“Return of the Spiders” is Gareth Roberts’ love letter to Planet of the Spiders, doing a sequel set squarely within Season 17, the era of Doctor Who he is best at writing.  You’d think this makes for a brilliant story like the likes of The Romance of Crime, The English Way of Death, or The Well-Mannered War, but “Return of the Spiders” is fine.  Roberts is great at getting the Doctor and Romana’s characterization and banter down to an exact science which makes it bearable, but he is taking the piss out of the spiders too much meaning this feels like a reinvention that is disrespectful to the thematic end of the Third Doctor in a way bringing the story down.  It also takes way too long to reveal the spiders.  6/10.