The pider pewpewpews one of the mannys with lightning, and then it jumps on Lupton's back and turns invisible. Piders have been known to do that, you know, which adds an extra note of scary realism to the story.
At UNIT HQ the Doctor, the Brigadier and Benton rewind the tape and watch the recording the Doctor's machine made of Professor Clegg's thoughts just before he went
Lupton tells his henchmanny Barnes that the pider is still on his back.
Lupton: "Our minds are joined together. If I concentrate I can hear it speaking to me."Pider: "This man is stupid. Send him away."Lupton: "Very well."Barnes: "Was it speaking to you then?"Lupton: "It was."Barnes: "What did it say?"Lupton: "It said you looked tired and you should be in bed."
Lol. Once Barnes has gone the pider tells Lupton it has come to get a crystal. He asks "what crystal?" but we already know, due to the Law of Conservation of Narrative Detail, that it must mean the blue crystal from Metebelis 3.
The scene fades from Lupton to the Doctor, who is staring into the crystal. The Brigadier thinks he has been hypno-eyesed, and telephones for help.
"Get me the M.O. quickly. Oh is that you, Sullivan? Get over to the lab straight away."
This "Sullivan" must mean Harry Sullivan, who is being referenced here even though he doesn't actually appear until the next story. Fortunately the Doctor wakes up so it is not necessary for Harry to turn up and be an imbecile just yet, though this is still a superb bit of foreshadowing.
The Brigadier asks the Doctor if he saw any more piders (and was probably wanting to have a go on the crystal himself next), but the Doctor saw something different:
Doctor: "You know, Brigadier, when I was a young man, there was an old hermit who lived half way up a mountain just behind our house. I spent some of the finest hours of my life with that old man."Brigadier: "What are you talking about?"Doctor: "And it was from him I first learnt how to look into my mind."Brigadier: "The crystal, Doctor?"Doctor: "That's what I'm trying to tell you, Brigadier. When I looked into that crystal, all I could see was the face of my old teacher."
Unless, of course, his old teacher was a pider.
Sarah arrives to tell the Doctor what has been happening in the other plotline. He doesn't really listen to her (in a scene reminiscent of Jo and the Doctor at the beginning of The Green Death) until she mentions the pider, and then he does a double-take when he realises the significance. The Doctor and Sarah swap stories so that they're both aware of each other's plot, the Doctor then tells Sarah about the Metebelis 3 crystals, even expanding on what we found out about it in The Green Death:
Doctor: "It has strange properties, a Metebelis crystal. It can affect the mind."Sarah: "The mind? You mean it could drive someone mad?"Doctor: "No, just the opposite usually. It clears the mind and amplifies its power."Sarah: "But it could be used for evil purposes?"Doctor: "Oh, yes, of course, if the mind operating it was motivated by evil."Sarah: "So, if the giant spiders on Metebelis 3 wanted that crystal back..."Doctor: "But there aren't any giant spiders on Metebelis 3. At least, there weren't any when I was there."
Lupton arrives at UNIT HQ and pewpewpews the first soldier he meets with lightning from his paw, like he's the Evil Emperor from Star Wars.
He gets inside and does the same to Benton, then makes his way to the Doctor's laboratory. He sees the crystal is there, and the pider gives him the power to teleport the crystal into his paw - presumably a cost-saving bit of SFX along the lines of how teleports were first used in Star Trek and Blakes 7, it would have been way too expensive for them to film the sequence of Lupton going all the way into the lab, picking up the crystal and then leaving again.
Sarah says
"You know, this is barmy. Here am I, calmly discussing fabulous planets with blue moons, giant spiders, magic crystals, as if I was talking about pussycats, fish and chips, and the Liverpool docks."
Lol, Sarah mentioned cats. In fact they were the first things she thought about, because cats are best! (Fishy noms only second best.)
Benton has just picked himself up when Lupton come back the other way. This time he just punches Benton, because it is against the rules to use the same method of attack against the same UNIT manny twice in a row.
The Doctor, Sarah and Benton chase Lupton outside. The Brigadier joins in the chase, but Lupton gets away by stealing Josie. The Doctor gets into a tiny helicopter, while the others give chase in Bessie. This is a properly exciting chase sequence, with lots of cutting between the chasers to add to the sense of urgency and (as an additional benefit) disguise the frequent use of stunt doubles as much as possible.
A komedy policemanny in a car sees the chase and joins in. He must think he is Sheriff J. W. Pepper from Live and Let Die. Or maybe it is just the writers who think he is?
They all converge and the Doctor finds that Josie is empty. He and the Brigadier are just about to start searching around for Lupton when the policemanny catches up with them. While they are distracted but this interruption, Lupton steals the helicopter and flies away. The Doctor and Sarah go after him in Josie (the Doctor and Lupton having effectively swapped vehicles just to keep the chase interesting), because it turns out that...
Sarah: "Doctor, we're flying!"Doctor: "Yes of course we're flying."
Of course! Lol.
The komedy policemanny ends his brief apearance in the show with one of the most outright sitcommy lines evar, delivered in a sitcommy way:
"Panda Three to Control. You'll never believe this, sergeant, but... Oh, nothing to report. Over... I'm coming in. I don't feel very well. Over."
Lupton also does a double-take when he sees he is still being chased, but his feels more like a natural reaction, perhaps because the actor carries more dramatic weight. The helicopter runs out of fuel first and so is forced to land. Lupton soon finds more mannys to variously hit* or pew, and a boat to continue the chase in.
The Doctor pursues in a convenient hovercraft, not using his flying car in order to give Lupton a sporting chance, and when using its ability to go on land as well as water he even drives it over a stunt-tramp at one point. This shortcut allows the Doctor (thanks to more than a little help from his own stunt double) to catch up to Lupton, so the pider says
"I'll get help from Metebelis. Concentrate. Concentrate!"
and teleports Lupton away, leaving a confused Doctor as our cliffhanger.
This is a great chase, but if the pider could teleport Lupton away then that means it was completely unnecessary except as padding. But what padding! At around 10 minutes, it is one of the longest and most easily identifiable sections of raw, unadulterated padding in all of Doctor Who. It is clear that, for his final story, Jon Pertwee wanted a great big chase using as many different vehicles as Barry Letts (producer, director, and co-writer of this story) would let him. And Letts, himself soon to be leaving the show, obviously went 'Fuck it, why not?'
And why not indeed? It's all tremendous fun and proves that, even for padding, longer is better. As is so often the case.
* One of whom is Terry Walsh, who we last saw as recently as The Monster of Peladon. His moment in the spotlight as the Doctor now over, he is back as a stuntmanny getting punched and falling in the water.
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