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So that's that, then. The strangely rubbish little Dapol Doctor figure has wobbled its way through the opening credits one last time. Poor Three. I like Three. And how does the universe repay him for his courage and fabulous dress sense?! It turns him into Tom Baker. Cruel. Very, very cruel...
It's an odd one, this. The first six minutes of the show are recaps of the end of episode five, but with new bits slotted in. I can only assume that they overran on episode five, and had to wiggle things around a bit in order to find a convenient place to end it. That's a shame, really, as it means that episode five ended on Tommy under fire, when it could have ended on Sarah being taken over by the spider queen, which would probably have been a lot more dramatic. Not that she stays taken over for long, as the Doctor, who never seems to learn from past mistakes, uses the Metebelis Crystal to free her from the queen's control. Chalk another friend's brain up to the Crystal Of Shiny Blue Insanity, then... Still, it's Sarah, so who cares. K'anpo spouts vague pearls of wisdom, and the Doctor realises that he's the old hermit who used to tutor him when he was a boy. Not that it's much of a reunion, as K'anpo tells him that the only thing to do is to take the Metebelis Crystal back where it came from, even though this means certain death. And hello to you too, K'anpo.
Down in the cellar, Cho-je (who, K'anpo now tells us, is just a projection of himself - oh? Why did he get knocked out in episode five, then?!) wakes Mike up. They run off upstairs, where Mike sees Barnes and co shooting at Tommy, and leaps in between them, taking four extra-strength super shots straight to the chest. And bearing in mind that one ordinary blast was nearly fatal for the Doctor, that's quite something. I wonder if it's the bright red flares, the stripy brown jumper, or the long hair that saves his life?! Or maybe it's just that Mike has superpowers. At any rate, given that he's only just recovered from being shot once, it's fairly reckless behaviour. Good old Mike. The Doctor takes all this as a handy distraction, and beetles off back to the TARDIS, hotly pursued by Barnes and co. Or nearly hotly, since Barnes takes the trouble to close K'anpo's office door before chasing after the Doctor. Obviously he was brought up well. The Doctor is way ahead of them, anyway, and dematerialises before they can get near him.
On Metebelis, the Doctor runs into Gareth Hunt, who offers to help him in his quest. He's been taken over by the spiders, though, and leads the Doctor into a trap - albeit a somewhat rubbish one. One wave of the crystal, and a quick claim that he's taking it to the nutball spider that runs the joint, and the spider council let him go without a quibble. So I'm not sure what the point of that scene was. Unless it was to get Lupton all incensed, so that the spiders would kill him, thus wrapping up a loose end. Anyhow, allowed to leave, the Doctor sets off at once to meet his fate.
Back on Earth, meanwhile, K'anpo declares that Mike is an all round good egg, and that the spiders' powers therefore won't have hurt him. So why'd they hurt the Doctor, then?! Having been shot himself, though, K'anpo is weak. Blimey, everybody gets shot in this episode. Careless bunch. He seems to do something to cure Mike, presumably acting as some sort of living version of the machine that the Doctor used on himself back in episode three. Three? Yes, I think three. Or possibly four. *Checks* It was four. After that, powers spent, K'anpo collapses. Poor sod, he then regenerates into Cho-je. What's he done to deserve that, hey? It's not going well for the Time Lord contingent in this story, is it. Poor K'anpo turning into an annoying, orangey, pretend Asian bloke, and Three turning into the Goggly-Eyed Wonder. Sarah gazes in amazement at all of this, whilst Mike sprawls decoratively on the floor, and looks like he's seen it all before. Which he hasn't, but he's Mike, and I don't think Mike ever looks disbelievingly at anything.
Back on Metebelis, the Doctor comes face to face at last with The Great One, a mad-as-nails, gigantic spider, that presumably is the one brought along accidentally by the original human colonists. It takes the crystal, which it puts into a web in the ceiling, intending to use it to magnify its brain waves to infinity, and thus take over the universe. Not sure what it's planning to do with the universe when it's got it, but then it's as mad as a bucket of frogs, so what does it care. Needless to say, things don't go to plan, and as soon as the crystal is in place, The Great One fries itself, along with all of its fellows. Gareth Hunt and co realise that they're free, and run off - quickly, hopefully - whilst the Doctor staggers out of the tunnels just before everything explodes. I'm a bit disappointed that everything blows up, despite usually being more than happy with the big TV boomy things. It's such a cliché, after all. Still, minor gripe. The Doctor staggers off back home, and here's where I start moaning properly. Where's Mike? Yes, I know he's not in UNIT any longer, but why doesn't he get a tag scene? The last we see of him is when he's sprawled on K'anpo's rug. He doesn't get any final line, any nice final scene. He's just gone. No fair. Especially since I seem to have inadvertently sent him off into space with an annoying, orange weirdo. Sorry Mike. Just keep imagining Cho-je like he was in the Target. Anyways, the Doctor collapses and apparently dies, but gosh, what's this?! The Brig sighs knowingly, things glow and blur, and bye bye for now Jon Pertwee. In his place, looking peaceful and quiet for the first and only time, is Four. And thus begin seven years of mad boggling, crap jokes and worse acting.
I know it's sacrilege according to some, but I really don't like Four. Hey ho.
Dapol Doc.
Taken over by the spider queen, Sarah confronts the Doctor and K'anpo.
Sarah is freed (or fried, or both) by the Metebelis Crystal.
And the Doctor and K'anpo have a brief reunion.
Whilst down in the cellar, Cho-je wakes up Mike.
Barnes and co channel extra powers from the spiders, super-charging themselves for an attack.
Ring!
The Doctor tells Sarah that a Time Lord's gotta do what a Time Lord's gotta do.
"Your zappy things cannot harm me! My pullover is like a shield of steel!"
Well, there has to be some reason why he dresses like that...
Whoops. And there goes K'anpo, too.
Meanwhile, on Metebelis again, the Doctor meets with Gareth Hunt.
Who promptly hands him over to the spiders, albeit probably not willingly.
Mike is woken up. Again. After being shot. Again.
But K'anpo, poor fellow, has had it.
And turns into Cho-je.
Mike and Sarah look on. And thus ends Mike's stint on the show.
Bye bye Mike. Have fun travelling with K'anpo. ;)
Whilst all that is going on, the Doctor is confronting The Great One.
Who doesn't last long.
Get your hands out of your pockets, Lethbridge-Stewart. You're on duty.
The Doctor staggers home, all shook up by The Great One's crystal fandango.
And collapses on his (hideous) laboratory floor.
"Here we go again..."
It's an odd one, this. The first six minutes of the show are recaps of the end of episode five, but with new bits slotted in. I can only assume that they overran on episode five, and had to wiggle things around a bit in order to find a convenient place to end it. That's a shame, really, as it means that episode five ended on Tommy under fire, when it could have ended on Sarah being taken over by the spider queen, which would probably have been a lot more dramatic. Not that she stays taken over for long, as the Doctor, who never seems to learn from past mistakes, uses the Metebelis Crystal to free her from the queen's control. Chalk another friend's brain up to the Crystal Of Shiny Blue Insanity, then... Still, it's Sarah, so who cares. K'anpo spouts vague pearls of wisdom, and the Doctor realises that he's the old hermit who used to tutor him when he was a boy. Not that it's much of a reunion, as K'anpo tells him that the only thing to do is to take the Metebelis Crystal back where it came from, even though this means certain death. And hello to you too, K'anpo.
Down in the cellar, Cho-je (who, K'anpo now tells us, is just a projection of himself - oh? Why did he get knocked out in episode five, then?!) wakes Mike up. They run off upstairs, where Mike sees Barnes and co shooting at Tommy, and leaps in between them, taking four extra-strength super shots straight to the chest. And bearing in mind that one ordinary blast was nearly fatal for the Doctor, that's quite something. I wonder if it's the bright red flares, the stripy brown jumper, or the long hair that saves his life?! Or maybe it's just that Mike has superpowers. At any rate, given that he's only just recovered from being shot once, it's fairly reckless behaviour. Good old Mike. The Doctor takes all this as a handy distraction, and beetles off back to the TARDIS, hotly pursued by Barnes and co. Or nearly hotly, since Barnes takes the trouble to close K'anpo's office door before chasing after the Doctor. Obviously he was brought up well. The Doctor is way ahead of them, anyway, and dematerialises before they can get near him.
On Metebelis, the Doctor runs into Gareth Hunt, who offers to help him in his quest. He's been taken over by the spiders, though, and leads the Doctor into a trap - albeit a somewhat rubbish one. One wave of the crystal, and a quick claim that he's taking it to the nutball spider that runs the joint, and the spider council let him go without a quibble. So I'm not sure what the point of that scene was. Unless it was to get Lupton all incensed, so that the spiders would kill him, thus wrapping up a loose end. Anyhow, allowed to leave, the Doctor sets off at once to meet his fate.
Back on Earth, meanwhile, K'anpo declares that Mike is an all round good egg, and that the spiders' powers therefore won't have hurt him. So why'd they hurt the Doctor, then?! Having been shot himself, though, K'anpo is weak. Blimey, everybody gets shot in this episode. Careless bunch. He seems to do something to cure Mike, presumably acting as some sort of living version of the machine that the Doctor used on himself back in episode three. Three? Yes, I think three. Or possibly four. *Checks* It was four. After that, powers spent, K'anpo collapses. Poor sod, he then regenerates into Cho-je. What's he done to deserve that, hey? It's not going well for the Time Lord contingent in this story, is it. Poor K'anpo turning into an annoying, orangey, pretend Asian bloke, and Three turning into the Goggly-Eyed Wonder. Sarah gazes in amazement at all of this, whilst Mike sprawls decoratively on the floor, and looks like he's seen it all before. Which he hasn't, but he's Mike, and I don't think Mike ever looks disbelievingly at anything.
Back on Metebelis, the Doctor comes face to face at last with The Great One, a mad-as-nails, gigantic spider, that presumably is the one brought along accidentally by the original human colonists. It takes the crystal, which it puts into a web in the ceiling, intending to use it to magnify its brain waves to infinity, and thus take over the universe. Not sure what it's planning to do with the universe when it's got it, but then it's as mad as a bucket of frogs, so what does it care. Needless to say, things don't go to plan, and as soon as the crystal is in place, The Great One fries itself, along with all of its fellows. Gareth Hunt and co realise that they're free, and run off - quickly, hopefully - whilst the Doctor staggers out of the tunnels just before everything explodes. I'm a bit disappointed that everything blows up, despite usually being more than happy with the big TV boomy things. It's such a cliché, after all. Still, minor gripe. The Doctor staggers off back home, and here's where I start moaning properly. Where's Mike? Yes, I know he's not in UNIT any longer, but why doesn't he get a tag scene? The last we see of him is when he's sprawled on K'anpo's rug. He doesn't get any final line, any nice final scene. He's just gone. No fair. Especially since I seem to have inadvertently sent him off into space with an annoying, orange weirdo. Sorry Mike. Just keep imagining Cho-je like he was in the Target. Anyways, the Doctor collapses and apparently dies, but gosh, what's this?! The Brig sighs knowingly, things glow and blur, and bye bye for now Jon Pertwee. In his place, looking peaceful and quiet for the first and only time, is Four. And thus begin seven years of mad boggling, crap jokes and worse acting.
I know it's sacrilege according to some, but I really don't like Four. Hey ho.
Dapol Doc.
Taken over by the spider queen, Sarah confronts the Doctor and K'anpo.
Sarah is freed (or fried, or both) by the Metebelis Crystal.
And the Doctor and K'anpo have a brief reunion.
Whilst down in the cellar, Cho-je wakes up Mike.
Barnes and co channel extra powers from the spiders, super-charging themselves for an attack.
Ring!
The Doctor tells Sarah that a Time Lord's gotta do what a Time Lord's gotta do.
"Your zappy things cannot harm me! My pullover is like a shield of steel!"
Well, there has to be some reason why he dresses like that...
Whoops. And there goes K'anpo, too.
Meanwhile, on Metebelis again, the Doctor meets with Gareth Hunt.
Who promptly hands him over to the spiders, albeit probably not willingly.
Mike is woken up. Again. After being shot. Again.
But K'anpo, poor fellow, has had it.
And turns into Cho-je.
Mike and Sarah look on. And thus ends Mike's stint on the show.
Bye bye Mike. Have fun travelling with K'anpo. ;)
Whilst all that is going on, the Doctor is confronting The Great One.
Who doesn't last long.
Get your hands out of your pockets, Lethbridge-Stewart. You're on duty.
The Doctor staggers home, all shook up by The Great One's crystal fandango.
And collapses on his (hideous) laboratory floor.
"Here we go again..."
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