puppetmaker | New Who Review: Arachnids in the UK

This one was a little hard to watch because I am not partial to spiders. I see one in the house I try to get it outside alive because I do know all the good that they do. However I find them creepy.

It reminded me very much of an episode with the 3rd Doctor except the villains are us rather than space spiders although it reminded more of “the green death” with Pertwee.

Overall it was well acted. The mystery was set up and solved with only one very inserted plot point in it.

My feeling after seeing these four episodes is that the groundwork is done. We know who the companions are. We have an idea of who the Doctor is this time. We have the TARDIS and the sonic. So now the real test is given all this pipework, will this hold up at Doctor Who.

I think if nothing else this episode allows us to see the companions make the conscious choice to be part of the Doctor’s life rather than get dragged into the middle of a mess. Each person has a moment where we see them make the decision.

For the villain we have a real estate mogul who is very loud and is going to run for President of the USA played by Chris Noth as Jack Robertson with the bombast that only Mr. Noth can bring. He declares that he is innocent in any wrongdoing as he is trying to be an environmentally sound by building his luxury hotels and resorts on landfill of questionable content.

So like “the Green Death”, the toxic morass of our own making mutates the spiders. Nothing cosmic here just our own stupidity creating a new form of life only having to kill to for our survival.

The Doctor has no choice for the ending. She can see the handwriting on the wall and does what she can to make it humane.

Which is sad but understandable.

Next is hospital in space. So we are back on the adventures of Doctor Who, let’s see where it takes us.