Planet of Giants

Planet of Giants

This episode sees the first story by Louis Marks. I have an interesting relationship with his stories. Day of the Daleks is one of my all-time favourites, but his Hinchcliffe era scripts bore me to tears. This story I know least well, however, by a margin, so it will be interesting to see. Another man making his first Doctor Who appearance is a certain Dudley Simpson. Heavens, he got off to a bad start. The incidental music here is terrible. Thankfully he improved very very quickly.

Ooh, the fault locater returns! Very exciting stuff. This is also the second story in a row with no materialisation noise. The doors open and the Doctor gets very worried. Even though Barbara points out everything is okay, the Doctor shouts, "oh don't be childish, they opened!" It seems as if we're getting a grumpy and angry Doctor again, which is an interesting way to start the season. It's teased just a little bit, and then suddenly the Doctor goes back over to her and says, "oh my dear Barbara, was I rude to you just now? I'm so sorry, I always forget the niceties under pressure. Forgive me". It's a sweet moment, particularly when she smiles and tells him there isn't anything to forgive. Then the scanner shatters, which is quite a moment!

I thought it was Terry Nation's thing to put "space" before everything? But here the Doctor tells Ian that the doors opened because, "the space pressure was far too great while we were materialising". Susan backs him up by later saying "the space pressure forced us to reduce". I like this space pressure. It sounds so much better than ordinary pressure.

William Russell again gets to show off his inability to do "flailing acting" as he's transported inside the matchbox, and Carole Ann Ford has to, for a nice change, scream and cry as Ian is taken away. It's also interesting that the Doctor still always gets Ian's name right when it's important, and that they re-unite with Ian so quickly, as if him being taken away was just a way of getting our heroes to the house. Funny that.

Very promising start. It's an extremely enjoyable 25 minutes, and the regulars are all in form and so comfortable together now. The scene between Forester and Farrow is vaguely interesting, and sets up that there will be more to the story than "the regulars are made an inch tall and try to get past a cat back to the TARDIS. 7.5/10.

Dangerous Journey

Dangerous Journey? Dreadful title, that is. The story, on the other hand, continues to be surprisingly good. It's one of those which often gets ignored, but based on what I've seen so far, it deserves more recognition. Maybe the DVD release will help people remember it. I have to first mention what is by far the most impressive part of this episode, the fly. I have little interest in special effects, but that fly is brilliantly done. All the design on this story is great. The sink looks brilliant, the matchbox is good, even the telephone looks good, but the fly blows all of that away. It's terrific.

Forester's plan to make it seem like Farrow has drowned is all well and good, but generally when people drown they don't tend to suddenly get a bullet lodged in their heart. He clearly isn't thinking it through. I like how Smithers seems to have a conscience, and genuinely wants to cure the world of starvation. Even if that does make him seem moronically naive, at least it makes it somewhat believable he'd join Forester.

My favourite line of this episode is Ian's assertion that, "there's a ceiling up there. That means we're indoors". Well done, Ian. I love that the Doctor is so determined to save Ian and Barbara he'll climb up a sink pipe. We have come a long way.

This is far more enjoyable than it should be. Barbara getting insecticide on herself is a good problem, and the sets are superb, and the story is moving along at a good pace. The only problem is Dudley bloody Simpson, whose incidentals are getting worse! The cliffhanger is a good one, with Smithers washing his hands and about to drain the contents onto the Doctor and Susan. 8/10.

Crisis

Well, I thought the title Dangerous Journey was bad, anyway. It's a corker in comparison to Crisis, which rivals Nation's efforts for dullest episode title yet. Dudley's not getting any better, either. Sadly, the story also runs to a halt here. It's a rather scary thought that this episode was two episodes melded together, because it is much slower than the first two. Everyone seems to have become stupid. After taking pains to tell us more than once that they can't communicate with people, because their voices would be too high pitched, they try and use the phone. I wouldn't mind that so much if so much time wasn't spent with our heroes mucking around with it. At least Hilda is a lot of fun, the nosey woman. She's the real hero of this, not our actual heroes. If she hadn't got suspicious, the Doctor's plan would have come to nothing. We know Smithers wouldn't have had the guts to actually stop Forester, even with the gun.

This episode features one of the most shocking things the Doctor has ever said or done. He doesn't just suggest starting a fire, he talks about how much fun the idea would be. "There's nothing like a good fire, is there?" he laughs. Interesting angle for a family show to take. I'm guessing they'd dropped the educational bent by this point?

It's quite a good idea of the Doctor's to use the seed to check if they're back to normal size. He suddenly becomes the cuddly grandfather figure at the end here, telling everybody to go and have a good scrub before their next adventure.

Sadly this episode fails to finish of Planet of Giants in a satisfactory manner. It's less eventful than the first two episodes, but it isn't bad enough to take away from what is a good story, and a good debut for Marks. Dudley Simpson would have to wait for his first good performance, but not for long. 5/10.

Conclusion

Planet of Giants is an intriguing way to start the second season. It's quite a low-key story, but it is fun, and the regulars pick up right where they left off. This is a story I've previously neglected, and it seems unfairly so. It may not be a classic, but it's a strong story, well worth a viewing, and I hope it gets a nice DVD release to allow people to re-assess it. So, only one more story left with Susan! There may be Daleks involved in that one, and I don't just mean Richard Martin.

Average Rating: 6.8

Old Rating: 5

New Rating: 7