Classic Doctor Who Review - Planet of the Spiders

[@The8BitChampion]

Well whenever you have a white actor playing another race and mimicking a accent its pretty cringe, but technically since its never insinuated that said race was inferior in any way there performance can't be technically defined as racist.

[@smallpaul2923]

This was one if the first stories i picked up on VHS. I remember ordering it from W H Smith's here in the uk. It was a double video pack being a six parter and the casing looked fab! It holds a place in my heart so i maybe biased that i love it!!!!

[@LilyMaidenLove]

All of those chase sequences were actually to say goodbye to Pertwee because he loved the action chase scenes So they were decided to give him loads of chase scenes

[@Eltonlaleham]

I thought it was a shame that Roger Delgado was deceased and that meant the Master could not be the principal villain in Jon Pertwees finale like he was intended to do

[@loanaoftheshellpeople5627]

The ending of Planet of the Spiders was so sad. It was hard to say Goodbye to John Pertwee's Doctor.

[@DalamReviews]

Absolutely, he's just fantastic in the role

[@jacklawrence2212]

Absolutely, because of its beautiful dialogue and Pertwee and Sladen's acting. Her anguished line 'please, don't die...' is one of the most heart breaking in the show's 60 years.

[@adambarnes49]

John Pertwee is great as the doctor and this isn't really related to the episode but for some reason I really do not like the 3rd doctors outfit in season 7 and I don't know why

[@ftumschk]

Kevin Lindsay (Cho-Je) wasn't an English actor, but an Australian. Also, I don't see how affecting a Tibetan accent is any more racist than - for example - affecting an American one (as was done in several stories), or casting the English Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon.

[@RipeWatermelon]

Agreed

[@DalamReviews]

Thanks for pointing out that he's actually Australian, I shouldn't have made that mistake. While I see where you're coming from here about the accent, it's really just one part of the entire portrayal of this Tibetan character. The makeup, the accent, and the performances by White actors make me deeply uncomfortable. I don't know that it's the accent on its own, but rather how it is used by White actors to portray characters who aren't White. Tibetans are an Asian ethnic group, and Asian actors (like Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and all non-White actors) have historically been oppressed, and as a result find a far more difficult time getting roles in TV and movies then White actors. Not allowing actors of the actual minoritized groups to play their representations on TV just limits their already small opportunities to even smaller opportunities (which Doctor Who has done several times across the years). As said, it is far more about the bigger picture than the actual accent, so I should have made that clear. In an equal world, these things wouldn't matter, because everybody would have equal opportunities, but the reality is that we aren't there yet. I don't mind English or Australian actors putting on American accents (aside from the fact they're often as cartoonish and inauthentic as the attempt at a Tibetan accent in here), because its just some White actor playing a White character from a different region of the world. Does that makes sense? Again, I see where you're coming from, and on its face (in an entirely just and equal world) it shouldn't be bad, but it contributes to a wider issue which makes it wrong. Sorry for the long reply, just wanted to have a degree of nuance and really explain the problem.

[@ftumschk]

@@DalamReviews Thanks, and you're right to point out the bigger picture. However, that big picture also shows that there were very few decent Chinese/Asian actors available to British television companies during the early 1970s. The production team had gone to the trouble of enlisting a specialist Asian actors' agency to get an actor to play a Chinese diplomat in "Mind of Evil" (1972). Sadly, none of the actors auditioned were up to scratch, and that was for a role that didn't require the actor to speak English! In the end, the production team had to use the Chinese owner of the casting agency to play the part instead. Maybe it was different in the USA, which has a much larger Chinese population that Britain, but we had to wait until 1981 before David Yip became the first Chinese/British actor to land a decent role in a TV series. It was very slim pickings before then.

[@DalamReviews]

Yeah, I see what you mean. The smaller population would definitely explains the choice, even if it doesn't justify it. I've tried researching information on the actual populations of Asian people in Britain in the 60s and 70s but have failed to find much information on the matter. I'll probably look more into it in the future. At the end of the day, if the character really was essential to the story, and if they had to use a White actor, I wish they would've just changed the story slightly to make the character from a different region of the world. Seems like a fairly simple change which is unlikely to upset anyone.

[@TheoreticalRain]

@@ftumschk That's still a product of historical marginalization and oppression of Asian people in the UK though. It's more so an issue of British society, the BBC, the actors' union, etc. than of the Doctor Who production team specifically, but that doesn't make it acceptable to use white actors to portray minority characters. Certainly not when discussing it nowadays. Not to mention that these characters, albeit written earnestly, are made up of racial stereotypes. "Having to wait until 1981" for a British actor of Asian descent to land a prominent role in a TV show is an indictment of the ways Asian actors were kept out of certain kinds of jobs that white people had no trouble getting. Also, Zienia Merton (a British/Burmese actor) played Ping-Cho in Doctor Who's Marco Polo in 1964, so it was not impossible to find these actors.

[@bananasaregood8655]

Growing up i had a book with info on all classic who episodes, including a review for each episode. And i think the final sentence for the spiders review sums the story up basically: ‘Even tho it has some strong performances and good ideas, there’s no escaping the conclusion that planet of the spiders makes for a disappointing end to the third doctor’s era’

[@DalamReviews]

Wow, I could've just said that! Wouldn't have taken me nearly as long to edit, and would've gotten my basic thoughts on the serial across quite effectively.

[@bananasaregood8655]

@@DalamReviews when i was little and watchd classic doctor who vhs all the time, i was obsessed with trying to get planet of the spiders, cus pertwee was my fave doctor and it sounded awesome! This was late 90s early 2000s so no youtube or dvds to easily get. I read the book a few times and imagined how awesome the 3rd doctor fighting giant psychic spiders would have been! Wen i FINALLY managed to get it on vhs after many years i was old enough to see how poor it was...i could not hav been more disapointed

[@DalamReviews]

Yeah, that's quite unfortunate, and that experience makes a lot of sense. I can imagine that if you have high expectations or much excitement going in, this story could prove quite disappointing. As much as I agree with you, I probably wasn't quite as let down because I didn't have such excitement going in. It's still a weaker note to end the era on though, imo, and despite enjoying some of its elements, I wish there was a different story to end things off on.

[@ishaandw]

Oof! This is probably your first review that I wholeheartedly disagree with. I really adore this story as a bookend to the Pertwee era. It has all the best elements of the Pertwee era interwoven into the story and I was really captivated watching this story.

[@DalamReviews]

That's an absolutely fair take, and I'm glad you like the story as much as you do! As said, I do like a number of its elements, and ultimately did give it a positive grade, in spite of some of (what I found to be) its shortcomings :)

[@suddenlyfrogs1906]

Over all I agree with the nit picks etc, I love the stoy but the pacing is a little off here and there and the setting change is a little jarring, the start of the story a little contrived. I disagree that the unfortunate casting was racism however, this was a time when decent Asian or Black actors were few and far between, and quite often they weren't available or just weren't interested, so casting literally the same 2 black or asian guys over and over would get very, very jarring. How else could they have presented the wonderful stories they otherwise are. Eg Burt Kwouk (I hope I'm spelling that right) was about the only experienced actor who's Asian in England at the time, it's the same with the French Chap in Moonbase, sorry I forget his name, Francios from Pink Panther movies, anyway that proves the point as both Actors are in those movies. It is jarring but the Actors did their best with what they had. Another point is tht Kevin Lindsey was from New Zealand. Liz Sladen mentioned this when filming the Sontaran experiment with him (He played the first 2 Sontarans too) I just worry people think this was somehow done on purpose and wasn't just a literal resource problem.

[@GLBizzie]

I’ll give it a 7/10… I think the plot itself wasn’t bad and the acting was top notch. I even enjoyed the long chase coz u could really see Pertwee enjoying it. I always love seeing actors enjoying their stuff. With Pertwee u know he hated his Daleks storys and it was shown in his acting but here he came to life. I was glad we got Mike Yates back for a little redemption arc. Sarah Jane and the 3rd Doctor spent just 1 season together but we’re much closer and a better team than him and Liz Shaw tbh. But the negative part for me was the pacing of the storyline. It was dragging so hard at times. The village people were just forced into it to have some side characters but actually they didn’t matter like usually and did nothing really for the plot but help to stall it for two episodes. The greedy guys were annoying too. But the whole regeneration arc and explanation really made up for it. It was heartbroken to see Sarah Jane so shattered about the Doctor. I even loved that they gave the Brigadier the honor to be there too for Pertwee‘s ending. I just wish Benton was there. But overall an OK ending for a 5 season long Doctor. But I do think that this should’ve been a normal serial without the regeneration and the Peladon story the end for this era

[@phillipschwoerke8374]

This is the top of my list on Doctor Who episodes I have not seen. Someday hopefully!

[@DalamReviews]

Certainly worth watching if you take an interest in the Pertwee era, whenever you get the opportunity!

[@markwalko7418]

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