Arachnids in the UK
Story 280, Episode 844, Series 11 Episode 4
Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
In a relatively fun episode, Doctor Who‘s character beats almost completely make you forget about the episode’s illogic.
The Review
The thing that sticks out most about Series 11 is just how fun and snappy it is. It’s directed well, moves quickly, and has some truly great character stuff going on. In this episode the companions are back home, actually 30 minutes after they left. Quickly they still end up joining the Doctor to battle another problem, spiders! Common spiders have been enlarged, and this leads us to an under-construction hotel in the country where the gigantic mother spider and many more spiders are. Turns out the hotel was built on a toxic waste dump including mishandled spider carcasses from a lab (there’s even an entomologist along for the ride) creating mutant spiders. Ryan plays rap, and they all get locked in a panic room.
The spiders are presented well, and are relatively scary foes! Of course it turns out that they’re just scared. The most memorable character isn’t Yaz’s family that we meet (they’re amusing enough though), but Jack Robertson, a Trump expy planning to run for President in 2020. Now, as Trump is canon in-universe this means that there is another billionaire hotel maker trying to run for President. If I was British I’m not sure how I’d feel about how American the show is getting, I love it as an American though. Chris Noth does a good job as a blusteringly confident but out of his depth businessman and is a pretty fun presence. What makes less sense is his niece’s wife (it’s not Doctor Who now unless a one-off female character is gay) who seemingly was in cahoots with the spiders then is eaten, it’s all very confusing.
Arachnids in the UK is never dull, but has too many underlying problems that I will regrettably give it a lower score than my enjoyment of it was.
8/10 Not a bad episode, but nothing we’ll be remembering really.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 