Doctor Who - Planet of the Spiders [DVD] [1974]

Despite some of the negative critisisims on the "Padding" on this serial, the final one by Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, It is my all time favorite Doctor Who Serial, Classic or New. Jon brought an elagance to the role that has never been duplicated.

Yes, I am a Yank. But you British have a very nasty habbit of making vastly superior Television than we do, even at it's worst. I got hooked on Doctor Who way back in 1975,when Time Life Television first brought Tom Baker's Doctor to America, terribly cut, and with those absolutely horrid Howard Da Silvia narrative inserts. But several years later, some PBS stations started running uncut Jon Pertwee Doctor Who Serials, and I became hooked forever. So a tip of the hat to Jon Pertwee and of course, the forever lovely Liz Sladen for turning me into a life long Who fan.

Jon Pertwee's final story as Doctor Who comes to dvd. All six twenty five minute long episodes on one disc in this two disc set, with various extras on the second.

The story sees the Doctor's actions in earlier storyDoctor Who - The Green Death [DVD] [1973] come back to haunt him, when people at a spiritual retreat practising ancient meditation rituals find it creates a way to travel to the alien world Metebilis Three. A world ruled by large sentient and telepathic spiders, who keep the human population primitive and under their control. In the Green Death the Doctor took a crystal from the planet that has healing properties. And now the spiders would like it back. They are using an embittered human called Lupton to help them get it. Plus, world domination of Earth is also on their minds.

The Doctor has to face the spiders and their queen. And may not walk away entirely unscathed.

This contains pretty much everything the Pertwee era had to offer. A six part story. UNIT. The Brigadier. Sarah Jane Smith [Jo Grant is mentioned but doesn't return]. Sergeant Benton. Mike Yates. An alien threat to Earth. Vehicles. And high speed chases.

And like a lot of six parters from the time it is also a bit too long. Contains a fair amount of padding. Plus it rather uses the Brigadier for comic effect. Mike Yates starts his final story well but then gets less and less to do. There are obviously supermiposed backgrounds and some special effects that don't quite come off. A lot of part two is an over extended chase sequence involving lots of vehicles that gets rather silly and doesn't really serve much dramatic purpose. Plus one cliffhanger is resolved in the best Flash Gordon way. Judicious re-editing.

Yet somehow, at the same time, it does manage to be a celebration of the era. Doing it in a way that will remind you of what was great about it. Thus whilst it's not a perfect story, it is a fitting finale for the Third Doctor. Not least in the final scenes. It's a pretty unspectacular regeneration scene compared to some. But that makes it all the more emotional. As many who watched at the time will tell you.

Even though the spiders are done with rubber models and patently fake, those with arachnophobia may find this story a bit disturbing.

The dvds have the following language and subtitle options:

Languages; English.

Subtitles: English.

English audio captioned.

There are the usual:

Production information subtitles.

Radio times billings [accessible as a PDF file via a computer]

A trailer for the next release in this range of dvds.

Photo gallery of images from the story and it's production.

Other extras:

Omnibus edition: A repeat of the story from late 1974, this edits it all together into one long movie. Thus it does cut out some of the padding but you lose over half an hour of footage as a result. And the picture quality hasn't been restored. So which version you prefer is a matter of choice.

There's a trailer broadcast at the time for the omnibus version.

The final curtain: A thirty seven minute long making of documentary. Which covers the end of the era in as equal depth as the production of the story.

John Kane remembers: A twelve minute long chat with one of the cast from the story.
Directing who: Barry Letts. An interview of roughly equal length with the produer/director.

Both of these are very good by virtue of the two being excellent interviewees with fascinating stories to tell.

Now and then: This runs for seven minutes and shows some of the locations from the story as they were in 1974 and as they are now. This has added interest because it shows how the chase scene at the end of part two was put together, and the suprising number of locations it used.

There's also a commentary from: Nicholas Courtney [the Brigadier]. Elisabeth Sladen [Sarah Jane Smith]. Richard Franklin. [Mike Yates]. Barry Letts [Producer and director]. Terrance Dicks [Script editor].

Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney and Barry Letts have all passed away since the commentary was recorded. They, like the Pertwee era, are gone, but thanks to dvds like this, the memories of it will live on.

Planet of the Spiders was released 18 April 2011, the day before the sad loss of Lis Sladen who finally lost her battle with cancer at the age of 63.
Planet of the Spiders is a fine tribute to pay for this great actress as it was also the departure of Jon Pertwee in the role of Doctor Who. Now both gone, they are greatly missed and will remain the respected icons of Classic Doctor Who.
The story itself remains a classic, with the Spiders of Metebelis Three being sent to the Earth to track down the Blue Crystal stolen from the cave of The Great One, the giant spider who sits in her web, a web so powerful that it resonates throughout the Universe. There are some memorable lines from this story: "Is that fear I see in your eyes, Doctor? You're not accustomed to feeling frightened are you? But you have every reason to fear me-e-e-e!" The words shrill from the screen and still send a shiver down my spine.
The story is strong as it uncovers the betrayal of UNIT's Mike Yates and introduces us to the mysterious Time Lord K'Anpo who, after the Doctor's body is devastated by the crystals and he needs to regenerate, replies to Sarah Jane's question of when it should take place: "There's no time like the present!"
I strongly recommend this DVD, with its extras, for pure Doctor Who nostalgia and a tribute to Lis Sladen.