Dr Who-Planet/Spider [VHS]

For many of us Jon Pertwee's incarnation of the Doctor took the series in a new direction, with his Tardis license revoked by the Time Lords, he hardly ever left the earth. Whilst this made entertaining viewing and meant that UNIT and the Bridadier would be part of the series, many of us longed for the space and time adventures of old. In this his final appearance as the 'dandy' Doctor, Pertwee does get to travel thorugh time and space, he faces a race of intelligent spiders in order to free a world of humans from slavery, ultimately losing his life in the process.

This story is remarkable, for many reasons, mainly that it proves how good Pertwe was in the role and proves yet again that a series can go from strength to strength when the lead character returns with a new face, mannerisms and quirky demeanor.

For any new Who fan that is getting interested by the new series I reccomend reviewing titles like this to get a feel for the series and for any fans who don't already own this, get your credit card out and buy it. You won't be sorry.

So, here we are, Planet of the Spiders, the finale to the fantastically brilliant 5 year Jon Pertwee era. What a sad shame that this final story was not the planned "Final Game" that featured the Master dying saving the Doctor's life. One can only imagine what a brilliant adventure that would have been to finalise the Pertwee years for Doctor Who. Never mind, the BBC would have probably wiped it anyway and we would be left with some rather ropey audio recordings. Planet of the Spiders was the replacement and one that I feel is not up to the task of ending this brilliant Doctor's incarnation. I saw Planet of the Spiders a few years ago and was not all that impressed by it. I suppose no story world have been acceptable enough to end the Pertwee years but hey, at least they tried.

The writing duo of Barry Letts and Robert Slowman return again to script the final story of the season. They had done a mesmeric job with "The Daemons" a not so mesmeric job with "The Time Monster" and a truly great job on "The Green Death". So, by the law of averages, "Planet of the Spiders" like "The Time Monster" is somewhat disappointing. The plot is not the worst I have seen and the acting is quite sublime, but overall I can't say I am a fan of "Planet", it just doesn't cut the mustard for me and so I feel nothing for it.

However, one of the redeeming features of Planet of the Spiders is it's ending, Jon Pertwee puts on his greatest performance as the Doctor dying. The raw emotion that comes across in the ensuing 5 minutes is breathtaking. It's a shame that few doctor's past or present got such an emotional farewell. Elizabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane Smith is beautiful in this scene, her greatest and most convincing acting to date in my reckoning. I Can't say the same about Nic Courtney's Brigadier, but remember that in the 1970's, if a man was to be seen showing any sign of emotion, he was instantly thought of as a bit "funny". His comedic values do help ease things though.

Overall, Planet of the Spiders entertains and doesn't drag as badly as other Pertwee 6-parters. The set work and design work is very high standard stuff and the Spiders themselves are very well realised, the only "technical" problem that I have with the story is the dramatic overuse of CSO. Metebelis 3's realisation is poor and is basically all CSO, the scenes set in the desert outside the town look particularly painful, but I suppose we must not judge the standards of the day, too harshly that is. The costumes are very well made here, the guards of the Spiders look particularly menacing and forceful. The planet's slave inhabitants are well realised, looking rather down and out, I felt quite sorry for them. That aside, the acting of this adventure is something that I have been eagerly looking forward to getting my teeth into for some time.

Jon Pertwee is electric in this finale to his reign, portraying the Doctor with such evident fear and utter conviction. He had me half believing that he himself was actually going to die. I never knew Jon's face was so elastic. His scenes with the Great One in the caves are some of the best I have been graciously allowed to view, {thanks to the fact that the story exists}. Elizabeth Sladen is finding her feet as Sarah and injects some much needed fun into the tale. Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier is on top form and helps the story along with his usual penchant for comedy. Richard Franklin tries hard to steal the show as the disgraced Mike Yates, this being his final story for Doctor Who as well. And, of course who can forget the ever-lovable Sergeant Benton, the one reliable man that everyone can count on, he is great here too. John Dearth is fantastic as greedy ex car-salesman Lupton, who previously appeared as the voice of BOSS in the Green Death the year before. Kevin Lindsay as Cho-Je is another brilliant character that develops throughout the story, he is of course better known as various Sontaran's littered throughout the series history along with a multitude of other parts here and there. John Kane is brilliant as not-the-sharpest-tool-in-the-toolbox Tommy turned sharp by the power of the blue crystal and Cyril Shaps returns to Doctor Who as a professor that can move cups of tea and trays around like you won't believe. All great so far...

However, the only weak link on the side of performances comes from Jenny Laird as Neska, her acting in this story makes me wish the BBC had wiped the master tapes back in 74'. I just can't get over how on earth she was allowed to act the way she did. We must face the facts that not everybody is born an actor / actress and her performance is proof of this. The Spiders on the other hand were an effective villain and very well brought to life by the late Roger Delgado's wife, Kismet Delgado. On hand to help her out were the voices of {Curse of Peladon and Monster of Peladon's Alpha Centuri} Ysanne Churchman and Maureen Morris. The voices have been treated electronically and sound brilliant, very atmospheric and resonating.

And so in summary, this story is a classic no end, but not to me. It falls flat on what was supposed to be such a climactic end and I don't think that any story, not even the Daemons could have topped the original idea of "The Final Game". It's a damn shame, with Roger, Jon, Nic, Barry and even Rob Slowman now gone, its highly unlikely that such a story could be produced, but hey, at least they tried their best and rather wonderfully, the fans of the show who watched Planet of the Spiders back in 1974 learned of the original finale and tried to finally realise it in Last of the Time Lords {2007}. One thing that always manages to lift my spirits at the end of this story is the fact that I have got 7 years of the great Tom Baker ahead of me. Highly recommended release. 10/10.

This concludes my reviews of the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who, thank you for reading.

M.B.

In my humble opinion, the special effects in this drama series are quite good for its time. In that there is "atmosphere" in some of the scenes ie at the beginning, when a group of people are in the cellar to this mansion, preaching out aloud in some kind of ritual to summon one of the spiders to Earth from their planet far, far away. This is because with some of the special effects of "modern day" with regards to the most recent Doctor Who episodes are a tad on the artificial side.

"Doctor Who - Planet Of The Spiders" is well worth a look.