Day 380: Planet of the Spiders Part 5

There's a nice sequence that occurs about halfway through this episode. The Doctor is running to help Sarah Jane, when he encounters a voice. The voice tells him not to come any closer, because the radiation levels near it would kill him. It also tells him to return the crystal that he stole, all the way back in The Green Death. As described, it doesn't sound too intimidating. But actions speak louder than words, as the voice then forcibly takes control of the Doctor, making him turn around on the spot, to show the power that it has over him. This causes the Doctor great pain as he encounters something which has true power over him. His face is contorted into a face of fear as he tries to fight it but can't. It's disturbing to see Pertwee's Doctor like this, in particular as he is the Doctor that is the most cool in deadly situations, as he comes up against a foe that frightens him, and surely cannot beat. Well, maybe he can beat them, but at what cost...

Day 379: Planet of the Spiders Part 4

The Pertwee era is defined by two types of story. Those which are set on Earth, and those which are set on another planet, which generally concern Earth colonists. This story somehow manages to weave the two together. It's achieved by having the Doctor and Sarah Jane, as well as the main human villain, investigate goings on on Metebelis 3, while we follow the actions of the characters that we've met previously in the story on Earth as they come to terms with the plot. It's nice to have this ability to leap between spaces in such a way, and takes full advantage of the spacetime travelling mechanic at the heart of the series. However, there is one small problem, being that half of what happens on Metebelis 3 (through mixture of writing, acting and direction) is incredibly poor. This drags down the overall quality of the story, which is a shame as there are some good things here, but we forget about them as we focus on the negative that it surrounds. Still, we have much to look forward to as we enter the final days of Planet of the Spiders.

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.

Day 377: Planet of the Spiders Part 2

This episode makes the interesting decision to dedicate half of its running time to an extensive chase sequence involving Bessie, the Whomobile, a gyrocopter, a police car, a boat and a hovercraft. It sounds excessive, mainly because it is. The entire thing feels remarkably poor, much of which can be given in hindsight due to the fact that the enemy is teleported away at the end of the chase rendering the entire thing worthless. But, it does celebrate the Pertwee era. It shows us that it was all about action and cool stunts, something which hadn't really been covered in previous eras of the show. It comes across as fun, if a little overlong, and aims to excite and entertain the audience. This is one of the things that the Pertwee era brought: a renewed focus on excitement with bigger stunts and the like to both compete with other programmes and provide something new for the audience.

Day 376: Planet of the Spiders Part 1

And so the end begins. Pertwee had decided that it was time to leave the series, making Planet of the Spiders his last story. As such, it begins with what feels like a reunion. The Doctor is back working for UNIT, the Brigadier and he are exploring strange goings on with a clairvoyant, while Mike and Sarah Jane are investigating a Buddhist monastery which is being remarkably suspicious. Benton's there as well fulfilling the role he always has of being in scenes and being likeable. There's even a letter from Jo Grant, and references to Metebelis 3. All in all, it feels like everyone coming together for the last hurrah, going through the motions one last time. There are some indications of the theme behind this story, and we shall delve into that later, but for now it feels comfortable and safe. This is, of course, one of the things that the Pertwee era brought to Doctor Who. Instead of being uneasy about each new story or location, we grew to know that we were always safe with these characters, and that we can just oet everything fold out in front of us. But then again, sometimes it's nice to be able to get something truly unexpected and out of this world. And who knows what the future will bring...

Day 375: The Monster of Peladon Part 6

Much like Planet of the Daleks, as a child I somewhat wanted to see The Monster of Peladon above other stories. I'd already seen and enjoyed The Curse of Peladon, so The Monster of Peladon was high in expectation as something to look forward to. Unfortunately, in the 9 or so years between watching Curse and watching Monster, I discovered the reputation of certain stories. The Monster of Peladon, it is fair to say, does not have the best of reputations. This all meant that when I watched it, I wasn't allowed to fully engage with the story, instead I was already in a mood to criticise and poke fun at its flaws. I could make a comment here about how wrong I was, and how the story is actually incredibly good. But it isn't. That's not to say that I don't like it though. The fact that it chooses not to hide its flaws makes for some incredibly fun viewing, and I'm actually kind lf glad that I knew this story was going to be poor before I watched it, because it meant that I wasn't going to be let down again, like I was with Planet of the Daleks.

Day 374: The Monster of Peladon Part 5

This story sees the return of the Ice Warriors. I rather liked the Ice Warriors in their last appearance due to them being on the side of good and adding another dimension to their role in the series. The same, however, cannot be said of their appearance in this serial. Here, they are clearly the villains of the piece, taking advantage of the Pels of Peladon, attacking them often with their advanced weaponry and planning to take over the universe. This is disappointing, to be brutally honest. I enjoyed the fact that by having the Ice Warriors as goodies in the last story, the story was able to play on the audience's prejudices as well as giving the characters something more to do. But here, they are reduced to lumbering around the place which makes them weaker as a result because we lose all the hard work in character development that we had seen before. That's not to say that this doesn't go unacknowledged though, people comment that they are a breakaway group, and that this is entirely unexpected. But it is still disappointing and adds to the list of disappointments that go with The Monster of Peladon.