Arachnophobia is a personal fear of mine! So, tonight’s Halloween episode of Doctor Who, which features mutant Arachnids in the UK, should make for interesting viewing… However, giant spiders have plagued the Doctor throughout his many incarnations over the decades.

Planet of the Spiders

★★★★☆

TX: 4/5/1974 – 8/6/1974

Written by Robert Sloman Directed by Barry Letts

Metebelis III, the famous blue planet of the Acteon Galaxy, is ruled over by the mind-controlling Eight Legs. These giant spiders have been travelling to Earth via a secret Buddhist ritual in the cellar of a monastery. The spiders are searching for something that the Doctor stole from them a long time ago…

The Doctor realises that he must return the blue crystal he took from Metebelis III in The Green Death back to the Great One, a gigantic spider with terrifying plans for universal domination following the recovery of the crystal. The Doctor manages to thwart the Great One’s scheme, but at the cost of his own life in this thrilling, action-packed swansong for Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. The recovered blue Metebelis sapphire would later reappear in Hide. Whilst working for U.N.I.T, the Third Doctor had a fleet of extraordinary vehicles, including Bessie, the Whomobile, the TARDIS and a helicopter. I was in a play with the late, great Gareth Hunt when I was 8, it was Peter Pan and I played a lost boy and he played Captain Hook.

Full Circle

★★★★☆

TX: 25/10/1980 – 15/11/1980

Written by Andrew Smith Directed by Peter Grimwade

In this oft-overlooked adventure during Tom Baker’s science-heavy, final season, the TARDIS falls through a CVE into E-Space, an area outside the known universe. The Doctor, Romana and K-9 discover a crashed Starliner full of passengers from the planet Terradon that never seems to leave the swamp planet of Alzarius. Worse still, the inhabitants of the Starliner and a group of young rebels called the Outlers, including two brothers named Varsh and Adric, are being terrorised by creatures known as Marshmen and Marshspiders, which emerge at a time called Mistfall. Writer Andrew Smith told me that the Marshmen were a tribute to The Sea Devils.

The Doctor uses DNA testing onboard the Starliner to determine the heritage of these creatures. It transpires that, contrary to the testimony of their leaders (the ironically-named Deciders), the passengers of the Starliner are in fact descended from the Marshmen in the swamp, as they share the same genetic structure with the other creatures. The Doctor is able to help repair the Starliner and enable its passengers’ departure from the planet Alzarius.

<INSERT PHOTO WITH ANDREW SMITH HERE>

The Runaway Bride

★★★★☆

TX: 25/12/2006

Written by Russell T Davies Directed by Euros Lyn

In Catherine Tate’s humorous debut as Donna Noble, the Doctor and his soon-to-be-wed companion follow a web of intrigue to discover an incubation of giant alien arachnids beneath the Thames in London. The omnivorous Racnoss are about to awaken from their millennia-long slumber!

Having recalled his previous encounter with the Racnoss aeons earlier in the Big Finish audio drama Empire of the Racnoss, the Doctor recognises the destructive power that a fully-fledged new Racnoss empire could wield. He reluctantly decides to flood the abandoned Torchwood base, thereby drowning the Empress of the Racnoss and her children buried deep beneath the surface of the Earth.

The Doctor invites his new friend Donna onboard the TARDIS. However, after being shocked by the Doctor’s rash actions against the Racnoss Empress and her children, Donna politely declines… for now.

Kill the Moon

★★☆☆☆

TX: 4/10/2014

Written by Peter Harness Directed by Paul Wilmshurst

The Doctor has had some extraordinary adventures over the years, but none quite so bizarre as this one. Travelling to a Moonbase in 2049, the Doctor, Clara and Courtney discover that Earth’s moon is in fact the egg of a giant space chicken. The moon itself is infested with bacteria spiders that occasionally travel to the surface to consume unsuspecting astronauts…

Writer Peter Harness clearly adds narrative overtones of the controversial issue of abortion into his script for this episode. Faced with a dilemma, the Doctor leaves his companions and the population of Earth to decide whether they should kill the unborn moon egg creature, thereby no longer imperilling the lives of everyone on the planet below. Ultimately, Clara spares the creature and the moon hatches naturally, leaving the Earth unharmed. Kill the Moon remains to date a divisive episode within the Doctor Who fandom, not least because of its highly questionable physics (even by Doctor Who standards) and its politicised content.

Arachnids in the UK

★★★☆☆

TX: 28/10/2018

Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Sallie Aprahamian

The Doctor has returned her companions Graham, Ryan and Yasmin back to present-day Sheffield. However, something strange is happening to the spiders in the city… The spiders are mutating into gigantic arachnids as a result of chemical waste dumping. The Doctor and her friends trace the source of the chemical waste to some underground passages beneath a hotel where Yaz’s mum works. A powerful businessman called Jack Robertson is about to launch a US Presidential Campaign there against controversial American President (and racist rapist) Donald Trump, whom Robertson holds in contempt. Ryan manages to lure the spiders away with some rap music by Stormzy. The Doctor confronts the biggest spider but unfortunately Jack Robertson shoots it. This episode is inspired by The Green Death.

Scary stuff! Be sure to tune in tonight for this freaky, eight-legged Halloween episode.