The Doctor is invited into Yaz's home and meets her family. Her dad tends to be swayed by conspiracy theories, whilst her sister wants her to move out so she can have her bedroom. Her mother, Najia, is about to begin a new role managing a big new golfing hotel on the outskirts of the city. This is one of US millionaire Jack Robertson's properties, and he is there with his PA Frankie and bodyguard Kevin and taking a look around prior to it opening. Frankie is his niece-in-law, and she warns him there is a problem here which money can't fix. He sends her down to the basement and report back to him what she has found there. He then discovers that one of the bedrooms is full of spider webs.
When Najia arrives, Jack is sure she has overheard their talk of a problem. He shows her the web-filled room, tells her he is unhappy with her work, and promptly fires her.
The Doctor is alerted to an issue at the block of flats in which Yaz's family live, as a young woman is concerned that a neighbour is not answering her door. Yaz gets a call from her mother to come and collect her, and sets off for the hotel. When Yaz's dad mentions that he has been trying to deliver a parcel to the neighbour for a few days now, she uses it as an excuse to get involved. The young woman - Dr Jade McIntyre - is still there at the door and there still isn't any response. The Doctor uses her Sonic to open the door and they enter, and are immediately concerned by the mess. They go into the bedroom and find it covered in webs - and the occupant is dead in bed, wrapped in web like a cocoon. They then encounter a gigantic spider. It appears to have gained entry through the rubbish chute, and the Doctor decides it must be trapped here to prevent it getting into the wider community.
At the hotel, Jack is angered by the arrival of Yaz - with Kevin even pulling a gun on her.
Graham arrives at the flats and tells the Doctor of the webs he found at his house. It transpires that Jade is a scientist who just happens to study arachnids, and the dead woman was her assistant. The Doctor thinks this too great a coincidence, and they all go to Jade's laboratory to see what they were working on. Ryan is uninterested in the letter from his father, which Graham gives to him.
The Doctor plots the sightings of giant spiders on a map of the city, and discovers that they centre on the golfing hotel complex. They all head there and are reunited with Yaz and her mother. As Jack uses a bathroom to freshen up, the tub is smashed apart as a giant spider emerges. He flees - leaving Kevin to deal with it. The Doctor takes charge and they encounter more spiders. Exploring, they discover a series of tunnels beneath the hotel from which the creatures seem to be coming. They find Frankie, cocooned like the neighbour. Following one of the main passages they come to a huge subterranean chamber which is full of rubbish, including toxic waste. It becomes obvious that Robertson has built his hotel on waste ground without first clearing the site. The chemical waste has mutated the local spiders, causing them to grow to their great size.
A plan is formulated to imprison the spiders in a kitchen storeroom, attracting them with loud music. Only a vast female spider remains at large, but it is struggling to cope with its change in size. As the Doctor tries to work out what to do with it, Jack shoots it dead - arguing that he has simply put it out of its misery. The Doctor calls upon UNIT to clear up the situation. Ryan, Yaz and Graham elect to continue their travels with the Doctor - aware that she had been reluctant to see them leave the TARDIS.
Arachnids in the UK was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on Sunday 28th October, 2018.
The title is a play on the 1977 Sex Pistols punk anthem Anarchy in the UK.
The episode introduces us to Yaz's family - mum Najia, dad Hakim, and sister Sonya. Unlike previous companion families since 2005, they will feature very little in forthcoming stories.
Someone who will return in a significant way is the American businessman Jack Robertson. He is clearly based on Donald Trump and, in case no-one spotted this, the former POTUS is name-checked.
Robertson is arrogant, selfish and not very bright. Ordinarily, characters such as he usually have something particularly nasty befall them. He's directly responsible for two deaths - those of Frankie and Kevin. They may fall victim to spiders, but in both cases they are placed in danger through his direct instruction. It's rather annoying to see him walk off, seemingly scot-free, at the conclusion.
It is he who kills the biggest spider, and unfortunately this scene flags up a major problem with the series under Chibnall. We've already seen the Doctor rather powerless within the narrative - either hidebound by history or by her newly acquired insistence on being a pacifist.
Here, the Doctor dithers as the spider slowly suffocates to death, so when Jack shoots it he really is putting it out of its misery and proactively resolving the situation. The Doctor just stands impotently by.
'Giant' spiders almost featured in the very first Doctor Who story, back when it was hoped that the first one would involve the TARDIS shrinking the Doctor, Susan and the two Coal Hill school teachers to an inch in height. Having what might be termed a "Bug Eyed Monster" on screen was just one of the reasons for the "Miniscules" story being deferred for mounting another time. They finally made it on screen right at the end of the Pertwee era. Planet of the Spiders used a mix of static props, puppets and clockwork spiders to realise the rulers of Metebelis III.
Most recently we had seen huge spider-like creatures on our Moon in Peter Capaldi's first series, though these were supposed to be oversized microbes. Between, spiders or spider-like creatures featured only very rarely in the series - mainly due to the difficulty of realising an effective 8-legged creature. The marsh-spiders of Full Circle were brought to life in a mix of ways similar to those in the Pertwee finale.
Of the cast, the main guest artist is Chris Noth, playing Robertson. Noth was very well-known for his role as Mr Big in Sex and the City, and prior to that a regular role in Law & Order.
Yaz's family comprises Shobna Gulati as Najia - best known for her long-running role in Coronation Street; Ravin Ganatra as dad Hakim; and Bhavnisha Parmar as Sonya.
Frankie is Jaleh Alp, and Kevin is William Meredith.
Playing Jade is Tanya Fear, who featured in the 2013 superhero comedy-drama Kick-Ass 2.
We also have a cameo from Sharon D Clarke as Grace, remembered by Graham at their old house.
Overall, it really ought to have been one of the highlights of the season, but suffers from the Doctor's impotence, coupled with the caricatured nature of Robertson. The tone of the episode is all over the place. A number of polls placed this second from bottom for the series.
Things you might like to know:
- This episode provides us with our first glimpse of the new Space / Time Vortex through which the TARDIS passes. Often in the past resembling the series' titles sequence, here we see that it comprises multiple paths which the ship can take.
- The Sex Pistols influenced title was suggested by Vinay Patel - part of Chibnall's "Writers Room" approach to scripting - who was working on his own story for later in the season.
- There is a trope in drama known as "Bury your gays", in which non-straight characters are introduced by a writer or director who are denied any sort of happy ending. Quite often they are killed off, or at best denied the sort of happiness which straight characters are given. It is often seen as a form of tokenism - including a minority character in your drama when you have absolutely no intention of actually doing anything with them. Chibnall will be guilty of this, and it begins here with Frankie. There is no reason whatsoever to present her as a lesbian character. She's there simply to be killed off in the next scene.
- The Doctor mentions having had sisters.
- As well as Trump we have references to Ed Sheeran and Stormzy (whose music lures the spiders into their trap). 5 years later they are all still newsworthy, but contemporary cultural references have a habit of ageing some stories quicker than others.
- When shown in Brazil, the Sheeran reference was amended to Silvio Santos, a Brazilian businessman, media baron and would-be populist politician.
No comments:
Post a Comment