'Why did it have to be spiders?' Viewers terrified by Doctor Who episode Arachnids in the UK

Doctor Who fans were put through their paces on Sunday night with terrifying spider-centric episode Arachnids in the UK.

The episode saw Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and her companions return to Sheffield, but any hopes of a return to normality were short-lived.

They soon found themselves facing off against a giant eight-legged creature, which was equal parts thrilling and traumatising for the arachnophobes among Doctor Who viewers.

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While it had its fair share of talking points – like Sex and the City star Chris Noth's guest appearance as a Trump-like figure – the spiders dominated the conversation online during and after the episode's airing.

"Is Doctor Who supposed to be this terrifying?" @DebbieLarge1 wrote. I'm traumatised here with these giant spiders on the rampage, it's worse than The Enemy."

"This is by far the scariest Doctor Who episode since the weeping angels," @Daanii_ann_SFC added.

And @itsdavidtennant (it's not) reckons they could have made one small change: "why spiders..? Why couldn't it be something like butterflies..."

Check out some more reactions below.

The episode also featured a small snippet of grime artist Stormzy's track Know Me From: Ryan (Tosin Cole) plays it from “Sheffield’s sickest grime station”, with the aim of driving a horde of mutant spiders into a hotel panic room.

Skepta and Giggs on next week's episode then? We wouldn't put it past them...

Doctor Who continues on BBC1 on Sundays

This article was originally published on 29 October 2018