Doctor Who (1963) 11.05.05

Planet of the Spiders - Part Five

The Doctor is trussed up like Sarah Jane. The Doctor and Sarah talk for a little while but then she is taken away to see the giant spider that has been working with Lupton. The spider wants Sarah and the Doctor to retrieve the blue crystal from Earth.

The Doctor escapes from the stuff in which they have him tied up using a trick he learned from Harry Houdini. He goes looking for Sarah Jane but instead finds the Great One, whom he cannot see. She uses mental abilities to convince him that he needs to retrieve the blue crystal and bring it back to Metebelis III.

Mike convinces the guys who run the meditation center to let him help them to open the portal to Metebelis III. They do so in the hopes that they can get Lupton back. The ceremony they perform doesn't have the desired effect. Giant spiders come through the portal but not Lupton.

Tommy continues to get smarter. He goes to see Cho-je and tells him about what has been going on. Cho-je goes down to the basement to try and interfere with the ceremony but it is too late. Cho-je and Mike Yates are struck down by bolts of energy from the giant spiders that have come through the portal.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane return to Earth in the TARDIS. They arrive in the basement of the meditation center. They fight briefly with the men who have been merged with giant spiders but escape upstairs with some help from Tommy. The Doctor talks to K'anpo, one of the monks, while Tommy guards the door. The men who have merged with the giant spiders attack Tommy as the episode ends.

Thoughts

It didn't occur to me until I watched this episode but the weapons that the human guards on Metebelis  III wield seem about the same size as toilet bowl brushes.

There is some very intense chanting in the scene where Mike Yates and the others are trying to open the portal. The chanting seemed very un-Zen like to me.

How did Sarah Jane transport herself and the Doctor back to the TARDIS. It must have been something the giant spider taught her but no explanation is given,

Tommy gets hit by energy blasts a few times in this episode. They seem to momentarily stop but they don't really seem to phase him beyond that.

I like this episode considerably more than the the last one. I know what happens at the end of the next episode but I don't know most of what leads up to that moment.