The title of this episode is a clever play on the Sex Pistols song, “Anarchy in the UK”, released in 1976. We had Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor find her Tardis and bring Ryan, Graham, and Yaz back to Sheffield after a stopover in 1955, Montgomery, Alabama. A house on a green field, inside are carpeted floors and tiled floors, we pan across them until we get a man in a suit, Jack Robertson (Chris Noth from Sex and the City). He asks a woman, Frankie (Jaleh Alp), what is the problem and she says it’s the logistics. Jack is worried about his prospects in 2020. Yup, we can get the American satire, but Not really leans into it. They are interrupted by another woman, Najia Khan (Shobna Gulati). She says she will be his general manager and he fires her. The Tardis moves across the Vortex through time and space. We move into the Tardis as the Doctor checks on the steaming console. The Tardis materializes in Park Hill, Sheffield right by Yaz’s flat. The Doctor explains that it was a half an hour since they started their journey. She is about to say goodbye to them, Graham thanks her, and Yaz invites her to tea instead of traveling alone. A nice moment. Graham goes on his own.
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DOCTOR WHO -- “Anarchids in the UK” -- Ben Blackall/BBC Studios.
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Yaz says hi to her neighbor, Jade McIntyre (Tanya Fear), on her cell phone and the Doctor spots a spider web on the ceiling. The character of Jade is interesting as a scientist and potential ally. Yaz’s family, her father, Hakim (Ravin J. Ganatra) and sister Sonya (Bhavnisha Parmar), are amazed she has friends. Yaz argues with his father who has kept bags of rubbish in the flat. Yaz gets a call from her mother, the woman who was fire, and wants her to give her a ride. She passes a spider’s web. Graham enters his home, another spider-web in the corner, he hears the voice of Grace reminding me of chores. The Doctor sees Jade who has not been able to contact the neighbor and she checks the door. She uses her sonic screwdriver to open the door, the room is covered in thick cobwebs, they cover every room. Graham smells Grace’s coat and hears her voice. He walks upstairs and finds a dead spider the size of a Facehugger. Ryan opens the curtains of Anna’s bedroom and they find her cocooned in webs. They search for the spider and Ryan is startled as a giant one crawls out from under the bed. The Doctor finds garlic which spiders dislike and they find it crawling on the ceiling and then descending. Not an episode for arachnophobes! Graham runs up saying he’s seen the spider. The Doctor questions Jade about what she knows. Yaz’s family waits for her.
Jade explains that she is a research scientist who has found something unusual with the spiders in Sheffield. Graham has found a note from Ryan’s father and gives it to him, but he puts it in his jacket unread. Frankie walks down a cobwebbed corridor and with a flashlight enters a rocky tunneler, she screams, and her cellphone falls. Yaz drives to the new hotel. She hugs Najia and Yaz is interested in looking around the hotel. Her mother tells her that she has been fired. Jack has a security guard, Kevin (William Meredith) with a gun and he says they are trespassing. Inside Jade’s lab, she has been working on an enzyme to extend the life of spiders, she shows the Doctor a map of Sheffield and the spider sightings. The Doctor connects the sightings with a marker and there is a center point to the spider web, the hotel. Jack takes them to a room covered in spider webs. He gets a notification for a bathroom break. Yaz and her mother hear a scrambling, she listens to the wall and behind it is the legs of the giant spider. Najia gets a call, it’s the Doctor. She wants to get Yaz’s help to enter the hotel. Jack washes up and hears something in the bathtub drain. The bathtub shatters and the giant spider emerges, Kevin tries shooting the spider and screams, Jack hears this behind the door.
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DOCTOR WHO -- “Anarchids in the UK” -- Ben Blackall/BBC Studios.
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The Doctor and the others hear gun shots. The cobwebbed Kevin is dragged back the hole. Jack runs into the Doctor and her group. The Doctor explains to Yaz that the spiders are everywhere. The Doctor leans into the hole faces the spider and runs. They reach the hotel entrance, but it is covered by webs. Najia tells them to head to the kitchen. The Doctor doesn’t recognize Jack Robertson, she thinks he might be Ed Sheeran. Graham thinks he might be running to be president. A real estate mogul going to be president. The Doctor has a plan, but needs the hotel plans and a spider! A spider crawls on the carpeted hall, Graham is there, Ryan covers it with a pot. Swarms of spiders flood the ceiling! The Doctor says the connection between the flat and hotel is Najia. Jack says it took five years to build the hotel. Najia says the original site was a coal mine. Jade checks on the spider from Ryan and Graham and says they need to get another. The Doctor and the others head to the mines. She uses the sonic screwdriver to open the door. The Doctor sees the cobwebbed bodies of the victims. She pulls open one cocoon and Jack recognizes Frankie. The Doctor opens another to find Kevin. Jack takes Kevin’s gun. They reach the end of the mine and find a landfill. The Doctor says it is toxic. Najia is not happy that the landfill is reaching the flat. They look at a cavern of waste that the Doctor says is the perfect the modified spider mutate.
Ryan tells Graham that he read the letter as they search for another spider. They look up tat the ceiling and find a spider the size of a van in the ballroom. Jade says it’s pheromones are warping spiders’ instincts. The Doctor has Jack Robertson opens his panic room. Yaz closes the door. Jack has supplies, guns, and a book. The Doctor wants to lure the spiders to the panic room to deal with the mother spider. Ryan pumps his tunes into the sound system that sends the spiders crawling after the source, spider dance party? Jack has his gun. The Doctor is telling the others to get tanks of a peppermint mixture, spider repellent. Jade notices that the mother spider is suffocating from her size. Some real science slipped in here, spiders and insects can only reach a certain size because their breathing mechanisms. Jack moves in with his gun. It falls over and the Doctor is angry at his disrespect of life. No comeuppance for Jack Robertson. I sense all of the loose threads will appear again. Ryan tells Graham he is going to see the Doctor. Graham sees Grace in the mirror, he can’t say goodbye. At Yaz’s flat, the rubbish is put away, Najia sends her daughter off. Yaz meets Ryan and Graham in front of the Tardis. He knocks and the door opens. They enter the Tardis and find the Doctor. Graham doesn’t want to sit around the house. They want to join the Doctor and she doesn’t guarantee their safety. The Doctor says they won’t return the same. She welcomes Team Tardis and they all take hold of the space time throttle and pull it down! This is the best joining of Companions in Doctor Who! They make a serious commitment, not a frivolous joining for adventure or boredom, and make a strong team!
Five Sonic Screwdrivers out of Five!
#DoctorWho, #AnarchidsintheUK, #ChrisNoth, #ShobnaGulati
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