Doctor Who review: Giant spiders are season 11’s first real disappointment

The Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who experiences its first real stumble, with a disappointing episode about giant spiders in Sheffield.

Nothing’s perfect. That’s true of most things and also, apparently, of Doctor Who season 11, which finally hit its first stumble this week with “Arachnids in the U.K.,” a generally creepy but largely disappointing episode about giant spiders on the loose in Sheffield.

Perhaps this episode feels like such a dud simply because season 11’s first three installments were so strong. Maybe a story about a hidden toxic landfill giving rise to enormous eight-legged monstrosities was just never going to be that great in the first place. Or maybe the Chris Chibnall era was never going to throw a perfect game right out of the gate.

Maybe it’s a combination of all of those things. It can often take a new showrunner some time to find their feet, especially if they’re also attempting to introduce a new Doctor or add new companions. There are so many story boxes to check – the initial meet cute, the first adventure in space, the first time they all go back to the past together, and this last bit of the tradition, the episode where they all go home.

Three out of four ain’t bad, is kind of what I’m saying. Particularly when the other 75 percent of the season to date is so good.

The premise of “Arachnids in the U.K.”, as it stands, is kind of weak. It’s not clear that anyone was looking to see the Doctor battle some form of eight-legged horror again, particularly given that the first few attempts were mediocre at best. (Looking at you, “The Runaway Bride” and/also “Planet of the Spiders”).

Things aren’t improved by the presence of a generally solid guest actor in a thankless role, as Law and Order vet Chris Noth is wasted as a pompous American real estate developer with presidential ambitions. Maybe it’s just an accident of unfortunate timing, but given everything that’s happened this week, Trump and Trump-adjacent jokes don’t really land for me, and Noth’s character doesn’t exist to do more than that. (“Why don’t you do what normal people do – get a gun, shoot things like a civilized person?” he intones at one point. It falls tremendously flat.)

Picture Shows: Kevin (WILLIAM MEREDITH), Robertson (CHRIS NOTH). Photo: Ben Blackall/BBC America

However, it is somewhat cathartic to watch literally everyone dunk on him and reject his over-the-top obsession with handguns. (The Doctor, a staunch gun control advocate, seems to be a definite thing this season and it couldn’t happen at a better time, if you ask me.)

As for the spiders themselves, they’re utterly terrifying, coming in a variety of sizes with uncomfortably detailed pincers, maws and multiple sets of eyes. (Have I mentioned I detest spiders?) The point is, the CGI folks should get a raise for making this all look realistic to the point of discomfort, and for crafting a creepy setting that certainly looks like massive monster spiders could be running around in it.

This episode is genuinely frightening in places, in a jump-scare, things coming out of the dark or up drains at you kind of way. But the explanation behind the spiders’ existence feels pretty haphazard and, to be honest, not that far off a B-movie plot, as toxic waste combined with research experiments to accidentally create mutated monsters. Eventually, they all get driven into a panic room in the hotel to… wander around and die, I suppose, as the rude American manages to shoot the gigantic mother spider before she can drop dead under the weight of her own size. It’s.. .not great. (Though I suppose someone should get a gold star for making me experience a sliver of sympathy for the dead spider even as I was completely grossed out.)

Picture Shows: Sonya (BHAVNISHA PARMAR), Yaz (MANDIP GILL), Najia (SHOBNA GULATI), Hakim (RAVIN J GANATRA). Photo: Simon Ridgway/BBC America

However, despite the failings of its monster-of-the-week plot, not everything about “Arachnids in the U.K.” is a total loss. And that’s because of the people stuck in this generally frustrating story.

Unlike Steven Moffat before him, Chibnall seems to have a real interest in the Doctor’s new companions as everyday people — who they are, what their lives are like. So while this episode forces us to endure entirely too many spiders, it also does some great character work with Ryan, Yaz and Graham, and that makes almost everything worth it.

We finally meet Yaz’s family, a generally chaotic bunch who seem nice, but don’t really appear to understand her — or want to encourage her dreams. (And who also appear to be obsessed with whether she’s dating someone?) This is probably the most time we’ve spent with Yaz to date, and it’s lovely that Doctor Who makes an effort to remind us that she’s incredibly smart, capable and loyal.

(Also: Spoiler alert, I am now a Ryan and Yaz shipper, don’t @ me.)

Elsewhere, Graham gets the chance to grieve a bit for Grace by visiting the house they shared together and talking out some of his feelings with an imaginary version of his dead wife. Ryan, for his part, gets the chance to work out some of his feelings about his absent father — who, let’s remember skipped Grace’s funeral a few weeks back.

Picture Shows: Ryan (TOSIN COLE), Graham (BRADLEY WALSH), Jade (TANYA FEAR), The Doctor (JODIE WHITTAKER). Photo: Ben Blackall/BBC America

The Moffat era never really delved much into the lives of the people traveling with the Doctor as anything more than broad symbols. Yes, Clara was the Impossible Girl, but we had no idea what her father’s name was or much about what her life looked like apart from how it connected to the Doctor’s. The thing that Moffat never seemed to realize though, is that it’s these small, human moments that make our companions people, and that give the things that happen to them real emotional stakes. They’re what make Doctor Who so compelling, as much as the Doctor herself.

That Ryan, Yaz and Graham all choose to travel with the Doctor at the episode’s end — ask to do so, in fact — is one of them. This choice is important not simply because they’re deciding to run off and see the universe, but because we understand why they’re doing so. Each of the trio has their own reasons for their decision, and different things they need from doing so, emotionally speaking. The journey will be seeing how they arrive at them — or if they do at all. And not for nothing but that’s every bit as interesting as a mysterious crack in the universe.

Where will the new Team TARDIS arrive next? We’ll have to wait and see. But the adventure, for the first time, feels properly on.

Doctor Who season 11 continues next Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on BBC America.