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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Written by

Chris Chibnall

Directed by

Sallie Aprahamian

Runtime

50 minutes

Time Travel

Present

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Psychic Paper, Sonic Screwdriver

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, Sheffield

UK Viewers

8.22 million

Appreciation Index

83

Synopsis

The Thirteenth Doctor finally manages to bring her friends home, but with more time alone on the horizon, she soon discovers that something unnatural has happened to the eight-legged population of Sheffield. Why have they converged on an unopened hotel, and why is there a man going around like he owns the place?

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Reviews

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8 reviews

I'm terrified of spiders, so I was very uncomfortable watching this episode, but that makes it a nifty horrific story. I liked the antagonist who parodies Trump, we finally have a good villain in this season. Otherwise, the whole spider story captivated me and even managed to move me, even though, as I said, I hate spiders.


Romy

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Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

“ARACHNIDS IN THE UK: SPIDERS, SUFFOCATION AND SUBTLE-AS-A-BRICK SATIRE”

Arachnids in the UK marks Series 11’s return to contemporary Earth with an episode that combines old-school Doctor Who creature-feature vibes with a thinly veiled political allegory—and the result is… well, sticky. Giant spiders? Great. Commentary on environmental disaster and populist politics? Potentially rich. But somehow, Chris Chibnall’s script ends up as a clunky mix of intriguing ideas and missed opportunities, webbed together with some occasionally effective scares and a lot of uneven pacing.

JUST YOUR AVERAGE SPIDER APOCALYPSE

The premise is pleasingly straightforward: we're in Sheffield, and there are freakishly huge spiders turning your Airbnb into Eight-Legged Freaks. It’s a classic base under siege story grounded in an everyday setting—high-rise flats, a luxury hotel, and a very local vibe. It’s an obvious fear to tap into, and the visuals of spiderweb-covered corridors and creeping arachnids are effectively skin-crawling, especially for anyone with even a hint of arachnophobia.

The story’s twist is that the spiders aren’t alien monsters—they’re mutated Earth spiders, bloated and aggressive thanks to corporate negligence and toxic landfill. This makes Arachnids in the UK the first of many Chibnall-era stories to offer a strong environmental message: the monsters aren’t monsters, the villains are greedy humans, and there’s no alien interference. In theory, that’s refreshing. In practice, it’s oddly inert.

SCIENCE FACTS, SOCIAL AWKWARDNESS AND STUNT POLITICIANS

There's a valiant attempt to make the science feel grounded—think Doctor Who does Jurassic Park, complete with fun facts about spiders and a bit of techno-babble. But the delivery can be dense and dreary, and the pacing suffers under the weight of all the exposition. The Doctor and Fam spend much of the episode gathering information and wandering through increasingly webbed-up rooms, which means the middle stretch drags badly.

Still, there are some character-driven bright spots. Thirteen’s quirky charm gets a nice outing here—especially when she awkwardly meets Yaz’s family and insists on not overstaying her welcome (while very much doing exactly that). Her surprise and quiet sadness at having to say goodbye to her companions only to be immediately invited for tea is a lovely moment that highlights her social clumsiness and emotional depth. It’s a quieter, more personal take on the new Doctor’s bond with her companions, and it works.

Yaz’s family are introduced with warmth and potential—her mum Najia and dad Hakim are given just enough personality to intrigue, and their later return in Demons of the Punjab will expand on that foundation.

GRAHAM, GRIEF, AND ABANDONED CHARACTER THREADS

The episode also attempts to give Graham and Ryan some emotional development, though it fumbles the follow-through. Graham’s short scene in his empty house is quietly powerful, with Bradley Walsh once again nailing the role’s emotional core. But the moment is all too brief. Similarly, a conversation between Ryan and Graham about a letter from Ryan’s dad could have deepened their bond but is cut off just as it begins to get interesting. These fragments hint at something richer but never commit.

JACK ROBERTSON: TRUMPED-UP TROUBLE

Enter Chris Noth’s Jack Robertson, the cartoonishly awful American hotel magnate who couldn’t be more obviously based on Donald Trump if he tried (and he is very clearly trying). He’s all bluster, ego, and corporate callousness—utterly dislikable and played for broad satire. The Trump metaphor is about as subtle as a spider dropping from the ceiling onto your face, but Noth’s performance is entertaining in its smug awfulness, and he serves as a passable non-alien antagonist.

Unfortunately, the climax—or lack thereof—lets the entire plot down. There’s no real escalation or tension; the spiders are dealt with offhandedly, and the final resolution involves the Doctor deciding not to kill them... by trapping them in a room to slowly suffocate. It's a bizarre moral line to draw, and it leaves the Doctor looking, at best, ethically inconsistent and, at worst, vaguely monstrous.

STYLE OVER STAKES

Visually, the episode leans into muted tones and eerie stillness. The effects work on the spiders is surprisingly strong—especially considering the budget—and the use of cramped flats and under-construction corridors sells the creeping dread. However, the episode's horror elements are softened by a somewhat oddly sentimental score, with strings undercutting the tension where screeching violins might have amped it up.

The atmosphere is there, but the threat never fully takes shape, and by the time the credits roll, the whole thing feels more like a half-hearted fable than a fully spun tale of terror.

📝VERDICT: 6/10

Arachnids in the UK has all the ingredients of a strong Doctor Who episode—a simple horror premise, a grounded setting, a social message, and strong character beats—but it ends up entangled in its own web of clumsy pacing, underdeveloped ideas, and a moral conclusion that’s more confusing than comforting. It’s a story about spiders that can’t quite stick the landing, despite some standout moments for Thirteen, Graham, and Yaz’s family.


MrColdStream

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It's mostly just okay. Najia is fun (I particularly like when the Doctor tells her that she "raised an awesome human"), Graham's character moments are good, and for a straight-faced take on a creature feature, it does well enough. Only real complaints I have are 'Jack Robertson' for how basic of a caricature he is (with how prevalent piss-takes of that particular guy were between 2015 and 2020, these jokes were already old hat), and the dubious framing around the Doctor's endgame for the titular Arachnids. In an attempt to continue NuWho's pacifism and mock cultural obsessions with firearms, it ended up shooting itself in the foot and made Jack look like the reasonable one by comparison. Big yikes.

I don't even mind the Doctor being morally screwy (it's why Seventh is one of my favourites), but the blind handing-over of benefit of the doubt for that decision and the lack of self-awareness thereof doesn't sit well with me. It's not quite "Amazon is good, actually" from Kerblam!, but it's up there.


Mahan

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This review contains spoilers!

This is such a good episode for the Doctor being autistic! And for building the fam’s relationship! It’s generally sweet and wholesome and I really enjoyed it.

My only real issue is that there’s no wrap up about Robertson, either making a Thing about his escape or giving him some justice for what he did. They just kind of stop the spiders and move on.


presidentdisastra

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Arachnids in the Uk

This is one of the 2 Thirteenth Doctor stories I don't like, This is because the fear of spiders is real.


Dullish

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Quotes

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YASMIN: I want more. More of the universe. More time with you. You're like the best person I've ever met.

— Yasmin Khan, Arachnids in the UK

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Transcript + Script Needs checking

[Ballroom]

(A tour of the big building on the hill shows it to be devoid of people, apart from a young woman, a mature man and his bodyguard.)

ROBERTSON: (American, reading a file on a pad.) Are you kidding me?
KEVIN: Sir, we need to be moving out. The plane is on standby.
ROBERTSON: I say when the plane leaves, Kevin. What do you need, money?
FRANKIE: It's not the money, sir. It's the logistics. And the scale. It's too big, too complex. And of course, the confidentiality. It's potentially very exposing for all of us, but especially for you.
ROBERTSON: Frankie, we're family, right? I mean, you're my... What are you again?
FRANKIE: I'm your niece's wife, sir.
ROBERTSON: Exactly. But you get things done. Now this could destroy me for 2020, so make it disappear.
FRANKIE: I'm not sure I can.
ROBERTSON: What?
NAJIA: Hi! Thought I was the only one in. I just came in to check everything was all right before we opened.
ROBERTSON: Who the hell is this?
NAJIA: I'm Najia. I didn't realise that you were in here. Or here at all. Wow.
ROBERTSON: I thought I told you to stay on the door, Kevin.
KEVIN: I came through the door to tell you we had to leave, sir.
ROBERTSON: Unbelievable. What do you, work for me or something?
NAJIA: Yes. I'll be the General Manager. I thought, while we're finalising, I'd come in and familiarise myself, so I can hit the ground running when we officially open.
ROBERTSON: You're fired.
NAJIA: Pardon?
ROBERTSON: You're fired. Get out.
NAJIA: I'm so sorry.
ROBERTSON: (to Frankie) You have one hour to tell me how you're going to make this all go away. Okay? Kevin. I say when we go.

[TARDIS]

(Hanging onto the console for dear life as it careens through the Vortex.)


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