The original intention for the final story of Season 11 had been the final defeat of the Master, but the tragic death of Roger Delgado put paid to that.
The story which did round off the season would also bring to a close the tenure of Jon Pertwee as Third Doctor. Terrance Dicks was already handing over to Robert Holmes, and Barry Letts would have only one more story as Producer before he also stood down.
This "end of term" set-up brought mixed blessings.
Over the years, whilst out filming or attending events like the Boat Show on publicity duties, Pertwee and Letts had come across various novel modes of transport (generally small, one-man vehicles). Mental notes were taken to use them in the show at some point. Pertwee was a real petrol-head, who had raced cars and owned a speedboat at his Ibiza holiday home (as well as one of those hydrofoils seen in The Sea Devils).
For his star's last outing, since Letts was directing as well as having co-written the story, an epic chase sequence was set up, taking up most of the second episode. This would involve various methods of transport including Bessie, the new "Whomobile", a small hovercraft and a gyrocopter.
This is seen by many as an over-indulgent sequence, unnecessary to the overall plot. Lupton could simply have been chased along a road in a jeep for a few minutes.
What particularly annoys those who find this sequence a lengthy irrelevance is that the Spider ends up teleporting Lupton to safety anyway. Why couldn't it have done this in the first place?
Two other indulgences here are Letts'. His Buddhist beliefs are very high in the mix, with all the characters - including the Spiders - embodying Buddhist principles. He knows what it all means, but we aren't blessed with this knowledge.
It's also his last chance to play with CSO for a while, and there are some particularly nasty examples of it. Sarah's arrival on Metebelis III is a prime instance. Seemingly some later in the show was so bad it couldn't be used. This led to some drastic re-editing, which is why the end of Part 5 / beginning of Part 6 is such a mess. As the final episode opens, we seem to have jumped way back into the previous one. We then get totally new scenes before the remainder of the Part 5 cliff-hanger.
There is some dodgy plotting in Part 1, as we never seem to know on what day things are happening. It appears that the theatre show attended by the Doctor and Brigadier must have been first thing in the morning, as it seems to coincide with Sarah first visiting the meditation centre. Events must happen over at least two days, but there is no sense of this.
Of all the places (and times) to make contact with on Earth, the Spiders just happen to pick one which has an ex-member of UNIT staying, as well as the current companion of the very man who used to possess the blue crystal visiting for the day - and the person he gave it to has just decided to return it to him. That's a lot of coincidences.
(An even bigger coincidence is a member of the theatre audience also being an attendee of the meditation centre. And Letts thought we wouldn't notice).
The crystals have made the Spiders bigger and very smart - but how have they been able to give them the ability to time travel?
Metebelis III has been spoken about since Season 10. It has always been the famous Blue Planet. When seen in The Green Death it was indeed very blue looking - but looks just like Earth here. It is now supposed to be famous for its blue moonlight, but we have night scenes here - which don't look particularly blue.
Professor Clegg witnesses Drashigs when he handles the sonic screwdriver. However, the Doctor had the sonic he used in The Carnival of Monsters confiscated when sent to the lunar penal colony in Frontier in Space, and there is no way the Master would have allowed him to retrieve it.
Nicholas Courtney's eyeline does not match the floating tea tray. Why does he continue to look round the room when he has already decided to give Clegg his wristwatch?
The Spiders' ability to sense the crystal varies enormously - with Lupton's spotting it 80 miles away, then failing to spot it in a cupboard in the same building as itself.
For a Buddhist, Barry Letts could be a bit of a snob - especially where country folk are concerned. Here, one indication of Tommy's mind-boost is the loss of his accent, replaced by some BBC Received Pronunciation. We also have the problem of an increased capacity for learning compared with an ability to do things he hasn't had a chance to learn yet.
Not as bad as the previous story, but there is some quite noticeable use of Terry Walsh in the fight scenes.
Hard to believe, I know, but RADA had an acting prize named in honour of Jenny Laird (Nesca). One of its recipients was Richard Franklin...
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