380 Planet of the Spiders Part Five

EPISODE: Planet of the Spiders: Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 380
STORY NUMBER: 074
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 01 June 1974
WRITER:
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Planet of the Spiders
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"All Praise To The Great One!"

Sarah is taken to the spiders. The villagers commence their attack on the spiders. The Doctor escapes using techniques taught to him by Houdini. The Queen wants Sarah to return to Earth and retrieve the crystal. Mike offers to help Barnes re-establish the link to Metebelis 3 to retrieve Lupton & Sarah. Tommy begins to question what has happened to him and, recalling seeing Lupton materialise, seeks out Cho-Je. The Doctor is drawn into radioactive caves by the Great One and ordered to return the crystal needed to complete the Great One's plans. The Spiders establish contact with Barnes and his group. Several spiders materialise in the room. Cho-Je finds what they are doing causing he & Mike to be attacked by Spiders. Sarah teleports the Doctor to the Tardis and it leaves for Earth. All of Barnes' group have been joined with Spiders when the Tardis materialises in the cellar. Tommy saves the Doctor & Sarah from the group and takes them to the Abbot K'anpo who the Doctor greats in Tibetan language and manner. The Doctor starts to tell the Abbott the story of the crystal but is convinced he has met the Abbot before.

Barnes' group attack Tommy, guarding the Abbot's room, with lightening bolts.

Struggled with this one a bit. Can't get any interest up for the humans on Metebelis 3. Jenny Laird's acting in particular is standing out for all the wrong reasons: she evidentially believes she's in some Shakespeare production on the stage.

REGA: I must come with you.
ARAK: No, Rega. This is man's work.
TUAR: Why do we wait? We're ready.
ARAK: Very well then.
NESKA: Wait. Arak, wait. My husband has been taken from me, must I lose my sons as well? I've carried you to the fields at my breast, I've dried your eyes, I've laughed with you through the short years of your boyhood. Now you're a man. Must you leave me alone to mourn?
TUAR: But mother, we
ARAK: We must go, mother. We're not only fighting for Sabor and the two strangers, we're fighting for ourselves. For the freedom of our people. Rega. You have nothing to fear. The Doctor has given us protection. Put on the headbands I gave you.

ARAK: Are we ready, then?
VILLAGERS: Yes, we're ready.
ARAK: Death to the eight legs!
VILLAGERS: Death to the eight legs! Death! Death!

For some reason Arak's line to his mother "you have nothing to fear, the Doctor has given us protection." cracked me up.....

More name dropping from The Doctor as he attempts to escape:

SABOR: You're wasting your time. It's impossible to get out of these things.
DOCTOR: Look, much as I admire your stoic acceptance of the inevitable, I would appreciate it if you'd shut up for a moment. What I'm trying to do requires the utmost concentration.
SABOR: What are you trying to do?
DOCTOR: Compress the muscles. It's a little, a little trick I learned from an old friend of mine. Harry, er, what was his name? Er, Hopkins. No, no, that's not right. Er, Hetherington. No, that's not right either. It wasn't an English name. Er, Hackenschmidt. No, I know it began with an H. Houdini. Yes, that was it. Harry Houdini.

DOCTOR: Oh, don't worry, old chap. As soon as I've rescued Sarah, I'll find a knife and come back for you.

The humour intended by the scene doesn't work, in fact it's a bit cringeworthy, due to it being blatantly obvious who The Doctor means right from the start!

Then there's the Doctor's confrontation with the off screen Great One:

DOCTOR: Who, who are you?
GREAT ONE: They call me the Great One.
DOCTOR: Why can't I see you?
GREAT ONE: You will, Doctor, you will, all in good time, but not until you bring me the crystal you stole from Metebelis.
DOCTOR: But why do you want that particular crystal? It's no different from all the others.
GREAT ONE: Oh, but it is. You took the one last perfect crystal of power. I searched all time and all space for it. I must have it!
DOCTOR: No! No, never.
GREAT ONE: You are proud, little man. I see that I shall have to teach you to have respect. Round you go, Doctor.
DOCTOR: No. No! No, I will not! No! No, I will not! No!
GREAT ONE: Is that fear I can feel in your mind? You are not accustomed to feeling frightened, are you, Doctor? You are very wise to be afraid of me. Go now. You must hurry back and fetch the crystal. I must have it, don't you understand? I must have it! I must! I must! I must! Go now. Go! Go! Go now!

I can sort of get why they've hidden The Great One, saving her reveal for the next episode but even so the scene looses something for it just being Pertwee in close up in some CSO'd tunnels!

We're back on Earth though by the end of the episode as the spider's plans advance there and we finally get to meet the Abbot.

K'ANPO: Come in.
TOMMY: This is the Doctor, K'Anpo.
K'ANPO: I know. You are welcome.
TOMMY: My friend, Sarah Jane Smith.
K'ANPO: It is kind of you to come and visit an old man.
DOCTOR: (Speaks in Tibetan.)
K'ANPO: You speak Tibetan?
DOCTOR: A little, sir, yes.
SARAH: What did you just say?
DOCTOR: I apologised to the Rimpoche for not bringing him a cotton scarf.
K'ANPO: You friend knows not only our language but also our customs. The ceremonial gift merely symbolises friendship. We have no need for symbols, you and I.
TOMMY: I think I'd better keep a watch outside. If the others get out of the cellar
K'ANPO: As yet they haven't managed it. They may soon, though. Thank you, Tommy. Pray be seated. Now, Doctor. You have a story to tell me.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I have a strange feeling that you already know most of it. You see, I found a crystal. A blue crystal.
K'ANPO: Found?
DOCTOR: Well, perhaps stole might be a better word. Forgive me. Have we met before?
K'ANPO: The recognition of friends is not always easy. Tell me about this crystal you stole.
DOCTOR: Well it didn't occur to me that I had stolen it, at the time. You see.....

The Doctor was seen to visit Tibet in The Abominable Snowmen during which it was revealed he had a prior visit some years previously.

This episode features, un-credited, George Cormack as Abbot K'anpo Rimpoche, who was previously King Dallios in the Time Monster.

The reason he's un-credited is that he originally shouldn't have appeared until the next episode! The scripted episode ending is the point where the Tardis materialises in the cellar and the Doctor & Sarah are assaulted by the spider controlled Barnes & co with lightening bolts.

This episode badly under ran, not helped by footage being pulled forward into the previous episode, necessitating this episode taking material from episode 6 including some, but not all, footage up to about 5 minutes into that episode, and the current part 6 starts after the point where the original part five ended! Oddly enough the new episode ending also involves someone being attacked with lightening bolts!

Join us next week for the final Third Doctor/Jon Pertwee episode.