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Hippy Mike! Hurrah! Episode one of "Planet Of The Spiders" is brilliant. Truly. Even though it has Sarah Jane in it. Firstly (and most importantly) we have Mike Yates dressed in one of his best outfits ever - in fact it may indeed be one of the best outfits ever. In the world. Certainly for comic potential. Off he goes to save the world, dressed in bright red flares, a pink shirt, a brown stripy jumper, a gigantic silver medallion, and the silliest scarf ever. No wonder the bad guys underestimate him. Whilst Mike is playing at being an investigator, the Doctor invites a psychic round for tea, makes him wear a very silly hat, and then kills him. Which is an interesting, if somewhat baffling way to spend an afternoon.
The plot, then. Mike is hanging out in a sort of Buddhist retreat, trying to get his head in order after it got fried for him, by a combination of giant computers, half-inched alien jewels, and overly-persuasive dinosaur-fanciers. See "The Green Death" and "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs". Whilst there, he finds that some of his fellow retreatees are up to no good in the basement. A sort of after-hours chanting club, with menaces. With his amazing alien-detecting powers, he realises that a group of middle-aged men hiding in a basement and chanting is clearly a job for the Doctor and his little band of top secret alien busters. Or not so top secret, as is the case most of the time. Thinking that nobody will believe him (because of the slight case of having nearly destroyed the world a bit. See "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs" again) he asks Sarah Jane Smith to come and investigate, and then go to see the Doctor on his behalf. Sarah's taking one hell of a lot on faith here. A bloke she's only met once, and on that occasion he was being a traitor, asks her to meet him in the middle of nowhere. And not only does she go, she also promises to speak to the Doctor for him, before he's even shown her that there's anything up. Sarah's a bit rubbish all round, really. Dresses like a ten year old, acts like a fool. I will never understand her allegedly gargantuan popularity.
Anyways, whilst she and Mike are prowling around the retreat, the Doctor invites a psychic round to investigate his powers. He dresses him in silly headphones, and experiments on him for a bit, before the deadly Metebelis Crystal of "Green Death" fame turns up by parcel post. He'd given it to Jo, but she's sent it back to him, as it's freaking out the Amazonian locals. The psychic plays with it, just as Mike's little band of evil chanters begin their evil chants; and the crystal focuses all the chanting and creates a hurricane in the Doctor's lab. The Doctor snatches the crystal away, which makes the psychic's brain burn out - nice going Doc - and the Brigadier makes the first of about five hundred calls to the medical officer, a bloke by the name of Sullivan. Gosh, you don't suppose they're introducing a new character, do you? A medical bloke, perhaps? Called Sullivan?!
Anyway, that's pretty boring stuff really. Back at the retreat, Mike and Sarah encounter Tommy, the latest in a long line of embarrassingly awful childlike characters with which the Pertwee era seems to be peppered. They also meet Cho-je. Oh sweet heaven. That's Cho-je?! That?! That's what K'anpo regenerates into?! Listen, I had Mike leave with that man at the end of this adventure. They went off into space. They had dozens of adventures together. And he looks like that?! I was expecting... I don't know what I was expecting. What the Target describes him as, at least! Whatever the bloody hell I was expecting, it wasn't a comedy Chinaman, played by some bloke painted a funny colour, and trying to make his eyes look narrow. Sheesh. What the hell was the casting director thinking?! Anyways, Mike and Sarah wind up in the basement, where they watch some more chanting, until eventually a giant spider appears in the middle of the floor! Jeepers!
Then there's episode two, otherwise known as Pertwee's Gadget Fandango. Nothing happens in episode two, really, barring a gargantuan chase cross country, involving all of Jon Pertwee's favourite vehicles. Oh, and Terry Walsh and Stuart Fell. So that's nice. Doesn't further the plot in the slightest, but it's great fun. Talk about letting Jon Pertwee have fun on his last jaunt as the Doctor! :D
Hippy Mike!
"He sa Hullo clouds, hullo sky"
The Doctor and the Brig out on a date.
Mike spies on some evil goings-on in the basement.
Shortly before being run off the road by a non-existent tractor.
Cho-je.
Great Rassilon, what were they thinking...
Don't do that, you pillock. It fries brains.
A spider! A spider! Honest!
Mike and Sarah look on as the spider appears.
Mike does his damnedest to look like he means business.
No mean feat when you're dressed like that.
The Pertwee Dream Vehicle Roll Call
The Whomobile. A flying silver hovercraft.
The gyrocopter. A one-man mini chopper.
Bessie! Hurrah!
The Whomobile in flight.
A one-man hovercraft, complete with soggy Time Lord.
Stunned by the procession of vehicles, the Brig, Benton
and a comedy policeman gawp in unison.
He had a lot of fun shooting episode two. I can tell. :D
More another time.
The plot, then. Mike is hanging out in a sort of Buddhist retreat, trying to get his head in order after it got fried for him, by a combination of giant computers, half-inched alien jewels, and overly-persuasive dinosaur-fanciers. See "The Green Death" and "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs". Whilst there, he finds that some of his fellow retreatees are up to no good in the basement. A sort of after-hours chanting club, with menaces. With his amazing alien-detecting powers, he realises that a group of middle-aged men hiding in a basement and chanting is clearly a job for the Doctor and his little band of top secret alien busters. Or not so top secret, as is the case most of the time. Thinking that nobody will believe him (because of the slight case of having nearly destroyed the world a bit. See "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs" again) he asks Sarah Jane Smith to come and investigate, and then go to see the Doctor on his behalf. Sarah's taking one hell of a lot on faith here. A bloke she's only met once, and on that occasion he was being a traitor, asks her to meet him in the middle of nowhere. And not only does she go, she also promises to speak to the Doctor for him, before he's even shown her that there's anything up. Sarah's a bit rubbish all round, really. Dresses like a ten year old, acts like a fool. I will never understand her allegedly gargantuan popularity.
Anyways, whilst she and Mike are prowling around the retreat, the Doctor invites a psychic round to investigate his powers. He dresses him in silly headphones, and experiments on him for a bit, before the deadly Metebelis Crystal of "Green Death" fame turns up by parcel post. He'd given it to Jo, but she's sent it back to him, as it's freaking out the Amazonian locals. The psychic plays with it, just as Mike's little band of evil chanters begin their evil chants; and the crystal focuses all the chanting and creates a hurricane in the Doctor's lab. The Doctor snatches the crystal away, which makes the psychic's brain burn out - nice going Doc - and the Brigadier makes the first of about five hundred calls to the medical officer, a bloke by the name of Sullivan. Gosh, you don't suppose they're introducing a new character, do you? A medical bloke, perhaps? Called Sullivan?!
Anyway, that's pretty boring stuff really. Back at the retreat, Mike and Sarah encounter Tommy, the latest in a long line of embarrassingly awful childlike characters with which the Pertwee era seems to be peppered. They also meet Cho-je. Oh sweet heaven. That's Cho-je?! That?! That's what K'anpo regenerates into?! Listen, I had Mike leave with that man at the end of this adventure. They went off into space. They had dozens of adventures together. And he looks like that?! I was expecting... I don't know what I was expecting. What the Target describes him as, at least! Whatever the bloody hell I was expecting, it wasn't a comedy Chinaman, played by some bloke painted a funny colour, and trying to make his eyes look narrow. Sheesh. What the hell was the casting director thinking?! Anyways, Mike and Sarah wind up in the basement, where they watch some more chanting, until eventually a giant spider appears in the middle of the floor! Jeepers!
Then there's episode two, otherwise known as Pertwee's Gadget Fandango. Nothing happens in episode two, really, barring a gargantuan chase cross country, involving all of Jon Pertwee's favourite vehicles. Oh, and Terry Walsh and Stuart Fell. So that's nice. Doesn't further the plot in the slightest, but it's great fun. Talk about letting Jon Pertwee have fun on his last jaunt as the Doctor! :D
Hippy Mike!
"He sa Hullo clouds, hullo sky"
The Doctor and the Brig out on a date.
Mike spies on some evil goings-on in the basement.
Shortly before being run off the road by a non-existent tractor.
Cho-je.
Great Rassilon, what were they thinking...
Don't do that, you pillock. It fries brains.
A spider! A spider! Honest!
Mike and Sarah look on as the spider appears.
Mike does his damnedest to look like he means business.
No mean feat when you're dressed like that.
The Pertwee Dream Vehicle Roll Call
The Whomobile. A flying silver hovercraft.
The gyrocopter. A one-man mini chopper.
Bessie! Hurrah!
The Whomobile in flight.
A one-man hovercraft, complete with soggy Time Lord.
Stunned by the procession of vehicles, the Brig, Benton
and a comedy policeman gawp in unison.
He had a lot of fun shooting episode two. I can tell. :D
More another time.
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