Four episodes into the new era of Doctor Who, and Chibnall is finally trying his hand at the famous monster-of-the-week style episode the show is most famous for. But while the plot of ‘Arachnids in the UK’ doesn’t let down completely in the thrills department, it still proves that character-driven writing is where Chibnall’s strengths really lie.
The premise for the episode is fairly simple – spiders acting strangely across the UK, with a new hotel owned by greedy business tycoon Jack Robertson being the centre of their activity. Robertson himself is an obvious Trump knock-off, complete with political ambitions, a habit of firing employees, and little development beyond his superficial exterior. But regardless of all this, Chris Noth is an absolute delight to watch in the role, chewing the scenery with overzealous hand-washing and pompous strutting about the place.
Najia Khan (Shobna Gulati) also plays a prominent role in this episode as the mother of Yasmin, filling in the background of her daughter’s mundane and often tiring family life. By spending time with Najia, we start to get the development for Yaz that we have been waiting for all along. We keep following Graham as he continues his journey of dealing with the loss of Grace on his return home, with some beautifully clever camerawork capturing his memories and reflections on his life without her. It is a shame our final guest actor for this week is not served so well though, as Dr Jade McIntyre (Tanya Fear) only serves to deliver bland exposition for our main players to push the plot along.
The main plot regarding the spiders ties itself together in the end, but only through a series of coincidences and connections that shouldn’t be thought about too deeply lest they quickly unravel. One of the only real highlights that come from the central conceit is the notion that the spiders were never really aliens, but rather mutated organisms exposed to biochemical waste. While some may find this explanation clichéd (you would be forgiven for immediately thinking of Spider-Man), in Doctor Who it is a nice break from having everything tidily wrapped up with “They were aliens all along”.
The other highlight comes at the climax when the Doctor deduces that the spiders will follow vibrations in the ground, like they follow the vibrations of trapped insects in their webs. Of course, this leads to the hilariously grand resolution of Ryan blasting bass-heavy rap music over loud speakers.
During ‘Arachnids in the UK’ we also stumble across one of the most defining aspects of the Thirteenth Doctor so far, which has been foreshadowed ever since episode 1 – she is unapologetically considerate of other people. After all, it has been roughly a week since the events of ‘The Doctor Falls’ where the Doctor lost Bill and Nardole in heartbreaking circumstances. Every time she/he ever invited someone new to travel with them, she/he has always done so knowing that this person would inevitably have their life changed for better or worse. With the Thirteenth Doctor though, we are seeing for the first time that this guilt is enough to stop her from inviting potential companions onboard the TARDIS.
Despite this, we can still see an inner conflict in her – while she doesn’t want to keep putting innocent people in danger, she also doesn’t want to keep adventuring in solitude. Even at the tail end of the episode, the invitation to travel doesn’t come from her. In fact she warns them many times of the danger ahead of them, confirming that their hearts are in it 100% before finally letting them join as fulltime companions. This is certainly a new kind of Doctor who places the wellbeing and safety of her friends above all else.
Although the plot at the centre of ‘Arachnids in the UK’ isn’t entirely coherent, it is a fair attempt from Chibnall to fit his writing style in with what long-term fans of the show are used to. Unfortunately it plays a little too closely to the formula of previous Doctor Who episodes for any of its main conceits to be truly engaging. However, in the end it is the brilliant dialogue and engaging character drama that holds this episode up and keeps it from slipping into a mess of tangled plot threads.
