A Matter of Time: Planet of the Spiders

ORIGINAL BROADCAST: 18/05/1974
DOCTOR: Jon Pertwee
COMPANION: Elisabeth Sladen

STORY: The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith experience strange events, after they discover that a meditation centre run by Tibetan monks is linked to the blue planet of Metebelis Three, and a colony of giant spiders. The Doctor must reflect on his past to defeat a deadly and possibly fatal challenge...

FACTS:
• The original story to end Jon Pertwee’s era was to have been called ‘The Final Game’, and was intended to write out the character of the Master. This idea was abandoned when Roger Delgado died unexpectedly.
• This story featured the second and last appearance of the ‘Whomobile’, a hovercraft-type vehicle that was capable of flying.
• The character of Harry Sullivan, the UNIT medical officer, is referred to by the Brigadier when the Doctor falls into a daze. Ian Marter would play his character in ‘Robot’, and remain as a companion until ‘Terror of the Zygons’.

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