Professor Herbert Clegg was an entertainer who had a mind-reading act at a theatre show attended by the Third Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
Biography[]
Clegg wasn't really a professor at all; this title was just for stage purposes. He had found, to his dismay, that he was developing real psychic powers such as clairvoyance and telekinesis.
The Third Doctor, who had become interested in researching psychic energy, discovered Clegg's secret, then contacted him by means of a note left at the theatre's stage door — (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders) requesting his assistance in his experiments.
Clegg used psychometry on the Brigadier's wristwatch, the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, and a package from Jo Grant; but when he read the Metebelis crystal contained within the package and saw visions of giant spiders, he died of fright-induced heart failure. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
Behind the scenes[]
- Clegg's first name was given as Herbert on-screen, but as Hubert in the novelisation and the novel The Left-Handed Hummingbird.
- Cyril Shaps is credited on-screen as 'Professor Clegg' for Planet of the Spiders part one, and as 'Professor Herbert Clegg' in Radio Times.
- The scene where the Doctor and the Brigadier attend the theatre show in Planet of the Spiders part one does not appear in the 105-minute compilation repeat of the story, as broadcast Friday 27 December 1974.
