"Arachnids in the UK" was the fourth episode of the eleventh series of revival Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on October 28, 2018. It's title was a clear play on "Anarchy in the UK", and also because the episode was about spiders.

After two episodes of her usual trouble steering the TARDIS, the Doctor returns herself and "Team TARDIS" to Sheffield, and rather than parting, goes to have some tea with companion Yasmin Khan. Almost immediately, she discovers that there are odd things going on, in the form of an apartment covered with giant cobwebs and an improbably large spider. What follows is what is perhaps the most typical Doctor Who story: there is a base under siege, by monsters that are a combination of scientific hubris and corporate greed. There is an allusion to the current political situation in the United States that isn't really even an allusion, because names are mentioned, even in passing. There is a speech about why guns are bad. There are several plot threads that are never tied up.

None of this is a criticism, because this is one of the things that Doctor Who is about. It also provides a breather after last week's much weightier "Rosa". The major thing that this episode brought is an attempt to do what amounts to a B-Movie horror plot, with the earlier scenes of the spider nests being suitably ominous. This may have been in some ways an attempt to have a "Halloween" episode, but the story didn't maintain a horror vibe as it tried to communicate that the spiders are natural, and intrinsically harmless, creatures. But at the very least, the effects of the spiders were much more realistic and creepy than they were in such classic episodes as The Web Planet, Planet of the Spiders, or even the revival series special "The Runaway Bride"

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