Day 378: Planet of the Spiders Part 3

The villains of this piece are over-large spiders. This is a fantastic idea as it brings forth one of the basic foundations at the heart of Doctor Who: the ordinary made extraordinary. Spiders are commonplace in society, and a common fear for several people. So by having Doctor Who involve them in its universe, we can make them even more frightening, giving thrm extra powers such as the ability to jump on people's backs and telepathically control them, which us builds on the pre-existing fear and amplifies it for the audience. In a way it harks back to Pertwee's first story, which took the mundane shop window dummies and made them something terrifying, using the fact that surrounding objects can be easily recognised to amplify the fear for the purpose of the story.