378 Planet of the Spiders Part Three

EPISODE: Planet of the Spiders: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 378
STORY NUMBER: 074
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 18 May 1974
WRITER: Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Planet of the Spiders
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"We shall return to our rightful home, Earth, as rulers!"

Lupton materialises at the meditation centre where his arrival is witnessed by Tommy. The spider communicates with her sisters and queen on Metebelis 3. Their leader, the Great One, plans the conquest of Earth. The Doctor, Sarah & Mike come to the Monastery accusing Lupton of stealing the crystal. Barnes overhears and warns Lupton. Tommy spots the crystal and steals it while Lupton is distracted and hides it in his collection of pretty things in a shoebox. Sarah follows Lupton to the cellar leaving a message with Tommy to say where she has gone. Sarah see Lupton dematerialise, but following him steps on the prayer mat he was was using and is transported to Metebelis 3.

Sarah is first captured and then sheltered from the spiders by the humans living on Metebelis 3. The Queen is demanding the human Arak be surrendered for attacking a guard but takes his father Sabor instead. As Sarah is found the Doctor arrives in the Tardis and, after a fight, is knocked out by a blast from on of the spider's servants.

Hmmm. I'm not sure we move very far in this episode, it feels a bit like padding. And the humans on Metebelis 3, the descendants of colonists, don't feel terribly realistic to me.

We hear two more spider voices in this episode. Kismet Delgado is of course the widow of Roger Delgado. After her husband was killed in a car crash in Turkey she found herself in impoverished circumstances due to his life insurance refusing to pay up. Barry Lettsobtained her an equity card and got her this job to help tide her over.

The third spider voice is Maureen Morris who was in the second & third episodes of the second series of the Tripods and as Mrs. Macready in the BBC's 1988 version of The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe.

The Spiders are operated by puppeteer Barry Smith.

Onto to the Metebelis colonists:

Arak should be recognisable as Gareth Hunt, shortly to find fame for playing Mike Gambit in The New Avengers. You can see him as an Eagle Pilot in the Space: 1999 episode Guardian of Piri.

Ralph Arliss, playing Tuar, appears to have been in most dramas I've ever watched from the 70s. He was in The Sweeney as Ames in Taste of Fear, Survivors as Jim in Mad Dog and the 1979 Quatermass as Kickalong.

The older Sabor is played by Geoffrey Morris has a TV career stretching back to 1946 but the thing you'll mostly likely have seen him in is the Fawlty Towers episode The Hotel Inspectors where he plays John, one of the two inspectors. (The same episode features Bernard Cribbins as a man Basil thinks is a hotel inspector. And hilarity ensues).

Jenny Laird, playing Neska, was an experienced actress who gave her name to an acting award at RADA won by Richard Franklin (Captain Yates) and Jan Chappel (Cally in Blake's 7). I've seen Laird in the Inspector Morse story Second Time Around where she plays Mrs. Keelan.

Joanna Monro, here playing Rega, has had a somewhat eclectic career including starring in the stage production of Mamma Mia!, appearing as a regular on the That's Life, and winning a celebrity edition of the Weakest Link! You can hear Joanna Monro interviewed in Who's Round 236.

Finally, from the credited cast, playing the guard Captain and making his final Doctor appearance is our old friend Walter Randall who'd been in The Aztecs as Tonila, The Crusade as El Akir, The Daleks' Master Plan as Hyksos, The Invasion as a Patrolman and Inferno as Harry Slocum. His first & last appearances are the only ones *not* directed by Douglas Camfield. Outside of Doctor Who he was a Sightseer / Man in Crowd in three episodes of Quatermass and the Pit and in Out of the Unknown he appears as Thomas Hobbs in To Lay a Ghost, one of the four existing Fourth Season episodes found in the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. In The Professionals he plays President Parsali in Mixed Doubles and in Yes Minister he's a Qumrani man in The Moral Dimension.

Onto the Guards..... and here we have a small problem: I can see hardly any of the guards that the DWAS Production File says are in this episode and the only ones I can see clearly and identify are ones the Production File says are in episode 4! For example the photo on the left clearly contains Alan Chuntz on the left of the picture and Stuart Fell between Sarah & Rega. Reading around I discover that episode 3 originally ran short so their listing as being only in episode four is almost certainly down to material being pulled forward from the intended episode four. Fell was in the last episode as the Tramp but we've not seen Chuntz for a bit:

Regular stuntman Alan Chuntz was previously a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, Technician Harvey & a Security Guard in The Seeds of Death, one of Collinson’s Men & a UNIT Soldier in the Ambassadors of Death, a Technician, UNIT solider and RSF Soldier in Inferno, during which he was injured when Jon Pertwee ran him over in Bessie, an Auton in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner in Mind of Evil a Sea Devil & Sailor in The Sea Devils, Omega's Champion in The Three Doctors and a Security Guard in The Green Death. He returns as a soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, the Doctor's stunt double in Planet of Evil, the Chauffeur in Seeds of Doom, a Horda Pit Guard in Face of Evil, a Coolie in Talons of Weng-Chiang, a guard in State of Decay and a Masked Villager in The Visitation. He also did stunt work on the Sean Connery James Bond film You Only Live Twice and on The Italian Job.

Since those two stuntmen are here and The Doctor, or rather his stunt double Terry Walsh, gets a bit physical with several guards, it's likely that the other guard stuntman listed for episode four, Billy Horrigan, is also present - and I'm about 90% certain he's one of the guards in the second picture! Horrigan was a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, the Man on Bike Killed by Auton in Spearhead from Space, one of Collinson's men in Ambassadors of Death, a Technician and UNIT & RSF Soldiers in Inferno, a U.N.I.T. soldier, Auton Policeman & other stunts in Terror of the Autons, a UNIT Corporal & Prisoner in The Mind of Evil, a colonist in Colony in Space, a guard in The Curse of Peladon, a Sea Devil & Sailor Stuntman in The Sea Devils and a security guard in The Green Death. He returns as a soldier/guard in Masque of Mandragora. He was also in Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance. In the world of films he acts or does stunt work in Jabberwocky, The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman, Superman II, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, Superman III, Krull, Never Say Never Again, 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

There's two guards down as only being in this episode: Derek Hunt was an Atlantean Guards Underwater Menace, a British Soldier in The War Games, a Soldier in Spearhead from Space, a UNIT Solider in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Technician in Inferno, a U.N.I.T. Soldier in Day of the Daleks and a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space. He returns as an Android Mechanic/Soldier in Android Invasion, a Bi-Al member in Invisible Enemy, a Time Lord in Invasion of Time a Technicians/Guards/Citizen in Pirate Planet, a Passenger in Nightmare of Eden, James the footman in Black Orchid, a Worthy in Snakedance, a Guard in Planet of Fire and Time Lord in Mysterious Planet, Mindwipe & Terror of the Vervoids, during which he's wearing orange robes!

The other guard is a first appearance with Third Doctor Jon Pertwee for our friend Harry Fielder! 'Aitch first appeared in The Enemy of the World as a guard after which he was back as a Wheel Crewmember in The Wheel in Space. He returns as a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom for which he gets a credit, a Guard in The Deadly Assassin, the Second Assassin in The Face of Evil part one (he gets on the commentary for that DVD!), a Titan Base Crewman in The Invisible Enemy part one, a Levithian Guard in The Ribos Operation, a Guard in The Armageddon Factor part two (another credited role!), the Krarg Commander in Shada, a Tigellan in Meglos part one and a Security Guard in Castrovalva part one. His Blake's 7 appearances include an Armed Crewman in Space Fall and Cygnus Alpha, a Scavenger in Deliverance a Federation Trooper in Weapon, Trial, Voice from the Past (where he's also a rebel), Children of Auron, Games, Warlord and Blake meaning he was present at the final climatic scene! I first knew him as Harry the Security Guard in CBTV but he's been in everything from when I was growing up! Aitch was on Facebook, has a website recalling the many productions he's been in and has adapted it into a rather good book. He died 6th February 2021 aged 80.

377 Planet of the Spiders Part Two

EPISODE: Planet of the Spiders: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 377
STORY NUMBER: 074
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 11 May 1974
WRITER: Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Planet of the Spiders
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"I have come to give you the power you seek!"

The spider claims to have come to give Lupton power, jumping on his back and merging with him. The Doctor reviews his recording's of Clegg's thoughts seeing nothing but Spiders. Sarah leaves the monastery to warn the Doctor while Mike seeks out the Abbot. The spider detects the crystal as the Doctor looks into it. The Doctor is entranced by the crystal but is brought round by the smell of Benton's coffee. First Tommy, then Lupton, prevent Mike from seeing Abbot K'anpo. The next morning Sarah tells the Doctor her story, but he only starts listening when she mentions the spider. He tells her how he obtained the crystal from Metebelis 3. Lupton enters UNIT HQ stunning Benton with an electrical bolt. Seeing the crystal through the lab door's window the spider transports it to Lupton's hand and he runs off. Stealing the Whomobile he is pursued by the Doctor, Brigadier & Benton in Bessie leading to a pursuit on land, in the air and on water. As the Doctor's hovercraft catches up with Lupton's boat he finds the boat empty and Lupton vanished.

Deary me. You're enjoyment of this episode almost 100% depends on if you're ten or not. Jon Pertwee had always had a love of vehicle and, where possible working them into Doctor Who stories. Here his love is indulged with a chase involving the Whomobile, making it's second appearance now in it's final form, Bessie, a police car, a gyro-copter, a boat and a hovercraft that Jon Pertwee liked so much that he ordered one for his holiday home in Ibiza. They've obviously had a lot of fun making it but at 12 minutes it's far far too long and is basically an indulgence. Then right at the end the villain teleports away rendering the entire chase pointless. Ok you could argue the spider needed time to recharge it's energies after teleporting the crystal earlier in the episode but.....

There's a nice little touch in the episode though when The Brigadier rings the UNIT Medical Officer:

BRIGADIER: Doctor. Doctor? Good grief. Sergeant Benton?
BENTON : Yes, sir?
BRIGADIER: Oh, there you are. Looks as if we have an emergency on our hands. I can't get him to come round. Damn silly idea. Thought so all along. Give me the M.O. Quickly. Oh, is that you, Sullivan? Get over to the lab straight away.
DOCTOR: Absolutely beautiful.
BRIGADIER: What's that, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Oh, the smell of that coffee. Thank you, Sergeant.
BRIGADIER: Forget it, Sullivan.
DOCTOR: You know, I've always said that next to Mrs Samuel Pepys you make the finest cup of coffee in the world.
BENTON: Thank you very much, Doctor. Actually the secret of it is, is to get the water
BRIGADIER: Yeah. Look, never mind the dratted coffee.

In the next story we will meet Doctor Harry Sullivan: it's nice little touches like this between stories that make you feel that the show is being thought about behind the scenes on a scale larger than a single story!

I don't usually comment on the effects but the CSO'd electrical bolt on location is rather good

But the original effects work on the Whomobile flying where it turns gold is dreadful.

This was fixed for the DVD but the compilation version of this story, included on disc 2, contains the original effect still.

The spider voice heard in this episode is provided by Ysanne Churchman who had previously Voiced Alpha Centauri in Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon. She's famous for playing Grace Archer, the character killed off in the long running BBC radio soap opera the same night that ITV launched.

The policeman involved in the car chase is Chubby Oates, a well known comedian. I didn't think I'd seen him in anything else but a quick run down his CV on IMDB reveals he was in the first episode of Morning Sarge, The New Constable, as Bobby. Morning Sarge is one of those programs forgotten by many but I recall it being rather good. I can see two other Doctor Who alumni have appeared in it too - Kinda's Lee Cornes and Battlefield's Ling Tai.

The voice of the Policeman's Control talking him on the radio is producer Barry Letts.

Most of the rest of the cast is a series of cameos for the extras and stuntmen that have helped make the Third Doctor stories: Pat Gorman, regular extra, plays the Soldier who is working on Whomobile. Previously he was a Freedom Fighter/Rebel in Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Planetarian in Mission to the Unknown: Delegate Detective thinks he's Sentreal the black Christmas tree, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman in The War Games episode two, the Silurian Scientist in The Silurians, a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, a Primord in Inferno, the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons, a Primitive and Long in Colony in Space, a Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Guard & Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, a Presidential Guard and Sea Devil in in Frontier in Space, a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death, a UNIT Corporal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and a Guard in The Monster of Peladon. He returns as the Gate Guard in Robot part one, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Cyberman/Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellery Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation, the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor, a Thug in City of Death part one, a Gundan in Warriors' Gate, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani, a Slave Worker and a Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen. Of those it' easiest to spot his face in Abominable Snowmen, Planet of the Spiders, Robot and The Armageddon Factor! He's got several Blake's 7 appearances to his name as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kyros & Rumours of Death, Hommik Warrior in Power, Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. We was also in Adam Adamant Lives! as a Guard in More Deadly Than the Sword, a Man at Club in Beauty Is an Ugly Word, a Coven Member in The Village of Evil, a War Office Guard / TA Soldier in D for Destruction and an S.S. Guard in A Sinister Sort of Service. He appears once in The Prisoner as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil and just once in Doomwatch as Man in Hear No Evil. His Porridge appearance in the second Christmas Special The Desperate Hours is another easy spot: he's the Prison Officer who comes into the loos as Fletcher and friends are sampling the contraband home brew. He was in two episodes of The Sweeney as a Flying Squad Officer in Thou Shalt Not Kill (director: D Camfield) & Latin Lady, and two The Tomorrow People stories: Worlds Away as the Vesh Hunter and War of the Empires as a US Marine. In the BBC The Day of the Triffids he played a Blind Man in episode 5 while in Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes adaption of The Nightmare Man he played The Killer with Camfield using him again as a Legionnaire in Beau Geste. He was in The Professionals five times: as a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and the Police Superintendent at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He's a Policeman again in The Young Ones: Interesting and towards the end of his career Russell T Davies uses him in Dark Season as a Heavy.

Pertwee's regular stunt double Terry Walsh is the Man with Boat. He was a Militiaman in The Smugglers, a Soldier in The Web of Fear, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, The Ambassadors of Death & Inferno, in the last of which he also played a Technician and an RSF Soldier, an Auton Policeman & Unit Soldier in Terror of the Autons, a UNIT Motorcyclist in The Mind of Evil, a Primitive, Colonist & IMC Guard Rogers in Colony in Space, Castle Guard Barclay & a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, an Overlord Guard in The Mutants, the Window Cleaner in The Time Monster and a Guard in The Green Death. a Warehouse Looter in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Jack, an Exxilon & a Zombie in Death to the Daleks and The Guard Captain & a Guard in The Monster of Peladon. He returns as a Bouncer in Robot, Zake in The Sontaran Experiment, a Thal Soldier, Muto and Kaled Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Crew Member in Planet of Evil, the Executioner in The Masque of Mandragora, a Horda Pit Guard in The Face of Evil, Mensch in The Power of Kroll and Doran in The Creature from the Pit.

Walsh stunt doubled for the Doctor in Inferno, Terror of the Autons, Day of the Daleks, Curse of Peladon, The Sea Devils, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, Revenge of the Cybermen, Planet of Evil, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Androids of Tara, The Creature from the Pit. He was also the double for The Master in The Sea Devils, the Minotaur in the Time Monster, Mike Yates in The Green Death & Planet of the Spiders, Harry Sulivan in The Sontaran Experiment, Sorenson in Planet of Evil, Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin, Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara and a Stuntman on Power of Kroll. He was Fight Aarranger for The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Green Death, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Androids of Tara & The Creature from the Pit. He also doubled for The Doctor in the Children In Need Spoof The Dimensions in Time and played the Duelling Guard and a Mercenary in The Ultimate Adventure where he also staged the fights.

He was also in the Adam Adamant Lives! episode - D for Destruction as Watts, which we like because it has Patrick Troughton and a load of control panels in it! In Space: 1999 he was Clan Guard in Journey to Where, the Rescue Eagle Pilot in The Mark of Archanon, a Technician in Space Warp and a Security Guard in The Seance Spectre. He was in Superman II as a KFC Man / French Officer and An American Werewolf in London as the Taxi Driver Who Crashes His Cab. He did stuntwork on The Italian Job, the Roger Moore James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman, Superman III & Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes' The Nightmare Man, the aforementioned An American Werewolf in London, Krull and Robin of Sherwood.

Stuntman Stuart Fell, previously seen (or rather not seen) inside Alpha Centauri, plays the tramp run over by the hovercraft which gave Jon Pertwee an exaggerated story that he'd enjoy telling at conventions for years after. He had previous been a UNIT soldier & Auton in Terror of the Autons, UNIT staff member & a photographer in The Mind of Evil, a UNIT Soldier & Axon in The Claws of Axos, Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon which was his first credited appearance, a Guard, Sailor & Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a Functionary in Carnival of Monsters and Alpha Centauri once again in The Monster of Peladon. He goes on to play a Wirrn Larvae & Wirrn in The Ark in Space, Double for Styre in The Sontaran Experiment, The Kraal in The Android Invasion part three, the Monster in The Brain of Morbius, Forking peasant / Guard / Acolyte in The Masque of Mandragora, a Policeman, Coolie & the Giant Rat in Talons of Weng Chiang, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Sontaran in The Invasion of Time, a Shrivenzale in the Ribos Operation, Roga in State of Decay, a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a masked villager in The Visitation and a Cyberman in The Five Doctors plus he did stunts in Terror of the Autons, was fight arranger in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, more stunts in The Ribos Operation & Full Circle and served as fight arranger again in State of Decay. In Blake's 7 he was Dortmunn in Mission to Destiny, a Subterron in Project Avalon, a Goth Warrior in The Keeper, a Sarran in Aftermath, a Labourer in The Harvest of Kyros, a Guard in City at the Edge of the World, a Federation Trooper in Rumours of Death, a Guard in Moloch, a Gunman in Death-Watch, a Link in Terminal & Rescue and a Hommik Warrior in Power plus he was the stunt coordinator for Project Avalon, The Keeper, Aftermath, Volcano, The Harvest of Kyros, City at the Edge of the World, Rumours of Death, Moloch, Death-Watch, Terminal, Rescue & Power. He plays a man in the Doomwatch episode Spectre at the Feast. He's in The Empire Strikes Back as a Snowtrooper and does stunts in Return of the Jedi. He also does stunt work on the Roger Moore James Bond films For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy & A View to a Kill. And so much more.

However Hopkins, the man driving the hovercraft, is played by Michael Pinder, the owner of Pindair the firm that made the Hovercraft.

The chase sequence starts at Le Marchant Barracks in Devizes, Wiltshire. Yes, Doctor Who has gone to Devizes (one for my Swindon readers).

We then proceed to a variety of locations near Membury in Wiltshire, close to locations used in the Daemons. First Membury Airfield....

.... then Ramsbury Road, ....

.... then Membury Crossroads, which actually featured in the Daemons!

Of the footage recorded at Half Mile Road, it's initial appearance with The Whomobile has been flipped left to right!

The last Wiltshire location is Membury Hall Lane.

Then we move to Gloucestershire and a place named Strand ....

.... which is on the banks of The River Severn where the chase concludes!

376 Planet of the Spiders Part One

EPISODE: Planet of the Spiders: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 376
STORY NUMBER: 074
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 04 May 1974
WRITER: Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts un-credited)
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 10.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Planet of the Spiders
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"A man must go inside and face his fears and hopes, his hates and his loves, and watch them wither away. Then he will find his true self, which is no self. He will see his true mind, which is no mind. The old man must die and the new man will discover to his inexpressible joy that he has never existed!"

Welcome to the final Third Doctor/Jon Pertwee story.

Mike Yates walks in the peaceful gardens of a rural Buddhist retreat. The Doctor & Brigadier have gone to the theatre to see Professor Hubert Clegg a renowned psychic. Yates finds a group of men chanting in a basement and witnesses something begin to materialise on their prayer mat before he accidentally gives himself away. Clegg comes to UNIT HQ to see the Doctor who has deduced he has real psychic powers and wants some aid into the ESP research he's doing. Mike calls Sarah Jane Smith for help, but Lupton, another resident at the retreat, objects to the journalist's presence to one of the monks, Cho-Je. Returning to his friends in the cellar Lupton they use their powers to force a tractor to nearly collide with Yates' car bringing Sarah to the monastery. Clegg demonstrates his powers using a tea tray, then the Brigadier's watch, a gift from a lady friend and then the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. Finally Clegg hold a package that has just arrived for the Doctor, which contains the Blue Crystal he gave Jo for her wedding present. Sarah meets Lupton and is intimidated by him. Jo has returned the crystal because the locals they have been working with believe it brings bad luck. Sarah befriends the Tommy, a retreat resident with a learning difficulty, allowing her & Mike to spy on Lupton's meditation session in the cellar. As Lupton's group start to chant, the Blue crystal begins to glow killing Clegg and creating a psychic disturbance in the Doctor's lab. Sarah & Mike witness a giant spider materialising on the prayer mat.....

That's a cracking first episode with plenty of mystery and some nice continuity to previous stories: Mike Yates, the last person you'd expect to see again after what he did in Invasion Of The Dinosaurs, has taken himself off somewhere to sort his head out

SARAH: It's a nice day.
MIKE: Yes, isn't it.
SARAH: Oh, come on, Mike. Out with it.
MIKE: Hmm?
SARAH: What is it all about?
MIKE: I told you. It's a great story for that magazine of yours.
SARAH: A couple of refugee Tibetan monks setting up a lamasery in darkest mummerset?
MIKE: It's not a lamasery. It's a meditation centre.
SARAH: Okay, so maybe meditation's the in-thing. Maybe I can sell it to Percy. I still want to know what it's all about. Look, you'd better start at the beginning. I mean, what are you doing here anyway?
MIKE: Trying to sort myself out, I suppose, after that golden age mess.
SARAH: Ah.
MIKE: I mean, like you said, everybody's going on about meditation of one sort or another, so I thought I'd have a crack at it. Then I saw in the paper about these two Tibetans.
SARAH: Well, it sounds to me as if these people are just getting on with their meditation. You know, doing a bit of homework.
MIKE: Then why be so secret about it? No, they're up to something. I think they're in touch with some. Oh, I don't know, some power. It's definitely a job for UNIT.
SARAH: Well, then, you must tell the Brig or the Doctor.
MIKE: And you think they'd believe me? Last time we met I pulled a gun on them.
SARAH: Oh, now I get it! So, you want me to have a look round and then tell the Brig for you?
MIKE: That's the general idea.
SARAH: Hmm.
MIKE: Please?
SARAH: Okay.
MIKE: Bless you, Sarah Jane.
SARAH: You'll have to convince me though.
MIKE: Don't you worry.

I do wonder why Mike called Sarah. Yes, as he says, he did pull a gun on the Doctor, Brigadier & Sergeant Benton last time they met but he and Sarah barely know each other.

Surely the Doctor himself, who expressed sympathy with Mike's views, would be a much more suitable person to call?

Then Jo, not knowing what's happened in her absence, has included Mike's name on the package she has sent to UNIT.

BRIGADIER: Benton.
BENTON: Sorry, sir. I didn't see you there.
BRIGADIER: What do you want?
BENTON: Well, this package, sir. It's just arrived by express post. I thought it may be urgent.
BRIGADIER: Well, for the Doctor or for me?
BENTON: Well, that's just it. It's addressed to the Doctor or Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart or Captain Yates or, er, Sergeant Benton. It's from South America, sir.
DOCTOR: What, from Jo?
BENTON: I reckon so.
DOCTOR: Well, let's take a look. Oh, no, wait a minute. I've got a better idea. Er, Mister Clegg, would you like to tell us what's inside this package?
CLEGG: This has come a long way.
BRIGADIER: Yes, of course, from the Amazon. Sergeant Benton just told you.
DOCTOR: Brigadier, please.
CLEGG: From beyond the stars. Could it be a meteorite? Oh, it's beautiful. A gemstone. A blue jewel.
BRIGADIER: Lord, not that stone of yours?
DOCTOR: The crystal from Metebelis Three. Thank you, Mister Clegg. Let's take a look, shall we? Well, well, well.

The Doctor acquired the Blue Crystal on his brief visit to Metebelis 3, at the start of the Green Death, the story where Jo Grant departs to marry Professor Jones and go up the Amazon with him hunting for toadstools.

DOCTOR: "And we're at our twenty eighth native village. No, hang about, twenty ninth." Switch on the light for me, Sergeant, will you?
BENTON: All right.
DOCTOR: "We haven't found our toadstool yet, and we're not likely to if I don't get rid of this crystal. You see, the Indian porters say it's bad magic. Like it goes or they go. So, Doctor, if you're away on a cheap day trip to Mars, perhaps you could look after it for me, Brigadier? Or if you're away in Geneva, how about it, Mike? Or my lovely Sergeant Benton? I must say I miss you all very much."

Awwwww! We miss you too Jo, though we're rather fond of your replacement.

Nicholas Courtney has a cracking episode, mainly playing the comedy relief to the Doctor!

HOST: And now, ladies and gentlemen, the management takes great pleasure in presenting to you that exotic Turkish delight of the east, Sherezadi!

DOCTOR: Well, you enjoyed that.
BRIGADIER: Extraordinary muscular control. Very fit, that girl. I must adapt some of those movements as exercises for the men.
DOCTOR: They'd take some adapting.

It's fab to see the two friends out on a night out together, albeit for a work related reason, and the Brigadier's interest in the belly dancer, with Courtney suddenly sitting up straighter and paying attention, is rather reminiscent of his turn as a licentious thug in the superb Randall and Hopkirk The Ghost Who Broke The Bank At Monte Christo, coincidentally alongside his frequent Doctor Who co-star Roger Delgado and with a surprisingly restrained performance from future Doctor Who guest star Brian Blessed!

Then we come onto the watch.....

DOCTOR: You see, Brigadier, the electrocephalograph will show us his brainwaves on here as we carry out the tests. Right, let's try a little simple psycholotry, shall we? Er, Lethbridge Stewart, my dear fellow, would you like to give Mister Clegg some little article of yours?
BRIGADIER: What? Oh. Yes, yes, rather. Here.
DOCTOR: Right. Ready when you are, Mister Clegg.
CLEGG: This watch was given to you eleven years ago. You received it in a hotel. A hotel by the sea. Brighton, was it? From a young lady called Doris. She said it was to mark her gratitude to you
BRIGADIER: Yes, all true, absolutely spot on. Surely you've got enough, Doctor?
DOCTOR: A little too much perhaps, eh, Alastair?

Oh my goodness, is that the first time we find out the Brigadier's first name? I had that down as being slightly later in Robot! He's been a regular, near constant, presence in the show for years now but we've seen little of the Brigadier's life outside of UNIT save for one trip to a regimental do and a brief glimpse of him, presumably at home, in bed during the Daemons. That scene was planned to feature a female hand passing the phone to The Brigadier leading many fans to wonder if perhaps that's the Doris mentioned here. The Brigadier appears to be on his own by the time of Mawdryn Undead, when we see him post UNIT teaching, but is happily married to a lady named Doris, presumably the Doris that gave him the watch, by the time of Battlefield.

Professor's Clegg's powers are further tested with the Sonic Screwdriver, which produces images of the Drashigs from Carnival of Monsters,the last story Barry Letts directed.

DOCTOR: Right, this is what we call the IRIS machine, or Image Reproduction Integrating System. It translates your thoughts into pictures on this monitor here. Try this, will you?

CLEGG: I'm sorry. I, I saw, well, just fantasies.
BRIGADIER: Don't worry, Professor. You're doing very well.
DOCTOR: Indeed you are, Professor. Indeed you are. Now, er, do you feel up to bending the odd fork?

The fork bending line is a joke at the expense of Yuri Geller who was just coming to prominence with a stage trick of bending cutlery with the power of his mind!

Doctor Who hasn't done a lot with telepaths and psychic powers till now. We hinted that Susan might have powers a few times, most prominently in the Sensorites. I think this is one of the last times the subject is approached in the series but the Doctor's hints that it's a latent gift in all mankind were picked up and expanded on by the Doctor Who New Adventures authors especially in the Psi Powers storyline. It's amusing here watching the Brigadier squirm as Doris gets mentioned. We know not what service he performed for her in Brighton but many years later, in Battlefield, we find he's married to a Doris who I think we can assume is the same person.

More than anything else this story is one man's vision. All of the tales credited to Robert Sloman are co-written with Producer Barry Letts, but Letts is also in the director's chair this time as well as producing. For this story he places his Buddhist beliefs to the forefront both in the Earth setting of a Buddhist monastry and the overall theme of the tale.

So his natural tendency to cast actors he's familiar with, and given that it's Pertwee's last story, Barry Letts raids the credits list for the last five years of Doctor Who when selecting actors for this story.

Kevin Lindsay, playing Monk Cho Je, had got on very well with Pertwee when he played the Sontaran Linx in The Time Warrior and was an obvious choice for a return invite. He'll be back shortly as Styre/The Marshal in The Sontaran Experiment.

Professor Clegg is Cyril Shaps who we saw in The Tomb of the Cybermen as the nervous John Viner and The Ambassadors of Death as the nervous Dr. Lennox. He's got one more Who role to come as the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara. He has an Out of the Unknown to his name appearing as Dr. Duval in the missing second season episode Too Many Cooks. He plays the convict Jackdaw in the Porridge episode The Harder They Fall and Turner in The Sweeney episode May. He's briefly on-screen in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me as Dr. Bechmann, one of the two scientists killed in the helicopter explosion near the start. He was in the fondly remembered children's series Into the Labyrinth as Kadru in Cave of Diamonds and famed early 80s comedy The Young Ones as the Old Man Next Door in Demolition. I saw him in the cinema in Erik the Viking as Gisli the Chiseller. One of his later roles is in Dark Season, the future Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies Children's series, as Mr. Polzinski in the first three episodes.

Lead human villain Lupton is played by John Dearth, who was the voice of BOSS in the Green Death. You can see him in The Day the Earth Caught Fire as Dick.

Lupton's little gang is almost all Letts favourite actors: lead henchman Barnes is Christopher Burgess who was Swann in The Enemy of the World and Professor George Philips in Terror of the Autons, both directed by Barry Letts. They had appeared together, while Letts was still acting, in This Man Craig: The Good Chemist during 1966.

Terence Lodge plays Moss, with the beard and glasses on the left of the group shots. He was previously Medok in The Macra Terror and recently Orum in Barry Lett's previous Doctor Who directing job, Carnival of Monsters. He was in several episodes of An Age of Kings, the BBC series of William Shakespeare history plays and Barry Letts later uses him again as Mr. Spenlow in the Classic Serial version of David Copperfield

Andrew Staines, Keaver with the beard, bald head and cymbals, has a full house of Letts productions so far to his name having appeared in The Enemy of the World as Sergeant to Benik, Terror of the Autons as Goodge, and Carnival of Monsters as the Captain. Indeed 4 of his 6 acting credits on imdb.com are Doctor Who roles with Barry Letts directing! While listening to the Who Talk commentary for Enemy of the World I was surprised to discover that he is the son of actress Pauline Letts, Barry's sister! (who in turn I'd seen in the BBC version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) Toby Hadoke interviews him for Who's Round 160 where he reveals that his uncle usually used him as a late replacement when someone dropped out!

The exception to the rule here is Land, played by Carl Forgione making his first Who appearance. He'll memorably return as Nimrod in Ghost Light. He also appears in Blake's 7 as Grovane in Mission to Destiny and Star Cops as the Tour Guide in This Case to Be Opened in a Million Years.

There's a number of supporting artists employed in this episode as Audience Members at the show or those meditating at the meditation centre. The problem is we don't know which is which!

Patsy White, Sarah Jane Steer, Leslie Glenroy, Tony Kilbane and Elaine Banham also appear in these scenes but I can't any other Doctor Who appearances on their CVs

According to the DWAS Production File Geoff Brighty is the actor should have been in Spearhead from Space as the car park attendant but was fired and replaced by producer Derrick Sherwin! He later appeared in Ambassadors of Death as a UNIT soldier, The Time Monster as a Roundhead and Invasion of the Dinosaurs as an Operation Golden Age Man. He returns as an SRS audience member in Robot and a body in pallet in Ark in Space. IMDB thinks he was in Moonbase 3 as a Technician in Outsiders.

Jack Baker was a Time Lord in Colony in Space and returns as Ralph in The Visitation. I'm not sure the Guard in Dragonfire and Paramilitary in Silver Nemesis on his IMDB listing are the same Jack/John Baker given his age and that these would appear to be younger roles! He was also in Blake's 7 as a Scientist in Project Avalon.

Julian Hudson returns as a Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, an Astronaut in Planet of Evil, a Vardan in Invasion of Time and a Marine Guard in Warriors of the Deep.

Roger Salter return as a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks & one of the Complex Personnel in The Android Invasion.

Pat Travis returns as a Genesis of the Daleks Scientist.

David Nicholl also plays the 1st Assassin in Face of Evil

Freddie White plays the Android Village Doctor in the Android Invasion. He was a man in the Doomwatch episodes Burial at Sea, Spectre at the Feast & Hear No Evil and appeared as a Platoon Member in several episodes of Dad's Army

The railway station Sarah arrives at is Motimer Station, in Berkshire near Reading.

Filming had to be timed around the two trains per hour that served the station, situated on the line from Reading to Basingstoke.

Both Tidmarsh Lane, where the Tractor incident was staged, and Tidmarsh Manor, serving as the meditation centre, are found in Tilehurst about eight miles away to the north east of Reading.

This episode was broadcast on my first birthday. One previous episode was shown on my birthday: Wheel in Space episode 2 in 1968. No other classic series episode is ever broadcast on this date and just one new series episode: The Crimson Horror which aired on my 40th in 2013.