Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Doctor Who (1963) 11.05.02

Planet of the Spiders - Part Two

The giant spider leaps on the back of Lupton, the leader of the meditation center, and disappears. Sarah Jane and Mike are stunned by what they see but keep quiet and avoid detection. Mike sends Sarah back to find the Doctor. Mike tries to visit with Cho-Je, the monk, but first Tommy and then Lupton prevent that from happening.

The Doctor and the Brigadier wonder about what killed Professor Clegg. The Doctor rewinds the device that the professor was attached to and see that he was thinking of giant spiders. Sarah gets back and tells the Doctor about what she saw in the basement of the meditation center.

Lupton communicates with the giant spider that merged with him. It leads him to the same UNIT bulding where the Doctor is located. The spider senses the crystal. It wants the crystal. Lupton uses powers the spider gives him to zap guards, including Sergeant Benton, with bolts of electricity. Lupton steals the crystal and takes off in the Whomobile.

The Doctor follows Lupton in a small helicopter. The Brigadier, Benton, and Sarah Jane follow in Betsy. They almost catch him but he escapes first in the helicopter and then, with the Doctor and Sarah Jane following him in the Whomobile, in a speedboat. The Doctor gets his hands on a hovercraft and uses that to catch up to Lupton but just as he does Lupton disappears.

Thoughts

About half of this episode was taken up by the chase. That isn't too unusual, especially for this show. I think that there was a similar situation in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Sarah and the Doctor are reunited in this episode but there is still no sign of the titular spider planet.

The Whomobile flies! Who knew it could but it looks like Sarah Jane did not. I believe this episode is the final appearance of the Whomibile on the show. The only other story in which it appeared was Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

I'm still enjoying this story. It has yet to lose me even though the giant spider didn't look very realistic.

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