Planet of the Spiders

In the last and most dangerous adventure in the Pertwee years, what begins as innocuous research into ESP turns into a deadly mind battle with the terrifying spiders from the planet Metebelis III pitted against the Doctor, his friends and fellow Time Lord K'Anpo.

At a Tibetan style spiritual retreat deep in rural England, a clandestine circle of changing brethren unknowingly call upon the evil powers of the Metebelis Spiders, whose quest for the perfect blue crystal leads them straight to the Doctor. He must travel to the alien planet to meet the Great One, merciless ruler of her spiders and human slaves, who plans to take over Earth. The future of the entire universe is in the Doctor's hands, but if he is to face the fear the Great One sees in his mind, then he must face the certainty of total destruction. Could this be the Time Lord's final death?

• Pertwee's swan song has a little bit of everything, car chases, helicopter/whomobile chases, watercraft chases, fisticuffs, and Tibetan chants.  :)

• This story will make a little bit more sense if you see "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" (for the Mike Yates storyline) and "The Green Death" (for the Metabelis 3 storyline).

• Amusingly, the show's producers got a fair amount of flack for their negative portrayal of spiders in this story. 

• George Cormack (K'Anpo) returns to Doctor Who after a 2 year absence.  He originally played the part of Dalios, ruler of Atlantis, in "The Time Monster."

• Kevin Lindsey (Cho-Je) also appeared earlier in the season as the Sontaran warrior Linx in "The Time Warrior."  He return the following season to once again play a Sontaran (Styre) in "The Sontaran Experiment."

• John Dearth (Lupton) can be heard in the previous season's story "The Green Death" as the voice of B.O.S.S.