Doctor Who: Series 11, Episode 4: “Arachnids in the UK” – Review

Picture Shows: The Doctor (JODIE WHITTAKER)

Doctor Who Series 11, Episode 4 Arachnids in the UK television review; s11e04, sci-fi, Jodie WhittakerThis week, Team TARDIS were back in modern-day Sheffield, but throughout ‘Arachnids in the UK’, I couldn’t help but feel like I was back in 2005. In the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who, there were outer-space hijinks and adventures through time but everything was, ultimately, grounded. Our companions didn’t have mysteries surrounding them—just families. Our stories were, a lot of the time, small-scale and intimate, and we learnt to see the beauty in the everyday. This was exactly where the strengths of ‘Arachnids in the UK’ shone. Doctor 13’s companions are normal human beings, with human problems and mundane lives, and their presence alone raised an average, silly story about spiders in Sheffield to something slightly above average in my eyes.

Yaz, Ryan, and Graham are all finally dropped home, and prepare to return to normal life. The Doctor, obviously reluctant to say goodbye to her new friends, accepts an invitation to have a cup of tea at Yaz’s, only to get sidetracked by a conspiracy, a hotel magnate, and some giant spiders. Meanwhile, Graham must come to terms with being surrounded by reminders of his deceased wife, Grace, and Ryan grapples with a letter from his absent father. Each of the companions get a nice slice of development this episode, exploring what it would be like to be confronted with normality after such vast adventures. Each actor does quite well here, but Bradley Walsh knocks it out of the park as Graham, portraying a mix of optimism, heartbreak, and grief that makes Graham Doctor Who‘s most engaging recent companion.

We are also given some nice guest appearances in this episode. Shobna Gulati is extremely well cast as Nadja, Yaz’s mother, and Chris Noth hams it up as Trump-esque businessman Jack Robertson. Noth in particular seems to be having a great time on the show, playing a caricatured, gun-toting, obnoxious American. However, while he was a lot of fun for the most part, I couldn’t help but feel his character was cheap, contrasting poorly against our layered protagonists. We are also joined by spider expert Dr. Jade McIntyre (Tanya Fear), who had no discernible character, had a habit of spelling out the plot at convenient moments, and was all-round forgettable. McIntyre’s inclusion in the episode made the adventure feel crowded, something extremely unnecessary for such a simple story.

There really wasn’t too much to the overarching plot—spiders are acting strangely around Sheffield, growing to an incredible size and wrapping people in webs. Our heroes spend a lot of the episode running through corridors in an abandoned hotel as they are chased by CGI spiders. The visual effects on the spiders themselves are not the best, but I have seen a lot worse on a TV budget. Direction and cinematography-wise, this episode, for the most part, has maintained the high standard of the other Series 11 entries. There were some gorgeous transitions in this episode, despite the small-scale subject matter. However, a tacked-on conclusion for defeating the spiders is rushed at best, and ridden with plot-holes at worst.

Overall, ‘Arachnids in the UK’ was an average episode of Doctor Who. It was silly at points, and we were treated to the usual running-through-corridors shots among the quirky-family drama. However, the final moments of this episode were incredibly sweet, and we are now fully set up in regards to the dynamics of the show from this point on. It’s nice to see an ‘average’ episode of Doctor Who be so solid as it sets a good median for the quality of the rest of the series.

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply