Doctor Who meets giant spiders. As a pitch, it couldn’t fail. Four episodes into series 11 we have Arachnids in the UK an unashamedly B-Movie title. It could work, after all Doctor Who is one of those shows that lends itself to many genres.
However I fear showrunner, Chris Chibnall, has taken his eye off the ball with this episode but is it a total lost cause? Let’s find out.
Who is everyone?
A large TARDIS crew hasn’t been seen in many years. While this provides the potential for lots of character interaction and builds a ‘family’ on board that can bring the viewer in, it also creates the complication of giving everyone something to do. How well do we know the people the Doctor travels with? One thing Arachnids in the UK does well is to ground the regulars as a group of people comfortable with each other, becoming friends and finding out about each other. As a viewer we learn about the crew at almost the same rate as they do although there are enough lines thrown around hinting at adventures between episodes. I wonder if they will form the storylines for the associated BBC novels.