Why, why, why? After such an amazing episode, why stoop to this piece of tripe. Ugh.

Arachnids in the U.K.

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

I was kind of hoping that I would like this story more on re-watch. That was a vain hope. But I did figure out why I dislike it so much, aside from the terrible writing for Chris Noth's Faux-Trump character. The plot involves giant spiders infesting a brand new luxury hotel that has not yet opened, which were spawned from the combination of building on top of a secret toxic landfill plus the addition of some genetically modified spiders from a research lab. It is exactly the kind of thing that would have played well in much of the modern Doctor Who era, a silly fantasy romp with no grounding whatsoever in actual science.

And that is the problem.

Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who is one built on serious characters and hard science. Yes, I know, there is still plenty of WhateverTechnology, but where the Ninth through Twelfth Doctors were primarily Fantasy stories with some blinky lights added to skiff it up, the Thirteenth Doctor is a much more grounded world.  I wouldn't go as far as to call it "gritty", but the stories as a whole are much more concerned with hard science concepts.

This one, then, just sticks out like a sore thumb. It is completely out of place with anything else in the season, and it lands with a resounding thud. Pretty much the only useful thing it does, storytelling-wise, is to give Yaz some more depth by having her spend time around her family. But that's not enough to carry it. Sure, it's no Planet of Giants, but it's still pretty awful. I would trade losing this one forever with recovering The Faceless Ones in a heartbeat.

And that's all I have the energy to say about this one. Happy to have it in my rearview mirror.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Thirteenth
Companion(s): Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan
Episode(s): Arachnids in the U.K.
Steps Walked: 7,790 today, 4,421,232 total
Distance Walked: 4.40 miles today, 2,315.69 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 10,900 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 5,265 total
Weight: 263.00 lbs (five day moving average), net change -44.30 lbs