The Doctor gets caught up in a web when she returns her friends to their lives in Sheffield…

First, and perhaps most obvious thing to say about this episode – if you are an arachnophobe of any shape or size, do not watch it. Well, watch it from behind the sofa. If you’ve checked for unusual webs there first…

It’s a story that takes its time to build its suspense, with plenty of material that builds up the lives of the companions (Yaz in particular – although we learn more about both Graham and Ryan as well), but from the off, there’s a heightened sensibility that makes Chris Noth’s character nowhere near as out of place as you might think he’s going to be from the first scene. Segun Akinola’s score is very effective – I’d like to hear him compose for a full-on suspense horror movie based on this – and there’s some interesting camera angles that help to sell the arachnids at the heart of the tale.

And those spiders? Well, we’re a long way (nearly 45 years, to be precise) from Boris the Spider and the Great One. They’re far more realistic, and on the whole the effects for them, and the CG interaction with the locations, work well. There are certain thematic elements that are beginning to become clear for the season – as Chris Chibnall has repeatedly suggested in interviews, this is a show that’s taking 2018 topics and viewing them through the prism of science fiction.

Verdict: While some may think it goes a little over the top, it was a thoroughly entertaining fifty minutes, with Whittaker’s Doctor at the heart of her team. 9/10

Paul Simpson