By Rob McCow

Spider God (Doctor Who in Spider God)
 

Spider God appeared in Doctor Who Monthly #52, published July 31, 1980. It was reprinted in glorious ‘color’ in the US Marvel Doctor Who Comic of July 1985, alongside War of The Words. Unusually, the strip was also reprinted in Doctor Who Monthly #182, due to the delayed delivery of the comic strip running at the time, Evening’s Empire. Spider God is currently available in the Doctor Who graphic novel ‘Dragon’s Claw’, published in 2004 by Panini Books.
 

Writer – Steve Moore

Artist – Dave Gibbons

Editor – Alan McKenzie
 

The Doctor meets the hard-bitten crew of the Excelsior under the command of their hard-bitten Commander, Louis B Frederic. Serving him loyally are hard-bitten crewmembers Sergeants Holmes and Randall. Frederic also has at least four other men under his command, whose bittens are undoubtedly extremely hard.
 

The survey vessel Excelsior lands on the planet UX-4732, three years after leaving Earth. Stepping out of their ship, Commander Louis B Frederic’s survey team find a mysterious object – the TARDIS! The Doctor says hello and accompanies them on their survey.

They find an idyllic primitive village, where the children play and the adults sit about eating fruit. The Commander and his men are suspicious, especially when the villagers seem to ignore them. The Doctor realises that all these villagers are deaf and dumb.

Although the villagers seem to be vegetarians, a hunting party returns carrying dead animals that they take to an altar. A number of the villagers stand on a giant spider web, where an enormous spider comes out and starts to web them up. Horrified, the Commander orders his men to blast the spider. Unexpectedly, the villagers are far from grateful, pelting the crew of the Excelsior with stones.

The villagers desert their village and the Commander sends the Doctor and Randall out in a scouter to investigate. They find more spider webs and cocooned villagers, but also some eggs. One of the eggs hatches to reveal a baby villager. The Doctor realises what’s going on and rushes back to warn the Commander. Unfortunately, he is just too late to stop them blasting all the spiders of another nearby village. The Doctor explains that the villagers farm animals to give meat to the spiders. In return the spiders spin cocoons for the villagers, allowing them to transform into beautiful butterfly creatures. By destroying the spiders, the crew of the Excelsior have broken the villagers’ lifecycle.

It’s a cross between The Web Planet and The Savages. Although the ethos of the story is reminiscent of the Hartnell era, the Doctor is far more of a bystander and commentator on events. Even though the Doctor isn’t a protagonist in the story, his discoveries lead the reader through the lifecycle of the villagers.

Giant spiders, survey ships and flying butterfly men had all turned up in Doctor Who prior to this story, with varying degrees of success.
 

Cor! Although the giant spiders could have been more horrific, this strip is superbly drawn, yet again. The physically perfect villagers look unsettlingly clean, with their lack of body hair and the black, goggle-like surrounds to their eyes. Even the baby that hatches doesn’t quite look human. The highlight of the strip occurs with the appearance of the butterfly-man at the end. The Doctor says that they are the most beautiful life-form in the galaxy (sadly he’s not boggle-eyed at the front of the frame) and the strength of the art means that you can actually believe him. Then we get to see the Commander’s astonished face as he realises what he’s done and drops his gun. It makes for a chilling ending.
 

This was a great choice for DWM to reprint in #182 and it’s probably the strongest one-part story that the comic strip has ever run. As beautifully drawn as it is plotted, it tells a tight, taut little tale with minimum fuss for maximum impact. Spider God is more of an ecological tail of woe than an adventure story. There’s no real threat for the Doctor to overcome or villain to defeat. Instead, it’s humans and their gung-ho attitude that causes the disaster.

Commander Frederic’s men come across as quite reasonable, if hard-bitten and trigger-happy. There’s a momentum and a feeling of inevitability towards their actions. They behave rationally and with the best of intentions when trying to save the villagers, even though they don’t realising they are perpetrating a horrific massacre of innocents. To them I say - Do your research!
 

Commander Frederic has a moustache.

One side of the Excelsior has a big number ‘5’ on it, while the other has a ‘3’. Frederic’s men wear number ‘5’s on their shirts and caps, although they could be ‘S’s.

This is Steve Moore’s last story for the comic strip.