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The Show:
Why is it that, more times than not, series finalies are so poor? Seinfeld, MASH, and even the last Russell T.
Davies story from the latest incarnation of Doctor
Who have been less than satisfactory.
Whatever the reason, it's a curse that at least partially
afflicts Jon
Pertwee's last Doctor Who adventure, The
Planet of the Spiders. It has some
solid ideas, but the six-episode
story runs a bit too long and has a couple of missteps that keeps it
from being
a great send-off. As it is, the story is
fun, but a bit bloating in places.
The Doctor, while researching ESP in humans, discovers a
stage magician who really does have psychic powers.
Excited by this discovery he invites the man
to take part in some tests back at UNIT HQ, and the man seems to have
extraordinary powers. While holed up to The Doctor's machines however,
a
package arrives from Jo Grant (a previous companion).
She's off in the Amazon looking for a rare
species of mushroom and has had to return a keepsake from the Doctor, a
crystal
from Metebelis 3. While reading the
letter, the psychic magician starts to examine the crystal and with a
scream,
dies.
At the same time Mike Yates, once a member of UNIT until he
had to leave in disgrace, has taken up residency in a Buddhist
meditation
center where he's discovered some odd events.
A small group of practitioners are performing strange
ceremonies, and
Yates suspects that they're up to something.
He contacts Sarah Jane Smith who travels out to meet him, and
the pair
sneak into one of the secret meetings where they witness the group
summon a
giant spider. The arachnid kills one
member who tries to flee, and then jumps onto the back of the group's
leader,
the villainous Lupton, and merges with his mind.
It turns out the spider is from Metebelis 3 and has come to
Earth in order to find the blue crystal.
Using it's powers, the creature is able to sense the shiny rock
and
Lupton heads off for UNIT HQ where he manages to break in and steal the
important artifact. He doesn't make a
clean
getaway however, and is spotted. What
follows is a chase over land, sea and air involving cars, hovercraft,
mini-helicopters, and a speedboat.
Managing to evade The Doctor, Lupton arrives back at the
meditation center only to have the crystal be stolen from his room by
Tommy, a
mentally backwards man with the brain of a child. This
is very bad for both him and the spider
on his back, as they've told the rulers of Metebelis that they have the
crystal
and are recalled to the home planet. An
inquisitive Sarah Jane gets yanked along, and it's up to The Doctor to
travel
to the distant planet in his TARDIS where he discovers a planet where
humans
are slaves ruled by giant spiders.
As with many of the six part stories, this one has a lot of
padding. The scenes where the Buddhists
are chanting seem to go on forever (not to mention the parts where they
spout
Buddhist philosophy), but that's nothing compared to the extended chase
scene
in one of the early episodes. It really
does nothing to advance the plot, and it's a bit silly too. The Doctor and Lupton find several unique
vehicles just sitting around waiting to be used in a chase scene. When is the last time you saw a one-man
hovercraft just sitting with the keys in it?
What's worse is the resolution to the chase.
When The Doctor finally catches up with
Lupton he just teleports back to the meditation center.
Why didn't he do that to begin with??
I don't like to critique the special effects of Doctor Who
too much, after all the show is made on a tight budget and they did the
best
that they could, but things aren't pretty in this story.
Instead of shooting Metebelis 3 on location
(a recreation of a medieval farm perhaps, they mainly used process
shots done
in front of a blue screen, which aren't terribly convincing. The spiders themselves are okay, but they
could have done a lot more without adding much cost.
The spider's meeting chamber consists of a
bunch of tables with web patterns painted on them.
What?
Why not have the whole room filled with webs and have the
spiders
sprinkled throughout. That would have
been much more eerie and effective.
Even with these flaws the story is enjoyable to watch.
The idea of large spider invading Earth is
fairly creepy to begin with, and revolt against the spiders on
Metebelis 3 was
a fun and typical Doctor Who
adventure that worked well. It was sort
of a mini-story within the larger serial and it served to move the
story
along. Of course seeing Mike Yates one
last time was nice but that's a far second to getting to see Jon
Pertwee fall
out of the TARDIS mortally wounded.
Overall this is a good adventure, but not the great sendoff that
Pertwee
should have received.
The DVD:
This release is a two-disc affair. The six episode story is on disc one
while
the second one is reserved for the bulk of the special features.
Audio:
This show comes with the original mono soundtrack that fits the show
just
fine. The dynamic range is nothing to write home about, but the
dialog is
generally crisp and clear and there is no background noise, tape hiss,
distortion or dropouts. There are optional subtitles in English.
Video:
I was pleased with the full frame color image. The Restoration
Team did
their usual top-notch job. The colors
are nice and the fine detail is good. The blacks are pretty
strong too,
but there is some detail lost in bright, white areas in a few
scenes.
It's not a big deal though. This looks very comparable to the
other Who releases from this time frame, which
means your getting a pretty solid transfer.
Extras:
This disc has some great extras included, as is the standard for Doctor
Who
releases. The commentary track includes producer/director/writer
Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas
Courtney
and Richard Franklin. It's a fun track
to listen to, though a bit bitter-sweet as three of the five
participants (Letts, Sladen and Courtney) are no longer with us.
Most of the bonus material is found on disc two. The video
features
start out with The Final Curtain (37 min) which looks at the filming of
Pertwee's last episode. It has a lot of
information, and includes an interview with the late Pertwee from 1995. They discuss the reasons why Jon left, as
well as the camaraderie on the set and the genesis of the story. Next up is John Kane Remembers (12 min) in
which the actor who played Tommy in the serial recounts his time on
Doctor Who
as well as his other accomplishments.
Directing Doctor Who (14 min) is a look back at the career of
Barry Letts,
and Now and Then (7 min) takes viewers back to the original locations
that were
used in the show to see what they look like today.
Of all of these, only the last one was failed
to catch my interest. The rest were fun
and very informative.
There's also an 'Omnibus Edition' of Planet of Spiders, an
unrestored movie-version of the story with the breaks between episodes
edited
out. It's an interesting artifact, but
nothing more.
In addition there is a pop-up informational text option
which is very informative as always. It does give some dry
statistics, like how many people viewed each episode, but there are
also some
interesting notes such as script changes that were made and background
information on the supporting characters. The extras are rounded
off with
storyboard comparison, a trailer for the story, a photo gallery, and
the
listing from the Radio Times in .pdf format.
Final Thoughts:
While this story does have some flaws and is a little bloated, when all
is said
and done it's still worth watching. This
last Jon Pertwee story does have its moments and would have been
strengthened
by being just four parts, but even at six there's enough good here to Recommend
this disc to fans of The
Doctor. Check it out.
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