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Planet of the Spiders
Planet of the Spiders is the fifth and final serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 May to 8 June 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's final regular appearance as the Third Doctor, the last regular appearance of Mike Yates, and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. This serial introduces the term "regenerate" to explain the Doctor's transformation into another appearance. It also contains the first mention in the series of future companion Harry Sullivan.
In this serial, a group of men at a Tibetan centre in rural England make contact with a race of giant spiders with psychic abilities from the planet Metebelis 3, who intend to conquer Earth.
Following the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Mike Yates is discharged from UNIT and joins a Tibetan meditation centre in rural England for therapy, to help him cope with the experience. He asks Sarah Jane Smith to visit him, to investigate a group organised by a resident named Lupton. Mike and Sarah witness Lupton perform an incantation that conjures up a giant spider, which takes control of him. The Spider has come to Earth to seek a certain blue crystal.
The Third Doctor has developed an interest in human psychic ability, and his experiments include testing the blue crystal which he brought from the planet Metebelis Three, the blue planet in the Acteon Galaxy which he visited during The Green Death delivered back from Jo. The experiments show images of giant spiders. Sarah returns from the monastery, and she and the Doctor compare spider stories. Meanwhile Lupton's spider has traced the crystal to UNIT HQ, whereupon Lupton travels there and steals the crystal from the Doctor’s laboratory. A multi-vehicle chase ensues, with vehicles including Bessie, the Doctor’s Edwardian roadster; a Campbell Super Cricket gyrocopter, G-AXVK; the Whomobile, a futuristic-looking vehicle that combines the abilities of a hovercraft with the ability to fly; and a conventional hovercraft.
Lupton escapes by his Spider teleporting him back to the monastery, where it reveals that it too comes from Metebelis Three. Both the giant spiders and the crystal originate there. Before the Spider can contact Metabilis, the crystal is stolen from Lupton by Tommy, the monastery's handyman, an innocent with developmental difficulties, who is strangely drawn to the crystal. Sarah has recognised Lupton, and she and the Doctor quickly arrive at the monastery to warn the lama in charge, Cho-je, about Lupton's strange powers. Lupton is compelled to flee with the Spider to Metebelis, without the crystal. Sarah secretly follows, but is quickly captured by the Eight-Legs - as the spiders call themselves.
The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS to rescue her, and begins organising a resistance movement among the human slaves, descendants of the crew of an Earth spaceship that crashed hundreds of years before, who the spiders prey on. The planet is ruled by the giant spiders, who also came from the crashed ship, but whose mental powers have been amplified by centuries of exposure to the strange blue crystals found in the mountains of Metabilis. The Queen Spider seems to be the supreme ruler, but in the Blue Mountains the Doctor encounters the Great One, an enormous spider who is really in control, who now desires power over other worlds too. She craves the crystal, which she insanely believes will expand her mental powers to infinity and give her dominion over the entire universe.
The Great One sends the Doctor to Earth to get the crystal for her. He flees with Sarah, unaware that the Queen spider - who also craves the crystal - has taken over Sarah's mind. At the monastery, Tommy has been cured by the crystal, which has expanded his intelligence too, just as it has for the spiders. He gives it into the safe-keeping of the abbot, K’anpo Rimpoche, an elderly Time Lord (and former guru of the Doctor) who has retired into a peaceful exile on Earth as a Tibetan Buddhist.
The Abbot uses the crystal to free Sarah's mind from the Queen's control. The crystal kills the Queen. A force of Spiders arrives, and a battle breaks out in the monastery for possession of the crystal. The Abbot advises the Doctor to give the crystal back to the Great One, as the Doctor has caused the entire problem by taking the crystal in the first place.
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Planet of the Spiders
Planet of the Spiders is the fifth and final serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 May to 8 June 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's final regular appearance as the Third Doctor, the last regular appearance of Mike Yates, and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. This serial introduces the term "regenerate" to explain the Doctor's transformation into another appearance. It also contains the first mention in the series of future companion Harry Sullivan.
In this serial, a group of men at a Tibetan centre in rural England make contact with a race of giant spiders with psychic abilities from the planet Metebelis 3, who intend to conquer Earth.
Following the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Mike Yates is discharged from UNIT and joins a Tibetan meditation centre in rural England for therapy, to help him cope with the experience. He asks Sarah Jane Smith to visit him, to investigate a group organised by a resident named Lupton. Mike and Sarah witness Lupton perform an incantation that conjures up a giant spider, which takes control of him. The Spider has come to Earth to seek a certain blue crystal.
The Third Doctor has developed an interest in human psychic ability, and his experiments include testing the blue crystal which he brought from the planet Metebelis Three, the blue planet in the Acteon Galaxy which he visited during The Green Death delivered back from Jo. The experiments show images of giant spiders. Sarah returns from the monastery, and she and the Doctor compare spider stories. Meanwhile Lupton's spider has traced the crystal to UNIT HQ, whereupon Lupton travels there and steals the crystal from the Doctor’s laboratory. A multi-vehicle chase ensues, with vehicles including Bessie, the Doctor’s Edwardian roadster; a Campbell Super Cricket gyrocopter, G-AXVK; the Whomobile, a futuristic-looking vehicle that combines the abilities of a hovercraft with the ability to fly; and a conventional hovercraft.
Lupton escapes by his Spider teleporting him back to the monastery, where it reveals that it too comes from Metebelis Three. Both the giant spiders and the crystal originate there. Before the Spider can contact Metabilis, the crystal is stolen from Lupton by Tommy, the monastery's handyman, an innocent with developmental difficulties, who is strangely drawn to the crystal. Sarah has recognised Lupton, and she and the Doctor quickly arrive at the monastery to warn the lama in charge, Cho-je, about Lupton's strange powers. Lupton is compelled to flee with the Spider to Metebelis, without the crystal. Sarah secretly follows, but is quickly captured by the Eight-Legs - as the spiders call themselves.
The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS to rescue her, and begins organising a resistance movement among the human slaves, descendants of the crew of an Earth spaceship that crashed hundreds of years before, who the spiders prey on. The planet is ruled by the giant spiders, who also came from the crashed ship, but whose mental powers have been amplified by centuries of exposure to the strange blue crystals found in the mountains of Metabilis. The Queen Spider seems to be the supreme ruler, but in the Blue Mountains the Doctor encounters the Great One, an enormous spider who is really in control, who now desires power over other worlds too. She craves the crystal, which she insanely believes will expand her mental powers to infinity and give her dominion over the entire universe.
The Great One sends the Doctor to Earth to get the crystal for her. He flees with Sarah, unaware that the Queen spider - who also craves the crystal - has taken over Sarah's mind. At the monastery, Tommy has been cured by the crystal, which has expanded his intelligence too, just as it has for the spiders. He gives it into the safe-keeping of the abbot, K’anpo Rimpoche, an elderly Time Lord (and former guru of the Doctor) who has retired into a peaceful exile on Earth as a Tibetan Buddhist.
The Abbot uses the crystal to free Sarah's mind from the Queen's control. The crystal kills the Queen. A force of Spiders arrives, and a battle breaks out in the monastery for possession of the crystal. The Abbot advises the Doctor to give the crystal back to the Great One, as the Doctor has caused the entire problem by taking the crystal in the first place.