Arachnids in the UK

"Something is wrong with the spider ecosystem in South Yorkshire."

Writer: Chris Chibnall

Format: TV

Broadcast: 28th October 2018

Series: 11.04

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

The Doctor returns Yaz, Graham and Ryan back to their hometown and in their own time. It has only been half an hour since they departed following a battle with Tzim Sha, but Sheffield is experiencing a wider issue. One with eight legs...

Verdict

Arachnids in the UK was another great episode to continue my rewatching of Series 11! I have to say, I'm absolutely loving watching this series all in one go and Team TARDIS was truly born in this episode which is terrific to say. It was brilliant to see as well and after all of their recent escapades on Desolation and with Rosa Parks, the Doctor got them home. I didn't quite remember them returning just half an hour after the events of The Woman Who Fell to Earth, but it does make sense and just gave me vibes of The Faceless Ones which is never a bad thing! The Doctor not wanting to travel alone was something I remember really loving on broadcast and my sentiments were echoed once again. The joy she has when invited around for a cuppa at Yaz's is just magnificent. She was so excited by the prospect! I really enjoyed that. With the team coming back home, it was time to attempt to get over Grace and for Graham that involved the difficult task of returning home. I'm not too sure if I would have gone with the echoes of the former, but it didn't hurt things in the slightest. It actually provided ammunition for Graham in wanting to continue his travels with the Doctor. Meeting Yaz's family was great and I really loved her mum. The Doctor only referring to her as 'Yaz's mum' was just wonderful and I really enjoyed it when she told her that she had created a great human. Jodie Whittaker was in fine form yet again as the Thirteenth Doctor and I am going to go on record and say purely for her incarnation, it is one of the very best. She is just marvellous. The Ed Sheeran moments were incredibly good humour and I just love how she can shift from comedy too serious. That was evident with her interactions with Robertson. The politics behind his character was good and very apt for the time we live in, but I maintain that American viewers would probably not be best pleased with some of the Trump bashing and gun promotion. It didn't quite seem right. It is quite incredible that I am only now referring to the spiders given the story's (naff) title! I am not scared of much at all, not even spiders, but even I found them quite scary in this episode. That was purely down to their size which was just disturbing. I thought the companions were good in showing just how scared they were as well. The predominant setting of the unopened hotel worked very nicely and I liked how the link between it being built on an old coal mine full of toxic waste and the spider behaviour in Sheffield was kept until the latter stages of the story. The inferences that Yaz and Ryan were seeing each other were interesting and it has led me to think that they may just end up that way by the time they depart the TARDIS. The mother spider was a heartbreaking moment knowing that it was too big to survive and was suffocating. It was quite saddening that the spiders were just confused and disoriented and it was their pheromones that were causing widespread issues. The coincidences of the story are probably a little unbelievable and convenient, but that didn't stop it being a really good episode! I thoroughly enjoyed it and it didn't seem like such an unresolved ending as I remembered. It still could have been better and cleared up more efficiently, but I was really pleased with the episode as a whole. 

Rating: 8/10