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| The Doctor has a spider problem to deal with... |
THE PLOT:
The Doctor finally manages to return Ryan, Graham, and Yaz to Sheffield - Getting them home just thirty minutes after they left. While Graham returns to his house to start dealing with the aftermath of Grace's death, Yaz invites the Doctor and Ryan to her apartment.
All is not well. A neighbor's apartment is covered in cobwebs, the woman herself suffocated in a cocoon spun by a giant spider. The Doctor contains the spider, then investigates with the help of arachnologist Dr. Jade McIntyre (Tanya Fear). Jade reveals that spiders have been behaving strangely, and the Doctor traces reported spider incidents to their epicenter - a soon-to-open luxury hotel, owned by American business mogul Jack Robertson (Chris Noth).
Robertson is in the hotel, having just fired the hotel's manager - Yaz's mother, Nadia (Shobna Gulati). He's incensed by the intrusion of the Doctor and her friends, and more than a little anxious about them discovering a secret he's trying to bury. When they discover giant spiders throughout the hotel, however, even Robertson agrees that it's time to run - Except that the entrance has been closed off with spider webs thick enough to stop a plane!
"They're trying to make the whole hotel their web... and we're the flies!"
THE DOCTOR:
I noted in my review of The Woman Who Fell to Earth that Jodie Whittaker seemed to struggle with moments that required her to switch rapidly between light comedy and heavy drama. I've since revised that opinion - She struggles with goofy comedy, whether she's shifting between modes or not. The Ghost Monument and particularly Rosa saw terrific performances from her, in no small part because the goofiness was dialed back. Arachnids in the UK dials the goofiness up to Thirteen, and much of Whittaker's performance falls flat as a direct result. Writers, please note - More of "Do you practice those lines in a mirror?" and "Go take one of your heroic naps," and less (better still, no) babbling about purple sofas or mistaking people for Ed Sheeran.
Whittaker still finds some good moments among the chaff. I enjoyed her moment of pleasant surprise that she actually managed to get her companions home - Followed by her quiet sadness as she realizes that she's gotten them home and will likely have to say goodbye. When investigating a cobwebbed apartment and discovering the body of a woman killed by a spider, she dismisses Ryan's "Do spiders do this?" as the wrong question. The right question? "Where is the spider that did this?" Best of all is the final scene, in which the Doctor makes sure she has absolute, informed consent by her new friends before letting them join her on a longer-term basis. "I can't guarantee that you're going to be safe... When I pull that lever, I'm never quite sure what's going to happen." Twelve's losses still resonate, and she wants to be certain her new friends know what they're signing on for.
It does beg the question: How did the same person who wrote that scene also write so much of the guff that comes before it?
CHARACTERS:
Graham: In what's ostensibly a Yaz spotlight episode, Graham still gets the best material. The scenes in which he returns to his now-empty house carry surprising weight, an authentic feel of grief. He sees Grace in every corner, hears her voice reminding him about vacuum cleaner bags and trash days, and you can physically see the life drain from him. When he rejoins the others, he's back to his usual cheerful self, but we're now aware that some of the cheer is a facade, and some is him distracting himself from his own grief.
Yaz: Is the first to notice how difficult it is for the Doctor to say goodbye, and delays their parting by inviting her for tea - Which the Doctor accepts even before Yaz has finished speaking the invitation. She regards her family with exasperation, which is fair enough given that her conspiracy-loving father (Ravin J. Ganatra) has actually toted bags of trash home with him as "evidence." Yaz does seem to have a bit of hero worship going on with the Doctor, instantly ready to defer to her when she arrives on scene and declaring her to be "the best person I've ever met."
Ryan: Despite his insistence that he doesn't know Graham that well, he does seem to be bonding more than he might like. When Graham brings him a letter from his father, Ryan is reluctant to read it. When he does, and sees his father has invited him to live with him, his "proper family," he is bothered. "I don't like that he put that," he tells Graham, adding that his father is "not proper."
"Yaz's Mum": Shobna Gulati is instantly likable as Najia, Yaz's mother. Chris Chibnall's script is a broad one, and he sketches her in very broad strokes, particularly her grilling Yaz about whether she's dating first the Doctor, then Ryan. But she's an engaging presence, and meshes well with the regulars. I particularly enjoyed her frustration when Robertson's secret is discovered. She's not mad that he's shady; she's mad that he's effectively proved her husband right about a trash-connected conspiracy. "Do you have any idea how annoying it is when my husband's right?!" Definitely a character I would enjoy seeing again - Hopefully in a better episode.
Pompous Bureaucrat of the Week: Jack Robertson isn’t so much a villain as a pompous bureaucrat of the type regularly ignored and/or insulted by the Doctor during Jon Pertwee's run. He's an arrogant, neurotic, germ-phobic, none-too-bright business magnate who's running for President of the United States to satisfy his ego... So yes, basically Donald Trump. His role in the story is to alternate between being idiotic and reprehensible, save for when he's being both at the same time. Noth, never my favorite actor, yells most of his lines while overacting every reaction, letting the air right out of a few exchanges that might have been amusing with an actor capable of underplaying.
THOUGHTS
I'll start with the positive. Like most of this season, Arachnids in the UK is beautifully shot. It would have been easy for the opening of the episode to cut straight into Robertson talking with underlings in a darkened room. Instead, we get a series of establishing shots of the hotel, with the camera moving us closer and closer in, until we finally are brought to Robertson's clandestine meeting. The hotel is a good choice of setting, offering a confined (presumably budget-friendly) space while still allowing enough visual variety to avoid monotony.
I will also say that for most of its running time, this episode is a lot more fun to watch than it should be. It's a stupid episode, but it moves right along. Whittaker fumbles some of the goofy dialogue she's given - But most of the other actors do pretty well, and this is surprisingly funny for a story in which multiple people are suffocated by disturbingly convincing CGI spiders. And yes - Unlike previous Who attempts at giant insects, these spiders look good!
I also appreciate this season's tendency to actually fall back on real science. The Doctor and an arachnologist supply a number of facts about spiders. When the story requires spiders to behave in an abnormal way - such as by attacking humans - the characters comment on how uncharacteristic the behavior is. The fate of the mother spider is also tied to real science. This keeps the Giant Spider story fitting with the more grounded tone of the season, even if its B movie inspiration remains clear.
Unfortunately, this is the first story of Series 11 where the bad outweighs the good. Even allowing for my general dislike of his work, Chris Noth's performance here is utterly atrocious. Jodie Whittaker is fine when she's not being forced-goofy... But she is given a lot of overly quirky/goofball moments in this episode, and she's just not good at them. Chibnall's not particularly good at writing them, either.
Worst of all is the story's resolution. As the Doctor tries to find a humane way to deal with the dying mother spider, Robertson blows right past her, shoots the spider, and swans off, entirely dismissive of her. The Doctor basically just stands there, offering a few weak protests and nothing more. The scene makes the Doctor both weak and passive. Now, it's OK for the Doctor to have moments of weakness. It's OK for the Doctor to sometimes be passive. The Doctor should never be both weak and passive at the same time!
The first misfire of the new era. Enjoyable enough to rate above the series' worst - But definitely below par, and an episode that highlights all too well some of the limitations of both the lead writer and the lead actor.
Rating: 4/10.
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