Afraid of eight-legged freaks? You might have to watch ‘The Story and The Engine’ from behind the sofa…
Do you suffer from arachnophobia? Well, you soon might if you sit down to watch 2025’s ‘The Story and the Engine’ – the fifth episode from Ncuti Gatwa’s second season as the good Doctor. Spoiler alert: the baddie is a spider.
The spider in ‘The Story and the Engine’ is different from what you might expect, though. For one thing, it’s huge – big enough to carry an entire barber shop on its back, in fact, as it makes its way through a ‘world wide web’ known as the Nexus.
In a way, ‘The Story and the Engine’ featured a returning baddie. Granted, we may not have seen this exact spider before, but the dreaded eight-legged monsters have appeared several times in Doctor Who‘s history. And whilst they didn’t all have eight legs, they weren’t the kind that you’d want to see scuttling across your kitchen floor.
So if you’re in the mood for some eight-legged frights, here are some other adventures that have tapped into this very common (and almost primal) human fear…
Planet of the Spiders
No surprises here. Whilst ‘The Story and the Engine’ might have surprised everyone with its eight-legged antagonist, we all knew they were coming in this classic adventure from 1974, and the very last of the Jon Pertwee era. And as the title suggests, the eponymous hero was up against a whole army, and it was a battle that cost him his life.
Interestingly, his co-star Elisabeth Sladen suffered with arachnophobia herself, and Pertwee was particularly sensitive to this during the rehearsals. He brought in a series of fake spiders during the rehearsals, which got bigger every day, to help Sladen get used to them. It obviously worked, as one of the most iconic shots from this story is the one of Sarah Jane with a giant spider on her back…
Full Circle
1980’s ‘Full Circle’ featured spiders from another universe, although these were realistically-proportioned than the ones seen in ‘Planet of the Spiders’ or ‘The Story and the Engine.’ In the adventure, these terrifying critters burst out of river fruits on the planet Alzarius in E-space, and who could forget Romana‘s ominous and prophetic line – “they’re only spiders!” – repeated several times. It was only one step away from, “What could possibly go wrong?”
Well, you’ll have to ask the writer Andrew Smith (or watch the story.) Smith is notable for being one of the youngest people to ever write for Doctor Who, and penned ‘Full Circle’ when he was just 18. This was something of a dream for Andrew Smith, who was a lifelong fan.
The End of the World
Whilst the spiders in 2005’s ‘The End of the World’ aren’t the main baddies in this Ninth Doctor adventure, they are responsible for the near-destruction of an entire space station. But unlike the spider from ‘The Story and the Engine,’ these eight-legged monsters are made of metal, and only have four legs. They are under the control of the villainous Cassandra from the year 5 billion, and their job is to slink stealthily through the vents and disable Platform One’s security systems – which isn’t good, when the ship is sitting next to an exploding planet Earth…
The Runaway Bride
The spider in ‘The Runaway Bride’ is not too dissimilar from the one featured in ‘The Story and the Engine,’ in that it’s big. But this particular spider is actually the Empress of the Racnoss played by Sarah Parish, who hatches an evil plan to retrieve her ‘children’ from the heart of the Earth, who have been lying dormant since the planet’s creation.
This is a (relatively) light-hearted adventure from 2006, and the first to feature Catherine Tate as the famous Donna Noble. Tate’s appearance was meant to be a one-off, but Donna proved so popular that she was brought back for a full season in 2008, and again for the Tenth Doctor’s final adventure. Catherine Tate would later return as the companion to the Fourteenth Doctor for a trio of specials to celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary.
Kill the Moon
You may never look at the Moon in the same way ever again after watching 2014’s ‘Kill the Moon.’ Spoiler alert: the Moon is actually an egg, and it’s about to hatch, with hundreds of spiders scuttling across its surface. In this instance, the monsters are actually giant bacteria. They’re pretty scary, and ‘Kill the Moon’ has more of a look and feel of a horror movie as opposed to a Doctor Who episode, helped in no small part by the beautiful location work in Lanzarote, used to represent the Moon’s surface.
Arachnids in the UK
You might think ‘Arachnids in the UK’ has an unusual title, until you realise it’s a reference to the Sex Pistols song ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ (We wonder if ‘The Story and the Engine’ had any subtle punk rock references…)
Anyway, as you could probably deduce from the title, this adventure from Jodie Whittaker’s first series had spiders, and lots of them. Like ‘The Story and the Engine,’ this one is set in the present day, where masses of spiders have been exposed to deadly toxic waste which has caused them to mutate and swell up to killer proportions.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the Doctor must also contend with a crooked businessman who cares little for the existential threat facing humanity, consumed by his insatiable desire to make a profit.
So as you can see, eight-legged monsters have been a popular Doctor Who monster for many years. Which of these stories is your favourite? And can you think of any others that you would add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
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