Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders (1974)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 4 May 1974 - 8 June 1974
Number of Episodes: 4
Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: Barry Letts
Production Unit Manager: George Gallaccio

SCRIPT
Script: Robert Sloman, Barry Letts (uncredited)
Story Editor: Terrance Dicks

DIRECTION
Director: Barry Letts

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Ralph Walton
Film Camera: Fred Hamilton

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Bob Rymer
Vision Mixer: Nick Lake (uncredited)

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranged By: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

SOUND
Studio Sound: John Holmes
Film Sound: John Gatland
Special Sounds: Dick Mills
Grams Operator: Andrew Hunter (uncredited)

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Deanne Turner
Costumes: L. Rowland Warne

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Puppeteer: Bary Smith (uncredited)

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Bernard Wilkie
Visual Effects Assistants: Ian Scoones, Richard Conway, Steve Bowman, Mat Irvine (all uncredited)
Title Sequence: Bernard Lodge
Inlay Operator: Dave Chapman (uncredited)

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Rochelle Selwyn

MISCELLANEOUS
Assistant Floor Manager: Graeme Harper
Floor Assistant: Geoffrey Posner (uncredited)
Production Assistant: Marion McDougall
Director's Assistant: Heather Dunthorne (uncredited)
Technical Manager 1: Ralph Walton (uncredited)
Technical Manager 2: Tommy Dawson (uncredited)

LOCATIONS
Locations: Mortimer Station, Strathfield Mortimer, Bucks; Tidmarsh Manor, Tidmarsh, Berks; Membury Airfield, Membury, Wilts; Devizes, Wilts; Newnham-on-Severn

STUNTS
Fight Arranger: Terry Walsh
Stunts: Alan Chuntz, Stuart Fell, Billy Horrigan, Terry Walsh

CAST
Jon Pertwee (The Doctor)
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)
Richard Franklin (Mike Yates)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
John Dearth (Lupton)
Kevin Lindsay (Cho-Je)
John Kane (Tommy)
Cyril Shaps (Professor Hubert Clegg)
John Levene (Sergeant Benton)
George Cormack (K'anpo Rimpoche)
Geoffrey Morris (Sabor)
Gareth Hunt (Arak)
Christopher Burgess (Barnes)
Carl Forgione (Land)
Terence Lodge (Moss)
Andrew Staines (Keaver)
Pat Gorman (soldier)
Chubby Oates (policeman)
Terry Walsh (man with boat (Bert))
Michael Pinder (Hopkins)
Stuart Fell (tramp)
Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado, Maureen Morris (spider voices)
Ralph Arliss (Tuar)
Joanna Monro (Rega)
Jenny Laird (Neska)
Walter Randall, Max Faulkner (guard captains)
Terry Walsh (double for the Doctor - uncredited)
Tom Baker (the Doctor - uncredited)
Lesley Bates, John Cash, Harry Fielder, Derek Hunt, Steve Ismay, Roy Pearce, Dennis Plenty, Geoff Witherick (guards - uncredited)
Keith Ashley, Barbara Bermel, Simon Christy, Ian Elliott, Pat Gorman, Lorna Kilner, Sue Ann Manners, Bill Matthews, Margaret Mckenzie, Ann Plenty, Mary Rennie, Ken Tracye (villagers - uncredited)
Jack Baker, Elaine Banham, Geoffrey Brighty, Leslie Glenroy, Julian Hudson, Tony Kilbane, David Nicholl, Roger Salter, Freddie White, Patsy White (extras - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

At a Buddhist meditation centre Sarah Jane discovers a group are using powers to summon forth an alien entity from the Spider planet Metebilis 3. The Doctor journeys in the TARDIS to confront the planet's Great One.

Pertwee's final story is a much loved tale (again perhaps due to its swift repeat screening in the pre-video seventies) that now rather betrays its age. The wise guru deserves a slap and the regeneration now seems rather perfunctory. Roger Delgado's death robbed us of one last performance where he would have confronted The Doctor but ultimately died trying to save him. That would have been an ending to rival Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1974
May
4: UK - Part One first television broadcast (on BBC1)
11: UK - Part Two first television broadcast (on BBC1)
18: UK - Part Three first television broadcast (on BBC1)
25: UK - Part Four first television broadcast (on BBC1)

June
1: UK - Part Five first television broadcast (on BBC1)
8: UK - Part Six first television broadcast (on BBC1)

December
27: UK - edited compilation television broadcast (on BBC1)

MAGAZINES

Doctor Who: An Adventure in Space & Time no.28: Planet of the Spiders pp.74-03; 74-05 - 74-06; 74-07; 74-08 - 74-10; 74-11 - 74-12; 74-13; 74-14 (UK)
synopsis; illustrated review (by Geraint Jones); illustrated article (Production Office by Jeremy Bentham); illustrated article (All Things Must Pass by John Bowman); illustraed article (Behind the Scenes); article (Technical Notes by Jeremy Bentham); credits (by Stephen James Walker)

Doctor Who Magazine no.314 (6 March 2002) pp.34-41 (UK)
illustrated credits, production notes (Archive: Planet of the Spiders by Andrew Pixley)

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.263-267
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

aliens, spiders, space travel, time travel

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009