Planet of Giants

DOCTOR: Oh, my dear Barbara, was I rude to you just now? If so I'm so sorry. I always forget the niceties under pressure. Please forgive me.

(Awww)

SUSAN: Strange. There are dozens of them over here. There's a whole pile of them.

("Over here" being right in front of them)

FORRESTER: If the police were to find an overturned boat and a body out at sea somewhere.

(Yeah, which would still have a bullet hole in it. Fairly sure they don't appear when you drown)

IAN: It's a ceiling up there. That means we're indoors

IAN: Yes. I'm not very well up in this, Doctor, but isn't that phosphoric acid?

(You're the ruddy science teacher!)

DOCTOR: There's nothing like a good fire, is there?

(What!!!???!!!???)

• It's lucky that Forrester and Smithers have to take a ridiculously long time to prepare to wash their hands, giving the Doctor and Susan time to escape to safety. 
• I like how Ian realises that a ceiling means they're indoors. Whatever would you do without a teacher on hand, eh?
  
• It's Dudley Simpson's debut! And I don't like it! I hate the twee "isn't this fun!" score to this. The Star Trek DS9 episode One Little Ship, where the runabout they're in gets shrunk to a tiny size, features a similar style of "haha, this is so silly!" score. Yeah yeah, we get it. No need to (badly) rub it in. 
• This is a unique story, I think? It's one that has a guest cast, but the regulars never interact with them at any point. It's not unusual at this point in Doctor Who for them to not save the day, so it is rather cheeky of the Doctor to pretend they had anything to do with it! Not only that, why do they try and use the phone even though the Doctor has already established that they can't communicate with anyone? 
• One thing I've noticed... in a crisis, the Doctor always gets Ian's name right. It's almost as if he only does it to annoy Ian. 
• I get the feeling Louis Marks wasn't too bothered about episode titles. "Planet of Giants" is fine, but "Crisis" and "Dangerous Journey" are abysmal. Nationesque.

Verdict

I can definitely see why it is a story that gets forgotten. It's not bad, but there's not really very much to it. The first two episodes are fairly decent, if a bit

average, but I find the third episode is really quite dull, highlighted in particular by the messing about with the phone. Clearly the right decision was made to make it a three parter! It's perhaps not the ideal season-opener, but it's okay. The model-work is pretty good. That fly gets a lot of credit, and deservedly so. It's fabulous.