History Recap / DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders

* AuthorAppeal: The Buddhist themes were written into the episode by Barry Letts, himself a practicing Buddhist. This came back to bite him slightly, as some Buddhists objected to the use of mantras and chants as a means to summon the spiders.

* FaceYourFears: The ultimate premise of this story for the Third Doctor. In almost every one of his episodes, he's remained in control when facing a greater enemy, and has never bowed to fear even when he was forced to relive it. This is the one time when he isn't just scared to face the villain- he's ''tremendously'' terrified. That [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness out-of-character moment]] should let you know this episode is [[WhamEpisode going to be heavy]].

* NotListeningToMeAreYou: The Doctor is more interested in the Metebelis crystal than in Sarah Jane's story about a summoning ritual in the monastry. She calls him out on it, not that it helps. Until she mentions a big spider...

[[FamousLastWords ''A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's...'']]

[[FamousLastWords ''A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's...'']]
----

[[FamousLastWords ''A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's...''

''All praise to the Great One!''

No, it isn't a hero that needs to complete this mission. It's an atonement for a past mistake from a humbled Doctor, despite knowing that this will be his last act to make up for being a self-serving codger for a sizable part of his life in this incarnation. He finally steps in and makes a HeroicSacrifice to prove he has a heart of gold. Prepared for the worst, the Third Doctor decides to face his fears and endure the punishment for his greed that day he took the crystal. He finds the Great One wants her mental abilities to reach infinity, and she snatches the Metabilis crystal to complete its psychic web circuit as a keystone, which is now irradiating the Doctor to a devastating effect. Except, the Great One is so power blind she ignores the Doctor's warning that her mind can't handle that much power. When she [[HoistByHisOwnPetard foolishly activates the circuit anyway]], the power intake overloads the Great One's brain, until she explodes, causing the rest of the Eight Legs to writhe in pain and die off. Visibly anguished, the Doctor stumbles back to his TARDIS, reeling from excessive radiation exposure.

* ComboPlatterPowers: When the spiders possess people, they give them PsychicPowers and the ability to [[ShockAndAwe shoot bolts of lightning from their hands]]. [[RetroactiveRecognition Three years later]], these seemingly unrelated abilities [[Franchise/StarWars would come together again]]...

* MagiciansAreWizards: Clegg

* MineralMacGuffin: The Doctor's Metebilis crystal.

* PowerCrystal: The Metebilis Crystal.

* SimpletonVoice[=/=]HulkSpeak: Tommy has both of these ailments until the Metebilis crystal washes them out of his mind.

!!Tropes

* ReligionIsMagic

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Mike Yates is never seen or mentioned again after he recovers from being blasted by energy. Also, Tommy is last seen on the floor having been defeated by the villains, although he survived.

* ReligionIsMagic

* {{Catchphrase}}
-->"ALL PRAISE TO THE GREAT ONE!"

The final adventure of Creator/JonPertwee as the Third Doctor, rounding off his record-breaking tenure (that wouldn't take long to get surpassed) at five seasons and twenty-four stories. Also the last appearance of Richard Franklin as former Captain Mike Yates. It is also the first story to introduce the term "regeneration" to refer to the Doctor's changes in appearance, and define the rules behind the process.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: As lampshaded by the Great One re the Doctor.

The final adventure of Creator/JonPertwee as the Third Doctor, rounding off his record-breaking tenure (that wouldn't take long to get surpassed) at five seasons and twenty-four stories. Also the last appearance of Richard Franklin as former Captain Mike Yates.

The Third Doctor returns to Earth several weeks late from his departure. He quavers out the doors of the TARDIS, unable to even stand without huddling to the frame of his ship. Losing his strength, he falls to the ground faced down. The Brig gets a seat cushion to prop up his head while Sarah turns him over on his back, grieving at the sight of her Doctor's last moments. The poor gentlemen is on his deathbed after getting lost in the Time Vortex. He weakly tells his companion what he had to do, but she won't accept his death. Starting to cry, the Doctor tells her "A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's..." But the word "hope" does not escape his lips. He dies as though he just froze in place as the radiation stopped every process of his body from working, including speech and [[DiesWideShut his eyelids, which Sarah closes]].

One who could, if he ''were'' to die, regenerate into [[{{Creator/TomBaker}} arguably the most iconic Doctor of all time]]...

** When the Doctor explains the workings of the TARDIS to Mike, he says, "You speak as if she were alive," and the Doctor replies, "Yes. Yes, I do, don't I?" [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster This was the same thing Jo Grant said when the Doctor talked about the TARDIS having moods]].

* ChekhovsGun: While it's quite clear from the start that the Metebelis crystal is the MacGuffin of this story, we didn't know so [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath back when it first appeared.]]

The final adventure of Creator/JonPertwee as the Third Doctor, rounding off his tenure at five seasons and twenty-four stories. Also the last appearance of Richard Franklin as former Captain Mike Yates.

Sarah Jane visits her friend Mike Yates at a crypto-Buddhist retreat in the English countryside. Some of them have apparently been skipping meditation lessons to hang out in the basement and summon ENORMOUS FREAKING SPIDERS from Metebelis III, a world ruled by the terrifying things. As if enormous spiders weren't bad enough, these are ''enormous telepathic '''mind-controlling''' spiders'', and one of them takes over a Buddhist and turns him into a spider-puppet. Naturally, they have designs on our world; but their chief aim at the moment is the recapture of a blue crystal prism thingy. Conveniently enough, the Doctor has just received one in the mail! It's from Jo Grant, who he gave it to back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath The Green Death]]".

Puppet guy follows Sarah Jane back to UNIT HQ to steal the Metebelis crystal, using mind-thrown lightning bolts to get past security. Awesome. Psychic powers so rarely come with offensive capabilities. A completely badass [[FlyingCar hovercar]] vs. helicopter chase ensues, but the guy gets away. The Doctor and Sarah Jane deduce who the thief must have been, and head back to the retreat--but by then the puppet guy has misplaced it.

The evil monks turn a mandala into a portal to Metebelis III, and puppet guy goes through. Sarah Jane, who really should know better than to step into glowing circles on the ground, finds herself there as well. She tries to foment glorious revolution amongst the human proletariat, but their arachnid overlords promptly arrive to put an end to ''that''. She is saved by the timely intervention of the Doctor--who's used the TARDIS and the crystal to get to Metebelis III himself--the spiders attack him, leave him for dead, and go back for reinforcements. They're back bright and early the next morning to haul Doctor and Companion back to Spider HQ, where they have obviated prison cells by the simple expedient of swaddling their prisoners in spider silk.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Lupton was a former salesman and manager for 25 years who was embittered when his company fired him after going through a merger where the new boys in charge ousted the old buffers.

* GiantSpider: Lots 'n lots.

-->'''Sarah Jane:''' Doctor... don't die...\\

* DiesWideShut: Sarah does this to the Doctor.

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Tommy, a mentally disabled man with a taste for shiny objects. He appears to represent innocent goodness in the story's Buddhist symbology..

* AdaptationExpansion: For the novelisation, Creator/TerranceDicks adds a prologue featuring Jo Grant, who is referenced but otherwise does not appear on screen in the TV version. Jo is referred to as Josephine Jones, which is consistent with the name she uses when she returns in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''.
** There is an extra sequence of Cho-Je refusing to let Yates see K'Anpo (a similar scene was filmed for the televised version but cut). Tommy sends Yates away instead of being distracted by his medallion.
** There is an extra sequence of Arak's rebels testing their stone protection by attacking and killing a patrol.
** There is an extra sequence of Arak and Tuar freeing Sabor from the larder and getting him to safety, which is not made clear on screen.

* AllThereInTheManual: In the novelization, Lupton's spider explains he cannot use the web to stun his pursuers because they are too many and too distant.
** The soldier is named as Corporal Hodges.
** It is made clearer that the Spider Council planned the invasion of Earth without the request of either the Great One or the Queen, assuming that was why the Great One wanted the crystal.
** The Doctor says he knows Clegg is a psychic because he can sense his vibrations.
** It is mentioned that Barnes and the others were hospitalised with nervous breakdowns after the Spiders died and Sarah has asked the Brigadier to help Tommy get into university.
** Barnes states Lupton was strong enough to perform the ceremony on his own, presumably to explain how he transported to Metebelis.

* BackForTheFinale: Mike returns to redeem himself after getting booted out of UNIT for his betrayal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

* DiesWideShut: The Brigadier does this to the Doctor.

* DumbassNoMore: Tommy.

* GrandFinale: To the Creator/JonPertwee era as a whole as it features a callback to Jo, Yates' return and acts as a loose sequel to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath The Green Death]].

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Tommy

* LostColony: the human colony on Metebelis III.

* SimpletonVoice / HulkSpeak: Tommy has both of these ailments until the Metebilis crystal washes them out of his mind.
* SpidersAreScary

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Mike Yates is never seen or mentioned again after he recovers from being blasted by energy.

* {{Yellowface}}: The serial has two Tibetan-appearing Time Lords played by white actors in makeup, with a fairly excruciating Asian Speekee Engrish accent in one case. The portrayal of the character is fairly respectful, but it's still quite painful to watch nowadays.

The one with the very long chase sequence.