Original air dates May and June of 1974. Last serial with Jon Pertwee, a regeneration episode, yay!
A man walks through a field. Cows. Doctor and the Brigadier are at some variety show, impatiently. The man from the field finds some people saying “Om”. The man interrupts when he sees a spider. Looks like Mike Yates.
The next day, the “Professor” from the variety show comes to UNIT, and asks when they want a show. The Doctor calls him on being a real psychic, and gets a demonstration. The “Professor” doesn’t like the mystic powers and wants to see them off.
Mr. Yates has gone to the station to fetch a reporter – it’s Sarah. Mike thinks the meditating men are doing something, and dosen’t think the Doctor or the Brigadier will listen to him as his reputation is considerably besmirched.
Doctor interviews “Professor”, demonstrates things.
Sarah interviews the monks.
A package from Jo arrives. Package from a long way, beyond the stars, it’s the blue stone from Mirabilis 3. Professor gets it right, despite not having an understanding of what it is. Jo sent it because it’s “bad magic” and none of the Indian porters will work with them as long as she has it.
Sarah and Mike sneak back to the house to avoid the suspiciouns of men there. They catch the men meditating. It’s very dull. It reacts with the Doctor’s crystal, strongly. It kills the Professor!
A blue light and a giant spider appear in the middle of their prayer mat. The spider zaps people. The spider says, “I have come to give you the power you seek.” and jumps on to the man’s back before fading away. It’s full of creepy.
The Doctor’s brain-scan machine only recorded spiders.
Mike sends Sarah to tell the Doctor and Brigadier, while he tries to get the Abbott involved.
The spider wants the crystal, to get it back. It will give them both power they seek. He sees the Doctor staring into a blue crystal.
The man with the spider walks to UNIT and zaps his way in, after the crystal, which he sees through a window and is excited about.
The man steals the crystal and then the Whomobile, so the Brig and Benton chase him in Bessie while the Doctor goes up in a little helicopter. What a silly chase. Now the police are involved. The man has stolen their helicopterty thing. Gyroplane, apparently. They chase it in the Whomobile, which flies.
The Gyroplane runs out of fuel, lands. Doctor and Sarah in whomobile land, as the man steals a boat, leaving the Doctor to steal the hovercraft. EVEN SILLIER CHASE.
The Doctor jumps from the hovercraft to the boat, and the man vanishes! Credits roll!
Part 3 starts with the daring leap from moving hovercraft to boat, and Lupton appears back at their house.
The spider-thing warns Lupton not to let the others know he’s there. My goodness, there’s a whole spider thing with them wanting to return to reclaim Earth.
Doctor shows up at the meditation center looking for the crystal. Mr. Lupton wants to avoid them.
Lupton goes to the cellar to do the ritual by himself. Sarah hides to watch. Doctor and Mike get the message. They see Sarah vanish on the Mandala to Mirabils 3.
The queen of the eight legs arrives in the villiage. Demands a young man. His father goes in his place. The TARDIS materializes and the Doctor steps out and gets involved. There is an affray. The Doctor is zapped, falls down. Credits roll.
A sick Doctor needs something from the TARDIS. Gives Sarah the key – the newfangled key, not the old Yale key. She gets the thing he needed, sets it by the TARDIS to lock the door, and is accosted by Lupton.
Things happen. Sarah is captured. Old man is captured. Doctor is captured. Credits roll.
Doctor worms his way loose, using Harry Houdini’s techniques. He goes after Sarah.
Lupton tries and fails to negotiate with spiders.
Doctor finds The Great One – is lured in, really – and is sent to get the crystal.
Sarah uses the magic of the Queen to get she and the Doctor back to the TARDIS, which takes them to the monestary. Everyone wants the crystal, which winds up with the Doctor and the Abbott. Tommy is guarding the door and gets zapped repeatedly. Credits roll. Last ep!
Spiders drive their new minions to find the crystal. Sarah is wearing a spider, and tries to take the crystal from the Abbott. The Abbott and Doctor get her free. The Abbott is nice.
Doctor realizes he has to return the crystal to the Great One. Goes back to Mirabilis 3 to do so. Everyone warns him he’ll die in the cave of crystals.
The Abbott regenerates.
The Doctor returns the crystal to a really freaking huge spider, who uses it to overload her own brain and explode. The littler (still pretty big) spiders die when the giant one does. Oh my, the mountain explodes.
Doctor makes it to the TARDIS.
Three weeks later, Sarah Jane Smith shows up at UNIT, to have the TARDIS materalize there and a tired Doctor steps out. Last words, “While there’s life, there’s…” and he dies. Sarah and the Brigadier are watching and upset, when the Abbott appears and says, “It’s all right, he’s not dead.”
Abbott fades with the admonition to “Look after him” and the Brig says, “Well, here we go again.” Pertwee fades to Tom Baker, credits roll. End of episode, end of serial, end of doctor number three.
Tags: doctorwho