planet of the Spiders overall? Well, I don't want to give the overall impression is a terrible piece or anything like that, because it isn't really. It moves decently, never becomes insultingly bad, and has its fair share of strong moments - out of the two Pertwee stories about Planets this is better than the last one we did. The problem is that it doesn't offer much more than that surface level stuff and its especially frustrating because of how close it actually comes to doing so. With less focus on the boring oppressed humans and other irrelevant plots, and more on the themes surrounding the Doctor's character as he reaches the end of his third life, this would have been a much stronger tale. A more focused narrative would have done this wonders, I don't doubt Jon Pertwee would have risen to the occasion for it - and to be fair, he rises as far as this occasion actually allows him to. I'm not angry at this for wasting my time - I'm disappointed because it didn't have to.

Final Score: 4/10. Promising, and with some good ideas, characters and moments, but it fails to live up the promise of its themes and surrounds what does work with mostly tedious irrelevancies. Pertwee deserved better... but he could have had worse. Overall, it manages to work out slightly below average for Classic Who.

Next Episode: Pyramids of Mars