History Recap / DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders

* ILoveNuclearPower

The final adventure of Creator/JonPertwee as the Third Doctor, rounding off his tenure after five seasons, twenty-four stories and 128 half-hour episodes. 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 many of the rules behind the process.

* BookEnds: Creator/JonPertwee's run as the Doctor begins and ends with him stumbling out of the TARDIS and collapsing. Back then, he was angry at being confined to a small, primitive backwater planet like Earth. But when he reappears here, he tells Sarah that "the TARDIS brought me home," signifying the amount of CharacterDevelopment he underwent over the course of his run. Tellingly, his next incarnation would express a greater outward appreciation for humanity than any of his predecessors, giving a PatrickStewartSpeech in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace his second story]] about the indefatigability of the species.

* 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]]".

* TheAdjectiveOne: The Great One.

* NamesToRunAwayFrom/TheAdjectiveOne: The Great One.

* AnswerCut: The Doctor asks Arak how the spiders came Metebelis III. We then cut to Sabor telling Sarah that they came from Earth.

* BookEnds: Creator/JonPertwee's run as the Doctor begins and ends with him stumbling out of the TARDIS and collapsing. Back then, he was angry at being confined to a small, primitive backwater planet like Earth. But when he reappears here, he tells Sarah that "the TARDIS brought me home".
* CallBack:

* GoneHorriblyRight: The Great One's plan.

* NegateYourOwnSacrifice: The Doctor.

* TheShangriLa

* ShoutOut: When Tommy has his mind opened the Metebelis crystal, he practices his improved reading skills by grabbing a book from the monastery library and reading the first verse of William Blake's poem "The Tyger".

* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The Doctor has to face his worst fear - a giant psychic spider. She's a homicidal alien despot, but the writer of the script, Robert Sloman, was a [[AuthorPhobia terrible arachnophobe]][[invoked]] and the similarity to arachnophobia was very intentional.

* AGodAmI: The Great One's desire
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen

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

* KneelBeforeZod: The Great One uses her telepathic powers to torture the Doctor into grovelling before her.
* LaResistance

* MineralMacGuffin: The Doctor's Metebelis crystal.

* TheNthDoctor: [[LampshadeHanging Somewhat lampshaded]] when the Brig [[CallBack recalls]] that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace the Second Doctor became the Third Doctor]]. K'anpo also regenerates at the end of the story. This serial is also the first to explicitly refer to the process behind this trope as "regeneration" (having been vaguely referred to as a renewal and changing one's appearance during the Second Doctor's run) and the first to explicitly confirm that it's a normal procedure for ''all'' Time Lords rather than just the Doctor, with both traits sticking for the rest of the series.

* {{Retcon}}: The show had only depicted regeneration twice before, and both times it was something that could only happen through artificial means (the Second Doctor described it as "a part of the TARDIS" in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]], while his regeneration into the Third Doctor was forced on him by Goth in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames "The War Games"]]). Here however, regeneration becomes a biological process present among all Time Lords, this being at the end of an era that gradually did away with the idea of them simply being a highly-advanced group of futuristic humans.

* PhlebotinumOverdose: The Great One assembles a web of crystals that contain power—but when she completes it, the power destroys her. Also meant as a metaphor for the ego. Said crystals are psychic super amplifiers so not just a metaphor, her ego *is* the power that destroys her.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Creator/BarryLetts intended this as a Buddhist allegory - the Doctor's arrogance and thirst for knowledge causes a problem, so he must destroy his own ego to become a new man.

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 named Lupton 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]]".

The evil monks turn a mandala into a portal to Metebelis III, and Lupton 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.

Written by Robert Sloman and Creator/BarryLetts (uncredited, as usual). This serial first aired May 4-June 8, 1974.

* 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 (the {{novelisation}} makes it clear that the Brigadier helped get him into university).

Written by Robert Sloman. This serial first aired May 4-June 8, 1974.

* BookEnds: Creator/JonPertwee's run as The Doctor begins and ends with him stumbling out of the TARDIS and collapsing.

* LampshadeHanging: The Doctor's opinion to getting captured, then fighting off guards, only to be recaptured, is "Oh dear, this is getting monotonous." Which is pretty much a summary of the vicious cycle of {{Padding}} applied to most of the stories over the course of his Doctor's whole era that are at least six episodes long, and a thinly veiled quip regarding why Creator/JonPertwee is leaving the show.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The Doctor has to face his worst fear - a giant psychic spider. She's a homicidal alien despot, but the writer of the script, Robert Sloman, was a [[AuthorPhobia terrible arachnophobe]] and the similarity to arachnophobia was very intentional.

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 named Lupton 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]]".

* TheNthDoctor: [[LampshadeHanging Somewhat lampshaded]] when the Brig [[CallBack recalls]] that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace the Second Doctor became the Third Doctor]]. K'anpo also regenerates at the end of the story.

The final adventure of Creator/JonPertwee as the Third Doctor, rounding off his tenure after 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 many of the rules behind the process.

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. It is also the first story to introduce the term "regeneration" to refer to the Doctor's changes in appearance, and define many of the rules behind the process.

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 many of the rules behind the process.

* 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...'']]''

* AuthorAppeal: The Buddhist themes were written into the story 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.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Barry Letts intended this as a Buddhist allegory - the Doctor's arrogance and thirst for knowledge causes a problem, so he must destroy his own ego to become a new man.

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