Doctor Who (37) 11.04: Arachnids in the UK

Lenny

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'Something's happening with the spiders in this city.' The Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan find their way back to Yorkshire - and Yaz's family - only to find something is stirring amidst the eight-legged arachnid population of Sheffield.

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We've had the introduction episode, the companion(s) in spaaaace episode, the time-travel episode, and, with Arachnids in the UK, the weird things at home episode - the cornerstones of any new Doctor's first series, as set down by RTD in the Revival Handbook. Jokes aside, this feels much closer to the Doctor Who of ten years ago(!), and with four out of ten episodes gone it's starting to look like Chibnall's era is a return to simpler one-shot stories, character-driven arcs, and companions with actual emotional weight.

The episode itself wasn't bad - not particularly special, but watchable. We learnt a little bit more about the companions, and what they're itching to leave behind. We had some more thin caricatures, and jarring attempts to comment on the state of the real world. We had a lot of running. We had some very big spiders, with a couple of moments that left me more uncomfortable than the entire Haunting of Hill House.
 
My favorite parts of this episode were every time the Doctor would babble on about the tea, stuff at Yaz's or whatever else.
 
Well, the plot just about hung together.

The 'Hotel owner' detracted and wasn't called for IMO. It didn't really add much and wasn't even that funny.

It would have hung together if it had just been a mine filling waste disposal tale. Come back UNIT all is forgiven etc.

As it was the spiders were done well, and they were gruesome enough. However, as I commented how many spiders will die as a result of this episode. I don't think the protestations of Who will sink in to many children that watched, but hey spiders have been targets for thousands of years.

I did get a feeling of Harry Potteresqueness at one stage.

Didn't quite see the difference between locking them away to die of oxygen starvation and shooting them.

I'm personally getting fed up of Who's fast babbling nonesense with the thrown in asides about people shes's met in the future/past. Never needed that with previous Whos. Occasionally yes, but I think it's been every episode now.

We also got treated to her previously never mentioned female lives. Why the need. Is aunty just reminding Forster the role is temporary and anyone can be written out.

Team Tardis - Lets change thename of the show now. Graham still makes a more convincing Who than Foster IMO. More gravitas, lest exitable, less panic running this way and that. I'm hoping they calm her down a bit.

On the whole, it was OK and slightly more traditional.

For me, the inside of the "Team Tardis" changing room is crap.
 
I feel like I missed a chunk at the end. We went from Trump dude walking away with his gun, saying it was going to get him to the White House, to commercials, to Yaz's flat and everything was done. What happened? What did they do about the ballroom full of spiders, and Trump dude? I was really hoping they were going to feed him to the spiders, but then it just closed the curtain and all was well.
 
Truthfully, this episode couldn't keep my interest. And when the ending (of the arachnid story) looked like it was going to be good... they just dropped it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the other episodes, but this one seemed lacking. I'm not even sure what it was lacking! But, I suppose there's bound to be a few episodes I wouldn't care for.
 
I feel like I missed a chunk at the end. We went from Trump dude walking away with his gun, saying it was going to get him to the White House, to commercials, to Yaz's flat and everything was done. What happened? What did they do about the ballroom full of spiders, and Trump dude? I was really hoping they were going to feed him to the spiders, but then it just closed the curtain and all was well.
Exactly!
 
As someone said there was no need for the hotel owner, also if he has other developments shouldn't UNIT be informed to check them out?
I do hope they start given us better villains, so far they've been nothing to write home about.
Poor spiders, only doing what comes natural. If anyone should have been suffocated it should have been the researchers, waste disposal company and the hotel owner.
That was not a good ending, TDZ summed it up nicely.
 
Yeah, even I thought the ending seemed a bit abrupt, although it made me wonder if the dude might come back in a later episode considering the presidential run and all that.

Loving Team Tardis, I'm so happy with this new team dynamic rather than the singular companion. And her little happy face when they said they wanted to stay :D
 
I feel like I missed a chunk at the end. We went from Trump dude walking away with his gun, saying it was going to get him to the White House, to commercials, to Yaz's flat and everything was done. What happened? What did they do about the ballroom full of spiders, and Trump dude? I was really hoping they were going to feed him to the spiders, but then it just closed the curtain and all was well.

Ah Dusty, They were left to suffocate and die. Despite Who's claim that they were creatures and deserved better than just to be shot. So she came up with lure them into a small airtight (though I doubt spider proof in real life) room where they could enjoy cannabalism and a linguring death by the survivors. (remember spiders eat their mates)
 
Would shooting** the spiders even kill them (immediately)?

When spider's legs curled up, wasn't that just the loss of hydraulic pressure, not a sign of death?


** - Not that the hotel's owner would know this, so it isn't (necessarily) a mistake by the writer(s) of the script.
 
Would shooting** the spiders even kill them (immediately)?

When spider's legs curled up, wasn't that just the loss of hydraulic pressure, not a sign of death?


** - Not that the hotel's owner would know this, so it isn't (necessarily) a mistake by the writer(s) of the script.
Maybe you should look it up on the web?
 
Actually, I just watched a FB video in which a large spider rolled over, curled up its legs... and proceeded to pull itself out of its old skin! Nasty video!
 
I wasn't sure if maybe the American feed just lost something along the way. If that's really how it was supposed to be, I have to say it was pretty sloppy.

This episode seemed a bit flat to me -- I think mostly the bad dude wasn't ...err... very good. Not the spiders, the creepy fellow. But I still like Jodie, and Team TARDIS. And there were plenty of good bits.
 
The story line was like something from the Pertwee years - though not as sophisticated.

There were (again) several times when the episode was edited poorly - it was a bit like watching something that had certain scenes "cut/censored". The ending was abrupt and odd; the spiders were left to die...not be shot; that would be cruel...huh?. And why would they die in that panic room - the room that could have sustained the hotel owner for six months (presumably with an automatic air system)?

Lots of running.

I'm also getting fed up with the "babbling" Doctor; it's week four already - you should be OK by now.

Presumably the bodyguard somehow bought his gun in the UK? Can't see how he would have been allowed to bring it into the country with him.

The hotel owner (according to my wife "that bloke from Sex and the City") was poor.

At the end of the episode we learned that when the Doctor pulls the lever she doesn't know what's going to happen. But at the start, that she can pinpoint a landing on an exact city on Earth and at the exact time required (give half an hour).... Unless that was a bit of dramatic license.

I have this sneaking suspicion that I'm being lectured to; last week it was "racism is bad", this week it was "dumping waste is bad" and "same sex relationships are OK" (Yaz's mother being OK with her and the Doctor being 'together'). And just to be clear, I think "Yes" to each of those.

Still think Mandip Gill is the better actress of the three companions (though Bradley Walsh is OK) and still not a fan of the three companion format. Thought my hopes were going to be realised this week and we would lose the other two.

All in all is was merely "OK" (again). My wife didn't even yell at me to change over before the "next week" bit came up in the end credits - which shows how uninterested she was. Though I did - and thanks Lenny.

I hope later episodes calm down and get more serious.

Nice pun with the title though.
 
I think mostly the bad dude wasn't ...err... very good.
I think the people at the lab that didn't make sure that their (genetically manipulated) experimental spiders were not well and truly dead before handing them over to a general waste disposal company were more to blame for what occurred, if my understanding of what was happening is correct. (I'm not, of course, refering to the building of a hotel on top of a barely-underground waste tip.)
 
Matt Smith's Doctor prattled on in a similar way throughout his tenure. I find Jodie's more entertaining and endearing. Here's hoping it continues.
 
I think the people at the lab that didn't make sure that their (genetically manipulated) experimental spiders were not well and truly dead before handing them over to a general waste disposal company were more to blame for what occurred, if my understanding of what was happening is correct. (I'm not, of course, refering to the building of a hotel on top of a barely-underground waste tip.)

Yeah, and about that... I didn't quite follow why they would have a door with all the skull-and-crossbones signs actually leading down into the landfill that they were attempting to cover up. Would you really make a door from the hotel into that, no matter how many signs?


Matt Smith's Doctor prattled on in a similar way throughout his tenure. I find Jodie's more entertaining and endearing. Here's hoping it continues.

Yes, I was thinking this week that she was particularly Matt Smith.
 

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