Episode One:
1)Get a haircut, Yates!
2)"Very fit, that girl."
3)The Doctor and Clegg are wearing the same tie!
4)I like the idea of a "fake" psychic turning out to be real.
5)It's hard to believe that Cho-Je is played by the same actor that played Lynx.
6)"Darkest Mummerset"? Must be a British thing.
7)I believe that's the first mention of Doris. "A little too much, perhaps - eh, Alastair?"
8)I'd love to see the new series take on a Drashig. Those things always scared the bejabbers out of me.
9)Cliffhanger #1: A giant spider materializes!
Episode Two:
10)There is something on his back!
11)"Oh, is that you, Sullivan?" Foreshadowing.
12)"My old teacher" - He's been mentioned before.
13)"Billy-O"?
14)Never was wild about the "Whomobile" - I always liked Bessie better. From what Barry Letts said on the commentary, Pertwee had it built on his own, and then persuaded Letts to use it on the show.
15)Letts himself has pointed out that if the spider could teleport them away at any time, then the whole chase was rather pointless. My rationale is that while teleporting the crystal a short distance was relatively easy, teleporting Lupton all the way back to the lamasery was more difficult, and not something she would do unless it was absolutely necessary. (It doesn't seem to have occurred to the Doctor or the Brigadier to send someone to the lamasery to wait and see if Lupton showed up there.)
In reality, the chase enabled Letts to indulge Pertwee's love of exotic vehicles, as a sort pf parting gift.
16)Cliffhanger #2: Lupton has disappeared!
Episode Three:
17)The spiders aren't the worst thing I've seen in the show, but they're kind of unconvincing.
18)I didn't expect the bit where Lupton is able to hurt the spider back.
19)"Tommy did it!" "You certainly did."
20)The CSO background of Metebelis III is also unconvincing.
21)"You speak as if she were alive." "Yes. Yes, I do, don't I?"
22)Cliffhanger #3: The Doctor is zapped!
Episode Four:
23)I like the bit with Tommy learning how to read.
24)Cliffhanger #4: Sarah Jane sees that the Doctor has been captured!
Episode Five:
25)"Tommy, you're normal! You're just like everybody else!" "I sincerely hope not!"
26)Cliffhanger #5: The heels attack Tommy!
Episode Six:
27)"My greed for knowledge, for information..."
28)"I know who you are, now." "You always were a little slow on the uptake, my boy." One of the few times in the show where we see the Doctor with someone he looks up to as a teacher.
29)There was clearly a string involved!
30)"We'll never see him again."
31)"I had to face my fear - that was more important than just going on living."
32)"A tear, Sarah Jane?"
33)"While there's life, there's ..."
34)Pertwee really does look deathly at the end.
35)"You may find his behavior somewhat erratic." "'Cause he's gonna turn into Tom Baker."
36)"Well, here we go again."
37)Cliffhanger #6: The Doctor regenerates! (Apparently, this was the first time that the process was referred to as "regeneration".)
I enjoyed this - all in all, a fairly good send-off for Pertwee, I thought - there's some genuine emotion at the end. As with most six parters, it probably could've been edited down to a four-prter, but apart from the soemwhat over-long chase, it doesn't feel too padded.
Replies
The DVD pack for this included what was called the "Omnibus" version of the story - essentially an edited-down version that was originally shown before the premiere of "Robot", Tom Baker's first story. They shaved about 50 minutes off the story. It doesn't suffer too badly in the trimming, there are only one or two moments where the trims seem "abrupt".
I will say, too, that I appreciated the foreshadowing and experienced a little shiver of anticipation as Pertwee regenerated into Baker.
6)"Darkest Mummerset"? Must be a British thing.
Mummerset
Doctor Hmmm? said:
Yeah, I went and watched the first part of "Robot". It was interesting watching both sides of the regeneration "all in a row".
Jeff of Earth-J said:
Someone at another board argued with me that the last Master story was intended to be called "The Final Game"... but I couldn't see how that was supposed to totally contradict his being in THIS story. ...SPIDERS just feels to me like it was written as a Master story, but then went thru several re-writes.
You have a thing where The Doctor meets his "mentor" --described by Pertwee to Jo Grant in THE TIME MONSTER-- who, oddly enough, is played by George Kormack, the same actor who played the King Of Atlantis IN that story (doesn't it get confusing sometimes?). And then you have the revelation that for the entire story, this Time Lord was existing in TWO forms AT THE SAME TIME-- Kampo, and his "future" self, Cho-Je. When I saw this, it "explained" the whole damn thing about "The Watcher" in LOGOPOLIS, as The Doctor was doing the same thing there-- manifesting a future self-- except, being The Doctor, he was rather incompetent at it (to the point he didn't even realize he was doing it). This also "explained" the various "regeneratons" (NOT!) we saw Romana exhibit in DESTINY OF THE DALEKS. She didn't really go thru multiple bodies (the way Tom Baker went thru multiple costumes in ROBOT), she was mentally projecting possible future selves, before going thru with it.
It reminds me a bit of THE AVENGERS, where it was said, by the time Mrs. Peel came along, the producers just took it for granted the tv audience knew what was going on, and so didn't bother to keep explaining it-- they just got on with the story. But Americans might be completely lost, not having seen the earlier stories! PLANET OF THE SPIDERS was never seen in the US until Peter Davison was already into his 2nd season, I think.
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