Back from a night in Durham, sorting out a child passport because things had been left too late to apply in the usual civilised manner.
Equally annoying and unwelcome is the headcold which manifested on my return. And unlike the instance in my childhood when I received a day off school and my mother bought me a copy of the "Carnival of Monsters" Target novel to read as I lay in bed, I can only forsee spending tomorrow at work slumped in front of a computer, while people ask me damn fool questions all day long.
So, while this entry isn't about Serial PPP, it does concern another story directed by Barry Letts that looked absolutely bloody brilliant to my youthful eyes.
But unlike PPP, in the harsh light of day, ZZZ proves to be rather difficult to love...
So, "Planet of the Spiders". A story that had so much to achieve, and which fails on most counts?
I always wondered what Sarah Jane was pointing at here, as it looks as if it may be something jolly exciting. But it's probably just Stuart Fell getting run over, or something similar.
And speaking of pointing, that's Clever Lupton (the sadly under-used John Dearth) doing some disco pointing of his own. This photo used to appear quite a lot, but quite tightly cropped. I've left it full-frame here for the cognitive dissonance it causes...
There, doesn't this story look as if it's going to be totally mindblowing? Even Pertwee looks as if he might be taking it seriously, so late into Season Eleven.
Perhaps "Planet of the Spiders" fails mainly because so much is expected of it? On the other hand, bolting a Buddhist parable about the arrogance of the ego/self onto Pertwee-pleasing chase sequences and squeaky-voiced giant spiders was probably not the best way to end an era.
A nice try, but would the much-touted Doctor versus Master final battle have fared any better?
The image of Roger Delgado angrily shaking his black-gloved fist at a rapidly accelerating airborne Whomobile is one that sadly can exist only in our collective imaginations...
No comments:
Post a Comment