PLANET OF THE SPIDERS

Written by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (Uncredited).

Directed by Barry Letts.

Transmitted originally: 4 May 1974 to 8 June 1974.

"The old man must die, and the new man will discover to his inexpressible joy that he has never existed." 'Cho-je'

THE STORY

Sarah is invited by Mike Yates to visit him at a Buddhist meditation centre where he has been staying. A group of people there, led by a man named Lupton, are misusing the meditation techniques in order to make contact with powerful alien forces, which manifest themselves as a giant spider. The spider is an emissary from the ruling council on the planet Metebelis 3, sent to recover the blue crystal that the Doctor previously found there (See 'The Green Death') and has now been returned to him by Jo. The Doctor and Sarah journey to Metebelis 3 and aid its human colonists in an attempt to overthrow the 'eight legs'.

They return to Earth in the TARDIS. The Doctor recognises the meditation centre abbot K'anpo as his former Time Lord guru and, at his promting, returns to Metebelis 3, where the humans revolt has failed. He demands an audience with the Great One - a huge mutated spider revered by the others - and offers her the crystal. The Great One uses it to complete a crystal lattice in her lair, which she believes will increase her mental powers to infinity. Instead, the rising power kills her. The other spiders also die as the mountain explodes. K'anpo has meanwhile been killed while protecting Yates from an attack by the spider-controlled residents of the meditation centre, only to be reborn in the form of his assistant Cho-je - his own future self. Some weeks later, the Doctor is brought back to UNIT HQ by the TARDIS, having been fatally affected by the radiation in the Great One's cave. K'anpo appears and, with his help, the Doctor regenerates.

CAST:

The Doctor (Jon Pertwee), Sarah-Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), Mike Yates (Richard Franklin), Sergeant Benton (John Levene), Professor Clegg (Cyril Shaps), Lupton (John Dearth), Barnes (Christopher Burgess), Moss (Terence Lodge), Land (Carl Forgione), Keaver (Andrew Staines), Cho-je (Kevin Lindsay), Tommy (John Kane), Policeman (Chubby Oates), Soldier (Pat Gorman), Man with boat (Terry Walsh), Hopkins (Michael Pinder), Tramp (Stuart Fell), Spider Voices (Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado, Maureen Morris), Arak (Gareth Hunt), Sabor (Geoffrey Morris), Neska (Jenny Laird), Rega (Joanna Munro), Tuar (Ralph Arliss), Guard Captains (Walter Randall, Max Faulkner), K'anpo (George Cormack).

FACTS:

The term 'regeneration' is used for the first time, to describe the process by which Time Lords take on a new body when their old one fails.

The story features the second, and final appearance of the Whomobile.

OTHER FORMATS:

The Third Doctor Novelisations

Third Doctor Videos

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